Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Fake it ’til You Make Out

SERIES:  Love & Luck

AUTHOR:  Isla Olsen

PUBLISHER:  Moonwalker Press

LENGTH:  198 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 6, 2020

BLURB:

It’s a classic story: Boy meets girl, girl breaks boy’s heart, boy pretends to be gay to get back at girl, girl outs boy to everyone on Facebook…

Okay, maybe it’s not that classic. But it’s what happened to me.

When I bump into my cheating ex and catch sight of the moon-sized rock on her finger, there’s only one option to save face: pretend to be dating my gay best friend, Declan.

And when she outs me on Facebook and everyone I know sees it, there’s still only one option: keep pretending to be dating Declan.

And when Declan and I have to kiss to keep up the ruse and it turns out there’s actually a spark between us (more like a blazing inferno, if truth be told) there’s once again only one option…

Warning: this book is not appropriate for anyone who doesn’t like laughing, anyone who doesn’t like dogs, or anyone who doesn’t like hot men having a lot of sex…with each other.

*Happily Ever After included

REVIEW:

Heath isn’t yet 30.  He’s deciding what to do with his life working at his sister’s restaurant/bar after quitting his “soul-sucking” investment firm job in NYC.  He plays it a little fast and loose with the ladies, but he doesn’t do repeats after his ex-girlfriend cheated on him and broke his heart.  His BFF for a decade and his former college roommate Declan is a vet student.  Heath goes to help Dec out at the animal shelter he’s working at and the mess he walks into is a doozy – but Dec’s his bestie, so he’s happy to help.  After they get done, they stop for a coffee and who should they run into, but Allison, the aforementioned ex!  GAH!  She’s obviously engaged with a giant rock on her finger and so to save face, Heath announces that he’s now all about the D and he’s with Declan, his gay best friend 🙂  Declan of course goes right along with it.  And this is all just in the first three chapters.

But then it seems Allison posts on FB about this encounter and Heath’s parents and Declan’s family find out this way.  And now Heath has to keep the ruse going because just trying to one-up his ex is a pathetic move and he can’t deal with that.  Surprisingly Dec goes along with this – for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his family trying to push him to get back with HIS ex and yeah, he really doesn’t like Allison either.  So they agree they’ll be “together” and when the fuss dies down they will “break up” and go back to being friends.  They put together a “plan” to cover all the bases of any questions they might get asked.  This whole stage of the story is also hilarious!  Between the families’ reactions and Heath and Dec working out their plan, plenty of belly laughs to be had.  The bickering banter between these two is PRICELESS!  The myriad text conversations kept me in hysterics.

As Heath and Dec go on in their “fake” relationship, Heath seems a lot more curious than he’s ever been before.  His Gay 101 research becomes a bit of an obsession and yes, it is also side-splittingly funny with the text and phone conversations with Declan.  Then they have an event to attend together and this will be the test as Declan’s family will be there.  And boy do they pass the test – and then some 😉  And provide the fodder for yet another uproarious chat conversation.  There’s a whole lot that Heath wants to explore and they do, despite Declan’s reluctance at first.  There are some additional funny moments as Heath and Declan’s relationship changes and the reactions and timing of family amp up the comedy.

Things are actually going great.  Heath and Declan spend all their free time together – not too different than they’ve always been, except the activities have changed.  But then there is a little bit of a misunderstanding and a jumping to conclusions that threaten their burgeoning romance.  Luckily there are a lot of folks pulling for them and to be honest, their relationship is just to close to ever be over, but there are some tough moments for Heath when he thinks he’s not what Declan wants.  Thankfully all’s well that ends well.

Oh my god!  This book!  Sooooooo funny!  I thought about snipping some quotes into this review, but seriously they are so much better in context and as a surprise.  Heath is definitely one of my most favorite characters ever!  He’s kinda clueless, but that’s part of his charm.  He just kinda blithely goes along and he is hilarious from the get-go.  Declan is such a sweet guy!  His whole family is so amazing and funny and supportive.  Their family group chat is the catalyst for a number of laugh out loud moments.  Heath’s parents, sister and grandfather are also highly entertaining.  Declan’s huge Irish family who are all of course nosing their way into Dec and Heath’s relationship are pitch perfect.  I love the alternating POVs between Heath and Declan.  They definitely have their own voices and it provides a glimpse into how this whole relationship has evolved over time.   I loved this book so much, when I finished it, I just started it over again.  I’ve reread it three times already! I certainly hope that the author is going to do the audio book of this and I would love to see Nick Russo narrate it.  This is one of my favorite books of the year so far and I’m on the edge of my seat for the next one in this series.  Two of my favorite tropes – friends to lovers and fake relationship – are just so well done here.  It seems this is Isla Olsen’s debut MM romance and she hit it out of the park.  BRAVA!!  Brilliantly done and highly recommended 😀

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon