Reviewed by Larissa

 

TITLE: Bona Fide Fake

SERIES:  Experimental Love, Book 2

AUTHOR: Rebecca Raine

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 269 pages

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2022

BLURB: 

My new fake boyfriend may not like me, but he needs me. There are worse foundations for a relationship.

Ned

Toni Fairweather is a liar and a fake. I suspected it the day we met, but when he lies to his friends about being my boyfriend, I know for sure. I’ll play along with his deception, but Toni will owe me – big time.

I have my own reasons for needing a boyfriend. Someone who can handle me. Someone who can keep me in line. Toni is demanding enough to fulfil every requirement.

I don’t need to like the man… to obey him.

Toni

I never meant to fake a relationship with the lead singer of a local rock band. But the fib popped out over lunch with my best friend, and now I’m expected to present my new boyfriend at his engagement party next month.

The good news? I’m not the only one in need of a date.

Being boyfriends for a month shouldn’t be hard, but I do have one condition: this won’t be some fake boyfriends deal. I want a real relationship, and Ned’s going to give it to me.

Bona Fide Fake is Book Two in the Experimental Love series by bestselling Australian author, Rebecca Raine. This 80,000 word fake boyfriends romance can easily be enjoyed as a standalone. It’s a fun, low angst read with plenty of steam. Perfect for lovers of the first book in the series, The Experiment. HEA guaranteed!

REVIEW: 

Toni Fairweather is a lying liar who lies.  That’s the premise of Rebecca Raine’s latest M/M romance, Bona Fide Fake, the second book in Ms. Raine’s Experimental Love series.  It’s an intriguing, absorbing read, written in Ms. Raine’s usual top-notch prose.  

Bona Fide Fake is not just another fake boyfriend trope story.  Ms. Raine tackles the complicated question of  “What is real?”  The oxymoronic title befits the love story of Toni Fairweather and Ned Corbyn because both men are real fakers and fake being real.  It’s a head-spinning contradiction that somehow makes perfect sense in Ms. Raine’s skilled hands.

We first meet both Toni and Ned, albeit briefly, in The Experiment. Toni is enlisted to kiss one of the MCs, Patrick, after he loses a bet to his BFF Logan (the other MC). Toni recounts that scene in Bona Fide Fake, so no worries if you haven’t read The Experiment first.  (NB: I highly recommend you give The Experiment a read, though; it’s fantastic. In fact, it is on my Best of 2020 list).  Ned is an up-and-coming rock star, lead singer of the band Fifth Circle, and one of Logan’s closest friends.  In The Experiment, Logan scores free tickets from Ned to one of Fifth Circle’s concerts for his first date with Patrick.  It gives us a glimpse of Ned in his rock star persona.

When Bona Fide Fake opens, Toni and Ned cross paths for the first time, and the encounter leaves them simultaneously fascinated and irritated by each other.  Nevertheless, they both need something that only the other can provide.  So despite their instant attraction warring with disdain, they agree to be fake boyfriends for a month.  But then also agree they have to be real boyfriends for the duration of their fake relationship. 

Throughout the story, Ms. Raine continually juxtaposes fake with real and lies with truth in different contexts and on multiple levels, provoking us to consider whether a person can be both simultaneously. Ms. Raine provides an answer:  Yes, because what’s real and true is a matter of perspective, and the perspective that counts is your own.  

Only you know your true self, and only you can decide how much of that you are willing to show everyone else. Some people only offer their “true” selves to those they trust, and others are comfortable letting it all hang out.  

“I’m human, and every human is real. Even the ‘fakers’ – like me.
We’re just not always brave enough to show it.”

Toni and Ned take this to the extreme, keeping their “real” selves locked up tight, so all anyone sees is a facade.  They have reasons … and Ms. Raine provides the subtext for us to understand them.  Toni and Ned believe they are either too much or, conversely, not enough.  Either way, artifice and pretense protect them.  

Toni was bullied, belittled, and berated for his sexuality.  His “origin” story, as he’s dubbed it, came when his older brother swooped in to rescue him from high school bullies and counseled that Toni had to go all-in with who he is.  So Toni took all the “fabulous” parts of his personality and put them front and center, burying everything else … the uglier moods, the imperfect parts, his authentic self.  He embraced being too much to hide (his belief) that he’s not enough.

Conversely, Ned embraced being “not enough” in response to having been “too much”.  In his single-minded obsession to become a rock star, he left himself vulnerable and fell into the wrong hands.  Ned’s ex-boyfriend, Zac, a highly successful manager for music stars, brainwashed Ned into believing that he couldn’t cut it as a musician.  He told him he was worthless for anything but what Zac needed him for.  And Ned believed it.  Now he doesn’t trust anyone with his true persona – his exuberance, passion, and joy for music – even himself.  So he lives as a shell of a person.

Bona Fide Fake is, at times, more thought-provoking than thrilling, but it has Ms. Raine’s usual depth and emotional complexity, which keeps you fully invested.  I particularly liked how she expertly created a trajectory for our feelings towards Toni and Ned that mirror Toni and Ned’s feelings for each other.  In the early parts of the book, it’s challenging for us to connect with Toni and Ned because they don’t connect well with each other; they don’t want to let anyone in.  But as the book progresses, Ms. Raine’s slow, careful development of trust between these men allows them to open up to each other.  Their connection strengthens and grows as they do, and so does the reader’s connection with them.

Ms. Raine consistently demonstrates a unique focus within her stories.  She knows where she wants to end up, and she knows how she wants to get there.  She then leaves a figurative trail of breadcrumbs for her readers to follow.  And we do because we’re compelled to by her carefully constructed storylines and her expertly crafted narrative.  Then, at the end, we realize that Ms. Raine has remarkably spun out a story that, in retrospect, is much more than the sum of its parts.  

Ms. Raine delivers excellent HEAs and Bona Fide Fake is no exception in that department.  But the journey is not light-hearted and fluffy.  She addresses some heavy subjects and potentially triggering content, particularly in Ned’s relationship with his ex in the form of verbal and emotional abuse, dub-con, stalkerish behavior, and an attempted forced sexual encounter.  It’s not pretty stuff, but it’s not gratuitous either.  It serves a purpose, as does the dom/sub aspect of Ned’s relationship with Toni, which is integral to our understanding of their characters.  

That being said, Bona Fide Fake does contain pretty, romantic, sweet stuff.  Plenty of it.  There’s also plenty of steam, crisp dialogue, wit, and humor.  It’s all packaged within a storyline that’s seamlessly constructed and highly absorbing.  I highly recommend this uniquely complex, “contradictory” romance.  Bona Fide Fake is the real deal.

RATING:  

BUY LINK: 

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