Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Fauxmance in the Falls
SERIES: Devon Falls, Book 1
AUTHOR: J.E. Birk
PUBLISHER: Maple Mountains Press
LENGTH: 295 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2023
BLURB:
I’m here to destroy this town. How did I end up in a fake relationship with its hero?
I’ve spent my life proving to my grandpa and dad that I’m more than just the Lewis family mistake. So when Grandpa sends me to Devon Falls, VT to take some ridiculous leaf festival to court, I head straight there and get to work.
But Dr. Jack Lancer keeps getting in my way.
He’s everywhere. Helping me out with my migraines, making me dinner, insisting people be nice to me even though I’m the enemy. Who is this guy? The next thing I know I’m pretending to be Jack’s boyfriend to get him out of a bind. I swear he’s putting kindness pills in my food or something.
Jack thinks he can fix me the same way he fixes everyone else. But I’m not broken. This podunk town will be when I’m done with it, though. And Jack? Well, he’s about to learn the meaning of the term “collateral damage.” Because I’ll do anything to win this case and end this festival.
Even if it means losing something that feels an awful lot like love.
Fauxmance in the Falls is an age-gap romance featuring a small town full of quirks, a grumpy lawyer and a charming physician, a fake relationship gone wild, some inappropriate use of a doctor’s office, and a healthy mix of humor and angst. It stars Benson Lewis, who first appeared in the book Counterpoint.
REVIEW:
We first meet Benson Lewis in J.E. Birk’s contribution to the Sarina Bowen multi-author Vino & Veritas series. In Counterpoint, he’s a rival lawyer competing for a coveted spot in a law firm against Aaron, the star of Counterpoint. He’s portrayed as generally not a nice guy, but layers get peeled back as the story progresses showing that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Counterpoint is not a mandatory pre-read to Fauxmance in the Falls, Birk’s inaugural book in her new Devon Falls spinoff series, although it definitely helps provide color for Benson’s character.
Fauxmance isn’t a redemption story for Benson so much as an explanation for why he is the way he is. We realize Benson isn’t a fundamentally grumpy, bad person, but rather a guy who is just very, very unhappy. He’s been rejected my his mother, then his father, belittled by his strict, overbearing grandfather, and never felt like he fit in anywhere. The perpetual outsider looking in, wishing for things he resigned himself to never having. He’s now taken on the perception that he’s the guy everyone loves to hate, and wears it like an albatross around his neck. He even starts to believe it himself. We see him suffering and we can’t help but sympathize.
When he meets Devon Falls, Vermont’s resident Dr. Jack Lancer, he suddenly finds himself doing unexpected, inexplicable things – like pretending to be Jack’s boyfriend to get Jack’s in-laws off his back about his ex-wife’s nephew Elijah’s struggles in school. Maybe it’s the feelings of failure that emanate from Jack, feelings Benson can very much relate to. Maybe it’s because Benson finds a kindred spirit and a purpose in helping Elijah through troubles that Benson can relate to.
Jack’s nature is to help. He’s a physician after all. He wants to “fix” things, to make people better. But people “help” in different ways and not all of them are entirely helpful. Jack is pushy in his attempts to help Benson, and fails to do the one thing that really would help: listen. In this way, Birk effectively creates Benson and Jack’s relationship as a proxy for Benson’s unhealthy relationship with his belittling grandfather and disinterested father. But things play out differently this time. Benson does what he couldn’t do before – stand up for himself – while Jack’s eyes are opened to the error of his ways. Birk does a really nice job in creating likeable, complex, flawed characters in Benson and Jack and their paring makes a whole lot of sense.
Unfortunately, many aspects of the story fall into tropey-ness and many of the side characters are caricatures. Case in point: Benson’s grandfather. That being said, the story is an easy read centered on two men I grew to really care about – which was a bit of a surprise given I came into this story not liking Benson.
Like some of Birk’s other titles, particularly Counterpoint, Fauxmance in the Falls accomplishes a nice balance of sweet and sexy with a bit of humor and a nice progression for this pairing. The small town with its quirky residents and the found family feels that ultimately embrace Benson are essential and highly enjoyable elements of this story. But ultimately, this is about Benson learning what happiness looks like, and that he can get it by rejecting toxic expectations and embracing who he is and what he really wants out of life. Jack sits squarely in the center of that picture and I enjoyed seeing all of the other elements of their lives, their family, and their home fill out the rest.
RATING: 
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