Recent Release Review: The Former Fake Boyfriend by Maya Jean (Sweet Southern Book 2)

Cindy

Reviewed by Cindy

 

TITLE: The Former Fake Boyfriend

SERIES: Sweet Southern Book 2

AUTHOR: Maya Jean

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 240 Pages

RELEASE DATE: September 4th, 2024

BLURB:

Beau

The strong one. The dependable one. Eldest son. Big brother. Now the family farm is mine to run. My entire life is centered around others. To keep the attention off me at my baby sister’s wedding, I impulsively hire a fake boyfriend to give the pretense of happiness. What I don’t expect is a man that seamlessly fits into my life. Trevor holds me up when no one else thinks twice about my needs or wants. And he keeps coming back for me. Again and again. Our relationship might be fake to Trevor, but I’m playing for keeps.

Trevor

Fake boyfriend. Good friend. Shitty son. Faking is my only real skill. The dark family secrets I carry inside remind me daily of my worth. Nothing. I’m only of value when I’m providing fake boyfriends a service. But when a sweet farmer hires me for a wedding weekend, everything slowly starts to unravel. Beau works his way into my battered heart with gentle smiles, shy looks, and profound steadiness. Safe with Beau, maybe it’s finally time to stop faking my way through life.

The Former Fake Boyfriend is the second novel in the Sweet Southern series. Expect a swoony fake dating romance between a city boy sex worker and a gentle giant farmer featuring an age gap, hurt/comfort, and second chances.

REVIEW:

After meeting these guys briefly in The Husband Experience, the first book in this series, I was very much looking forward to getting to know Beau and Trevor. I wasn’t disappointed. This book is sweet and sunny with a little bit of angst thrown in.

The angst comes in the form of Trevor’s lack of self-confidence. He’s so convinced that he is absolutely unlovable, he has a hard time believing that someone as amazing as Beau could ever love him.

Beau is convinced that someone as wonderful as Trevor wouldn’t ever want to be stuck with someone as boring as him, but when he thinks he might actually have a chance with Trevor? He goes for it with all his heart.

I loved Beau calling Trevor sweetheart. It was one of my favorite things in this story. It could have sounded cheesy, as he says it a lot,but it doesn’t. It just comes across as sweet and loving and it made my heart so very happy.

Most of this story revolves around Trevor’s struggle to accept that the family secrets he keeps in his heart aren’t something that he needs to carry with him. It’s heartbreaking watching him try and pull himself up out of the hole he’s buried himself in, but I found myself cheering for him (and occasionally wanting to smack some smarts into him) through the whole story.

Beau is someone who is so used to putting others first, that wanting something for himself is so foreign, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. It’s just as heartbreaking as Trevor’s story.

It was nice to catch up with Colby and Eli again and I loved getting to know Trevor and Eli’s little group of friends better.

This was a very nice story to get lost in for a few hours. There was no doubt as to where it was going but that’s okay. Sometimes it’s nice to know that a happy ending and a bunch of smiles is coming your way.

A solid 4 out of 5 for characters I could empathize with and a storyline that was interesting enough to keep me reading it all in one go.

 

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Former-Fake-Boyfriend-Sweet-Southern-ebook/dp/B0D1F93W2D/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=gHMoW&content-id=amzn1.sym.f76d456a-cb0d-44de-b7b0-670c26ce80ba&pf_rd_p=f76d456a-cb0d-44de-b7b0-670c26ce80ba&pf_rd_r=145-8856643-9904337&pd_rd_wg=ozTOS&pd_rd_r=7f8087ab-37c3-4d18-b322-75c755212c61&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

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