Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Happy Palentine’s Day
AUTHOR: Baylin Crowe
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 123 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2025
BLURB:
It started with a video that went viral—me proposing to my best friend in the middle of a sandy beach. The sun was bright, water glittering…
Actually, back up. It started with me tripping and landing on one knee in the sand while trying to catch a frisbee. As a joke, I asked him to marry me, and he even let me slide a makeshift ring onto his finger. We had no idea some has-been social media influencer was filming just up the shore.
The faux romantic moment between us was caught on camera, and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, the world wants more.
We need the cash we are offered to pay the hike in our rent. The influencer needs the content to save his channel. Seems like a good deal.
I’m not gay, but Tate is, and we know everything about each other. Faking a relationship should be easy enough.
What could go wrong?
REVIEW:
Fake relationships are iffy for me – sometimes they seem so, well, fake. This one worked better than that because Tate and Maddox are best friends and roommates, and like they said, they know everything about each other. They are both in online school and work at a Surf Shop, sharing an apartment that is close to both work and the beach. The problem? Their landlord has just made a big increase in their rent and they don’t know how they will cover it. As a side note, I greatly appreciated that money issues seemed realistic, especially for men of this age.
When an accident on the beach causes a jokey proposal moment, a smarmy influencer catches it on video and uploads it without permission. Of course, it goes viral and now the smarmy influencer, Ian, is offering them money to continue the charade. Money that will allow them to keep their apartment. It’s tempting but odd, considering that Tate is gay but Maddox is not. In fact, “Sometimes I wasn’t sure why he bothered renting the loft when he spent most nights in some random girl’s bed.”
Maddox also doesn’t seem to take his schoolwork seriously, and he struggles with it. “There’s no way I was going to pass the test. Tate would be disappointed and I would feel like an ass for letting him down.” It isn’t so much he isn’t serious, it is more the complete struggle he has with school.
But back to faking, despite some misgivings they decide to accept Ian’s terms, mainly because Maddox believes it will be an easy road to the money they need. Contract is signed with Ian, with terms: “One, no public dating other people. Two, don’t disclose the arrangement to anyone. Three, act in love like you mean it. Four, give Ian something worthwhile to upload.” How bad could it be?
As usual when things seem simple, it isn’t that easy. But they have a supportive boss in Jason and feelings start to catch. Tate just isn’t on board with the influencer thing. “I’m unsubscribing from his channel. Let’s just get it over with so we can be done.” Since they are best friends, they know so much about it other but sometimes that makes it even more difficult. How can Tate trust anything can be real when Maddox has spent years bed hopping with women?
I liked these guys and enjoyed seeing how things, social media and otherwise, worked out.
RATING: 
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