Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Love Me Like It’s Real
SERIES: Love in Maplewood
AUTHOR: Rhys Everly
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 260 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2025
BLURB:
It was all pretend… until it wasn’t.
I don’t have time for dating. I’m too busy making Maplewood my home after everything I’ve been through. But when my daughters decide I need a boyfriend, I do only thing a desperate single dad can do… I lie.
Enter professional dating expert, Jack Hayworth.
He’s a cynic. He’s emotionally unavailable and he doesn’t believe in love. He’s even got a club whose entire purpose is to sabotage the Season of Love festival. But he agrees to play along.
Turns out pretending to love Hayworth is way too easy. The real problem? Sleeping with him feels even easier. And once I get a taste, I can’t stop.
I swore I wouldn’t fall. I swore I would keep this casual.
Too bad my heart doesn’t listen.
Love Me Like It’s Real is a low-angst spicy MM romance with a love cynic who loves a good time, a single trans dad who no longer believes in love, fake dating and two little girls determined to give their dad a happily-ever after.
With the highest percentage of LGBTQIA+ residents in Vermont, Maplewood is a town where everyone belongs. And with festivals year round, there’s always something fun happening! This multi-author, low-angst queer series features ten standalone romances—each set against the backdrop of a different festival. Come for the celebrations, stay for the happily-ever-afters!
REVIEW:
I am going to state this clearly right here that this is a Trans Dad book. I will admit that I missed that tiny word in the blurb.
Felix has moved his daughters and himself to the LGBTQIA+ friendly town of Maplewood, Vermont. He left California and his ex-husband, that he had to legally fight for custody of their daughter’s for, after he won sole custody and then his ex broken in and tried to take them. His ex did not take his need to transition well and was spouting his misogynistic crap on their girls. When the Season of Love festival, in their new hometown that they are settling in at, gets the girls caught up in the romantic spirit and they decide that their dad needs to date. When Anti-love/Professional dating expert Jack Hayworth agrees to fake-date Felix however neither expects the impossible…for love to blossom!
I’m going to be honest. I completely missed the word trans at the bottom of the blurb. I have done several trans books and really enjoyed them. I just didn’t connect to these two men and their journey. It seemed that Felix became more femme after he transitioned than when he was female-presenting. “Arya scurries away and returns with a pair of pink trainers to complete the look and then we get on to my makeup, which Arya loves to help me with. I was never into it, especially when I was female-presenting because it made my dysphoria worse and I always felt like a clown in it, but since my transition and with my girls’ help I’ve found a love for it I never thought possible. It helps that it makes me look smoking hot, even if I say so myself.” It confused me that it was okay to look femme after transitioning but it was harmful when female-presenting. It also pretty graphically described his female parts during sex. At times I had to re-remind myself that Felix was transitioning and wasn’t female during the sex scenes. The author used the correct pronouns but I kept making sure I was reading it the correct way. It kept pulling me out of the scenes.
I also got a bit tired of Jack trying so hard to prove he was still anti-love when it was obvious that he had fallen for Felix. I get he had a reputation to uphold and a job that screamed anti-love, but it went too long.
This book is well written however just wasn’t the book for me.
RATING: 
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