Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Faking It Right
SERIES: Straight Detour (Book 1)
AUTHOR: Ariella Zoelle
PUBLISHER: Sarayashi Publishing
LENGTH: 458 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 21, 2025
BLURB:
A fake relationship with his best friend is either the worst idea Ryker has ever had or the plot twist his love life desperately needed.
I’ve always been straight. Like, straighter than the pole my sister’s girlfriend uses for her exotic dance cardio class. But that doesn’t mean I want to go on another one of my mom’s blind date setups, which have historically been as successful as using a flamethrower to fix a bad haircut.
To avoid my mother’s disastrous matchmaking attempts, I ask my openly gay roommate to pretend to be my boyfriend when we go home for spring break. You know, the one who’s been trying to get in my pants since freshman year with the determination of a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter. What could possibly go wrong?
Other than Harley has a gorgeous face that makes strangers walk into street poles, the body of someone who actually uses his gym membership, and enough charm to talk his way out of a speeding ticket while getting the officer’s number. Naturally, I say yes when he offers to show me why my dating history with women can be summed up somewhere between “meh” and “this is why my therapist deserves hazard pay.”
And just like that, my membership to the Straight Guy Club is permanently revoked. Oops?
Faking It Right is a steamy, laugh-out-loud MM romantic comedy featuring a bisexual awakening everyone saw coming except Ryker. It also stars a flirtatious best friend with the subtlety of a glitter bomb and a bad date so absurd it could be a case study in chaos theory.
The Straight Detour series explores what happens when sexuality takes the scenic route. The road to true love always begins with a wrong turn and ends with the liberating realization that your heart doesn’t care about the rules you thought you had to follow.
REVIEW:
A brand new, bisexual awakening series by author Ariella Zoelle and it’s a doozy!
Ryker just wants his Mom to stop her meddlesome matchmaking every time he ventures home. And the only way he can think of to stop her is to “fake date” his very gorgeous gay best friend/roommate Harley. He knows this would make his Mom very happy. Harley has silently loved his best friend for three years, two has his roommate. But Ryker keeps insisting that he’s straight. Even though those glances beg to differ that he is at least curious. But, when a cancelled class winds up with Ryker getting more than an eyeful of his roommate getting a blowjob in their front room, doors might be cracking opening since Ryker couldn’t stop watching. And, in a very bold move, Ryker asked Harley to “fake date” him while being serviced by the guy on his knees. But is Ryker as “straight” as he always believed? And can Harley just fake date the man he’s had feelings for for the last three years?
One of the things I found amusing was that literally all their friends and even Ryker’s sister knew just how huge Harley was endowed. Apparently skinny dipping was his preferred choice no matter who he was with. I loved when Sawyer flat out stated that Ryker couldn’t have bottomed last night because he could sit down for breakfast that morning. And their friends gentle ribbing but concern for Ryker because of “Harley’s colossal cock? Because I saw it when we went skinny dipping, and honey, that thing is only for pros, not virgin gays.” And it was a huge concern for Ryker, that soda can sized python that Harley was packing in his pants. Apparently you can also be a “show-er” and a “grower” if you are Harley. That’s a lot to try to take on either orally or anally. Thankfully not only did Harley love Ryker totally and completely and understood his trepidation. He was serious when he stated that they never had to do either anal or oral if Ryker didn’t want to. But that wasn’t who Ryker was either. He wasn’t just going to take and he had to make sure that Harley knew that. And Harley was the most patient and thorough teacher to make sure his Ryker was never hurt. He finally had the love of his life and he would do nothing to harm him. 💕
One of the best parts of this book is the time spent with Ryker’s family, which is a major portion of this book. First his older sister Sawyer. She takes great joy in teasing her brother and making him blush. Hell, the entire family, who know no boundaries – especially concerning sex, make it an art of seeing how embarrassed they can make Ryker. And they seem to have absolutely no boundaries where sex is discussed. Although they may have brought in on themselves with their inability to have quite sex at their parent’s house! And I loved that no one gets anything past his Mom!
I will say that whole Maylin episode was one for the books I have never heard before nor saw coming. The fact that Mom had a slight clue about how unhinged she was was a bit scary that she still thought bringing her into their home for dinner was a good idea. And there are many chuckles that come from it. Plus discovering her back-up date that everyone grappled to get his page info. Even their friends back home wanted in on that!
And what was with everyone, and I mean anyone associated with Ryker betting on him. Poor guy. And least he came out the real winner in everything because he got true love 💕
Be ready for some very steamy moments and others that you can’t stop laughing at! Great start to a new series 🎉
RATING: 
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