actual rating: 3.5⭐

Therapist Jessica is bamboozled when her long term boyfriend of over 10 years dumps her the day her debut relationship advice book publishes. Sure, there relationship had been tepid at best the past few years, but Jessica had found her groove writing along with seeing her therapy clients while Luke had became a surgeon.

More angry than sad, Jessica runs into Galvin, Luke's college nemesis and the fuckboi that most of Jessica's friends had hooked up with. Determined to not mimic her chaotic, attention seeking, and man obssessed mother, Jessica had never given the absolutely gorgeous Galvin the time of day. And for good reason it seems, as Galvin himself had been absolutely slandered by his much younger ex for being "bad in bed."

But when Jessica and Galvin immediately reconnect, and find they have far more in common than just their college pasts, so when Jessica's PR agent suggests they have a fake relationships help protect her from becoming a bad meme (who wants to read a dating advice book from a dumpee), both Jessica and Galvin go for it.

Naturally, real feelings enter the equation along with excellent chemistry.

So, i loved January Lavoy's narration (as I always do), but this was uneven in pacing for me. The "why can't they just be together" was never strong enough to keep up with the fake dating and the ending was SO abrupt. After the tempestuousness of everything, I would have liked to see them more settled, in the future.

I did enjoy the banter and how Jessica and Galvin sussed out their issues, together, with even therapist Jessica having to show her messy side once in awhile, and how they both stood up for each other in the face of their toxic parents. Also, fuck Luke, that dude suckssss

uneven, but a fun listen overall.

professional audio review TK for library journal; thank you to PRH audio for the ALC.