Thanks to Avon (via NetGalley) for the ARC!

3.5 stars

This was a fun follow-up to The Worst Best Man! I didn't know until I started reading it that it was set in the same world (following the same family) because it's not listed as being part of a series on Goodreads, so that was a nice surprise. I really enjoyed TWBM, and I was excited visit this world of close-knit women again.

I love a good fake dating trope, and I enjoyed this one for the most part, but at times this one did seem a little Too Much to me. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what bugged me about it, but I think it was a couple things: first, the fact that so many other people were roped into the fake dating scheme and were okay with it? Like it's something that happens all the time? Normally when you read fake dating, it's something that is just between the two people who are faking the relationship. But this had Solange's entire family involved in faking out Dean's coworker, and then it extended to faking out Solange's out-of-town relatives as well. It just gave everything that edge of unbelievability to me that made the trope less fun and more of a disaster waiting to happen, in my opinion.

Hiding my second complaint because it gets a little spoilery:

Spoiler

I also was a little annoyed by both Solange and Dean's inability to admit their feelings for each other until literally 90% into the book. Their chemistry is fabulous, they CLEARLY have feelings for each other but both of them are too stubborn and stuck in their plans (or lack thereof) to do anything about what they clearly want until it's grand gesture time. So that was a little frustrating to me (it just seemed like we needed to get to a reason for a grand gesture because there was no third act breakup in this one--they can't break up when they're not actually dating, so we're being stubborn to the very end instead!)

I did enjoy the book overall, but it took me quite a bit longer to read than a book like this normally would because the fake dating part dragged along for a bit (for me). Overall, not a mind-blowing read, but an enjoyable one