Review: Cute story with sizzling chemistry
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2013
I seem to be on a roll with reading about fake fiancés and friends to lovers stories. The fake fiancé trope used to be one of my least favorites but I've read a few cute ones that changed my mind. The key for me is that the set up isn't too outlandish or the lies get so crazy out of control that it's more wacky than emotional.Faking It had a good set up. Stephanie needs to land an account at work or she's out of a job and back to needing her family to bail her out. Again. On her way to lunch with her FBI (& hilarious) brother she meets a sexy business man that comes to her rescue when she's caught without an umbrella in the pouring rain.Turns out that the sexy business man is Derek Rory, one of her brothers best friends and someone who can help her land the deal at work. The catch....there's always a catch....is that the man she's trying to convince to fund her project is a "family values" business man. Derek steps up as her fiancé for the week to help Stephanie and in return she plays tourist guide for him around Miami.This is a fun story and the characters have great chemistry. They're opposites and Stephanie's bright, quirky personality gets Derek to loosen up and look for something more in his life other than the next big business deal.If I have one complaint, it's with Stephanie. She wants to be taken seriously as a business woman but keeps doing silly things like losing her files, not backing them up and not taking advice from Derek because of her stubborn pride. Her boss is a total sexist ass. I was so mad that everyone kept deferring to Derek in meetings instead of Stephanie so in that regard I could understand the chip on her shoulder.  She's a great person, with obvious compassion and drive, but between her flightiness and Derek calling her "kittenish" multiple times I sometimes had problems seeing her as professional.Final thoughts: If you like this trope I would give Faking It a try. The couple has great chemistry. Even thought the romance develops in quite a short time I completely bought into it. They both bring out something better in each other. I would have liked Stephanie to be worthy of the professional respect she was demanding in the beginning but even that worked out great in the end.