Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.

Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.

But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…

Dear Ms. Lau, 

Despite the fact that generally I’m not a fake-dating fan, I loved this book. I think this is a standalone novel but honestly I enjoyed it so much that I was a little sad that the sisters of the MCs are already married. Ms. Margaret Muffins, who often looks unimpressed with the world, is an unexpected treat and I adore that the hero talks to her as I do to my cats. Yes, they understand me, why do you ask? The heroine’s horror at the realization that she might actually be “getting old” (per her niece), was amusing to me as I look (way) back on the age Emily is now.  

Emily Hung’s last single sister is married and even Emily’s five year old niece (and I adored Scarlett and her sister Khloe) is questioning why Emily is single and tells her that she’s old. But all of that is in a loving five year old way. As Emily sees her mother bee-lining towards her, she knows that something is up. Mark Chan isn’t exactly thrilled with the forced meeting at this wedding but Mrs.Hung convinces him that Emily wants to see him again. Well, that isn’t true but Emily’s out-of-the-blue suggestion to fake-date takes him by surprise until he decides, why not. Can they keep it up long enough to get Emily’s mom off her back while also convincing half of Toronto that it’s a real relationship? And what will happen once all the secrets start coming out?

The book brings to life the story of immigrant’s hopes and expectations for their Canadian children, how those children feel about what their parents want, lots of family drama and dynamics, some scrumptious sounding restaurants, good friendships, the outrageous prices for Toronto real estate, living your own life and dreams, and a cat. Even though Emily (and to a degree her sisters) moan about their feeling at being pushed to choose a prestigious career, it is obvious across the whole of the book that their parents love them and just want the best for them. Emily often thinks about how much her parents gave up in order to immigrate to Canada with hopes for their future children. There is a truly lovely revelation at the end that is both heartwarming as well as bittersweet when Emily learns something her mother has never told her. 

Emily is a hard worker who has dared to leave a career that her degree in mathematics got her in order to do what she loves – writing. She’s got one book published but as she (eventually) explains to Mark, the fucked up publishing world gives no guarantees of future success based on past performances. Emily is that increasing rara avis – the midlist author – and she’s worried that after she’s finished this three book contract, she won’t ever get another. I liked seeing so much of her writing job as well as the fact that in order to afford half of a two bedroom Toronto apartment, she has to do two other part time jobs. Roommate Paige is delightful as well and the two definitely have each other’s backs. 

Ashley frowns. “So what happened?”
“The kiss … we were sitting on a bench, and then I saw my auntie.”
“Oh my God,” Paige says, “Your auntie saw you tonguing your fake boyfriend?”  
“We were not tonguing.” I paused. “Okay, maybe there was a little tongue.”

Mark initially didn’t make a good impression on Emily but after they open up and discuss the wedding, Emily realizes why he was texting so much and what his facial expression meant when she mentioned her roommate. Emily, to her credit, immediately apologizes for her misunderstandings. I had thought that the book would be totally shown from Emily’s first person POV so the switch up at halftime to both character’s POV was a nice surprise. As Mark says, he wishes he could know what Emily is thinking because he’s thinking he likes her. A lot. 

Mark: Margaret will stay home. She doesn’t like car rides. I’ll ask my neighbor to check on her once a day.
Me: You’re on a first name basis with your cat now?
Mark: No, she calls me Mr. Chan, alas.

Their romance slowly plays out as things become clear to both of them and the shift from fake dates, to real fake dates (it makes sense in the book) to real dates feels real. I never felt that things were moving either too quickly or too slowly and totally believed in their changed feelings. I felt that Mark was a bit more thoughtful at times than Emily who let herself get overwhelmed by the whole fake-dating circus but her final act confession of her true feelings was heartfelt. Maybe with the two of them together, Ms. Margaret Muffins’s social media presence will increase to what she deserves. B+         

~Jayne

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He’s the bad boy she needs to help her lay down the law…

Assistant District Attorney Georgia Star is on the ballot in Last Stand, Texas to finally take the top job—but popularity has never been this overachiever’s forte. When her big-city outsider opponent begins wooing her constituents with lies, Georgia knows she has to stop playing nice. She turns to the infamous Cy Powell for advice, but his provocative solution might be worse than a defeat.

Cyrus “Cy” Powell is a property mogul, rancher, and entrepreneur—and a scion of Last Stand’s most notorious criminal family. Despite his legit success he’s never outrun his last name, so when Georgia asks for his help, Cy decides a fake relationship is the perfect pretext to infiltrate her world.

Dating Cy will connect Georgia with her voter base, and squiring Georgia through her influential social circles will polish Cy’s reputation and facilitate his latest business deal. Their chemistry is undeniable, but as the election looms, they’ll need to decide if their fake alliance is real and where their loyalties lie.

Dear Ms. Crowley,

Tropes, tropes, get yer tropes here! Small town, friends to lovers, bad boy, across the tracks, fake relationship, (a slight touch of) enemies to lovers, Jewish women in Texas. Wait, what was that last one? It’s the second in The Stars of Texas series about four sisters who are slowly getting back in touch with family and falling for friends in Last Stand, Texas where 150 years ago their Jewish Austrian great … Grandfather put down roots and established himself in a new land.

Georgia Star the ADA in this district is doing what she’s done since getting a job in her hometown – seeking justice rather than trying to be popular. She knows she’s made a few enemies along the way but she’s tried to do her best for everyone she’s seen in court. But now a Hot Shot from out of town has arrived to campaign for the position of District Attorney which Georgia knows is just for show until he can move on to bigger and better political things.

Cy Powell is a certified bad boy from a bad family. The local cops even called the Powell homestead “DFW” (after the largest airport in Texas) since so many of his relatives are frequent flyers through the justice system. Cy uses his reputation for his own purposes but it’s also one he’s been trying to outgrow since he can’t seem to outrun it.

Cy’s (legit) business partner suggests that Cy needs to put in some face time with major bigwigs for the land deals that they’re trying to swing. Looking for someone to give him credibility, Cy devises a plan. If Georgia will be his fake girlfriend, he’ll help her campaign among the outcasts, bikers, rednecks, and other working class rural people of the area whom Hot Shot has spurned. Can Georgia and Cy keep it private and professional until after the election?

The deal that Georgia and Cy have worked out makes a bit more sense to me than other fake dating scenarios. Georgia is really, really bad at campaigning for the position of DA. Cy is really good at hiding his pain and anger at how and what the town thinks of him. She provides the credibility that helps him with the fancy stuff he needs in order to get on the inside of property development deals and he delivers the votes of the barflies and Hermanos Guapos motorcycle gang for her election. To her credit, Georgia does think about this a bit but then decides that telling one little white lie to save her hometown from the city slicker with fancy boots who thinks he can just swoop in for a few years and pander to a few interests then exit to bigger things is something she can do.

For all that they appear as opposites, Cy and Georgia are actually very similar inside. Both feel responsible for family members. Georgia for her three younger sisters and Cy for his younger, feckless, brother. Both also feel like outsiders. Cy because of his ramshackle family and upbringing that caused him to build walls around the trust that he gives to no-one and avoid the pain that giving love would bring. Loyalty is a currency that Cy trades in. And Georgia for her religion and her single-dad father who couldn’t take her to school things which isolated her from peers while she was growing up. Georgia had thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past and not something to affect her in this day and age. To discover how it had shaped her mother’s life is a shock.

Georgia was parentalized at age seven when her mother died. She champions the underdogs and works for real justice for the three counties for which she works. Which might actually work against her in the election as twisted by her opponent. Cy dispenses much needed advice about money and navigating government paperwork to those who have no one else to turn to. They both help their community.

Georgia and her sisters are digging deeper into and having to mentally deal with the antisemitism that separated their mother from her family when mom married their dad and converted. This began in book one, played a minor role here – except for when Georgia out and out calls out a relative for not keeping up with Caroline Star after the family cut Caroline off for marrying a Jewish man. Cy is worrying about his younger brother who might be mixed up in something that threatens the local community.

I liked the way that their similarities bring them together over dealing with the threat to the community. Then I like how this turns into a realistic third act breakup that temporarily pushes them apart. They act in ways that are authentic to how their characters have been built on page. Bonus points that after the initial dust settles, they think about what’s happened, what they want, and, after not storming off nor vowing that they’re done with the other, they offer apologies as they work things out. And though I can take or leave epilogues, this is a nice one. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. B+

~Jayne

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Note: Charlotte Stein have followed each other and have been friendly online for many years. This review is my unvarnished opinion regardless.

Content notes: parental abuse, childhood poverty, and alcoholism, fatphobia

Dear Charlotte Stein,

I admit I had some hesitation about reading When Grumpy Met Sunshine. Generally, I’m less excited to read about characters inspired by either real life people (this is harder for me) or fictional characters. I tend to find it difficult to separate the “original” (person or character) from the book version and can find myself importing a whole pile of things which don’t belong into the story. Alfie Harding is inspired by Roy Kent from Ted Lasso. Now, I love Roy Kent, (how could I not?) but I wasn’t sure how I felt about reading about a someone very like Roy Kent who was not Roy Kent. The thing is, while I totally heard Roy Kent’s voice in my head every time Alfie spoke, he wasn’t Roy Kent. Alfie Harding was the inspiration but that’s as far as it went. Which, I admit, was a relief. Unlike other books where I found the story being intruded upon by the original person, here, Alfie very quickly became someone totally new to me. Yay. Which is all to say I’m very glad I read it because I really would have been missing out.

Mabel Willicker is a would-be novelist and ghostwriter. She’s been put forward to ghostwrite the memoir of Alfie Harding, former football (that is, soccer for those outside the UK) star. Alfie is notoriously grumpy, hot-tempered, uptight and difficult. He’s gone through 17 prior suggestions already. Mabel doesn’t really hold out a lot of hope she will be lucky number 18.

One of his teammates was asked to use three words to describe him, and all three had been annoying.

Mabel is, of course, the “sunshine” of the title. Only, her bright and bubbly personality is most often a front so that people can’t see she is easily hurt and vulnerable. For some reason though, when she first meets Alfie, she doesn’t let him get away with his bad behaviour and puts a stop to the meeting promptly, telling herself she’s just dodged a bullet rather than missed out on a job which guaranteed her income.

The whole thing would have been a disaster.

A mess of a million scary arguments.

Him, coming up with increasingly horrible insults.

Her, eventually tossing him into the nearest wood chipper.

And she just didn’t have easy access to machinery like that.

Only, it turns out that Alfie does want Mabel to ghostwrite his memoir for reasons that are unclear until the very end of the book. From there, Mabel is in a kind of wonderland (of the Alice and the white rabbit variety), never really trusting her own eyes or ears, barely able to believe she’s becoming friends with Alfie, let alone anything else. 

More as a kind of preemptive armor than intention, Mabel starts as she means to go on and shows a fairly unfiltered version of herself to Alfie. Alfie does not wish to reveal too much in his memoir; it is Mabel’s job to extract all the things he doesn’t want to talk about from him and put it on paper and, to try and convince him to allow it to be printed. (Mabel would never put something in the book Alfie did not agree to.) She has some rather provoking methods.

He shook his head and blew out a breath. “You’re sadistic, you are. Like a really evil Mary Poppins.”

Mabel’s role is a secret, so when the media notice Alfie is spending time with Mabel, they need to come up with an excuse for it. Mabel is a fat woman and the internet has a lot of feelings about that as well (it has to be said that there is a vocal contingent of supporters, not just trolls). Alfie finds himself …enthusiastically defending Mabel to members of the paparazzi and next thing you know they’re fake dating.

Mabel is already having all kinds of feelings for Alfie – not just pants feelings either – but she knows better than to believe someone like him could really want to be with someone like her. He usually dates supermodels. The very idea of Alfie falling in love with Mabel for real is such a non-starter for Mabel that she misses every sign that’s right before her eyes. 

Of course, fake dating means spending additional time together in the public eye. Alfie has a bit of a reputation for kissing his girlfriends on doorsteps so, for the media to believe their really dating…  Mabel is beside herself.

And as she did she felt him lean down, and kiss her fucking neck.

Just straight up kissed her neck, like that was a normal thing people did all the time as they were trying to get indoors. Instead of something she was pretty sure she’d never even seen happen to Julia Roberts in eighty movies about people being really horny for Julia Roberts.

The story is told completely from Mabel’s POV so we don’t know what’s going on in Alfie’s head until right near the end. Mabel’s belief that Alfie could not possibly love her could have been annoying I suppose. It was, essentially, what was keeping them apart. But I understood it. Alfie Harding is a superstar. He’s rich, famous and yes, he usually does date supermodels. Mabel is a normal person who does not move in Alfie’s usual circles. Her whole life she’s been told, by various men, that she’s not good enough and not deserving of their attention. As a result, she’s built up a thick armor. It’s really no wonder that Mabel tries to protect herself or that she takes a lot of convincing that Alfie does in fact love her to the moon and back.

I laughed out loud so many times as I read. Actual guffawing and snorting occurred. Mabel and Alfie have such a delightful dynamic. Both of them are head over heels for the other but neither can or will believe it is possible for the other to feel the same so they are constantly at cross purposes and constantly trying not to let the other know what’s really happening*. (*it turns out that Alfie is much worse at this than Mabel is, to be fair.) The say preposterous things to each other – Mabel in attempts at misdirection and Alfie because he’s baffled and trying desperately to keep up.

“Holy crapola did you actually just say that?”

“No. I never. You’ve fallen asleep and me saying that is just a horrible nightmare. In a second I’m going to wake you up by telling you something completely normal, like you looked like a soft rabbit.”

“But that isn’t completely normal either, Alfie.”

“I know,” he groaned. “I heard myself saying it and my brain just started yelling.”

“Well, it obviously needs to get faster. So it grabs you before you do it.”

“And what are the chances of that? You’ve seen how I am. Stuck in the past, slower than an old man sucking a toffee. It’s a fucking miracle I can even keep up with you at all, conversation-wise. Never mind saying things that make sense.”

It’s not all laughs. Over the course of the book, Mabel finds she recognises in Alfie things that resonate with her own experience. She finds out who the real man is and he’s not very much like the public persona at all. There’s a reason he’s so angry all the time. And, he’s never angry with her. (Occasionally frustrated and yes, grumpy, but not angry.) Alfie is much more than a “football guy” in the public eye who gets in trouble a lot. There’s far more to him than that and Mabel, for her part, appreciates what it means that she gets to know the real him.

I highlighted so much of the text as I read. I enjoyed the turns of phrase and the banter and the baffling, charming absurdity of their courtship. I liked both Mabel and Alfie very much. I would like to be Mabel’s friend. Possibly Alfie’s too but he’s not big on friends so maybe not.

Even though I understood Mabel’s fear and belief, I did wish she had been a little braver near the end. I did wish that they didn’t have to spend so much time apart (in terms of temporal-time if not page-time). (I was reading an ARC which was clearly not the final version so I’m not exactly sure if the time frame I read is what’s in the published book. Still, I can only review the book I actually read.) Perhaps it is a sign of the book’s success with me that I reacted so strongly to things going pear-shaped. As it was though I experienced quite the disappointment.

Of course, this is a romance novel and things turn out right in the end. Just… did it have to take them so long? They were miserable for too much time!!

While my overwhelming memory of the story is laughing at how great they were together, there was no lack of the more earthy kind of chemistry either. Mabel is delighted to find that the tell-all stories from former girlfriends are all completely true: it’s huge and yes, he can go all night.

But, what sticks in my mind the most is how charmed I was and how much I laughed.

“Well, at least tell me why you did it.”

“As if I have the first fucking clue. Mabel, I don’t know why I do anything. A fact that you well know after the meeting debacle. And the phone call debacle. And the restaurant debacle. And the Starbucks debacle.”

She rolled her eyes. “I get it. You have a lot of debacles.”

“Yet you’re surprised this happened.”

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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