Title: Faking Christmas
Author: Kerry Winfrey
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 26, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Laurel Grant is playing house for the holidays–complete with a fake husband and kids–in this delightful, cozy rom-com by Kerry Winfrey.
Laurel Grant works as the social media manager for Buckeye State of Mind, an Ohio tourism magazine and website. She is most definitely not an owner of a farm…but one tinymisunderstanding leads her boss, Gilbert, to think she owns her twin sister Holly’s farm just outside of Columbus. Laurel only handles the social media for the farm, but she’s happy to keep her little white lie going if it means not getting fired.
And keep it going she must when Gilbert, recently dumped by his wife, invites himself over for the farm’s big holiday dinner (as advertised on Meadow Rise Farm’s Instagram, thanks to Laurel herself). Laurel immediately goes into panic mode to figure out how she can trick Gilbert into thinking she’s basically the Martha Stewart of rural Ohio and keep her job in the process.
Laurel and Holly come up with a plan–all Laurel has to do is pretend to own the farm for one dinner. But when Laurel shows up at the farm, an unwelcome guest is there: Max Beckett, her nemesis since Holly’s wedding. The annoyingly attractive man she hates will be posing as Laurel’s husband just for the evening, but when a snowstorm traps them all for the entire weekend, Laurel is going to have to figure out how to survive with her job and dignity intact. Whatever the case, this promises to be the most eventful Christmas in ages…
Review:
Laurel Grant works as the social media manager for an Ohio tourism magazine and website. When she got the job, she led her boss to believe that she owned a farm and had a family outside of the city, which resulted in him giving her a monthly column on the farm life. That job was too important for her to give up, so she let her boss believe she owned a farm, which is actually owned by her twin sister. Her boss invites himself to her family’s famous Christmas Eve Eve dinner, so Laurel has to scramble to make him believe that she’s actually living her sister’s family farm life. Laurel only has to make him believe it for one dinner, but she doesn’t realize that her sister has invited Max Beckett, Laurel’s nemesis, to pretend to be her husband. Though the dinner goes well, everyone gets snowed for the holiday weekend, so Laurel has to keep up the ruse of being Max’s wife on the farm in order to keep her boss from discovering her lie.
This story combined my two favourite tropes: enemies-to-lovers and fake dating! The tension between Laurel and Max was there from the beginning, but he didn’t seem as angry with her as she was with him. It was entertaining to see her have to scramble around and make her boss believe her fake life, which was the complete opposite of her real life.
Faking Christmas is a fun Christmas rom com!
Thank you Berkley Romance for providing a digital copy of this book.
Have you read Faking Christmas? What did you think of it?
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