Eden Finley - Fake Out

MADDOX
The reason I rarely go home is three simple words: I’m a liar.
When the pressure to marry my childhood sweetheart became too much, I told her I was gay and then
fled to New York like my ass was on fire.
Now, five years later and after a drunken encounter, I find myself invited to her wedding. And I have to bring my boyfriend—the boyfriend who doesn’t exist because I’m straight.
At least, I think I am. Meeting the guy I’m bribing to be my boyfriend for the weekend makes me question everything about myself.
DAMON
When my sister asks me to pretend to be some straight guy’s boyfriend, my automatic response is to say no. It’s because of guys like him people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m gay.
But Maddox has something I need.
After an injury that cost me my baseball career, I’m trying to leave my playing days behind and focus on being the best sports agent I can be. Forty-eight hours with my sister’s best friend in exchange for a meeting with a possible client. I can do this.
I just wish he wasn’t so hot. Or that he didn’t kiss like he means it.
Wait … why is the straight guy kissing me?

Comment: Someone once suggested this title as having a cute "fake relationship" kind of trope/plot and when done well, I tend to like it, so I took a chance on this book and now, years later, I've finally tried it.

In this story we meet Maddox, a 23 year old who is working, has a pretty steady life but suddenly he needs to find a fake boyfriend because he happens to see his ex and she tells him he is invited to her wedding, as his family is as well since the families know each other for a long time. Now he needs to have a boyfriend, since being gay was the reason he told her why he couldn't date her anymore. His best friend Stacy helps him by asking her gay brother Damon and the two guys pretend to be a couple for the weekend, but while Maddox isn't really gay, he can't help but feeling attracted to Damon, despite his self doubt. Will there be any possibility they can be a real couple after all?

Well, this story has good elements and has not so good elements. I liked the overall tone and effect, but some specific details failed to make me consider this a much better story.

The most glaring element to dislike, in my opinion, is the actual premise. Maddox needing a fake boyfriend is absurd enough, but it's a repetitive trope and I could accept some of his reasons. However, the way we are told how he can convince Damon to go along is the most ridiculously thin motive of them all and not even the fact Damon got aware of it pretty quickly and it wasn't such a big deal made me change my mind. Why not Stacy asking her brother simply for help? I figured the story would include some... silly scenes and immediately, I lowered my expectations.

As predicted, Maddox gets a little confused about his reaction to Damon and while this isn't as instantaneous as I feared - they go through the wedding weekend and than there are many passages of time while they think about one another - the fact this is told from both of their perspectives in first person makes the evolution of his feelings a little juvenile to follow. This is the main reason I don't usually like first person in romances, it rarely happens the authors do this and the narrator is such an amazing character that one can't help but like being in their head.

When time passes by enough to justify they finally deciding to take a chance at this connection, I thought we would have (obvious) sexy times but the matching emotional follow-up. I can't say this was the best falling in love relationship I've read about, but it was fine, I was happy for them, but then I've started to get a little annoyed at Stacy, Damon's sister, always pranking and being intrusive and causing some misunderstandings, sometimes at key moments of what I thought was a good moment for them... I wonder why this character had so much importance in the story, even allowing for her close relationship to both protagonists.

Then, to top it off, besides the usual issues between the guys: self doubt, is this love, are they ready for being labeled boyfriends, can they deal with work and studies and being with someone, can I be with this person this way, etc., and these things not always paced in the most enticing way, suddenly Damon has this childhood friend with whom he doesn't get along anymore and all the reasons why, then to make one better, Maddox learns something incredibly big from his past and I started to feel a little bothered by the fact there were so many distractions, some which would require a lot of psychological resolution and not enough pages to do so.

This means that the story is engaging enough but I feel this would have required a bit more complexity, a bit more depth to the characters and the challenges in their lives. Something about the way the story is written made me think the author could have done better. I suppose this is a type of story to read between heavier stories, because although it isn't a comedy, it does feel as if the goal is to be more on the lighter side than the dramatic one. It's not bad, but also not great.

Grade: 6/10