I actually…don’t read a ton of fake relationship books and I had to ask Kat what constitutes a fake relationship. As Glenn Wheldon from the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast would say, I feel like there is a taxonomy of fake relationship romance:
- a fake relationship between two strangers
- fake relationship between people who already have a close bond.
- A fake relationship where one of the parties is being paid
To me, the first one is the truest fake relationship because by the time accomplished orthopedic surgeon Nic and her financial planner roommate Ben decide to fake date for a weekend they’ve already been roommates for three years. I feel like because they have lived together and had time to bond (I mean he already gets to see her in her bonnet) …it felt more like a friends-to-lovers ?
Overall, Like Lovers Do was okay. The romance felt pretty inevitable. In addition to the romance Nic’s career almost gets upended by an entitled intern and Ben considers making amends with his estranged parents—but again because the characters are in the middle of these issues I felt like I’d walked into the middle of a story already in progress.
I don’t read a ton of contemporary romance so I always thought books with expansive scenic covers were mild, but this book was on the hot tamale train!
Even though this was a meh for me, I’m still curious to read more from Livesay. I’m intrigued by the plot for Love Will Always Remember.
