This is a fake dating book, and plays out exactly how you’d expect. It was cute and it delivers on the premise. There’s even forced room sharing! The first half was 5 stars for me - but it went downhill somewhere around the 60-70% mark. I didn’t care for the sexy scenes (and why does she have to be basically a virgin), and the villain in this was just too much of a caricature to be believable. The whole villain subplot really brought the book down. There were other minor things - like how often they talked about fake dating in public places where someone might hear them! (Though that was never a real problem). Olive was also a little too clueless about his feelings for her at times, but that’s sort of how these stories go.

Still the chemistry and tension was great. And I enjoyed the cute meta elements - like how Olive mentions ground rules and how she’s “familiar with the trope” on fake dating.

Also I didn’t realize it going in, but I pretty quickly picked on on the fact that this is totally just a published AU Reylo fan fiction (which is not something I’m into). Actually, I don’t know how I didn’t realize that from the cover. She’s even an orphan and he has absent diplomat parents…! It’s neither here nor there since the story still works. But I wish his name wasn’t “Adam.”