This was great. It was cute and it was actually funny! And was surprisingly vulnerable and touching. As a messy not-straight person with social anxiety who has major abandonment issues, I really felt for Luc here. And I had to love vegetarian lawyer Oliver (though I hated how he ate a bacon sandwich, but that’s neither here nor there!). Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes and this one was well done - <spoiler> especially since they sort of gave up the charade when they realized it wasn’t necessary and they actually liked each other. I was also surprised that I wasn’t bored after the book continued on past the get together moment - there was still quite a bit left, but I wanted to keep reading.</spoiler> I normally hate when books drop tv shows or way too specific slang or things like Tumblr, but it worked for me here. I also loved how they’d have these conflicts come up that in another book would be super dramatic and take days and days to resolve - but on the whole, they would just deal with it like normal people here. It was great.

Outrageously good. The main characters felt so very true to themselves, likewise each and every member of the chorus. Sparkling, grade A, laugh out loud writing. A very real treat. I loved it.

It has interesting asides of the British paparazzi (surely they could not be so interested in such a not-even-e-list un-celebrity?) and the British nobility (are they all such oddities?). These felt very much like inventions on account of the absurdity. And yet they were written wholly believably, consistent throughout. I’d love to learn more about British culture so I could know if this were a chair autre or true to life.