Synopsis:

The [Fake] Dating Game is a fake dating romcom by Timothy Janovsky.

Ready. Set. Faux .

Holden James picked the worst time to have a meltdown. His chance to audition for his favorite game show, Madcap Market , should have been a moment of triumph—a glorious, loving homage to his adored mom, who died six years ago. Instead, he’s destroying the minibar in a grim Los Angeles hotel room…recently dumped, partnerless and sliding into a crushing black hole of anguish.

But the hotel service in abject misery is sublime. It even comes with an unfairly fit and sexy (smart-ass) concierge who arrives at the door with pizza, Monopoly and deliciously distracting forearms.

All Holden knows about Leo Min is that he’s beautiful and unexpectedly sympathetic, and the chemistry between them is beyond. Maybe it’s even enough to convince everyone, including the show’s casting directors, that they’re a real couple. All they’d have to do is crush the competition, win the huge cash prize and all of Holden’s problems—his broken heart, his buried grief, his complete lack of money and direction—will be fixed.

Of course, reality doesn’t quite work out that way. But love is an entirely different game…

Review:

I was really excited to read The Fake Dating Game as it sounded right up my street. Little did I know it wasn’t truly a fake dating book and the whole thing felt like a cover to write pure smut. Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of smut is fine, especially when the characters build a connection. But that didn’t really happen. You go from chapter one with Holden talking about how his mom died and thinking his boyfriend was going to propose to chapter four with Holden and Leo ‘getting it on’. This felt like pure whiplash. Well, not entirely as The Fake Dating Game as a whole was very slow.

What wasn’t slow was Holden and Leo’s relationship. You’re not ‘fake dating’ if you actually have a relationship with each other. They weren’t technically boyfriends, but I feel like having a relationship that went further than just physical cancels out the fake part. I think this storyline would have been much better if they didn’t actually get on. You could still let them have a physical relationship but don’t make it obvious that they actually like each other, which they admitted multiple times.

Leo was a lovely character – kind, caring and way too forgiving. Holden on the other hand sucked. He was awful to pretty much everyone in his life and he really felt like the world owed him something. In my mind, they break up right after the story ends. There’s no way Leo would put up with him long term. Too harsh?

The writing wasn’t great all of the time. Sometimes there were silly moments that read badly. Leo says to Holden “in my experience, surprises aren’t all they’re cracked to be” to which Holden’s immediate thought is and this is a direct quote “it’s clear he’s speaking from experience.” Well yeah, that’s what he literally just told you. I think the writing in general just wasn’t for me. It didn’t flow particularly well and the dialogue felt clunky at times. 

I was hoping The Fake Dating Game would be a quick and fun read. But it wasn’t really either, unfortunately. It shouldn’t take me nine days to get through a book with less than 250 pages. Also, the whole time you’re building up to the competition and you get literally one chapter of it. I assumed after the end of the chapter you’d get to see the finale, but no. The next chapter literally starts with ‘so we won the show’. Why would you hype up a competition so much to not actually write about it?! I’m genuinely confused why that choice was made. Take out of the million sex scenes (I vote for the cucumber one, yes that actually happens) to give the reader the plot you promised. 

I’m genuinely disappointed in The Fake Dating Game. I don’t really have anything positive to say about it other than liking one character.

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