Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire — a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favour too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher
April as a character isn’t very likeable to be honest, she is standoffish and pushes people away unnecessarily. For someone who had no intentions of staying in this town after her daughter goes to college she is very much worried about what they would be saying about her. I don’t understand why there is anything wrong with being open and public about her relationship with Mitch and it was quite rude of her to just negate their obvious feeling for each other and try to keep him a secret.
I like that Mitch called her out after she downplayed their relationship and he established boundaries with her. I kind of wish this would of been a dual perspective so we could of got to know Mitch more when he was at home and how he navigated his family before he brought April to meet them. I liked that we got that background about him and his family and how they have put his profession down over the years and don’t take him seriously, it gave the book and Mitch as a character much needed depth.
Usually I like fake relationships as a trope but I feel like in this case April didn’t get into it enough for me to fully believe in it. Mitch 100% did, I really enjoyed him as a character and it honestly made sense why he would be into April but she didn’t reciprocate it enough, it’s more like she felt obligated at the time otherwise their ruse would of been exposed. She obviously didn’t want to get judged for dating a ‘himbo’ at her age and it showed throughout the book through her actions.
It was overall not bad, I could overlook April’s flaws and get on board with the storyline. It was well paced and kept me invested throughout though it was kind of predictable. Jen DeLuca kind of has a formula with these books and you can easily see where things were headed and the outcome at the end. Nothing wrong with that though, I didn’t go into this book expecting anything more so I was still entertained!
⭐️3/5 stars Honestly forgettable but enjoyed at the time!
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