3.25/5 ⭐
Tropes
➮ Small town
➮ Fake dating
➮ Grumpy x sunshine
Synopsis
Romance author Riley always dreamed of living by the water. Within a day of landing in Port Stewart, she's getting calls and texts for some dude on her new number. Weird ones. Sad ones. Sexy ones. Ones that make her want to meet him. For curiosity's sake...if nothing else.
After years of being on-again-off-again with his high school sweetheart, Connor wants to move on. If only everyone in Port Stewart agreed. What he needs is to be seen with someone else. So when fate puts him in the path of the new girl who got his old number, faking it seems like the solution.
Spending time with him might be great research for Riley’s romance writing…if only she can keep her feelings in check. The more she gets to know him, the harder she’s falling. Can their serendipitous meeting turn into something real and true?
My Thoughts
I have a bit of mixed feelings about this one. It wasn't bad by any means, it was just incredibly unoriginal. Everything in this book has been done before many times over. Nothing makes it special or unique in any way. I really wanted something more from it.
For a book called Text Appeal, I wanted a lot more text conversations. While there were some, I was really wanting more of them. The texting aspect is what inspired me to pick this one up in the first place so I was sad to see how lackluster it ended up being. I've seen other books include way more text conversations and more entertaining ones that weren't advertised in that way.
All of this said it was a solid story. If you are looking for a predictable small-town fake dating romance, this one has you covered. The characters are nice enough and it checks all expected boxes. I just simply wanted more or at least something to make this story stand out more. I'll be honest here, in a week's time, I will not remember this one at all. That's okay! Not every read is going to be earth-shattering or life-altering.
There was one element of the book that made me really pissed. This is a spoiler warning for the rest of this paragraph. He gave her fucking breakup oral. Who the actual hell does that and doesn't expect to be stomped in the face as a result? Riley then suddenly forgives him and commits to a man who is very much not ready to actually be in a relationship. It was so toxic and frankly gross. He leaves a toxic woman, only to become toxic himself.
This book does have a few spicy scenes but they can be skipped without missing any plot.
Overall, this book was incredibly basic but not terrible (minus the ending). If you are looking for a predictable read, I can recommend it. It isn't making any waves nor is it very impactful but not everyone is looking for that all the time.
I received this book as an arc from Valentine PR. My review is honest and voluntary.
