Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lea (The Catch) tugs at readers' heartstrings with this sweet fake-dating romance. Andi Zeigler and Nolan Crosby have a meet-awkward in a bar bathroom the same night that Andi learns her ex-boyfriend and her best friend are now dating. Heartbroken and lonely, Andi asks Nolan to go home with her, an encounter that turns from steamy to sweet as they abandon their hook up to chat. Three years later, however, Andi, now the personal assistant to the Canadian prime minister's wife, is reintroduced to Nolan, the PM's temporary bodyguard. When the tabloids print speculation that Andi is the PM's mistress, Andi and Nolan's employers encourage them to fake a relationship for the media as damage control. Nolan agrees because he's still drawn to Andi and wants to get to know her better. He's also the only person who knows about her side hustle as a pseudonymous, self-published romance author, a secret that could add fuel to the scandal if her identity were leaked. As Andi and Nolan work together to weather the media storm, Nolan helps Andi come out of her anxious shell and Andi helps him support his mother, who has Alzheimer's. It's an endearing partnership, and Lea is skilled at balancing heavy moments with light humor. Readers will have no trouble rooting for these two. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Andi is the personal assistant to the wife of Canada's prime minister, a job that leaves her no time for a social life or to secretly write her romance novels. When Andi is revealed to be the author of The Prime Minister & Me, written years ago under a pen name, the press and the opposition party have a field day, calling it a fictional spin on a real-life affair between Andi and her boss's husband. As Andi does damage control, she meets Nolan, the newest bodyguard for the PM--and the man she picked up at a bar for a failed one-night stand years ago. Nolan is thrilled to be reunited with Andi. He never forgot her, even as he toured the world on dangerous assignments. When Andi's boss jumps to the conclusion that she and Nolan are dating, it seems to be the remedy for everything wrong in Andi's life. Nolan eagerly agrees to fake-date Andi, but as the days and weeks pass, the pair become something more. VERDICT This contemporary romance features well-developed protagonists with realistic backstories and relatable fears, and there's plenty of humor and chemistry to balance out the emotion-laden moments. Readers will love Lea's (Something Like Fate) latest.--Heather Miller Cover
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A former Canadian special forces cinnamon-roll hero helps a writer find her own happy ending. Andi Zeigler is the personal assistant to the Canadian prime minister's wife, but her real love is writing romance novels--which she's been doing under a pen name. The only person she confided in was a stranger with whom she had an embarrassing encounter a few years ago--you couldn't quite call it a one-night-stand because they didn't end up having sex. Nolan Crosby has returned to Ottawa to help his sister take care of their mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. But he didn't expect his temporary stint as a bodyguard to Prime Minister Eric Nichols to bring him back to Andi, the funny and sweet woman he met fleetingly three years ago. Just as they start to become (re)acquainted, a media firestorm started by a misleading photo of Andi with PM Nichols erupts; worse, someone discovers one of Andi's novels, adding fuel to the speculation. Desperate to counter the rumors, Andi asks Nolan to be her fake boyfriend. Inevitably, they catch feelings as they travel with their respective bosses, share one bed, and pose for acquaintances and the media. Lea takes a popular plot device and adds enough individuality to both her characters and the incidents that bring them closer for them to be pleasing. Nolan and Andi's chemistry, especially as they become lovers, sizzles. These episodes are sometimes interspersed too quickly with ones involving his mother's health and his unresolved anger over her uneven parenting of him and his sister. Meanwhile, chapters from Andi's point of view contain one too many passages about how the romance genre gets no respect, which feel heavy-handed. More gumption and less physical and verbal bumbling on her part--a trait that should be phased out in romance--would also have raised this enjoyable novel one tier higher. A secret romance novelist and a faking-dating plot will hit the spot for most readers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
