February 6, 2024
3 fabulous fake-relationship romances
There’s nothing quite as delicious as a romance that isn’t real—until it is.
- by Katie Garaby
Martha Waters’ fifth and final Regency Vows romance, To Woo and to Wed, ends the series on a high note. In this second-chance romance, Waters once again brings us into a world full of heat and charm, where love matches are plentiful and happily ever afters are guaranteed.
Life as a widow isn’t half-bad for Lady Sophie Bridewell. In fact, it’s quite freeing. She can spend her days in the library reading and eating French pastries to her heart’s content. Not too shabby! But when her sister Alexandra, who is also a widow, shares that she is being courted but doesn’t want to get married and leave Sophie alone, well, that just won’t do. A decade ago, she rejected her own true love, the Marquess of Weston, rather than jeopardize her sisters’ potential betrothals, and she refuses to let that sacrifice be for nothing. Instead, Sophie approaches West with a proposition: They’ll fake an engagement until Alexandra is married, then go their separate ways. This actually works out quite well for West, whose malevolent, meddling father has begun pushing him to marry. A fake engagement to the woman he loves—er, loved—should be easy. But as their “fake” feelings get more and more real, Sophie and West must work to leave the past behind and look towards the future.
In a Waters romance, friend groups are supportive and families are, for the most part, loving. (Parents even make sex jokes about their children’s love lives!) Regency novels are a very popular subgenre, especially after the success of “Bridgerton,” but Waters’ work is still exciting, fun and fresh. She twists the norms of the time to suit her own purposes and creates characters that feel shockingly contemporary. Sophie and West are some of her most endearing leads; you’d be hard pressed to find two people more worthy of love. The responsibility they believe they owe to their families and to each other constantly tugs them in different directions. Both are so deeply invested in being a noble martyr that, at a certain point, you just want to force them to sit down and talk instead of continuing to assume what’s best for each other. But isn’t that part of the fun and frustration (funstration? frun?) of reading romance? Watching two people dance around each other and feeling the tension build until they tear each other’s clothes off and bang until their problems are solved? Destiny is waiting for these two, if they can just get out of their own way.
To Woo and to Wed is a perfect ending to the Regency Vows series, solidifying its status as one of the most entertaining historical romance series on shelves today.
If you’re looking for the rom-commiest rom-com to ever rom or com, then look no further. Do you like stories with the rich and/or popular guy falling for the non-skinny, non-famous, non-glamorous girl? How about opposites attract? Maybe you want a fake relationship where a kiss just for show ends up feeling all too real? Or how about that perennial classic, There Was Only One Bed? You’ll find all of that and more in Charlotte Stein’s When Grumpy Met Sunshine, and if you think it sounds like too much, you’re wrong—it’s exactly enough, and a blast from start to finish.
The story opens with an epic meet-ugly. Alfie Harding meets Mabel Willicker when she’s introduced as the ghostwriter for his memoir. Alfie, a superstar Premier League footballer bearing an unmistakable resemblance to “Ted Lasso” ’s Roy Kent, is armored in black clothes, a bristling black beard, a 10-inch-deep frown and a voice that sounds “like very churlish gravel being shoved through an extremely sullen cement mixer.” Mabel, meanwhile, is in a pastel pink dress, with a plate of fairy cakes she baked for the occasion. Needless to say, the first meeting does not go well. But when they finally get to talking after another couple of hilariously disastrous encounters, they realize that they understand each other almost eerily well. As she uncovers unexpected bits and pieces about Alfie’s thoughts and feelings, Mabel also has the chance to unpack her own baggage. One wishes Stein allowed herself to linger longer on this part of the story, given how deeply enjoyable it is to watch her develop these characters and the increasingly rich connection between them. But the rom must com, so when the paparazzi spot Alfie with Mabel and the internet explodes with speculation, they soon end up in a fake relationship. Cue moments that are awkward to the max and growing sexual tension as all the pretending becomes less and less pretend. (FYI, this book definitely knows how to bring the heat.)
The similarities to “Ted Lasso” (not just Roy-core Alfie but also Mabel’s eventual editor, clearly modeled after the mustached coach himself) don’t stop with the characters. The warmth that drew people to that show—the joy of spending time with characters you genuinely like, who reveal themselves to be smarter and quirkier and more interesting than you expected—permeates the whole book. The tropes give the story its structure, but Stein adds heart and creativity that elevate it into something genuinely delightful. Mabel’s wry, funny voice is charming from the very start. (Seriously, just check out the book’s table of contents. The chapter titles alone will have you giggling.) And readers will absolutely adore Alfie who, behind his bristle, is as genuinely kind, genuinely chivalrous and genuinely, passionately devoted as any hero in recent memory. When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a classic feel-good story that’ll remind you why we all love rom-coms in the first place.
Megan Frampton has once again brought history to vivid, technicolor life with the third installment of her School for Scoundrels series, Her Adventures in Temptation. This bold foray into the world of Regency damsels and the scoundrels who drive them crazy is spirited and scandalous, and Frampton’s refreshing voice gives the popular fake-relationship trope new wings.
Simeon Jones was raised by a single mother who taught him that art comes before everything . . . even love. It’s a hard mantra to shake, but he’s not a vain, cruel player. Rather, Simeon is the sensitive hunk of his group of friends, the Bastard Five. Despite the white lies and tiny manipulations he employs to navigate high society as an illegitimate artist, he’s earnest and sweet under it all.
He’s drawn to Lady Myrtle Allen, a well-to-do yet unconventional woman. Confident, independent and intelligent with a head for numbers, Myrtle enjoys eating cake and helping other women manage their finances, and she intends to make her way to London to establish a home away from her interfering, controlling family. But as upper-class Regency women cannot travel alone, Myrtle navigates her first business negotiation, paying Simeon to journey with her while posing as her husband.
Many Regency novels are super chatty, full of double-entendre and doublespeak. Frampton’s style follows suit, but her writing is as smart as her characters. Simeon and Myrtle don’t lob banter back and forth; rather, they volley information at each other with precision and speed. The characters’ different communication styles perfectly fill in the blanks for their other half: Myrtle is frank and practical, telling the truth when nobody else will; Simeon protects his soft heart with studied, elegant courtesy.
As Simeon and Myrtle fall in love, they realize that they can not only have love and their careers, but also the joy of respecting and elevating their partner’s work. It’s so easy to pull for them both, because they so clearly pull for each other.
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