at the beginning he threw away all the food she cooked him bc she made him so nervous he couldn't eat?? again why keeping the sibling thing a secret???? literally no one gave a shit about them being related

Scarlett's no became a tentative yes, and somewhere in the midst of their charade, the lines between ruse and reality became blurred. idk if it’s on purpose to focus more on the romance aspect but they’re supposedly grown adults with actual careers but it almost always feels like they’re college kids. who skip class often. it genuinely feels like even from the beginning, their whole lives revolve around each other which just feels off to me bc there was no structured timeline & like i said, a whole mess.

Check-In

this so sweet, cute, romantic, and freaking slooooowburn. the first time they do the deed was around 84% of the book. they fooled around but the actual act happened almost at the end of the book. anyway, it was adorable reading how they are very sweet and caring with each other or how they are "fake" dating but none of what they do screams fake. they were both attracted to each other and are both slowly falling while still being in this ruse, and it was satisfying and swoony to read. the thoughtfulness of these mcs are so endearing and i'm here for all of it. First off, you only need about 0.3% of your brain power to read through this. This is basic writing at it’s best (I’m so sorry to say this to a newish, independently published author, but NO). According to Mae Garten, those were a few of the choice words she’d use to describe her long-standing sparing partner, October Calhoun. Mae has been holding on to a grudge for too long. In 2nd grade, Molly (October's crush) made fun of Mae in front of others, hurting her badly & October just laughed without knowing that she had heard him. She knew it was childish but the words still stung her and made her cry. After a few chapters, she told him the whole story & he apologized to her for everything. ☺️ One would‘ve thought that after two decades of knowing each other, we’d have worked through our animosity toward one another by now.

all the characters in this book were annoying as hell. abel? freakishly obsessed with a woman he’s barely spoken to, and appears to have a brain condition that renders him incapable of functioning like a normal human being around her for 8 months. scarlett? scarily co-dependent with her best friend that she insists on calling her sister, and seems to have the emotional awareness of a 13 y/o. i also never knew that liking a color could be a personality trait, but hey, you learn something new everyday. the rest of the side characters? they were all loud and obnoxious, and basically read like the same person split into 3. Now, for reasons still unclear to me, his coach tells him he needs to find a fake girlfriend (for…PR? For…matchmaking? For…practice in speaking to others?). I do not understand this, but we will move on for the sake of the other atrocities that take place in this.only reason i’m giving 2 stars is bc i rly loved the after care part & bc they’re pretty cute i guess. Maybe I'll change my rating later once I get enough time to think about it but for now this is how it is. And again, authors should seriously understand that being enemies and not liking eachother are two completely different things. They kept saying that the despised eachother and that they were eachother's nemesis or arch enemies when all it was was a misunderstanding that occurred in the second grade when they were just seven. I get that what happened did hurt her feelings but it's been over a decade since that incident and she should've seriously gotten over it. both MC have a change in their manners that I really had to think and read again if i changed book all of a sudden

And the ending…the ending elicited an audible groan from me. ( he proposes, she says yes, they have a shotgun wedding the next day, then cheerfully try for babies, all cocooned in some of the worst writing, and *twitching members* I have ever had the misfortune to read). He fell so hard from the start and that was right up my alley😮‍💨 Congrats to Abel being my first ever book boyfriend (that I can recall) with the name Abel. Scarlett Sawyer was surprised when Abel Abbott asked her to pretend to be his girlfriend on her resignation day. She accepted, but the lines between ruse and reality became blurred. The question is whether Abel’s recent past will tear them apart or bring them closer together.He was generally a happy person and a decent person, but when it came to being in the presence of October Calhoun, their pleasant demeanor was shot to shit. This was due to their hatred of October, who had invariably decided for both of them that their feud of the past couple decades was “slow moving with no point of contention” without consulting the narrator.The narrator had a pivotal moment with their arch nemesis, October, and that he was calling in a favor for his benefit. The narrator had an innate feeling that today was going to be a great day, but realized that it would be trampled over when they realized that he was turning their proudest moments around onto himself. The narrator had grown to loathe October because he always turned their proudest moments around onto himself. one day, abel's coach approached and told him to find a girlfriend to show that their team is family oriented and each player is committed. he is single, he don't date and he never sleep around, because he's pining after scarlett and nobody knows about it. the media has branded him the "unattainable bachelor" and the team's PR wanted him to fix his image. with this information, abel asked scarlett to be his fake girlfriend, which she didn't say yes to immediately. in exchange for this favor, he promised her that she'll get his house in return. it was scarlett and her bff's dream to live close to each other, and currently she's been living in her friend's pool house. abel gave her all the time she needed to think about his proposition and after a week scarlett said yes to him, and that's where everything started. The only reason this wasn't a complete 5 stars was the little jokey jokes about a certain religious group...it was, yes a little funny but also a bit tactless....they do honest work voluntarily....they could be out committing crimes or something....maybe we shouldn't make fun of them....consider one of them being a fellow reader and seeing that....I for one would a little upset/ offendedOctober was caring, gentle, & attentive toward her. The aftercare scene was JUST SO CUTE. 🥺😩 Even though they hated each other, he never wanted to hurt her feelings. His dirty talking >>>

he shushed her out of the house bc it was coming over her new found sister, whom she thought was her gf/ex and for what??? literally no purpose for this motive I'm happy that Mae decided to study further & stop her business. She was banned from the industry because she outed her former boss for stealing money from underaged models for illegal activities, so he started spreading lies about her everywhere. She started her own company but it was going downhill. I'm happy that he went to jail. The epilogue was cute. ✨ otherwise i feel like it was too fast for like…..no reason. if not gonna lie i love fast paced books but there were just so many inconsistencies? it’s like the author has a list of things she wants to put inside this book & tried to squeeze every little bit of it which makes the plot come out weird.I hope y'all who gave this book a high rating, found a sense in the whole shitshow bc I surely had not. The only question was, would an enigma from Abel's recent past tear them apart for good or bring them closer together than ever? Both the main character Mae and the love interest October were very immature and they should just get a life. ok this was tiktok scam at its prime, don't know how I had the will to finish this book but I do deserve a medal for it. So, you could imagine Scarlett Sawyer's surprise when he asked her to go from personal chef to pretend girlfriend on the day of her resignation.