ARC Review: Fake Married to My Father's Best Friend

 ARC Review: Fake Married to My Father's Best Friend

Title: Fake Married to My Father's Best Friend

Author: Ivy Snow 

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: 284 pages, Kindle Edition

Publish Date: October 24, 2023

Language: English

Link to my review in GoodReads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5948296775

⚠️My review will always contains spoilers, so please proceed with caution ⚠️ 

Trope:

💚Father's Best Fried

👩‍❤️‍👨Age Gap

💍Marriage of Convenience 

🍼Surprise Baby

Blurb: 

Gabriel Steele is everything I shouldn’t want—my father’s best friend, almost twice my age, and counters my every move.And now he’s going to be my fake husband? No flippin’ way.Mr. Steele is my complete opposite.His outdated design taste never mixes with my colorful vibe.He likes order. And chaos is my jam.Yet, when he enters me, the world fades and there’s only him—raw, fiery, and powerful.I’m dying to explore every inch of him.Who cares if we’re playing house?As the walls around our hearts crumble, Gabriel’s secrets loom, threatening to tear us apart.Will the truth end us and the future I carry in my belly?Enjoy the emotional rollercoaster ride with a Happily-Ever-After ending. This is a standalone with no cliffhangers and no cheating Father’s best friend, fake marriage, enemies to lovers, surprise baby, office romance, grumpy x sunshine, billionaire.

My Summary of the Story:

Scarlett is an interior designer who is also the daughter of a Hotel Tycoon, they often did a collaborative project together. One day her father asked her to do a project overseas with one of his friends, Gabriel. They have known each other for a long time, and they don’t exactly get along. Scarlett thought he was a grumpy and condescending person, and Gabe thought she was just a spoiled rich kid. Once they get to know each other on this trip, they find out that they actually enjoy each other company and get along well. 

With Gabe’s drug addiction past resurfaced, one of the investors is threatening to pull out their investment as he doesn’t trust Gabe. Scarlett’s father then suggested that they get married to show him that Gabe is stable and won’t revert back to drugs. They both took this suggestion surprisingly well and thought it would be fun to get “fake married”. They got married immediately and had a “fake honeymoon” in Mexico. While spending so much time together on their fake honeymoon, they get closer and start having sex. But then they got spooked out due to their own insecurities and past failed relationships and decided to call it off and stay friends. 

Once they are back in New York, they are faced with the reality that they have to live together and pretend to be a happily married couple. It was not easy as they were hounded by paparazzi who seemed to deduce that they were married because of the bad publicity. Gabe is also in the middle of adopting one of his mentees to protect him from his abusive father. Being in such close proximity brought them back together, and they finally decided to date, until Scarlett found out that she was pregnant……

My Thoughts:

This book was written well, this was not an instant love, but not quite an enemies to lovers, they just don’t like each other because of negative prejudice, but it’s not hate. Their relationship builds slowly while they’re traveling, and I really enjoy the build-up, until they get together. This book is not too angsty, as there’s virtually no obstacle in their relationship apart from their own fear. Scarlett’s parents approve of Gabe, their age gap is never a problem, as Scarlett herself is already in her mid-thirties. The author never reveals any of their ages, so I just have a vague idea (Scarlett is probably around 35 and Gabe around 45), but I guess it’s not relevant as they are way past adult ages. I think this book is a bit too long, I don’t get the Erik storyline, feels like just a filler for me. If it got taken away, it wouldn’t affect the story at all.

There are so many sex scenes in this book, though I think it was written well, it’s too repetitive. Even before they start having actual sex, there are scenes of them fantasizing about having sex with each other, and they are too detailed for a fantasy. Hell, there’s even a scene where he put a condom, kudos for safe sex, but don’t think it was necessary as it was just a fantasy! He didn’t even put condom when they had ACTUAL sex for the first time, and there was no discussion of birth control before, during, or right after, only the next day in Gabe’s thought that we learn that Scarlett had birth control. And guess what, there’s another fantasy sex scene after their first break-up, and again, so detailed. I kinda hate the third act problem (not break-up, just brief separation) when Gabe decided to leave Mexico, I swear I was about to DNF it as it pisses me off so much. And the fact that Scarlett is the one to follow him there made me angrier. Luckily Gabe also did the same and their reconciliation was sweet and satisfying, it shows that Scarlett is so much more mature in the relationship. 

I enjoyed reading the first 70% of the book, I love the chemistry between them and the slow build-up to their relationship. I think if this book was a bit shortened, trimming the unnecessary scenes, or adding more stakes to their relationship, it would probably be more enjoyable to read until the end. 

⚠️Trigger Warning⚠️

• Past drug use

My Rating: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶️🌶️🌶️

Link to buy from Amazon:

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Amazon