Book Review

Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau

Both Sarah and Amanda read this book and wanted to review it, so ahoy, it is joint review time, wherein we review your meniscus AND this book. Just kidding. Only the book. Your meniscus is fine as far as we know.

Sarah: This book is exactly what it says on the tin, which I have to appreciate. There is a fake boyfriend, and he is indeed a little grumpy, but he’s also consistently kind hearted, determined, and, as a bonus, talented.

Will, the titular Grumpy Fake Boyfriend, is a science fiction writer whose best friend asks if he’ll spend a weekend pretending to be his sister’s fake boyfriend. Seems Naomi’s ex-boyfriend is going to be there with his new girlfriend, and though Naomi wants to attend and spend the weekend with her other friends, she’s not too eager to spend it alone when everyone else, including her ex, is a pair.

Will agrees, though he’s not thrilled (yup, grumpy) because Naomi is effervescent and happy and disruptive to his quiet and taciturn daily routine. He doesn’t know any of the other people, so he has to navigate a complicated friend network as a stranger while also pretending to be Naomi’s boyfriend with the appropriate level of familiarity and comfort with being touched in front of people he doesn’t know.

Naomi, meanwhile, is managing her own mix of feelings about maintaining a connection with the couple friends she met through her ex, and the emotional weight of seeing her ex make out constantly with his new girlfriend. She’s fine with not being with him any longer; it doesn’t seem like she has many feelings for him outside of regret and secondhand embarrassment, but she does have to maintain a facade of a healthy relationship with Will – for whom she does have more complicated and exciting feelings.

The story is told in alternating first-person POV, and there are sufficient stylistic differences that I could tell who was narrating without too much trouble. I never had to go back and check the chapter heading, for example. There are a lot of things I really, really liked about this book through the first 3/4ths of the story. Let’s start there.

First, Will isn’t a grumpy, taciturn pout-cannon because he’s ill mannered or carrying a baseless dislike of all humanity. He’s introverted, and needs time alone, and is most happy when he’s in his own world, or writing down the fantasy world he’s invented as an author. Few people, it seems, understand that. When Naomi gets it and accepts that about him with no fuss, his wonder and humble appreciation of her are just adorable.

He also wants to help Naomi, especially because her ex makes him and everyone else around them pretty uncomfortable (more on him in a minute). When they arrive, Naomi and Will are housed in a separate guest house on the property while everyone else is in the main house together. Naomi feels that exclusion, until her ex and his new girlfriend are so loud and inconsiderate as they bang one another at top volume all night that they are sent to the separate house and Naomi and Will move into their room with everyone else.

This led to my wondering why the hell the ex was included in the first place. I gradually understood why Naomi valued her friendships with the other people in the group; I could see why she cared about them, why and how they cared about her, though they were far less developed than Naomi and Will, and I could understand why she wanted to preserve her relationships with them and be part of the annual weekend. But why any of them put up with her ex and his performances was beyond me.

Naomi, on the other hand, I loved reading about. She’s very confident in herself, accepts who she is and what she loves and what she enjoys and doesn’t apologize for any of it. She’s also wonderfully sexually confident, and I loved reading about her as she was up front and self-possessed about her own attraction to Will, and her pursuit of pleasure with him. She has a Thing for him, and isn’t afraid to act on it.

I also loved how Will was into her, and gradually less annoyed and more charmed and tempted by his forced proximity to Naomi, but also consistently and steadfastly adherent to his own moral compass.

Show Spoiler

There is a scene where Naomi has been drinking, and wants to get busy with Will, and he refuses because she’s drunk, and he doesn’t feel right having any kind of wholesome activities with her what with the real and actual state of their relationship being so short in history and new to both of them. His refusal and his gentle but consistent boundary setting with her…I found it endearing and emotionally nuanced and it gave me all the feeling-tingles.

The problem I had was that the story is a very close-up focus on the weekend. After that weekend in a beach house, Will’s and Naomi’s respective lives are much less clear – which meant the ending was less satisfying because so much of their foundation was unknown. For many people, myself most definitely included, a weekend away in someone else’s home is like hitting “pause” on one’s real life until it’s time to return to it, and to all the daily tasks and responsibilities that make up one’s daily routine. Because few of those details were present in the story, I wasn’t as confident in their strength as a couple at the end. I knew they could make things work between them as they held up a false story as to their relationship’s age and depth, and I knew they worked well together as a couple in the space of their bedroom within the perimeter of their weekend away. I had less knowledge and thus less confidence about them afterward, outside that environment.

Plus there is one scene that really bugged me.

Show Spoiler

Will goes to take a walk right before the end and finds – or more accurately, manufactures – a conflict to interfere with how well things were going between him and Naomi. It annoyed the hell out of me because it was shallow and nonsensical, both the conflict (which was mostly in his head and not something he talked about prior to that moment) and the source (Don’t go walk in the woods! There’s CONFLICT in there!).

Beyond the last 1/4th, maybe even the last 1/8th of the story, this is a sweet, sexy, nerdy romp with comedy and adorable moments of emotional intimacy, a lovely circle of diverse, loving friends who have some real and honest, understandable problems between them, and a fake relationship that becomes real enough in a short amount of time. My problems with the conflict and the ending notwithstanding, this book was charming.

My grade: B-. It was so very charming and fun, but falls flat at the end.

Amanda: I pretty much agree with most of what Sarah has pointed out. There’s a reason why she runs this place!

Going into this book, I knew there were certain elements that might not work for me, despite the “grumpy” and the “fake boyfriend” aspects that called to me like a siren song.

As a rule, I avoid first person POV because sometimes, being in the head of a character isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Internal voices can really grate on me. I still didn’t enjoy the first person in this one, but I appreciated that the POV alternated between Naomi and Will. This is truly my own preference though.

Additionally, I’m not a fan of the trope of “off-limits best friend’s sibling.” It tends to get my hackles up because there is a lot of male posturing. In these scenarios, the brother is trying to protect his sister–maybe she just got out of a bad relationship or perhaps the hero “sleeps around.” Whichever the case, the hero sees the heroine as off-limits because of her relation to his friend, who is almost always a dude. The heroine’s romantic life and her search for love or sexual agency feels dictated by two idiots, who don’t think she can manage those things on her own.

Anyway, rant over.

Sarah: You are SO RIGHT about that and articulated it better than I ever have. Thank you.

Amanda: Anyway, I’m happy to report I didn’t have that experience with Grumpy Fake Boyfriend!

Sarah is right in that it’s a very insular romance, which wore me down. I was desperate for a change of scenery. Single settings work well for novellas, but when it’s a full-length novel, I wanted more. I would have loved more of a peek into Will and Naomi adjusting to “real life.”

Gripes aside, I loved Will and Naomi. Will’s introvertedness spoke to me as a fellow introvert. It wasn’t the brand of “grumpy” I was expecting, but I’m glad Lau took that route rather than making him a baseless jerk who snaps at everyone.

Naomi is a force to be reckoned with and she’s the heroine I want in my romances: a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to get it. You go, girl! Whenever I read about a heroine who I want to be friends with, I count that as a win, and I definitely wanted to be friends with Naomi.

Thoughts on Sarah's second spoiler

Will “manufacturing” didn’t really bother me and it was something that barely registered for me until I read Sarah’s thoughts. I can understand being skeptical about a relationship going well. I can relate to creating an issue or having a partner create an issue out of fear. I’m bound to fuck this up anyway is a self-sabotaging thought I’ve had in the past and whether I’m conscious of it or not, we may manifest issues as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And while this didn’t exactly hit me the way it hit Sarah, it felt more like an afterthought or a last ditch way to shake things up for the happy couple.

Despite my complaints, which I know seem like a lot, the enjoyment of Will and Naomi together outweighed a lot of what bothered me, because I know it’s more of “reader error” than a problem in execution. I was waffling on my grade between a B and a B-, but I’m happy to defer to a B-.

There were some missteps for me, like the huge focus on finding love over a weekend getaway from everything, but I know I’ll be reading the next book by Lau. Her characters won me over.

Sarah: I absolutely agree with that – I’ll definitely read Lau’s next book. Her characters, especially their confidence and conversations, won me over, too.

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Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau

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  1. Lora says:

    This sounds great. Loved the review. And THANK YOU for pointing out the irritating misogyny of ‘this woman is the de facto property of a man i value’ brothers-best-friend thing. I can’t with that.
    But this sounds fun and the high concept title appealed to me. Grumpy makes me think of Sherlock.

  2. DonnaMarie says:

    Funny, when I was a kid and constantly squabbling with my older brother, my mom would tell me how it would all change in a few years. We’d be teenagers and one day he’d ask after one of my friends or one of his friends would like ask after me, and we’d be nicer to each other, because… dates? While the Ninja plumber and I never ended up pimping each other out to our respective friends, I still find the stay away from my sister trope mystifying.

    Also, great reviews, ladies. Really enjoyed the tag team.

  3. Alexandra says:

    I needed a palate cleanser after reading Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong yesterday (great book, but about the aftermath of a school shooting so left my emotions all over the place) and picked up this one and I really liked it!

    The first scene in the book was about Will being pressured to do a week long resort vacation with his entire family and him really not wanting to, and I relate so hard to that. I love my family so much and enjoy spending time with them, but they also love taking big family vacations for 1-2 weeks and their idea of letting me have introvert time is letting me take a nap in a room I share with my brother and his wife or letting me read on the beach while my cousins swim and yell and 6 other relatives sunbathe next to me and talk constantly. I get a lot of what Will does, consistent badgering by people I love and who love me to change a little to be more like what they want, so that part of the story really worked for me.

    Show Spoiler
    And Will being shocked when Naomi didn’t force him to leave the room and he planned on eating a protein bar just so he didn’t have to face people to get food! I’ve done that! I still have Quest Bars in my suitcase! So when she was fine with him staying in the room I felt a little burst of love for her and the scene sealed my desire for them to get their HEA. I also totally bought Will feeling like anyone not an introvert would try to change him because that’s been my experience as well. Well meaning and loving people seem to decide a lot of the time that to make a grumpy introvert happy, the introvert just needs to not be an introvert anymore.

    I think this book was a B for me. I wish the side characters had been a little more developed, and I’m not sure if it was the first person POV but sometimes the writing felt a little wooden to me. But overall I really enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading the next one in the series!

  4. SB Sarah says:

    @Alexandra: First, I got the sense that you were trying to hide the third paragraph so I did so. If I did it wrong, please let me know!

    Second, this sentence: “Well meaning and loving people seem to decide a lot of the time that to make a grumpy introvert happy, the introvert just needs to not be an introvert anymore.”

    LORD YES. That is so very true.

  5. Darlynne says:

    One wonders, and perhaps I missed this by avoiding the spoilers, but if ex boyfriend has noisy and obnoxious sex with his new girlfriend, was he the same with Naomi? Leopard, spots and all that, people are pretty much the way they are; did anyone like him when he and Naomi were together? Was she embarrassed by him?

  6. Ren Benton says:

    Speaking from the perspective of a sister who has a brother whose friends are, to this decade, unsuitable for dating by any halfway sensible woman, perhaps the real-world origin of the off-limits sister trope is more an indictment of the friend’s character (“I enjoy kayaking with you, dude, but you’re a freeloading bum, and keep your chlamydia away from anyone I have to have physical contact with”) and less a creepy sister-as-possession issue. Or the potential suitor is aware the brother Knows Things that would make him unappealing to the sister (like being an STD-riddled freeloader), so he places her in the off-limits zone himself in favor of targeting women less likely to hear about the sordid details of his past.

    It obviously can’t play that way in a romance novel because the guy has to meet Hero standards, but it wouldn’t be the first time a real-world thing came out of the translation to fantasy looking a bit worse for wear and missing a key component that would help it make sense.

  7. Alexandra says:

    @SB Sarah Thank you! Yes, I was trying to put a spoiler tag over it and failed, thanks for fixing it!

    @Darlynne – It came up that the ex had always been loud but at least Naomi wasn’t, and the ex’s current gf was super loud too.

    @Ren Benton – Ditto about the brother and unsuitable friends thing. I once asked my brother if he had any single friends and he said all the straight single friends he had were single because they had things that would make me (and most other women) not want to date them. I could see something like a friend cheating in a past relationship so the brother says no way but the sister believes people can change and there were capital C Circumstances that kind of explain the cheating that the brother doesn’t know about (other person cheated first, massive regret from the cheater, “cheating” was actually a threesome that negatively affected the relationship but just saying cheating is more private, and so on). Nora Roberts did it well in her Bridal Quartet, where the brother never forbade things but assumed his friend viewed the heroine as a sister, then the hero and heroine decided not to tell him until they were more sure of what their relationship was and the brother found out and was upset that it was being kept a secret from him. The details are a little fuzzy and now I want to reread it, but I think the secret was a bigger problem than the actual relationship. Which also reminds me that sometimes, especially in super long term, close friendships, the friends know about A LOT of baggage that the the sister doesn’t and can see how it would negatively affect the relationship. Like, not sibling related, but I have guy friends I wouldn’t want to date my BFF because I can see ways in which a relationship could hurt both of them. I wouldn’t interfere, because not my place, but I’d want to. I don’t hate the trope, but I need more than “my sister is high up on a pedestal and I need to make sure nobody taints her with sex”.

  8. Batman says:

    That cover is giving me some serious “Confused Fake Boyfriend” vibes, yes?

  9. Sue says:

    GUYS I think I will love this book. Thank you for reviewing it. This also brings up a request or call for books (maybe a future Rec League request?): are there any books where it’s the BROTHER of a heroine’s friend? I would like to see that trope, if it has to exist, get flipped on its head. Oooh YOUNGER brother of a heroine’s best friend?! I do it in the name of gender equity!

  10. Leigh Kramer says:

    I’ve been looking forward to this one! I can’t wait to read it.

  11. Katie Lynn says:

    @Sue I actually know one for you off the top of my head: The Room Mate by Kendall Ryan. I read the first chapter or so but then dropped it for something new and shiny (I’m basically a magpie), so I can’t speak as to whether it’s good or not. But it fits the trope you’re looking for.

  12. Sue says:

    @Katie Lynn, thank you! I will add that to my books to find at the library

  13. ReneeG says:

    Growing up in the 70s it was assumed that an older brother meant access to his friends for dates and such. A lot of the books I read back then also used the brother for a source for the sister. I was always bummed that I didn’t have a brother for the assist, so the off-limits trope has always been a head-scratcher for me.

    Although, I do get the whole “I know too much about you to let you near my siblings in a relationship way,” as described in the above comments.

  14. Kara Skinner says:

    This book sounds amazing. I love introverted and nerdy characters and it sounds like Will and I have a lot in common. I also love fake boyfriend stories, so this sounds right up my alley.

  15. Katie C. says:

    I guess I look at the whole sister is off limits thing very differently (and it is a trope I tend to like). To me, it would be perfectly normal to think hey if I date my BFF’s sister and it doesn’t work out, that will be super awkward and depending on how it ends, I might lose my best friend over it too. And I can see how a brother would be like if you break my sister’s heart that is unforgiveable and our friendship may not survive that so hands off.

    There is also a twist on the trope too where the hero has always seen the heroine as like a little sister since he grew up as best friends with her brother until suddenly one day he doesn’t. And the brother is just completely puzzled by the whole thing and is like hey are you sure you know what you are doing man?

    This seems to be a contemporary trope – I am trying to think of any historicals I have read with it. Maybe because a lot of historicals are about aristocrats and they married in a small group? But if anyone has historical suggestions on this trope I would love to hear them!

  16. kitkat9000 says:

    @Ren Benton: Amen! My five years senior brother didn’t become what I considered ‘dating material’* until he was 40+. I still have reservations about his friends. The ones he had when younger were skeevy. True story: aged 18, my parents went on vacation. Brother invited some friends over… and then asked me not to come home because he didn’t trust them. Under no circumstances have I ever introduced my friends to him as a prospective date. Still wouldn’t, he’s whiny as hell.

    @Katie C: there actually is an historical with the younger sister always tagging along, much to her brother’s chagrin. His friend would stop the brother’s objections and not only invite her, but make sure she was okay. She fell in love with him at some point but didn’t think he loved her because he never showed it. I think he loved her all along but am not sure. It was written by a big name: Milan, James, Dare, etc. Sorry, but I don’t recall. Perhaps someone here will take pity on me and help out.

    * – please don’t interpret this as my wanting to date my brother. I just mean it in a general way, as in someone like him asking me out would never have stood a chance. He was horrible when younger, just horrible. I actively warned away anyone I knew who expressed interest.

  17. Tam B. says:

    @Sue (#9)

    The earlier mentioned Nora Roberts Bridal Quartet – the third book in the series Savor The Moment, features on of the BFF women getting together with the brother of another (if that makes sense). And the last book in the group – Happy Ever After, is a friend of that brother dating his/the sister. (The brother inadvertently gets them together by inviting the guy along so his sister won’t be solo at a group event – which she does NOT appreciate.)

    These can be read as stand alones and are my two fav’s in the series.

  18. filkferengi says:

    @Sue, the book you’re looking for is _About A Dog_ by Jenn McKinlay. It’s very well-written [well-developed side characters!] and lots of fun.

  19. K says:

    @kitkat, I think you’re thinking about Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn. Dare has Goddess of the Hunt, but your summary sounds a bit more like Just Like Heaven to me.

  20. Sue says:

    @filkferengi, what a coincidence! I just picked up that book at RT in Reno. It’ll go straight to the top of the TBR pile. Thanks for reminding me

  21. Sara M says:

    I am an extrovert who still relates a lot to the hero in this book. I love being around people, but I hit a wall fairly quickly and go into hiding until I’m ready for my people-time-dosage again. The good thing about being an extrovert with this problem is that I can express to people that I still think they’re great but just need to hide for awhile.

    I kind of wish the drama near the end hadn’t even been triggered by anything in particular, just that he hit his wall and then felt weird about it.

  22. Krista says:

    This was already on my TBR list but the review bumps it up. Forced proximity is one of my catnips and I don’t mind compressed timelines at all. Thanks!

  23. gerund says:

    I haven’t read this one but read and liked the next one in the series, Mr. Hotshot CEO. The characters were really developed and the side characters awesome. I loved the hero’s grandmother. As a Chinese American, I found the family dynamics to be spot on.

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