The Fake Mate
The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson is $1.99! Lara reviewed this one and gave it a C:
If this book had maintained its giddy pace all the way through, it would have absolutely delighted me. As it is, it’s a distinctly meh situation that I’m left with. Would I recommend it? Probably not. The first just-over-half is really fun reading, but it falls apart so dramatically after that, I ended up very disappointed.
Two wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson.
Mackenzie Carter has had some very bad dates lately. Model train experts, mansplainers, guys weirdly obsessed with her tail—she hasn’t had a successful date in months. Only a year out of residency, her grandmother’s obsession with Mackenzie finding the perfect mate to settle down with threatens to drive Mackenzie barking mad. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she’s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General.
Noah Taylor, interventional cardiologist and all around grump, has spent his entire life hiding what he is. With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It’s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. Noah is left with two options: come clean to the board and risk his career—or find himself a mate. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he’s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right?
Mackenzie will keep her grandmother off her back, and Noah will get a chance to prove he can continue to work without a real mate—a mutually beneficial business transaction, they both rationalize. But when the fake-mate act turns into a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur, and they quickly realize love is a whole different kind of animal.
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The Prince of Broadway by Joanna Shupe is $1.99! I stalled on finishing this one, but these were my thoughts: great chemistry and I love the hero is pretty upfront about wanting revenge on the heroine’s dad. He tells her so. However, it takes place simultaneously with the events of The Rogue of Fifth Avenue, so the dad in question is still terrible to his daughters.
In the second novel in Joanna Shupe’s the Uptown Girl series, a ruthless casino owner bent on revenge finds his plans upended by a beautiful women who proves to be more determined than he is—and too irresistible to deny.
Powerful casino owner.
Ruthless mastermind.
Destroyer of men.He lives in the shadows…
As the owner of the city’s most exclusive casino, Clayton Madden holds the fortunes of prominent families in the palms of his hands every night. There is one particular family he burns to ruin, however, one that has escaped his grasp… until now.
She is society’s darling…
Florence Greene is no one’s fool. She knows Clayton Madden is using her to ruin her prestigious family… and she’s using him right back. She plans to learn all she can from the mysterious casino owner—then open a casino of her own just for women.
With revenge on his mind, Clay agrees to mentor Florence. However, she soon proves more adept—and more alluring—than Clay bargained for. When his plans are threatened, Clay must decide if he is willing to gamble his empire on love.
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The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun is $1.99! I mentioned this on a previous Get Rec’d! It’s a m/m romance set in a reality dating show. One main character is a producer and the other is the Bachelor-esque contestant.
In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to open up to the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
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Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin is $5.99! If your library hold is still waiting to come in since this was released in the spring, this is around half off right now.
When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunnit—the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last.
After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she’s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.
Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved.
And the facts of the case are Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling.
With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way…
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Thanks to this, I just found “Detective Aunty” available through my library and will start reading it tonight.
I’m pretty sure The Fake Mate -although ostensibly dealing with two white (were)people- is set in a world in which so-called alphas are coded as all the exoticized other racist bullshit historically attributed to Black men. It’s deeply gross. Not to kink shame, sorry, people like what they like and have all sorts of reasons which I have no business judging. But it all felt hidden in plain sight in a way that’s itself very dubcon. That book needs all kinds of warnings so readers have even a clue what they’re getting into, not a cute cartoon cover and a perky rom-com summary.
The Charm Offensive I liked fine. Those characters are not both white, and I have read criticism that they might as well be, which is valid and again it’s nice to know what you’re getting into. Fwiw irl I have found the TV producing world is extremely white, with token minorities provided they’re unchallengingly assimilated, so it didn’t surprise me that Dev seemed like anyone else in the business. I understand people feeling cheated of representation, or like it’s cultural erasure, but the world is a complicated and shitty place and in these instances I will absolutely settle for absence of stereotyping.
I apparently read the Shupe but I have zero recollection, none.
And I haven’t read the last one. It sounds like all kinds of catnip but the fact that it’s centered around a meddlesome mother-daughter relationship not an aunty type relationship, even if it’s an aunty type character, makes it unappealing to me personally.
@kkw: thanks for the heads up re: The Fake Mate, I had the book but I hadn’t read it and may not have picked up on what you mentioned if I’d read it before I saw your comment. As it is, I don’t know much about werewolf/shifter romances but just in searching “alpha” in the book I found one exchange that read as particularly obvious re: what you said. I’d be really interested in what else you noticed, since I don’t think I plan on reading the book anymore.
@M I don’t know that I had any great insights even before I did my best to forget this one. I actually checked the review here to see if it prompted any memories and sure enough I was sounding off in the comments then, but I’m afraid I don’t have much beyond that. Someone else mentioned that apparently it was Reylo at one point, and not to start any flame wars, I was…disappointed but not surprised.
Not to kink shame, but I’m really off the whole alpha male in weres, it’s based on the scientific work done on a put-together wolf pack, the author subsequently did work on real wolf packs and totally repudiates the whole ‘alpha, beta’ idea. I do realise that this is fantasy romance, but for me, especially given the two genre’s histories it too often feels like an excuse for dubious consent, stalking and all the rest of the patriarchal crap. Grump grump grump.
Anyone have any suggestions for shifter romances without those problems?
@Jazzlet-Have you read Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series? I love this series so much, m/m protagonists. This is a series I read over and over again.
I enjoyed The Charm Offensive. I loved how both characters had a mental health journey, but they were very different. Supporting characters were also great. The backdrop of the really awful reality show worked well.
I didn’t read The Charm Offensive. I know a lot of people loved it, but to me it sounds problematic in ways I can understand many readers missing. To be clear, I’m not trying to call anyone out (except maybe the author, ig); I just believe this is worth considering.
Alison Cochrun is white (or definitely white-passing) and doesn’t appear to have made any effort to learn about the experiences/cultures of Indian Americans—nor did she use any sensitivity readers, apparently. I’m also white, but media representation is my Roman Empire, and I’ve been close friends and longtime roommates with Indian Americans (who have different cultural backgrounds from different parts of India—I realize there is a LOT of diversity among Indians and ofc the diaspora). To me, Dev’s characterization sounds wild.
One white reviewer who actually gave the book four stars noted, “this book claims to portray a mixed race couple with Dev being Desi however this portrayal feels flimsy and performative.”
Another reviewer said, “Alison Cochrun writes the most culturally incompetent characters. I had my expectations low after I disliked the way the Asian MC was written in Kiss Her Once For Me, and Dev in this book is similarly flat and lifeless. I died when he called his parents Sunil and Shameem and wore his dirty boots in bed. This man wasn’t raised right. This colour blind casting isn’t working for me.”
Finally, “a brown 21-year-old Indian queer guy” wrote a significantly longer review (he added a number of updates based on readers’ arguments). I’m pasting a few parts in chronological order: “PLEASE DONT MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS of a nationality/ethnicity/culture/religion when your book doesn’t even stop to have a basic conversation or introduction about any of those aspects. None. Zero. Nada. …
“There is no socio-political or cultural correctness in this biracial representation. White authors trying to write people of colour is appreciated, but when done without research and awareness, and in 2021, is just a shame. The Charm Offensive is just one example of it.
“Since this is pitched as ‘Perfect for the Fans of Red, White & Royal Blue’, please go read that once again to see how Casey not only focused on the main plot and sub-plot but also had an active plot with Alex’s biracial representation … in the subtext.
“… by no means I am trying to imply that the ‘only’ way to make this book more culturally/racially apt is to have to go into depths about the surname (and its legacy) or the state that Dev comes from. … The idea was to give people, especially non-Indian readers, a little background. This need not have been done actively as a part of the subplot but maybe in the passing? in the subtext? in the context?”
All that said, if I’ve gotten the wrong impression and Cochrun does, in fact, demonstrate some cultural awareness/sensitivity (or did have a sensitivity reader or two), pls lmk!
@Jazzlet have you read “Mating the Huntress” by Talia Hibbert? It’s been a while since I read it, but I’ve loved every one of her books (minus the two I haven’t gotten to yet). Everyone in my book club enjoyed it, as well.
@Liza: I’m Indian. I largely agree that Dev wasn’t really written as Indian – or, as that final review you pasted that I have read, he could have been written as “Devin” and it would have been fine. I do think it was a fairly lazy character in terms of representation because of several small things that I’m not going to list here but at the same time, caste, religion, family are major cultural markers for Indians (and with these come attendant deep-rooted prejudices) and in a way it was refreshing that the character did not have a lot of that going on. But do I think it was a super culturally accurate portrayal? Well, Indians come in all stripes, like people from any community or country or religion, so I don’t know if anyone can honestly say such an Indian character would never exist (though the filthy shoes in bed thing really is egregious, lol).
As an aside, I haven’t read RWRB in a long time so maybe I’m misremembering but I don’t think McQuiston created a super detailed portrayal of a Mexican-American queer 20-something either (but I’m not Mexican-American, so what do I know?). To me, it didn’t help that Alex was largely situated in US/DC politics and the literal White (emphasis on white) House instead of in the larger Mexican-American community in Texas (and the impression I have is that Mexican immigrants/Americans can be quite tight-knit and family-oriented. But again. what do I know?) A counterpoint to my (very mild) concerns is this piece by a Latine reviewer pointing out how representation doesn’t have to be super detailed to be good, see here: https://dailynorthwestern.com/2022/07/13/opinion/cabral-latinx-representation-in-books/ (the reviewer acknowledges that there were some who felt not enough space was devoted to discussing Alex’s heritage).
McQuiston seems to have made much more of an effort than Cochrun for sure (the piece mentions how they approached their characterization). All of which is to say: could Cochrun have done a much better job with just a little more effort? Unequivocally yes, and it speaks to a larger issue with publishing that a white author managed to sell a lazy portrayal of a non-white character as “diverse”. Is Dev’s character just unappealing to Indians/Indian-Americans because his background/culture is poorly sketched out? I guess that depends on whom you ask.
@M thank you for adding your thoughts! To be clear, I don’t judge any Indians who enjoy the book—unlearning and resisting white supremacy isn’t the responsibility of POC.
Tbh, I never finished RWRB. *Hides face in shame.* I found a certain plot point so heartbreaking, I decided to set it aside and come back to it, but AD/HD happened. And that was a long time ago, so I can’t remember the racial makeup of most characters. But I grew up and lived most of my adult life right next to DC, so honestly I would’ve added in POC mentally if they weren’t specified in the book.
Ofc, the demographics in the WH don’t necessarily reflect those of the rest of the city. But given everything happening in DC right now, I would just like to note that in 2020, only 37.96% of residents were White non-‘Hispanic’, while 40.91% were Black. More than half of residents were Black from the mid-‘50s until 2010, so I remember a lot of articles questioning whether DC was really still “Chocolate City.” Just…fwiw, lol.
(I know Alex is Mexican-American, not Black, but ijs no author should depict DC as majority-white. The suburbs are prob a very different matter, especially with gentrification, but Arlington definitely had a decent-sized population of Latinx immigrants when I was growing up.)
… so sorry to comment yet again, but since I can’t delete, I’m just apologizing for going off on a tangent!
Thank you Maureen and Liz!
@Liz: not sure if you’ll see this, but I lived in there so I totally get that the DMV is fairly diverse! What I meant was, other than one other politician (senator Rafael Luna), Alex wasn’t really situated in a larger Mexican-American community specifically (and that’s not really a criticism, it’s more a fact; had he lived in Texas, he probably would have had more Mexican-American friends, but I didn’t really hear about his cousins or anyone else…to my recollection, which could be overlooking something). RWRB is pretty okay in terms of diversity…one prominent character is Black, another prominent character is Indian (though I thought making the prince’s equerry Indian was a little funny), 4 major characters including the narrator of the book are Latine. But of course, you can’t satisfy everyone and I’m sure I can find multiple valid criticisms of the representation including other things.
Please don’t hide in shame for not finishing that book – I enjoyed it but I really do think that book’s success was a right place, right time thing and that it has major plotting issues. Notably, McQuiston has (rightfully in my opinion) been criticized for how they wrote non-white characters in her second novel, One Last Stop, including the love interest (and enjoyed this book and the love interest).
I definitely didn’t think you were judging anyone for enjoying the Cochrun book. That wasn’t my point at all. To me personally it isn’t really about unlearning white supremacy, I don’t think it was a white supremacist portrayal at all, simply an underdone one (though I suppose it could be argued that the arrogance of thinking it was decent or diverse is a little white supremacist). But some Indian-Americans who grew up in the US (I didn’t) might feel differently, and I get where they might be coming from, so as I said, it depends on whom you ask and what they want out of a character like this.
Thanks for the discussion!