Fake is a fake relationship celebrity romance that will either really work for people or not work at all. It’s tropey, has a first person POV that limits engagement with the hero, and also is largely absent of conflict. If you’re looking for something with a lot of character development and a good bleak moment, this book will not satisfy. If you want to enjoy a largely conflict-free celebrity-Cinderella fantasy and don’t need the hero’s POV, then this book might appeal to you.

For me, it was the latter. Even though I felt that this book had a less developed hero than Scott’s previous novels, I still enjoyed it. I don’t always need a lot of conflict or angst in my novels, so this book fit the bill for a great one-sitting read.

Norah Peers is a waitress in LA restaurant where movie star Patrick Walsh occasionally dines. One day he’s there having some sort of crisis meeting with his publicist. The paparazzi caught Patrick doing the walk-of shame after spending a night with his best friend/co-star’s wife, and the tabloids are spinning the story to make him seem like a homewrecker. He’s been dropped from at least one film and needs to rehab his image. Said publicist wants Patrick to agree to a fake relationship to cool off media speculation, but Patrick decides that rather than the women they’ve auditioned for the role, he wants it to be his usual waitress, Norah.

Why, you ask? Norah has never hounded him for an autograph or a selfie, she’s nice, and she’s authentic, which is funny because the relationship they’ll be in is not.

Norah agrees because Patrick will pay her enough that she can quit her job and move her grandma into a better assisted living facility. The fact that she’s not worried about living with a total stranger even though he’s a celebrity (has she read about Armie Hammer?) is just something we have to accept.

Is that all a lot to take on faith? Maybe. People have done weirder things for fewer reasons.

This all happens in the first chapter, BTW. The rest of the book is Norah and Patrick acting out a carefully orchestrated relationship in public while living together and getting to know each other privately. Naturally pants feelings are involved. In fact the pants feelings and sexual tension in this book were pretty great. It’s got gold star sex scenes as well.

We never get Patrick’s point-of-view, and his character development is basically “not knowing Norah” to “being in love with Norah.” This book is billed as a grumpy/sunshine romance, but it felt to me like an unknown/sunshine romance. Patrick didn’t feel grumpy; he’s just quiet. I don’t even think he qualifies as a curmudgeon. That uncertainty meant that when he was monosyllabic in his replies to Norah or disappeared to go for a run every time there was a tiny bit of conflict, I was never sure what his deal was. Is he angry about his feels for her and yelling “Cathy!” in the moors? Is he a serial killer on the side? Does he actually not have any thoughts and there’s just Muzak playing in his head all the time?

I didn’t know. By the end of the book I still didn’t know. I just knew that now he loved Norah and possibly all those other things were still going on.

There’s external conflict in this book, namely a stalker, the best friend’s wife situation, and the paparazzi being extremely intrusive, but not much internal conflict. Basically Norah develops feelings for Patrick, but doesn’t know how he feels because he doesn’t use his words. All of which was resolved by him using his words.

The lack of character development in Patrick and the absent internal conflict could have been a bummer for me, but it wasn’t. I think a big part of that was the fact that Norah’s voice is so warm, funny and engaging that I enjoyed living in her head. She teases while Patrick grunts back. She’s a character whose perspective is easy to step into without feeling like a proxy for the reader. Like a lot of Scott’s heroines, I wanted her to be my friend.

I was also down for a fantasy where you meet a rich, handsome dude and magically get the benefits of the rich/powerfulness and also good sex. It’s been a year, man. Someone falling into their fantasy romance minus a lot of angst was totally good with me. You get it, Norah.

Some readers will likely find Fake to be too under developed for them, and some, like me, will find it works just fine. It gave me a happy, angst free reading experience I enjoyed. Just know, your mileage may vary.