April hires Theo to play her boyfriend. Need I say more? Yes, there is a happy ending! This book was cute and the sparks were flying!

I received this ebook from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

Another fun and heartwarming story that had me giggling and swooning.

April needs a plus-one for her family reunion and when her friend bails on her, he has just the person. Theo is like a "jack-of-all-trades" arm-candy. He can be whatever you need him to be and promises to keep it strictly platonic. And so begins this really fun tale.

April's family reunion is like none I have ever seen before. It is an intense week-long competition between two families. Theo has no idea what he is for but he just rolls with it. Whatever her meddling family throws at him, he handles effortlessly. April's family is a hoot. While they definitely meddle, they are just hard to get mad at. They are funny and really only have April's best interest at heart. Even if they continue to try to get her to come home.

Theo, who is the perfect "boyfriend" doesn't come from the best of situations, but he really takes his job seriously. He is quick on his feet but finds that her likes his pretend girlfriend a little bit more than he expected. He just has some explaining to do.

Between made up stories they concoct together and intense chemistry, this was entertaining and enjoyable read. The flow was good, the story was fun and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
~Jess

This was a fun book from the get go. I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way thru. Both characters won their hearts desire in the end.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this! I read the first half in under 2 hours and then forced myself to slow down in order to pace it out because I wanted to keep reading but also wanted to not finish it... My usual dilemma.

It had my favorite tropes; boyfriend for hire, fake relationship, bed sharing, alpha male is really a cinnamon roll, confession under pressure, friend set-up, personal ad setup.

Theo and April were fantastic and had that spark right from the first look and I loved that it came across as natural and down to earth even when they both knew that it was a boyfriend for hire gig. They were so self assured that they didn’t even try to keep that wall of defense up and to be honest there wasn’t one because they both knew what it was and so didn’t pretend otherwise.

I laughed and sighed with this one because it’s so well written, down to earth, and all the characters were believable in their environment but again, the dialogue, that thing I love, was just so fantastically well written that I never doubted Theo or April much less how quickly this went from a fake relationship to "The Real Deal"

Thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Blakely, and St. Martin's Press for this ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Cute summer read! Reminds me a lot of The Wedding Date romcom movie. Same type plot line minus the Britishness. :) Really enjoyable.

Definitely a fun little story! Reminded me a bit of the movie The Wedding Date, which I loved. I liked April and Theo, their easy banter and camaraderie from the start. The story kinda dragged a bit for me along the way, but then picked back up for a stellar ending. Lauren Blakely can write good steam, but she can also write wonderful sweet and endearing stories and that’s what this was for me.

Look, I get it. I totally get why Lauren Blakely is so popular. I have been a little cautious because she releases books almost monthly so I was wondering whether the quality would suffer. The Real Deal is my first book by her and I can happily report: the quality is top notch and it's one of the cutest books I've read this year.

Theo is a walking, talking, breathing actor-for-hire-menu. He isn't an escort, sex is the only thing that isn't on the list of things he will perform for his clients. He is up for everything else though. Whatever your needs, he can do it. Whether it is the cowboy with the raspy drawl, the bad boy who causes trouble or the billionaire in a suit. He's a gifted chameleon. But people don't know that he's also an ex-con man.

Liking her is dangerous. There’s a text message on my phone that’ll remind me just how dangerous it is. I need the money a lot more than I need a distraction as delicious as her.

April needs somebody to accompany her to her annual family reunion since her best friend is unavailable on short notice, which puts her in a pickle because her whole family is trying to set her up with somebody local in her hometown. But being a best friend means Xavier doesn't leave her in the lurch: his friend, an actor for hire, has time for the gig as her new boyfriend.

When April meets Theo for the first time the hit it off at first sight. They are two peas in a pod. They are so alike, a perfect match. Both of them have a goofy, sweet sense of humor. In preparation for the family reunnion they make up stories about how they met, episodes of their lives together and let me tell you, Lauren Blakely struck gold with this - the build-up of the sexual tension between the main characters is delectable, the slow burn of it grows into a fire and eventually into an explosion and I loved every second.

Everything we do is suddenly foreplay, even our role play.

April is a sassy, strong young woman who loves her independence and job. Theo a sweet man behind the bold, and a little cocky attitude. Of course he has secrets but they don't cause huge problems eventually. I loved Theo and April's strong connection which was pretty much happened at first sight but in this case it totally worked. Their cute banter was one of my favorite things.

The Real Deal is an adorable, sexy romantic comedy with all around lovable characters. It will make you feel good, laugh and sweep you away from reality and isn't that the best feeling ever? To fall into a book and not come out for hours? My first Lauren Blakely experience was a complete success.

It feels as though all the secrets I’ve been keeping are bubbling up, threatening to spill over, and I know I will tell her. I know I will share everything. I want her to know me. Want her to understand who I am. Because I want her to feel the same damn way I do. I want her to fall in love with me, too. The real me.

I've enjoyed Lauren Blakely's books in the past. They are always fun and entertaining, so I was excited to pick up The Real Deal. However, I ended up having to set it aside as the writing was not clicking for me here. I also wasn't particularly a huge fan of either of the two main characters.

RomCom is 100% my summer jam, and Lauren Blakely just so happens to be the queen of RomCom! Her books NEVER disappoint when you’re looking for something witty, light hearted, full of heat with guaranteed laugh out loud moments. But this one...this one is special. I wasn't really expecting it to be as deep and meaningful as it was. It had just enough angst and conflict (also my jam) to take it to the next level. The chemistry between these characters is palatable and this story had me caught up in my feelings but still managed to have me cracking up while turning pages hungry for more. Unputdownable!

4 LOL CROWNS

Lauren Blakely delivers another solid laugh-out-loud romantic comedy. With a cast of characters to adore, more witty banter, and phenomenal chemistry, The Real Deal is another light hearted and entertaining romance.

Theo is just everything I love about a Blakely hero. He is utterly charming, skilled in the sack, and enough sagacity to keep me entertained for days.  Theo has a bit of a bad boy history, but he has turned over a new life, and he is trying to make amends for his wrong while also protecting his brother. Seriously, could Lauren Blakely make this bad boy any sweeter?  Nope. She couldn't, and I loved him.

April hires Theo to save herself from her crazy family, and, boy, are they crazy.  Readers get a sense of why she had to hire Theo, but they also make April incredibly endearing.  You end up loving them as much as we love April.

With most Lauren Blakely books, the story line flows at a great pace, and there is endless entertainment on every page. Readers get insane chemistry, great dialogue, hilarious moments, and love. It is the perfect escape. 

ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

April Hamilton needed a date for her family’s reunion; and after everyone learned that she recently broke up with her lying ex-boyfriend, everyone was generously lending their helping hands to setup a date for her. April loved her family but their matchmaking was getting too much for her.

Until she met Theo Banks, a boyfriend for hire hottie who could fulfill every ladies’ fantasies. Whatever you want him to be – a bad boy, a nerd, a sweet-talking mama’s boy, an alpha male, a dom – just about everything, Theo Banks can do it. With a price of course.

When this two commitment-phobe individuals connected, they were able to concoct the most ridiculous, most delicious and most awesome story about how they met and soon, Theo was winning April’s family and she was slowly falling in love with her. April hated liars, and Theo just happened to be hiding skeletons in his closet. Would she be able to trust him once she learned the truth about this hotter-than-hell pretend boyfriend extraordinaire?

O. M. G. I looooove this book so much, 💗 I think it’s the real deal! Lauren Blakely got me sighing contently again with stars in my eyes after reading The Real Deal. I can’t get over Theo Banks!! 😍😍 I don’t know about you, but I have always known that fake boyfriends do it better! I love, love, love the sparks that flew between the characters, their banters and innuendos are totally fun to read. There’s never a dull moment in the book, and the feels totally got me all giggly and bubbly and ecstatic!

😍😍 I have no other words for Lauren Blakely. Every single book I’ve read of hers always leave me breathless. Lauren Blakely is the best!

I LOVED this book! One of the best romantic comedies I’ve read this year so far! It’s sexy. It’s sweet and at time quite hilarious.

C’mon, a boyfriend for hire? A sexy bartender puts out a craigslist ad for his platonic services? Of course there’s going to be shenanigans afoot!

One thing I love about Lauren’s books is that it’s always something new. April is a body painter! Yup, you read that right...she paints scenes on people’s bodies. What a great and unique job. It was very interesting and intriguing to read about her paining people. Sounds like a really fun job!

And Theo, he’s sweet and very charming and such a great character. Trying to make extra money as a “boyfriend-for-hire”. He really is doing it for the noblest of reasons, even though his past may suggest otherwise.

And April’s family reunion was a blast! I had so much fun reading about it, it was like I was there too. And those games sounded so fun...especially the Junk in the Trunk game. I really want to try that with my kids. Lol!

If you’re looking for the perfect summer read, light and sweet, humorous with a lot more meaning, this is for you! You’ll get swept up in April and Theo’s “pretend” romance as they spin tales of their first meeting, sexy encounters and their relationship made up on the fly.

Loved it! The Real Deal is such a fun story. April needed a fake boyfriend for a family reunion as her family keeps trying to set her up with local guys as they want her to move home. Theo needed cash quick to pay off his brothers ex girlfriend and was renting himself out as a boyfriend for hire. No sex involved. Strickly handsoff. These two just clicked right off the bat. Her parents were split aboutt him. Her mom loved him, her dad didn't like anyone around his baby girl. The story was fairly fast movng and had some very touching moments. A very good read

I really wanted to love this one, I loved The Wedding date and this one sounded a bit of a similar storyline so I was excited to jump at the chance to read and review it. Sadly right from the start I struggled to stay engaged in the story and connect with the characters.

I really struggled to like April, she at times really got on my nerves. I really like Theo but found at times their story was a bit cheesy for my liking and found it had just a bit too much of an instalove feel to it. Really wish I could have loved this one like I had hoped I would when going in but sadly it just didn't grab my attention right from the start and the struggle to get into it and enjoy both characters and story never came

I loved this book! The main characters both had great depth and I loved them from the first pages. Blakely has a way of working the characters into reader's hearts and then tugging on all their heartstrings.

A fun and flirty fake boyfriend romance! A perfect beach read.
3.5 Stars

April Hamilton needs a date to accompany her and act as a buffer to her matchmaking relatives. She hires her very much gay friend. But when he gets called out on a job the last minute, his replacement isn't someone she expected. Theo Banks is devastatingly handsome, and he immediately has an attraction to April, which is bad news for him. Theo does not get involved with clients.

This story started off well. There was an engaging meet-cute and lots of flirtatious and angsty banter. There was a good progression of getting to know each other, with increasing intensity with each conversation lined with innuendo. However, about fifty percent in, some the actions and conflict became a little predictable. Not in the sense that I knew exactly what was troubling Theo, but rather a formulaic feeling of the building of conflict and then to resolution. I felt Theo's reasons behind his actions were too common; bordering on cliche. And in addition the progression of them falling in love was fairly quick-- in a span of 5 days. It was just hard for me to realistically believe it. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely chemistry and lots of lust bouncing between these two, but the time span feels like they still have a deeper untold story to tell before they reach the happy epilogue. - which did melt my heart.

Overall, I consider this a light-hearted contemporary romance that would make a prefect beach read!

An ARC was provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

April has a dilemma. She needs to go home for her family's Summer Reunion and her fake date has to cancel. But there is a solution... Theo Banks. The bad boy bartender who has a CraigsList ad, where he lends out his platonic services as a date for hire. He's a chameleon of sorts. He can be anything you need him to be, even has command of several accents.

Theo's first rule, is that nothing physical will go on, beyond what he needs to do to sell the relationship publicly. He has never even had to kiss on the mouth.

But when Theo and April first meet, there's a connection. They both have the same acerbic, smart, quick-on-you-feet wit. They can talk for hours or have comfortable companionable silence. So when they have to sleep in the same room during the five days they are away together, feelings begin to develop.

Theo finds himself possessive and jealous when April's former prom date and friend of the family shows up. April likes that Theo seems to be showing real interest.

But there are things in Theo's past that he's sort of glossed over or omitted that come to light and cause April to second guess what is real.

This was really cute and different. I liked the stories that April and Theo were able to make up on the fly about their fake relationship, almost as if they had one brain. They completed each others sentences before even knowing each other well.

April was a great girl. I even got how she had to work through the surprises she found out about Theo's past. It's not something you take lightly or just believe the person. But I do think that because of their real connection, she got over her surprise and came to the right conclusions quickly.

I loved Theo's relationship with his brother, Heath, and how he was doing all this to pay off Addison so his brother would continue on the straight-and-narrow.

Totally recommend it. Not a laugh out loud rom-com, but definitely sweet.

April is going home for a family reunion but she can’t go without a date. Otherwise, all her uncles are going to try and set her up with a good man from her hometown which is something she’s not interested in after her lying ex. So she needs someone to pretend to be her boyfriend so her family will be off of her back!

Theo’s dark days are over. Now he’s trying to stay clean by bartending and being your pretend boyfriend every other time. He’s still paying his debts so a gig for a few days to pretend to be April’s boyfriend is just what he needs. But don’t forget, it’s just pretending!

“Looks like I’ll be getting familiar with how to resist temptation.”
I was twenty pages in and I was already like “Ohhh I don’t want this to end”. This is contemporary romance at its finest!

“I want this woman more than I want to stay away from her.”
April is a modern woman: she left her hometown to go to the city and work on her dreams. Now she’s a body painter and life couldn’t be better if you don’t count the fact that she’s on a men diet thanks to her ex. Overall she’s a fresh person, always with a smile on her face and pretty much happy with her life!

Theo is a little less smiley since he’s still trying to keep up with what life threw at him. His parents died when he was just a kid so he and his brother had to do what they could to afford college which ended up driving them to jail.

“Oh hell.
I know why I want her to be happy.
I’m falling for her.”


Highlights of the book? Their foreplay! They’re always talking about things that happened to them in their fake relationship but sometimes they get so into it that they forget they weren’t actually together and those things actually never happened. You know when you’re reading something and you’re like “Isn’t it hot in here?”? That’s exactly how they felt when they were talking about their fake memories.

“Do you remember that time we met and fell in love in just four days?”
I really really loved this! It’s a fresh story with fresh and young characters and some sexy scenes. It’s nothing revolutionary so you already know how it goes but it isn’t any less good because of that.

OMG This book is A-MAY-ZING! Hilariously funny! Heartwarming, sexy, small-town yet big-city vibe while showcasing family closeness and how love can be found in unexpected places.

If Blakely were a brand new author just hitting the scene, she would shoot to the top of the charts with this book. It is truly a work of art (pun intended). Let me just say if my family reunions were anything like the Hamiltons, I think more people would show up! I certainly would miss writing group for competitions even if it were just against other family members. The thought of some payback against older cousins pleases me greatly. To add eye candy like Theo, even better!

There are many romantic comedy's out there, but Blakely is one of the few I refer back to and recommend to family, friends and others to read. The Real Deal is definitely one which will go into the home library. As a matter of fact, a smile remains on my face as I type this review. The toughest part of writing any review, is writing one to give you the best information without too many spoilers. If you love romantic comedy, sexy banter and bad boys who just might be the man of your dreams then you will love The Real Deal.

I liked both the hero and the heroine, yet I didn’t really like the romance. Maybe they should have just been friends?

April, who lives in New York City and body paints people for big commercial campaigns, is dreading to go home without a date. Invited to her big family reunion, she already has several emails from family members who have men waiting to be set-up with her. She is desperate to find a date, so when her good friend recommends a “date for hire” she grabs at the choice. Her friend vouches for him and his good standing, so when she reads his silly Craigslist ad, she is glad he has been vouched for.

I can do the following things at your request. . . .

1. Openly hit on other female guests, including your sister and any girlfriends, wives, or great-aunts. Moms aren’t off-limitseither.

2. Start provocative and/or incendiary discussions about politics and religion. Preferably both, and ideally on the most inflammatory topics of the day.

3. Propose to you in front of everyone. I’ll even do it over the cake course and call you my sweet buttercream frosting girl.

4. Break up with you and then engage in a huge makeup lovefest involving (a) a ladder, (b) a megaphone, or (c) an announcement during a parade in your hometown. (Note: Public scenes aren’t new to me. I know the drill.)

And that’s just part of his list – he goes on from there.

Theo has realized that he is very, very good at role-playing. He can portray any kind of guy a woman needs. Rough and gruff? Professorial? One to bring home to mama? Just tell him, and he can transform. Working as a bartender by day, Theo has a messy past that is still catching up with him. He needs cash and needs it fast. When he gets April as a client, he is thrilled and packs his bag to go home with her for a few days as her fake boyfriend. He runs a strict – platonic business, and is surprised to be so affected by April from first sighting. Off he goes home with her, and quickly their fake relationship turns very real.

The good first – April is a cool chick. I love her profession of painting people. I love that her parents and family try to belittle it and she stands her ground and is proud of her work. She has good girlfriend relationships and is funny and open. Theo is also a good guy. Sweet, caring, and very charming. He has a sad past with his parents, and a messy past with his brother, and I liked learning all about him.

I think my main problem with this one is that April and Theo’s relationship never really felt fake. It felt like they fell for each other on first glance. Which is fine, but it didn’t play out well in the story. I got kind of bored with them because I could never tell if their flirting was genuine or fake. I wanted a little more angst or longing between them. There isn’t a lot of tension, and it made me lose interest. April’s family felt a little over the top and I didn’t have as much fun at the reunion as I thought I would. The romance felt too predictable to me and lacked.

This is a sweet story with cute characters but the romance never fell into place.