This book was a light read, but I couldn’t seem to connect with the characters. While I do love a good love-hate office relationship, I felt like the characters were too immature for my liking that I couldn’t get on board with the “love” aspect of it all. I appreciated the author’s portrayal of Ellie in an all-male work environment & I hope to see strong female figures in more romance novels!

If you like lighthearted steamy romances this is a good one. Fans of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne will like this but may feel a little disappointed. There were a lot of similarities between the books. For example:
- hero is broody and mean, but really he's just shy
- heroine gets sick on the job and is taken care of by the hero
- hero and heroine sit facing each other at work
- an almost romance between the heroine and a side character
- heroine feeling homesick

And as much as I thought Emmie and Tate were cute together, they didn't have as much chemistry between Lucy and Joshua. I think what I liked about Lucy and Joshua's working relationship was that they were essentially in the same position and competing against each other. That added a whole other layer of "enemy" to the enemy-to-lovers trope.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy Faker. I did. I thought the romance could have used more time in the "enemy" area. They didn't really bicker all that much and I felt like the two got together pretty early on. But I also loved Emmie as the main character. She was sweet, hardworking, but tough. She works in a heavily male-dominated industry and has to deal with a lot of overtly sexist behavior as well as sexist microaggressions because she is a woman. I wish the whole idea of being a faker and having imposter syndrome could have been explored more but I thought the parts that were there were handled okay. And honestly, I just felt like Emmie could have been a friend. She comes off so real and down-to-earth.

I think the weakest character was Tate. Emmie opens up a lot more to him, so we see a lot of her vulnerabilities. Not the case with Tate. He's nice and caring, but you never really get to know him. One of his self-proclaimed flaws is that he's too private and reserved. And yeah, even to the readers. I didn't really understand his likes and dislikes. What makes him tick. All I got was that he's athletic, has a pretty strong moral compass, and really likes Emmie.

This does contain smut. The sex scenes do not fade to black but the scenes were well written and were pretty hot. Except for this one part where it says, "I slurp." Please let's not use the word "slurp" when describing sexy times.

I think this could have been a solid 4 stars if not for the misunderstanding that happens at the high school reunion. It just creeped me out! I had an inkling that this was the reason why Tate was "mean" to Emmie in the beginning and I was right. No spoilers, but just no. Also, the author writes repeatedly about how pale Tate is. Like Emmie cannot stop mentioning how fair and pale Tate is. She's looking at him and even thinks that he's like a Norse God of Thunder who's been dipped in milk. What? I don't know, it got into weird creep levels just how many times this is mentioned.

Overall, I liked it. I liked it more than the parts I didn't like. I just didn't love it. There were too many similarities with The Hating Game. But as someone who loves both an enemies-to-lovers trope and workplace romance, it was a fun read and a great debut. I will definitely look forward to reading more by Sarah Smith.

In general, I can't get enough of the enemies-to-lovers trope. Here, though, there are no enemies. There's simply Emmie almost bullheadedly misinterpreting environmental cues and all the signs screaming that her hot coworker Tate is interested, not disdainful. The cover is great, the concept is good: the execution was a little thin.

If you loved The Hating Game by Sally Thorne you will enjoy this one. I love an enemies to lover trope and I couldn't put this one down!

One sentence summary: Emmie learns about herself and how to let people in as she redefines a relationship with her hostile coworker Tate.

The good: Emmie and Tate learn how to communicate and stop letting miscommunication wreck things, which I appreciate. I don't like when characters misunderstand something and then refuse to listen to an explanation. Tate also cares for Emmie a lot and is very sweet, which is nice.

The not-so-good: The first half of the book and the second half are very different, and the shift seems to happen very abruptly. This is a matter of taste, but the second half is full of cheesy moments that made me cringe. Also, Tate's feelings for Emmie seemed a little too intense/stalker-ish for me.

The bad: Emmie fights back against the harassment and difficulties she faces being a young woman in a male-dominated office and field (great- I'm here for exposing double standards and the endless casual sexism women are expected to brush off). The problem is that a few pages after confronting a coworker who gives her a sleazy smirk she notes that another female coworker loves to ogle the younger male workers, and smirks herself. I'm not trying to be nit-picky or read into anything that's not there, but inappropriate behavior is inappropriate regardless of who it comes from.

Still, this is a breezy read that will pass the time. Thanks to Netgalley, Sarah Smith, and the publisher for letting me read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A stellar first entry into the romance genre for this new author! I couldn't put this one down. The chemistry was great, and I loved how the two main characters actually TALKED to each other. Although sexy, the dialog actually made the romance between the two so much more real. I will definitely look for more from this author in the future!

I love the trope hate/love. I am a sucker for it and was very excited to read this book. One of my favorites is The hate you give and this had many aspects from that book in this book. However it fell a little flat and felt like it was missing something. I felt like it maybe needed some more witty banter. I did still fly through this book and I will still suggest it as a good beach read.

I loved this book even though it made me cringe 99% of the time.

The dialogue was just so cheesy!!!!!!!!! It sounded so unrealistic, that whenever a character said anything at all, I braced myself to be launched out of immersion.

Also, the way the story handles sexual harassment wasn't great. We see misogyny happening in a male-dominated industry (selling hardware tools) and there's great rep for workplace sexual harassment when it comes to women. But then a female character is extremely unprofessional towards male employees, and it's not called out at all. It's actually given a funny/cute tone.

At one point, a female character says "Come to mama" to a hot, random male character, *while they're at work*,,,,,,,,and it was just so weird. If a male character had said something like "Come to daddy" to the MC, she would've been rightly disgusted. But for some reason she doesn't react that way when a female character commits an equivalent action.

And this was a male character who is not only sexually harassed, but also used as a scapegoat throughout the entire story. His only purpose was to make the love interest jealous. I just wanted to burst into the story and tell him to stay away from this giant romantic mess.

But other than those things, I enjoyed this story!!!!! There's so much hurt-comfort, my favorite thing on this earth, and even though it's never explicitly said, I'm pretty sure the main character is demisexual! She never enjoys sex because she doesn't feel emotionally close to her partners, which = demisexual feelings. Also, the book is an ownvoices from a Filipino author, which is amazing.

Overall, I can't wait to see what else this author writes, I felt Potential Successful Greatness energy radiating from the storytelling. It just didn't do it for me this time.

Faker had such potential on face value, but utterly faceplanted in execution. Emmie is irritating and in constant need of attention from one guy. And Tate is a moron with a massive hero complex that needs to just let her figure out her work environment on her own, and to also he a good ally and REPORT behavior he is seeing instead of sweeping in and taking her agency.

As for the romance, it's not this sexual tension bonanza, the author just makes them mean and cruel to one another and that isn't cute or woke. Authors need to wake up and change the way they are creating the dynamics between characters. You know it wasn't cute or sweet to say that the boys that were mean to you in grade school "liked" you. That just made women think that being treated like shit was acceptable.

No thanks.

FAKER BY SARAH SMITH IS A TEASE IN THE BEST WAY
As soon as I open the book, I’m ready for the steam to hit. I settle in. Enemies to lovers trope is my jam, so I’ll be patient. Later in the book, I’m still waiting for the steam & then boom! Sarah hits me with it, pulls it back, hits me again. You get the idea, right?! Such a tease & I love it! Faker is a fantastic debut.

WORKPLACE ROMANCE
Faker involves co-workers who cannot stand one another. While Emmie & Tate avoid one another, I don’t feel a lot of pent up negative tension. For me, they just don’t connect. Too bad for them, they have to co-exist during work hours. Sarah does a great job giving readers enough of the workplace history without bogging us down in unnecessary facts.

Quietly, Tate begins to grow on Emmie. When she needs someone by her side, Tate is there. This to me is the hallmark of a good man. Don’t wait for me to ask you, just be there! Since they’ve danced around each other for a long time, their introduction to romance is slower. This is where Sarah Smith teases me! As soon as I think we’re there, she dials it back. This book almost gave me blue balls.

THE STEAM FACTOR
Yes, Faker has steam! If steam is not your thing, Faker is a great intro because it takes a while for the steam to build. For me, this makes the romance sweeter & more believable.

THE VERDICT
I am Really Into This book! Read Faker by Sarah Smith if you’re looking for an enemies to lovers romance that is both believable, sweet & memorable.

What a fun read! It's hard to believe this is Sarah Smith's debut novel because it was quite well done! It had a cute enemies to lovers tropes, strong shades of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, and it carried out quite well. I almost wish Tate and Emmie hadn't been so harsh to each other because I feel like it would be difficult to move past some things that were done/said. I did like the representation in the book and hope to see more from Sarah Smith in the future!

This book had a good concept and the writing style was approachable and easy to read. Enemies to lovers is a great concept and many readers love it. In addition, the sex scenes were very well written as well and those are not easy to write. However, the characters were legitimately mean to each other in the beginning of the book and that turned me off as a reader. The book and concept was very much influenced by The Hating Game, but it lacked some of the nuance and careful nature of the love/hate relationship in that story. In addition, the climax of the story with the ex girlfriend was not needed and it was very easily resolved, so it's unclear why that was the ultimate low. This book had a great concept and I appreciated the discussion in the story of the main character being a woman of color in a job dominated by men, but it needed another edit and stronger secondary characters, as well as a strong main conflict.

This was SO ADORABLE!! Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for providing me with this book! I had so much fun reading it!

Faker is an office romance between enemies Emmie and Tate. They work across from eachother in the office of a construction company and have to work together on a project. When Emmie gets injured, Tate steps in and helps her out and the two grow extremely close and a relationship blooms.

First, I LOVED EMMIE AND TATE! Emmie was such a headstrong character and I loved how awesome she was in a mostly male dominated work environment. I really appreciated how the book made sure to point that out. And TATE! Ahhh I loved him! He’s an introvert and the things that he would say to Emmie just made me swoon! He is so charming without even realizing it and it was so endearing. I loved watching his relationship with Emmie grow and I especially loved how a really good portion of this book focused on their relationship dynamic when they were actually in a relationship. We get to see all the adorable and awkwardness of these two first entering and being in a relationship with their one time enemy.

The first half of this book really did give me massive The Hating Game vibes but then it definitely stood on its own and I really loved watching the bickering and banter turn into a full blown serious relationship. That being said, I didn’t really care for some of the drama in here. Obviously the book needs to have some drama but I just didn’t think that last moment was necessary and I didn’t like how that was the driving force of Tate not liking Emmie at first. I guess it made sense but I felt so bad for Emmie. It just dampened Tate’s character a bit for me. He did grovel for her and prove to her multiple times in the book how he felt about her, which was appreciated after a moment like that.
I also liked how it wrapped up quickly. We didn’t drag it out or anything like that.

I loved how most of this book was light and fun, a classic romantic comedy! It’s easy to fly through and get lost it and it has MANY MANY moments where I was just grinning at my kindle with butterflies. I highly recommend everyone pick this up in October and I’m excited to read more from Sarah in the future!

I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed this book. I requested it on a whim as the description appealed to me (can't resist the enemies-to-lovers trope). Emmie and Tate were so fun together and the rest of the cast was just as delightful. I hope Sarah Smith keeps writing such delightful stories!

The blurb made this out to be a stronger female tackling the male stereotypes, when, really, it was a story about a woman who falls for a man she works with when she discovers who he truly is. I found both characters annoying and hard to relate to. The novel moves at a slower pace and I made about 85% before calling it quits.

*Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting characters an storyline make this a book worth reading if you enjoy romance and romantic comedy.

This was a cute enemies to lovers trope and I enjoyed Tate and Emmie's romance. Tate surprised me and was very sweet. I like that Emmie pushed the boundaries and chose an all male dominated career. The unique nationalities were a nice touch to this story. I enjoy different culture rep in romances. This was simply a cute romance with some sexy and feisty moments mixed in. I do wish the romance had more time to blossom. It was a very quick start and I enjoy slow burn, but overall..very cute.

It's hard to believe that this is author Sarah Smith's debut book! While I enjoyed this book, I did think that there was a lot of similarities to another book that I really liked. The relationship between Emmie and Tate evolved slowly through shared experiences and lighthearted and deep conversations, Which was much better than a rushed romance!

I look forward to reading more by this author.

This is an enemies to lovers story set in a construction company between Emmie, a technical writer, and her arch-nemesis Tate. They're forced to work together on a charity project, against their wills, and through a series of awkward events, Emmie realizes that Tate might not hate her so much after all. This was an okay read for me, but it felt pretty predictable. I would definitely try Sarah Smith again though. If you like enemies to lovers stories or ro coms, you'll probably be pretty happy with this story.

I wish I had enjoyed Faker more. I love a good enemies-to-lovers situation, but Emmie and Tate's relationship fell flat for me. As others have mentioned, there are way too many similarities to The Hating Game for it to be a coincidence, yet Faker failed to capture the passion and wit that Sally Thorne gave us.

Emmie's change of heart toward Tate seemed pretty illogical, and Tate's brand of mean lacked snark and sarcasm, instead coming across just plain mean. The timing between their "hatred" for each other and the simpering, sickly sweet feelings phase was just unrealistic to me. The didn't seem to connect on anything besides the fact that they thought the other person was great. Every conversation felt like a competition to out-compliment the other. It was overkill.

Also overkill (and I'm getting nit-picky here) were the hundreds of descriptions for Tate's milky white skin. We get it - he's pale. I happen to be very pale myself, and I'm dating someone equally pale, but you can bet your butt that we don't go around saying anything like "He is the god of thunder dipped in a milk bath." Truly cringe-worthy.

As I'm sure the paragraphs above show, Tate was not my cup of tea. Sure, he was caring, observant, and generous (and apparently hot with his milky skin and white(?!) hair...), but his behavior, when looked at objectively, was very overbearing and borderline creepy. Learning another language, booking a trip, the extreme jealousy, etc. - he took a lot of action without Emmie's consent or knowledge, and in the context, it was made to seem romantic, but I felt otherwise. It seemed like he had been stalking Emmie for quite a while. His faux-pas toward the end of the book would not have been forgiven so quickly by me, and I found Emmie's reasoning strange. Of course he wasn't cheating, but did that make it any better? I would be very insecure after that point if I were her.

All that being said, I did appreciate the portrayal of how hard it is for a woman in an all-male work environment - definitely not something to overlook. I also liked that one of the protagonists was an extense introvert while still being perceived as manly and not any sort of "nerd". On top of all that, the sex scenes were top notch. I look forward to what Sarah Smith writes next because while I have a lot of complaints about Faker, I think she has a lot of potential as an author.