Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book was more social media influencer drama/fiction then romance. Light read, easy to breeze through I just didn't really connect with Alivia and her choices I felt she added unnecessary drama and just made bad choices when it came to her relationship with her best friend. Overall would recommend if you are looking for a quick holiday read

Alivia is a beauty influencer who finds herself in the middle of a somewhat scandal when gossip sites accuse her of trying to be the homewrecker to her best friend’s marriage. To take the attention off she decides to fake date a fellow fitness influencer Moe, but ends up falling in love with his secretary Travis.

Alivia is such a good character. Travis and Victoria were amazing too. Moe took a while to grow on me but he’s great by the ending too. We don’t like Dan here. I loved how she became an influencer and would definitely have supported her in irl.

The premise is very different , it has the fake dating trope but with this twist. The story is not a romance one, romance is a theme but it is more of Alivia’s story. So don’t expect to spend a the whole time on her and Travis.

The ending did come off as anticlimactic , a bit rushed and there honestly wasn’t much conflict.

Overall this book is perfect for when you need something fast, light and fun.


Also slight spoilers here but I feel like Dan and Alivia’s story wasn’t properly resolved. I do feel that Alivia forgave Donna way too soon.

My rating is 3.5

Thank you net galley for this E-Arc.

I believe this is Ms. Marie's debut novel and I very much enjoyed it. This was a feel-good, sweet story that had me smiling and, at times, laughing out loud. The storyline was fun and entertaining and caught my attention from the start and kept me engaged till the end. Alivia is a beauty influencer and because of a picture taken at her friend's wedding, she is involved in a scandal that causes her reputation to be at risk. In an effort to take attention away from the scandal, she enlists the help of her fanbase in choosing her next date. The story is charming, fun, and humorous and I had a great time reading it. The characters were also well-defined and relatable and you can't help but fall in love with them. A very entertaining story and I am happy to have had the chance to read!

I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Alivia is a social media beauty influencer. She ends up in a scandal where people think that her and her best friend are dating on his wedding day. To combat this, she decides to get involved in a fake relationship with a fitness influencer. However, she begins to fall for his assistant wile trying to keep up this fake relationship.

This wasn’t a bad book, but I do think it was entirely too long for what it was. The ending really ruined the book for me, but overall it was not a bad read. What I thought the ending was going to be, it ended up not being. The conversations in the book seemed really childish and there were many points in the book that I was either bored or felt the entire scenario was not needed.

The fake dating trope is what made me want to read the book and unfortunately that aspect didn’t really hit for me.

I do want to say thank you the NetGalley for the ARC. This book releases February 22, 2022.

Most of us have faked a relationship to get ourselves out of an awkward conversation or situation when on a night out... right?? Imagine doing that when in the public eye.

Beauty influencer, Alivia Fae, conjures up a plan to "fake-date" a fellow influencer Moe to put an end to the rumours that she is in love with her newly married best friend Dan - who also just happens to be a pro athlete.

As her fake relationship with Moe gains more attention in the media, her feelings grow for his sensitive and golden eyed assistant, Travis.

I really enjoyed this book and surprised myself with how quickly I read it. While it isnt the most original of storylines it has a very modern day twist which makes it stand out from the rest, it is so wonderfully written and I easily pictured each setting. Alivia' and Travis' characters were very likable, even Moe started to grow on me. My only gripe is that the rumours surrounding Alivia and Dan could have been put to rest with a simple public statement, however that wouldn't have a made a very good story now would it?

This is author Shellee Marie’s debut novel and is the first book in her Black Beauty in Love series. I am looking forward to seeing what she has next for us.

Publication date 22 Feb 2022

Alivia is a beauty influencer who decides to fake date a well-known fitness influencer named Moe to silence the rumors that she is in love with her best friend Dan, who recently got married. Things get even more complicated when she falls for Moe’s best friend and (manager, I think) Travis. She wants to pursue things with Travis, while also fake dating Moe to stop the rumors, while also, also trying to convince Dan’s new wife that there is nothing going on between Dan and herself. On top of that, there is much media attention due to her “fake” dating a fellow influencer, and Dan being a famous baseball player, everything gets harder to conceal and maintain under so much scrutiny. So yeah, messy, messy.

It is a very rom-comy premise, and although the main love birds are Black, the story itself is full of clichés and predictable outcomes. (Not saying that that’s bad, rom coms are all cliché, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoyable).

But unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. It fell flat. The story itself, and the characters lacked depth. Everything was very one-dimensional. I felt like I was reading the first draft of the novel, instead of the final complete manuscript. Which is to say, it has potential to be better, more engaging, interesting, and heartfelt. But as is, I just couldn’t get into it. The writing itself wasn’t bad, and there were some laughable moments, but I just wish there was more depth to the characters.

I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy easy, breezy, topical, predictable, rom-com drama.

Thank you to #netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Influenced Love by Shellee Marie resonates with the fascination, dependence and total saturation of social media into every fabric of modern society. Alivia Fae is a well-known beauty influencer. When she accidently takes the spotlight at her best friend’s wedding, the fall out is swift and vicious. To stave off the endless trolling and shaming, Alivia decides to ask her followers to help her select a date. She is paired up with fellow influencer, Moe Gava. Unfortunately, like many deals found online, it is a case of buyer beware and Moe is not nearly as interesting or desirable as he appears. Instead, his assistant, Travis, checks all the right boxes. How will Alivia handle this media mess? Will she be able to form a real relationship in this sometimes-artificial world? In her debut novel, Shellee Marie has crafted a timely and topical story that certainly should give everyone a reason to pause before commenting on posts and situations and she slid a really cute love story in for our enjoyment!

Wow devoured this book within a few days (I have toddler). I loved this book, and I enjoyed the characters especially Alivia and Travis . If your fan of romcom light reading this is a book you must read. Adorable cute romcom. Lots of comedy I was reading some of this book at my hairdressers I could not stop laughing. Book has been recommended to my hairdresser too. Alivia is a social makeup hair influencer and she allows her followers to pick her date but then she creates a fake relationship with someone else to boost ratings and her best friend gets married and Alivia becomes part of a scandal.

So funny warm romantic comedy book.

5 stars from.

*3.5

Normally I don't like the fake dating but they fall for the other person trope but I really liked how it was done in this book. They spent a significant amount of time together and that made it believable. I really did not like the end though and I wish there was an epilogue.

I received an arc through netgalley.

I love the concept of these book and the diversity of the characters throughout. There’s lots of really important topics covered (for example, clueless Dad). I think it could do with another round of editing. Some sentences or sections I had to read twice because the wording was confusing! Some parts were predictable, but overall, a nice easy read

Influenced Love follows social media influencer Alivia Fae, who becomes part of a fake couple with a fellow influencer, Moe, in order to divert the rumours surrounding her and her married best friend.

Things start to get complicated when she meets Moe’s assistant, Travis.

It was fast paced, funny, sweet and I read it in two sittings!

Sadly, this book was archived way sooner than I thought it’d be. I didn’t download it quick enough and am not able to give a review.

Sorry to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.

Alivia is a Black beauty influencer who gets caught up in a misunderstanding at her best friend Dan's wedding (Dan + Donna are the worst couple I've ever had to suffer through but that's a side point...)

In an effort to distract from the drama, she begins fake-dating fitness influencer Mo, but catches real-feelings for his assistant, Travis.

(Can we all just agree we need a Travis in our lives??)

But keeping up appearances gets harder and harder when Alivia's feelings for Travis become more serious. Add in a dishonest best friend, a overly jealous wife of said best friend, and a celebrity gossip reporter who wants to expose their relationship and the PR saving plan turns into an even bigger PR nightmare.

This was a great, light read.

There are two sides to this review.

The good side: I loved the cast of this novel. The main character was a breath of fresh air with being a POC and a social media influencer who chooses to be honest. The supporting characters were alright, but not bad overall, just wished they had a little bit more depth to them, which brings me to the second part;

The plot was very predictable. I knew what was coming with every chapter and maybe that's unfair to give it a bad review for, but it felt boring at times. Even the scenes that were suppose to be exciting felt like the were lacking originality. Because of this, it felt like the characters could have made better choices but didn't.

If you're looking for a cast of POC and a light Rom-Com, then this might be for you.

This book is not for me. I thought the premise was quite cute in theory, a twist on the fake dating trope that I know and love but unfortunately the actual way it played out wasn’t swoon worthy at all.

I just kept finding myself irritated at the choices Alivia would make, from how she dealt with her best friend’s mess of a marriage, to how she kept insisting she wanted to be genuine with her fans and followers yet kept dragging the fake dating situation out. Like she said one thing but never followed through.

All along I just kept shaking my head at the things she was doing, which made it hard for me to swoon over the cute things that were happening. It was hard to root for her.

Cute cover and storyline. I really love it. It was well done and easy to read. Just sit back and enjoy the book. and if you're for a book that is easy to read and heartwarming, this book is for you. The storyline is somehow linked to the things that are happening in our society since most of us are using social media platforms and having many followers is kinda big deal.

3 ⭐️

I won't lie, I had an amazing time reading this fun little romance. It's fun, cute and lighthearted which is everything I need in a romance book. I absolutely loved that it had such a wide range of diverse characters, unfortunately, this is something that is still lacking in the book writing community. The banter between the main love interest + the actual plot was very fun and interesting.
I loved the fluidity of the language Shellee Marie has, it's very quick to read, however, I feel like the descriptions were a bit too long for what was actually needed. I felt like it were too long to describe a small action the character was doing or taking too long to describe a room they just walked into. The main idea for the plot was good but I felt like it lacked something in it. It started with a small amazing idea but by the middle of the book, there were so many storylines I was a bit confused about what was happening, why & who was involved in what.

All in all, I am very grateful that I was sent this E-ARC for a review!

Rating: 2.5 rounded to 3

This book was hard to rate. I really enjoyed it up until the end, it had me laughing out loud multiple times. Basically the first 3/4 of the book was a 4 star read and the last 1/4 was a 2 star that pretty much ruined the rest of the book for me.

This book follows beauty influence Alivia Fae. She has a beauty blog and the story starts out with her serving as "best man" at her best friend, Dan's wedding. He is a professional baseball player, so there was some media attention given to the wedding, and a series of snafus lead to Alivia being romantically linked to the groom and the new bride absolutely hating her guts. In an attempt to move away from the negative media coverage she is receiving, Alivia creates a poll for her followers to weigh in on her next date. She ends up fake dating a fitness influencer named Moe but finds herself falling for Travis, his assistant. 

Alivia is supremely awkward and says the strangest things just to fill a silence, which I can definitely relate to. I thought that it was fun getting to hear about her projects and content creation. I liked the love interest, and even the fake love interest. I could buy Travis and Alivia as a couple. One small complaint is that there is not much female friendship present, but I did like what we saw of her friendship with Victoria and her interaction with her fans. 

Basically it was a fun setup and I had a good time with all the awkward situations and snafus. 
Now onto my issues. My lesser complaint, and the reason that this book was only at 4 stars until the end, instead of 5 was the storyline with Dan and Alivia. Dan felt like a child, and he was making absolutely terrible mistakes. I didn't like the storyline between Alivia and his wife, Donna, and everything involving Dan just seemed terrible. I thought there were really stupid miscommunications here that were completely needless, and I don't like the end result of that storyline. 

My biggest issue was the ending. We hit the big "issue" that cropped up, that I assumed was going to cause that romantic tension piece of things, but it didn't. At first I was really pleased thinking that there was just going to be an issue in Alivia's life that didn't affect the love life. But, alas, this was not the case. The issue that caused that moment of romantic strife was SO frustrating, especially because I was under the impression that they had already dealt with the "issue.' Alivia had seemingly resolved it in a conversation midway through the book. But apparently the words that I read meant something different to me than to the main character. So everything revolving around that issue for the last 1/4 of the book was supremely frustrating to read about. I thought that it was pretty cheesy. Then as all the issues were worked out and resolved, the dialogue and inner monologue around the resolutions felt very silly and cheesy. 

So all in all I am not sure that I would recommend this book because the ending kind of ruined it for me. But there were a couple moments that I continue to think about because they made me laugh so hard. 
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Influenced Love releases on February 22, 2022.

This was a pretty entertaining beach read! The fake celebrity relationship angle was amusing but it was really the drama surrounding the other relationships that kept me reading.

Beautifully written characters. Well devised plot. The journey was beautiful. A quick and an easy read. Happy to read it.