Firstly I would like to say I adore Rory and Penelope!! This book includes of few of my favorite things in a romance novel fake dating, slow burn, and friends to lovers! The other best part the cover is absolutely adorable!

This book follow Penelope who is a struggling author and continues to hope her novel will get picked up only to receive rejection. Rory is her best friend who is being hit on by his boss’ wife and Penelope needs inspiration for her new novel, so they agree to fake date to help each other out. Once those feelings start to become real that’s where things start to become more complicated.

Penelope’s passion for writing and not wanting to give up her dream is my favorite part of her character and Rory’s constant support such as reading her books, romance books, for her and giving her support and feedback was the sweetest and most wonderful part.

Thank you to NetGalley and Strawbundle Publishing for the opportunity to read this novel. I also want to thank Kathy Strobos for writing this wonderful book!!!

The story has a nice start. The whole fake dating thing was introduced in the first few chapters and it's interesting to read our couple; Penelope and Rory, trying and figure out the rules, the backstory, and whatnots of their "dating life". But, as the story went on, it started to grow a bit boring.

As for the conflict in the story, I actually like it. I like that Strobos gave her characters the time to process the "conflict" instead of just wrapping things up immediately.

For my in-depth review, you can check in my blog thecatwithabook.wordpress.com

Thank You Strawbundle Publishing, NetGalley for a chance to review this ARC.
First off this cover is so pretty all the pinks!
Loved the premise of this book. Give me these tropes any day!
I enjoyed the author’s debut and I’m happy to say that I enjoyed this one a little more!
This is a slow burn so if you’re into that get this book now! Penelope and Rory were a joy!
I will be adding my review to my Bookstagram as a January wrap up!

I think I just realised that Best friends to lovers is my absolute favourite trope! Penelope and Rory are sooo adorable. I love their chemistry is subtle at first and how it all breaks free as soon as they realise each other's interest!

Is this for real is an absolute joy to read. I was not too fond of the Fake-dating portion of the story, but i think that's a very personal choice as I'm not fond of the trope! But all-in-all I truly enjoyed this journey!

Oh my god. This was such an incredible and well-written book! The characters were amazing, and the fact they all acknowledged and dealt with the issues made the book so compelling! Honestly, from chapter one I was tied to the book and even after trying to put it down to do some work, I just found myself going back to it because I just wanted to see what happened next. I loved that both characters, with their faults, were strong personalities. (Rory was sooo kind and incredible. I could honestly swoon at him all day long) It's definitely a must if you like feel good and cute rom-com books.

Fake dating is a troupe I really love. But unfortunately this book did not hit the mark.
Penelope and Rory have been friends since college. Penelope is a struggling writer and Rory works in advertising.
Rory has a work event to attend but the bosses wife is a bit touchy feely and Rory thinks it would be great to take a fake date, cue Penelope.

I loved Penelope and Rory but I felt there fake dating was a bit safe, they only went on a couple of dates as a fake couple and Penelope’s sister realised straight away that they were faking..

However this was a quick read and the story flowed well and had a nice happy ending.

3 *stars*

It is a slow-burn book and I'm glad the synopsis is saying that to prepare the readers for it.

After reading this book I'm discovering that I like books that are about writing. I'm still discovering what I like and what I dislike in books. So overall it's a great opportunity to read this one!

So the book is funny, I really like the main character Penelope, but... I find her a bit naive. Why is she the one taking the first step after the first fight? Why does she think that she is the one who needs to say it first? I was so angry at Rory for even saying that she told James but she didn't tell him. Rory you are the one who needed to say it first, not Penelope.
The one thing I absolutely love about this book is the way Penelope is so open to everything, trying new things, feeling it on her own skin to help write her books. She has done a lot in her life to experience different ways how characters can on dates, tried their jobs, even tried the bad things too just to know the feeling so she can write that in her book and it would be real.
The book was a bit slow for my liking and I wanted more development from the two main characters. It felt a bit quick already jumping in to the fake dating.

Thanks for the experience!

#IsThisforReal #NetGalley

Though I planned to read this book in December, I’m so happy that I waited to read it now. You see.. I wasn’t in the best mindset to read about Penelope finding out that hiding your emotions behind a sky high wall is not healthy. Nor is it healthy to settle with someone you’ve know for ages just because they feel safe. Taking a chance on yourself to let someone new in, someone with the potential to hurt you is one of the scariest things I can imagine.

Penelope, a writer and woman who’d been through so much in her young life already started creating miniature art (dollhouse furniture and the like) depicting what had happened after she told her childhood best friend she loved him. Now, used to rejection, Penelope decides to channel those feelings into her art and writing but what happens when her newest book has a fake dating trope? Who better to ask to fake date her than her swoon worthy best friend Rory?

Now, if like me you love the fake dating your best friend trope you know that it never works & all that ends up happening is the inevitable falling for each other. Though it isn’t all smooth sailing with Rory and Penelope & there are so many more rejections that Penelope has to go through and so many hurdles that these two have to overcome.. it all works out in the end.

I read this book in one sitting & I could not get nearly enough of it. I loved the friendship between Rory and Penelope, I loved how swoon-worthy Rory was, just how much character growth Penelope had throughout the novel & just how much this book made me smile.

The tropes that are a big part of this story are some of my absolute favorites that don't always get put together. Opposites attract, friends-to-lovers, slow burn, and fake dating are all weaved together in a romantic comedy that I fell in love with.

When a romance author who struggles with relationships and her best friend who needs a date to work functions come to an agreement to fake a relationship she never expected the feelings towards him that forming rapidly. She thought she wasn't affected by his charm, but she soon realizes that's not true at all. She always thought their story was meant to be told as friends, but as more pages turn the more she realizes a romance with her best friend may just be what she has always been looking for.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this novel.

Ugh these two, you can't help but want it to work out. I have to confess that while this book dangled the "will the, won't they" question for a good part of the story with very little contact, I was surprisingly hooked by them both. Good friends with a fake dating deal is a good start, but with all the roadblocks along the way it was hard to see past friend-zone territory. A little travel, a little drama and trying to read a situation right made their story more relatable and I developed a strong need that they had to work out. Funny enough the steam level wasn't through the roof like many of the books I read (as the details are left mostly between these two characters) I still really enjoyed it and didn't seem to care as much as thought I would.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley for my honest opinion.

Penelope and Rory are one of the cutest slow-burn, fake-dating trope couples I have read in a while!
Penelope is absolutely adorable with her addicting personality as well as how she herself is a romance writer, so we get to see a little more of how a writer's mind works. Rory is Penelope's biggest supporter has been there for her since the beginning of their friendship! I also fell in love with some of the amazing side characters who made me laugh while the story was ongoing. I truly think all these characters made this book great for me!

Unfortunately, while I love the characters, the book fell a little short for me. While initially, I felt that connection to the characters, it slowly drifted off and stopped once the couple actually got together. The idea for this book was amazing, but for me personally, it didn't come out the way it should've.

That being said, the book was still so good and I cannot wait to see everyone else read about Penelope and Rory's story!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this arc!

This book has iends-to-lovers, slow burn, fake dating, and one bed tropes, so i really enjoyed it, i wish the story developed more the character but it´s really enjoyable.

I do recommend this book.

I really liked the premise of Is This For Real-- a woman fake-dating her best friend to get over her former best-friend is right up my alley. I especially liked that the main character was a writer.
Penelope and Rory were cute together, and I was rooting for them the whole time. I LOVED that Penelope was on two "unusual" career paths that were both creative, and that Rory had a more "traditional" job in comparison. I really appreciated the tension between them-- the fact that Penelope realized pretty early on that she had feelings for Rory, and that it was pretty clear that he had them for her, as well.
Ironically, my biggest critique of the book is the feedback Penelope keeps getting on her own work-- it felt a bit distant, emotionally. Not enough to pull me out of the story, but I pretty consistently wanted a little more across all the emotional beats-- until the party scene, which was the first one that fully hit that emotional punch for me.

I was really excited to read this. I thought it was a cute idea. There were a few places I laughed out loud at but overall I wanted more from the characters.

The concoction of friends-to-lovers, slow burn, fake dating, and one bed tropes sets us up for a wholesome, cute read. I enjoyed the chemistry between Penelope and Rory at the beginning of their fake dating scheme. The slow burn pacing seemed to work well with the story line.

I really liked how Rory as well as Penelope's closest friends supported her dream and everything involved in pursuing it. I also liked that the people in her life who wanted her to explore more pragmatic options after receiving so many rejections for her writing still clearly supported her and wanted the best things for her.

This book did fall short for me though. The chemistry between the mains seemed to falter as soon as they actually got together. The big conflict made me lose belief that they could work as a couple. I also felt the secondary characters could have used a lot more depth. They seemed to only be surface level characters – without motivations of their own.

I also would have appreciated a bit more development of the dynamic between Penelope and Rory before they started fake dating. It felt like starting part way through the story.

Overall, it was a light, wholesome read, but it missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Strawbundle Publishing for the advanced copy!

Penelope and Rory have been great friends since their college days. Penelope is a struggling writer who's looking for a chance to get published after repeated rejections while Rory works in marketing. It's when he needs her help to dissuade a clients wife from hitting on him that they come up with the perfect plan of fake dating. It'll help him with the old woman who keeps hitting on him, and Penelope will get her fodder for a fake-dating novel she's writing. But it's not a surprise when the lines between fake and real start to blur a little, sparks ignite and leave things a bit complicated.

I liked Rory's character a lot. He's Penelope's biggest cheerleader and his words of constant encouragement for her were some of the cutest scenes. He was also extremely patient with her. I feel like Penelope's character lacked depth in the first half. She repeated a lot of her thoughts about books or Rory and her feelings, and seemed weak rather than vulnerable, which made her dull/annoying/repetitive. Being in her head got boring sometimes. think it was because of this that I did not see any chemistry between her and Rory. Other than that, the late-night dancing, going to museums together etc., were all really well-written scenes!

If you love a good friends-to-lovers trope along with fake dating and slow-burn, this one's for you!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the ARc in exchange for an honest review.

Uh, soooooo good. Best friends to lovers, fake dating, slow burn, AND one bed?! I love Penelope and Rory so much. They have so much chemistry. I do prefer the POV from both sides but I still loved this book. They are so similar yet so opposite. The little competition of their exes being around was fun. This book was funny, sweet, and I highly recommend it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Strawbundle Publishing for the ARC! These are my honest opinions.

I was drawn in from the start. Best friends Penelope and Rory are fake dating each for their own reasons and that’s where it all begins. The characters are each lovable - flaws and all and I felt the emotions throughout the story arc. Now that I’ve finished the book I want to go back and read it again (and maybe again)! Kathy Strobos books are going to be added to my TBR pile automatically from now on.

Catch flights...and feelings

Is This For Real? is the second book in the New York Friendship series from Kathy Strobos. It follows Rory (friends with Jake from Partner Pursuit) and Penelope who are besties who begin “fake dating” to save Rory from his boss’s handsy wife while also throwing off Penelope's crush Jamie who she is finally getting over. During the book Penelope is working on writing a fake dating novel which has a blog and a miniature Etsy shop tied into it. She uses Rory and her as inspo for her character's relationship and the progression mimics real life.

I really enjoyed this book, even more than Partner Pursuit. The slow burn pacing was perfection. Since we basically jumped right into the fake dating which leads to the main characters falling for each other earlier I was waiting for the other shoe to drop…and it certainly did. The difficult journey they go on in their own personal lives impacts their relationship but in the end only leads to a stronger bond.

Can't wait to read the third book in this series!

Thank you to @kathystroboswriter and @netgalley for providing me with a copy!

‘Is this for real’ begins with Penelope meeting her childhood best friend-former crush- for a lunch date with his new girlfriend. Per Penelope’s request her best friend Rory joins the date for support. As they wait, talking about Penelope’s struggles with her writing and Rory’s weird encounter at his latest work function, an idea pops into Rory’s head that they should fake date. A win-win for both considering he needs a date for work functions and she could use that experience for ideas to her new romcom novel, as well as showing her former crush that she’s very much over him. As time progress, how will they stop from falling for each other? Will they comprise their friendship or can they feel that magical love Rory speaks so fondly of? This book is a feel-good read with a great love story from beginning to end. And I loved the guest appearances. The slowburn and the fake-dating, absolutely marvelous. I would risk it all for Rory and Penelope.

*Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.*