Penelope and Rory are best friends since their college days. Rory wants to escape from his client's wife who is hitting on him and Penelope wants to show her childhood bestfriend who rejected her love that she got over him. So they started fake dating. Things got pretty interesting when they struggles to keep their act together because fake date becomes real. They fell in love with each other.

Penelope has a strong character. After so many rejections she was not ready to gove up her dream to become an author. The way Rory beleive in her and supports her to achieve her dream was very heartwarming. Her miniatures blog is very cute and mind-blowing concept. Totally loved reading that part

I enjoyed reading this book. Recommend to all readers who love to read romantic novels. Thanks to NetGalley for free ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Overall, the half of the story that i read was wholesome! however i could not connect to the characters and they felt a little bit flat, so i dnf’ed. I felt that sometimes the writing was stilted and the characters felt disconnected.

-1 for the ‘ponytail holder’

A fresh take on the best friends fake dating trope! The story follows aspiring author and messy Penelope, whose best friend and her decide to “fake date”. What starts out as an innocent ruse blossoms into an emotionally confusing and fun adventure. I love that the author comments a lot on the writing process and rejection, as well as that the hobbies and interests of the characters are very niche! Loved this light hearted and fun read!

The second book in this series.

Penelope and Rory are fake dating. As a romance author, she knows what usually happens in fake dating books, but will the same happen for them too?

Looking forward to the next book in this series.

Could friendship between a man and a woman be real? Or in such relationship one of friends always has feelings stronger than friendship?
Penelope and Rory are the best friends. No, they had been the best friends untill things have started to change and they were swallowed up in fake dating.
Is This For Real? would be of interest to lovers of light reading and beautiful romantic stories. I'm sure the story of Penelope and Rory will appeal to readers who prefer feel-good romance.
Unfortunately for me this book was just not my cup of tea. The book seemed to me a little confusing. For a long time I tried to grasp the essence of what was happening, accept the characters and get used to the writing style of the author but finally I couldn't get into it. Despite many pleasant moments, I could not fall in love with the book.
Thanks to Kathy Strobos, Strawbundle Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

It was hard to put my finger on it at first, but something about the writing style took some getting used to. I felt like there were a lot of superfluous details that didn’t feel well-balanced with dialogue and action. A lot of the writing was “telling” me things instead of “showing” me things. That is where I had a hard time staying engaged as a reader.

As far as the story itself, it was a fake dating trope (which I personally love) and it was very obvious from the beginning that the characters were into each other.

While I was annoyed with some of the choices that the main character made, I found that they helped accurately depict how difficult it can be to move on when you’ve made up your mind that something should have happened. Those “should haves” are tougher than anything that actually happens, aren’t they?

Overall, it was engaging enough to finish but there were a lot of things that I did not truly enjoy. The writing was just not my style and the character dynamics did not feel completely genuine.


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Thank you to Netgalley, Strawbundle Publishing, and author Kathy Strobos for the advanced copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Is This for Real? has so many of my rom-com favorite things:
- fake dating
- slow burn
- best friends to lovers
- one bed in the hotel room

Penelope and Rory have been friends since college and agree to embark on a fake dating stint to help them out with a few sticky situations. Throughout, there are several different side plots, but I didn’t feel like they detracted from the overall story. Instead, I felt like it was more like real life, with multiple complex issues and situations in Penelope and Rory’s lives.
Penelope struggles with her chosen career - getting rejection after rejection for her novels - and also has a successful side hustle as a miniaturist. Side note: this was a brand new thing for me, and now I’m down a rabbit hole of miniatures online.
Rory is in advertising, and tends to disappear from their friendship when he’s dating someone new.
Though we only hear Penelope’s POV, Rory’s thoughts are represented enough to have a feel for where he stands on things.
I loved the realistic insight into the world of trying to publish your book, following along with Penelope’s highs and lows of the process.
The miniature scenes and stories were also so interesting and cute!
Overall, Penelope and Rory made me smile, shed a few tears, and I wanted to cheer on their successes, too.
As I mentioned before, the story felt both heartwarming and relatable. There were family obstacles and backgrounds to overcome, lovely supporting characters- especially Penelope’s best friend and roommate, Zelda.
You also get to see a little bit about Jake and Audrey from Partner Pursuit, too.

“All in, all good.” I like it. Catchy. Even if maybe it’s the opposite of my life slogan. That would be more like “Not in, all difficult.” - my favorite quote from Penelope

Very happy to have Is this For Real? as my first read of 2022! I loved Partner Pursuit, and was so happy to read Rory’s story. I really loved Penelope’s point of view, and learning about her working through her vulnerability issues and fear of abandonment. I liked the subplot of her writing her books, and I was really happy with how that plot played out. The slowburn really kept me engaged, and the end conflict resoufelt natural. My only thing is that I would have loved to hear more about Audrey and Jake — but that’s my own expectations. Solid 3.5 stars but rounded up because I had a soft spot for Penelope’s roommate, Zelda!

I love fake-dating romances so I went into this book extremely excited.
Sadly I was quite disappointed by the end.

The main storyline of right person wrong time, friends to lovers was great, but it felt overshadowed by so many side plots.

The story was so slow paced that I felt like I had to force myself to keep going with it in the beginning.

I also didnt feel any chemistry between the characters.
I did start to really like Rory about halfway through but Penelope just seemed to have very little personality.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

2.5/5

I love the fake dating trope, so I expected that this book would be a great, light read. I unfortunately found it a little to slow and didn't feel as connected to the characters as I should have. There was the main storyline of Penelope and Rory's budding romance, but there was also lots of side storylines, like Penelope's writing rejections, Rory's ex-girlfriend, Penelope's friend and former crush moving back to town, that the time needed for me to see the chemistry between Penelope and Rory to develop just didn't happen.

I absolutely loved and adored how supportive Rory was of Penelope trying to publish a book, even when the other people in her life were trying to convince her to pursue a more realistic career. I think that Rory was also supposed to come off as the romantic, sweet guy in the book, but it seemed forced to me a lot of the time.

When I am reading a romance where the couple ends up getting together, I have to feel chemistry between the couple, and I just didn't feel that here. Further, as romance's go, the conflict that happened between Rory and Penelope was just weird and seemed a little forced. It didn't feel real, and could have easily resolved in they talked to each other for a few seconds.

I think the premise of the novel was great. I just did not connect to it like I wanted to. The fake dating trope, especially the fake dating to figure it out for a book, can be really fun, but this just fell flat for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am a loyal fan of rom coms, specifically the fake dating trope.... There's always so much to explore and build.

So when I picked this book, I was expecting it to be an easy read. Unfortunately, the writing was slow paced and the characters were monotonous. I also felt that the book was a bit too long for the story it was trying to say.

I liked the romance and the relationship but I could not connect with the individual characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was an enjoyable read. I gave it 3 stars because I didn’t find myself connecting with the characters. I also felt like we were missing some of the backstory with Penelope and Rory. I also didn’t like how Callie basically had Rory wrapped around her finger and he didn’t realize it. He let her get between him and Penelope too many times. But if she was with Jamie it was an issue. I also expected the “grand gesture” to be grander at the end.

I love rom-coms, and a favorite trope is friends to lovers. This one fell a little short to me though.

Penelope is a aspiring romance writer. She's been doing odd jobs like pet-sitting, running an Etsy shop and a blog for her miniatures for money while she works on her novels. Penelope and Rory are best friends from college. When Rory is single, they spend tons of time together. When Rory feels his boss's wife is coming on to him, he asks Penelope to be his fake girlfriend to deter the wife from hitting on him. When Penelope's unrequited love, Jamie, comes in town from Singapore to visit home, they do the fake couple thing to reassure Jamie that things are normal with them after an awkward professing of love to him by Penelope the year before. Rory and Penelope keep finding reasons to fake a relationship (work retreats, Rory's ex-girlfriend coming around again, etc) and it starts to feel real to Penelope. But after her parents died in an accident when she was in college, and her boyfriend broke up with her because he couldn't handle emotions, Penelope has kept up an impenetrable wall, so she does not know how to handle her romantic feelings for Rory because she is worried she would lose her friend.

There were a lot of other side storylines going on here too... Penelope's writing and rejections and trying to get published, Rory's advertising career and a big break, Rory's ex-girlfriend who broke up with him deciding she wants him bake, Penelope's miniature making career, Jamie's mom's heart attack and the need for help at her sporting good store, Jamie coming back to town and being jealous of Rory dating Penelope, Rory's parents marital problems, and more.... it was almost too much. It diluted the point of the book, the growing romance between Rory and Penelope. I think some of those side stories needed to disappear so more focus could be on the friends to lovers, is this real or fake dynamic between the main characters. Because the book was filled with so much of the other storylines, I never truly felt the chemistry or tension between Penelope or Rory. I'm fine with minimal steam and closed door romances, but there is still usually a build up of tension and excitement as you see the characters chemistry develop and the discovery of feelings. Unfortunately, in Is This Real? that component was missing and made it hard to be all in on the relationship. It was a cute, light read, but a bit disappointing. Like the advice Penelope received as a romance writer, I would have liked another draft to tighten things up because I think that could have really helped.

Oh I loved this book, it made me stay up way too late and rush through it because I was so keen to find out whether Penelope trusted Rory enough to let her guard down and admit she loved him! Both Penelope and Rory were incredibly likeable characters. I loved the strength of their friendship, and it was so interesting to hear about the process of writing her book. Not to mention the added surprise interest of dolls houses and miniaturist blogs. Something for me to look up on Instagram! I was sad to get to the end and will be looking for more books by Strobos in the future.

I struggled to read this book more than I feel like I should have. The premise of what the author was going for was great. I like the fake dating trope. It’s fun and can be really enticing. Unfortunately, this book fell short for me.

I liked the first couple of chapters despite the formal writing and hoped it would continue, but was disappointed when it didn’t. The writing continued to be very formal and I found that it was pretty monotonous, which is what caused the difficulty in holding my attention. We were told more than shown how the characters were feeing. It made it really hard to connect to them. I think with some editing of the sentence/paragraph structure and making things less formal/technical would’ve helped tremendously.

One thing that irked me was the fact that Penelope was constantly stressing about getting her writing in for the day and being able to get the book finished in time to publish (which happened very quickly btw) when she seemed more interested and concerned with making her minis and writing in her blog than anything. I liked the storyline of her writing trials and would’ve loved for it to be focused more on that instead of the minis. A lot of time was spent on the technical aspects of doing the minis and the dolls that the book seemed to drag on.

Again, the premise was good and I think the author was on to something, I just think it missed the mark.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second Kathy Strobos novel, so I knew I was in for a fun, romantic story, with New York playing a key role as a supporting character. The gorgeous cover was a plus, too.

Penelope is a struggling, still unpublished, author, making ends meet through multiple jobs. She faces rejection after rejection as she attempts to get her romantic comedies published. Her love life has been somewhat of a disaster, too.

Rory is one of Penelope’s closest friends, with a friendship dating back to college. He’s a creative at an advertising agency and a serial committed boyfriend. That is, until he falls out with his latest exclusive girlfriend and begins the cycle once again. Distraught that the wife of his current client is hitting on him, he asks Penelope to pose as his girlfriend for a work party.

Soon the fake dating plan suffers from mission creep, bringing in Penelope’s sister, her former crush and Rory’s parents and his ex. Penelope and Rory masterfully play a couple in love, but can they truly become that couple without risking their friendship?

This was a fun friends-to-lovers tale, with the complication of fake dating adding an extra layer of tension. Penelope and Rory were well-drawn characters, with valid concerns that changing their relationship could destroy their strong friendship. I enjoyed the full cast of supporting characters and the backdrop of New York for this fun story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this novel, in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and Strawbundle Publishing for providing me with an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This romance is written in single POV and is tailored for fans of fake dating, friends-to-lovers, and only one bed tropes.

Rory and Penelope have been best friends since college but have never dated. When he needs dates for work events and she needs some material for a fake dating novel she is writing, they decide to fake date each other.

The meta nature of this one is fun. Penelope is in the process of writing and trying to publish a romance novel with the fake dating trope where the main character falls in love with the man she is fake dating. You see Penelope and Rory’s storyline influencing the scenarios of her main character in her book and the scenes Penelope stages in her dollhouse and miniature boxes that she posts to her blog and on Instagram. Lo and behold, Rory and Penelope realize that they are in love while they are fake dating. It was interesting reading the comments from editors, teachers, and Penelope’s writing group about building tension and motivation in her manuscripts as you watch Strobos incorporating those aspects into the book itself.

This one has big city backdrops, New York City and London, and Strobos incorporates aspects specific to each city into the story.

The romance scenes fade to black, so nothing explicit appears on the page.

It is part of a series (New York Friendship) but can be read as a standalone. Audrey and Jake from Partner Pursuit make cameos in Is This for Real?, but knowing their backstory is not necessary to understanding the storyline in this book.

If you haven’t seen the movie Casablanca, some of the scenes may be a bit confusing or harder to picture for you.

Overall, this was a feel-good book.

Trigger/Content Warnings: grief, divorce/discussion of divorce of parents

This book introduces two best friends who are close to their thirties, and attempting to advance in their careers. Because of their commitment to maintaining their friendship, these two friends have developed feelings for each other but are avoiding revealing them to each other. When one of them both found a need for a fake relationship, they chose each other. Through this fake relationship it becomes harder to avoid their feelings for each other. These two friends have to find a way to navigate feelings while savoring a friendship that they do not want to lose. 



When it came to the first couple chapters, I thought I would like this book way more than I did. I enjoyed some parts, such as Rory and Penelope’s friendship, which was ignited into something deeper. This book was different from many others I have read with this trope (friends-to-lovers) , I found it engaging in a certain way. However, the book had no depth. I felt lost a lot of times reading trying to figure out where the novel was trying to take me. Because of Penelope’s dream fitting into the book I felt like the author was explaining how to write romance novels more than focusing on developing the characters and their relationships.


Although I did find it amusing reading the development of Rory’s and Penelope’s relationship. It was difficult to enjoy it because there was not much given in the book. It felt like there was more that needed to be said but was not. There was more that needed to be done about Callie in the book. She interfered with the relationship a lot and there was no attempt to confront it. There was more that had to be done with Jamie’s character as well. He and Penelope needed to have a deeper conversation about why Penelope moved on.



In general, I had a difficult time getting into this book and felt myself avoiding it more than actually reading it. However, some parts of the book were capturing enough to get me to read continuously. But it was inconsistent because once I reached 50 percent of the book I felt myself skimming and skipping certain lines because they weren’t engaging enough to read through. 


Thank you to NetGalley and Strawbundle Publishing for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the first few chapters. I really liked how things were going between Penelope and Rory in the in the first or 2 chapters and how they established what the deal between their fake dating was.

But sadly the rest of the story fell quite flat for me. Everything suddenly felt so rushed.

We are following Penelope and her dreams of being published, with many rejections and people turning down her ideas and stories, we witness countless of times she is rejected and how much this means to her, and yet when she actually does get published it’s like done. End of. Quickly as if to get it over with because it needed to be done?

Also the relationship between Rory and Penelope felt fun and cute at first and there was a little build up that added to their story but then it felt like they got together very quickly and there was still a good chunk of the book left. It would have been better with a more build up of their fake dating and tension between them growing even more, but I understand why it wasn’t as long due to them both having a mutual attraction to one another.

Sadly the rush of things such as the getting really together, the publishing, and them doing a hell of a lot of things each day such as brunch, lunch, then going here, then going there, doing this, then doing that. It didn’t let the scenes really give us much.

A good story idea based on the tropes of fake dating, and it was fun to see Penelope talk about writing her own fake dating book and using her experience for her story. But just fell short for me.

Penelope and Rory-fake dating to provide Rory dates to business affairs and give Penelope ideas for her fake dating novel. There is a lot of interference by an ex-girlfriend and a former boyfriend to complicate their romance. Plus, Penelope fears she will lose Rory as her best friend if it all goes south. Enjoyable story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.