What a GREAT holiday romance.

We had a strong female lead.

We had saucy, sexy scenes.

We had banter.

We had chemistry.

It was sweet.

Pick this up!

Rating: 4.5

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I'm a huge faking dating trope fan! Under Contract starts off with a workaholic lawyer who has just found out the her sister is engaged to her ex. Now it’s time to head home for Thanksgiving and she doesn’t want to return home without a date and hear all of the “why are you still single?” comments from her family. So instead of going alone, she draws up a contract and invites her recent one night stand!

What I loved:
- Extremely likable characters! I loved happy go lucky Hudson!
- The fake dating trope, grumpy/sunshine (except it’s not the MMC this time, it’s a grumpy FMC), and forced proximity/one bed
- The holiday themes and setting (both in NYC and in a small England village)
- Under Contract is the perfect rom com with some funny moments and some amazing banter. There’s also a lot of steam, so if that’s not your thing, be warned!

Read if you like: 


- The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa
- The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas




All in all, we really enjoyed Under Contract! If you love a holiday rom com with some fake dating, we highly recommend this one!!

📖: Under Contract by Cassie Connor
Release Date: November 1st, 2022

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Cassie Connor, and One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this arc!

Wow that was awful.
I would classify this book as smut. Aka more sex than plot. I’m all for spice but the plot in between was brutal. Rebecca would have an enlightened moment EVERY chapter and then do nothing about it. They would have sex and then she would be a bitch to Hudson. Then… oh wow, it’s time for another enlightened moment.
It doesn’t matter if the realization was about her jerk of a sister or about Hudson or about herself at work… because she literally never does anything about it!!!

She is an awful communicator. If I were Hudson, I would cut my losses and hope the next time I played fake boyfriend it would be with an adult who can communicate.

⭐️ star
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😳😳 steam level

This was an advanced readers copy that I received. My opinions on the book were not influenced by receiving it for free.

I loved this book so much. It completely exceeded my expectations. It was such a quick and fun read and I loved the grumpy/sunshine aspect of it. I couldn't put it down!

You've got the best tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, One bed, and Fake dating. You've got the holiday season. A cute romance, and an easy read for someone who wants a little escapism.

This is was funny, and I'll definitely read again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

OMG, loved Under Contract. Well-written storyline with multi-layered characters. Exciting story full of ups and downs. A highly recommended read.

Rebecca and Hudson randomly meet at a bar and have a great night exploring their chemistry. However, this is where it ends for the two of them: he has too much to focus on with his business partner pulling from his project, and she’s far too busy with her corporate lawyer life to entertain the idea of a relationship.
As fate would have it, she needs a boyfriend to take home for Thanksgiving and he could really do with a loan to recover from a small work setback.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it went by so quickly. The characters’ banter and dialogue was quite fun, and their dynamic was truly swoon-worthy at times.

What made me deduct a star was that it wasn’t as memorable as one could have thought. When they exchange Christmas gifts she gives him a book about hamsters for the little inside joke they have, however I could not remember what it actually was, even if I’d been reading the book in only one sitting. Also, and this is what truly decided the rating for me, we never get an explanation of when
-----------SPOILER-----------------
she goes to see his exhibit and he’s there kissing someone else. They make up that very same night, but no mention of the kissed is ever made again and it drove me crazy.
-----------END OF SPOILER-----------------

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Under Contract by Cassie Connor was a fun debut novel.

Rebecca Madison is a big time lawyer who is not looking forward to her family's questions during their Thanksgiving break. Asking questions about her personal life and the biggest question being "why is she still single"?.
Rebecca loves what's she does and she is damn good at it. But you look at her love life and that is something she is not so good at.
One wild night after a one night stand with a hot stranger she met in a bar, she does what she always does and strikes a deal with him. To be her man.... Only for the holidays.
With the details and terms drawn up for their fake relationship, Rebecca has a few rules... No sex... Ever again. No kissing and definitely no emotional string's!
A few thousand miles away from home and waking up next to this man who has her feeling things she has never felt before writing her rules were easier said than done.
When you can’t find the perfect date for the holidays you hire him!

I can't believe that this was Connor's debut title.
I loved everything here! The characters are funny, charming and so much fun to be around.
The writing is atmospheric. I loved how I was instantly hooked.
Fake dating is one my absolute favorite tropes but then ya throw in holiday romance and I'm completely sold. Which honestly this is on my favorite lists right now. Because I couldn't stop reading.
The plot was natural, the chemistry is so good and the story was so entertaining!
Our characters had me swooning, rooting, loving, grinnig and smiling from ear to ear!
Freaking loved it and I look forward to reading many more books like it from this phenomenal, talented author!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

One More Chapter,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

What can I say, I loved this book. It has all my favorite tropes. Fake dating - check! Grumpy/ sunshine (reversed) check! One bed- check!

It was such a fun read. I love how the fake dating was reciprocated and wasn’t just one sided. I felt like the characters were very real and fun. I can definitely identify with the FMC but it was nice to see her let loose in the end.

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down and read it in one day. As soon as I read the description I knew I had to read this book, it is one of my favorite genres of books. I highly recommend this book, it was one of my favorite reads of the year.

I absolutely adored this fake dating holiday romance. Set in London, NYC, and a village in England, the locations are full of Thanksgiving and Christmas spirit. Rebecca is a likable, if flawed, character and Hudson is charming. Everyone can see they're perfect for each other; except them. Definitely a new holiday favorite!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

This was a quick, fun, and steamy read! I really loved Becca & Hudson’s relationship and liked that she was the “grumpy” one instead of it usually being the other way around. This was such a great read and I finished it in one sitting! Definitely add to your tbr list!


📘: Under Contract by Cassie Connor
🗓 Pub Date: November 1, 2022

Thank you NetGalley, Cassie Connor, and Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for this ARC!

*Reviewed on NetGalley and Goodreads. Will review on retail once published!

She’s a hot shot lawyer who doesn’t have time for relationships and he’s a furniture designer who doesn’t want anything serious, she needs a fake date for her family’s Thanksgiving event with her sister and her sister’s fiancee ( who just happens to be her ex) and he needs money because his partner who was funding his work backed out ( he slept with her a few times but she wanted a relationship and he didn’t). Rebecca Madison dreads family events, especially since everyone thinks she is still hung up on her ex who is together with her sister. So when she has a great one night stand with Hudson and over hears his troubles she offers him a deal: be her fake date for four days and she’ll pay him $7000, easy? Except they can’t stop sleeping with each other despite both of them being adamant about not having a serious relationship. But the more time they spend together the more they seem to be falling for each other, and when he blackmails her a few weeks later into spending time with his family, it’s a mess all over again... but then things get complicated..... can these two people make it? They’re exact opposites but they just might be perfect for each other.

Let me first start off by saying everything was going okay until the final climax and ending of the book *** SPOILERS**** where she argues that their booty call was just that and he gets angry, despite him telling her that he doesn’t do serious relationships and nothing about him really said he wanted one with her?? He never really makes it specifically clear he wants a relationship with her and then he gets angry and leaves and when she goes to tell him she does want a relationship she sees him kissing someone else and then they make up and thats it???? No explanation for who he was kissing or whatever???? She just accepts that she saw him kissing someone else and then he arrives at her place and they decide to get into a relationship?? nope, I enjoyed the first half of the book but was left just ??? by the end. Honestly. I was hoping for a bit more with that resolution and their whole “lets get together” moment but it left me feeling meh and just disappointed overall. In the end this one just missed the mark for me.

*Thanks Netgakkey and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, One More Chapter for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you @netgalley and @onemorechapterhc for an early copy of Under Contract by Cassia Connor in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

Under Contract is a fast-paced, fake-dating romance. It tells the story of Madison, an uptight contract lawyer, who hires her one-night stand Hudson, a furniture designer, to come spend Thanksgiving with her and her family in New York to wade off questions about why she's still single. Their ruse sort of backfires when a Tiktok video of them being too sweet on top of the Empire State Building had gone viral and Hudson's family wants to meet her.

Madison and Hudson's relationship was sweet and hot, their physical attraction with each other was phenomenal. While Madison is uptight and likes routine and control, Hudson was easy-going and balances Madison's need for control - he's good for her.

I have got to say while fake-dating is one of my favorite tropes, this one for me didn't really do it for me. It was 70% sex and 30% story. The attraction between Madison and Hudson was there for sure, that's why they get on to it whenever they have the chance, but the chemistry for me was lacking. This is just my preference but I would have liked to see more in-depth story, the longing and pining between the two of them. The sex was too much and too descriptive than the story itself.

Rating Under Contract ⭐⭐⭐.5/5. I would recommend this if you want some hot good time 😉 Releases November 1st, 2022.

I quite enjoy a fake relationship romance, so jumped at the chance to read this. Under Contract was a fun read, with likeable characters, a few funny moments, and some chemistry.

Some of the words used are obviously local to the author and were somewhat odd, and I found it strange, having single quotation marks.

Overall, a nice, quick read. I finished it in one sitting, an easy way to spend an hour.

Thank you to @netgalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

This book could have been written for me - fake dating + family holiday and/or wedding describes a tonne of my favourite books and films, so I had high hopes going in to this, which Cassie delivered on! I absolutely loved the heroine and saw a lot of myself in her general mindset, and I really enjoyed the fact that she didn't compromise herself professionally for a man - she mentions that her exes hadn't been able to handle her being so involved with her job so instead of dulling herself down, she just waits until a man who can be proud of her comes along.

This book was such a lovely, cozy read that I couldn't put down - I can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you for my earc. I loved the premise of this but something felt off and didn’t click for me.
I didn’t really love or root for the characters and wasn’t invested so I didn’t finish this one.

Loved this book which was quirky with lovely characters. More sex scenes than I prefer but they fitted in well to the underpinning story which was a good old fashioned romance.

Couldn’t put this down! It didn’t go the direction I was expecting when the MCs end up fake dating x2, which was a bit unexpected! It didn’t feel like the usual fake dating trope because of that. I also enjoyed the reversal of the stereotypical grumpy x sunshine trope, with Rebecca being on the grumpy side and Hudson so infectiously happy. I also secretly prefer a single point of view narrative rather than the back and forth make/female narrative that seems to be the style du jour of romance novels now. I like the suspense of not knowing EXACTLY what the male love interest is thinking. I think this could be one of my faves of the year - definitely one of the best arcs I’ve read.

I enjoyed this more than I expected.
It was cute with a romcom feel but had a good amount of heat.
Some the wording was odd, though I believe that is a regional thing, and the singular quotations were strange to me and often the spoken words got lost.
There are few minor edits still needed but overall I liked the characters and the story.
The H was fun loving and quirky. The h was less likeable but was developed enough that it was easy to understand why she was that way.