Arc review for Faking it with the Grump

I got this book back in March from @netgalley and I thought I had already written my review but I can’t find it.
This is my first book by @kateokeeffewriter and I enjoyed it a whole bunch! This book felt like a good hallmark movie and I would love to see it one day! Also, we all know (if you’re new Hi!), how much I love small town and fake dating as tropes! And the fact that the small town is set in the PNW (where I live) just made this book feel even more special.

Tropes:
Grumpy x sunshine
Small town
Clean romance
Fake dating
Dual pov
PNW

This book was fun, light, and easy going. Harper gets dumped by Hollywood star she thought she was going to marry. This epic failure brings her home where she gets the looks and pitying hook ups by everyone. So, when she sees Christopher, a newbie in town, she set her sights on him. His sole focus is to buy the town lumber mill and head back to NY. Then Harper appears and plants a major kiss on him and knocks his socks off. She talks him being her fake boyfriend to save face. Hearts get involved. I liked this book and the POV’s. I liked this book and enjoyed it and small-town feel. I also like the secondary characters which add to this book’s favor. I will be looking forward to reading more books by this author.

**I received this book from NetGalley and publisher for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I'm a sucker for a grumpy sunshine rom com because I just find them so funny and relatable. And Faking it with the Grump did not disappoint.

reminds me of a hallmark movie in the best way
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

Faking It With the Grump is very upfront about what this book is, it is a Hallmark movie in book form. I appreciated that it was not trying to be something it is not, it is a sweet small town romance with the guy from the big city, a local girl who is heartbroken, and a town that needs saving. It was a quick read, super sweet and a guaranteed happily ever after. A good summer book to read with not too many complications and characters that talk to each other.

This had all the makings of a great book — fake dating trope, grumpy/sunshine trope — but the plot progression felt so formulaic and the characters felt so two dimensional. Harper and Christopher moved through the phases of their fake dating so quickly I felt like they were caricatures of cheesy movie actors instead of genuine characters I was invested in. It felt like if ChatGPT wrote a hallmark movie script honestly. It had potential but it didn’t deliver for me.

And I actually literally almost face palmed myself several times at Christopher’s cluelessness.

After her boyfriend breaks up with her in public, the main character (Harper) finds herself moving back to her hometown. Once there she comes face to face with the ambitious Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer (Chris). While this set up seems like it would lend itself to a fantastic carry through, I am not sure that it did what it was hoping to do. There was not a ton of fake dating, despite the promise of it, and Chris really wasn’t all that grumpy.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, which happens, but still feel a little let down at the premise versus the execution. Not sure that I would read this again.

Harper, a lively and enthusiastic teacher, finds herself heartbroken after being dumped by her childhood sweetheart. Returning to Hunter's Creek, a community where she is adored yet pitied due to a viral video, she strives to project strength and avoid the sympathetic gazes of those around her. On the other hand, Christopher, a high-powered city lawyer, visits the town with a specific objective in mind, focused primarily on his work and maintaining a strict demeanor. In an effort to fend off the pitying looks from friends and family, Harper impulsively claims to be dating someone—none other than Christopher himself. Surprisingly, Christopher agrees to this ruse, recognizing that pretending to date a local may alleviate suspicions about his true purpose in town.

This book delves into the intricacies of a fake relationship within a close-knit community, set against an incredible backdrop. The main characters, Harper and Christopher, couldn't be more different from each other. Harper is gentle, intelligent, and selfless, often putting others' needs before her own. In contrast, Christopher is gruff, adhering to rules, and guarded when it comes to matters of the heart. The dynamic banter and chemistry between them are truly captivating. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, finding it to be a delightful experience.

3.75 stars, rounded up

A cute and quick read. If the title didn't make it obvious enough, it's a grumpy/sunshine and fake dating tropes haha. Felt like something you'd watch on Hallmark. Please note, there is little to no spice, just some kissing so if you're looking for a spicy read, this isn't it.

If you're looking for a light, cute, quick read with enjoyable character, this is it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For lovers of hallmark movies, Faking it with the grump will hit the spot.

Though fairly predictable, it was exactly what I was looking for.

Grumpy x Sunshine
Fake dating
Feel good HEA

I was hooked by the description and ready to jump in. I was sad that by 50% into the story I still wasn't fully feeling the chemistry between Harper and Christopher. I was more connected to Christopher in the story and pushed through for him and his character growth.

A certainly meet cute kind of book... I enjoyed reading it... Some parts were funny too... A book you can cuddle up with.... You are wondering if they will get together or not..

Faking It With the Grump is the first book in the Second Chance Café series by Kate O’Keeffe. He’s grumpy, boring, and thinks it’s okay to wear a suit and tie to a small town bar full of lumberjacks. But when I kiss him? Let’s just say I wasn’t expecting THAT. It's one thing to be dumped by the huge Hollywood star you thought you were going to marry. It’s quite another to move back to the small town you're both from. As a booby prize for being shown the door by Dex Ryder, everyone is trying to set me up with their son, their nephew, or their long-lost cousin’s gardener. I’m not going to put up with their patronizing sympathy anymore. So, when I spot new-guy-in-town Christopher Young, I set out to make him mine. Or you know, pretend to make him mine. I’m still in a horrible funk over Dex, and Christopher is an uptight grump. Not exactly my type. The fact that despite appearances, he’s gorgeous and doing weird things to my blood pressure doesn't mean a thing.

Faking It With the Grump is a fun ride. I enjoyed the characters and the set up of the small town that will be the setting for the series. I thought Harper was a likable and realistic character. She is smart and funny, but is generally too accommodating for her own good. Christopher has been operating under strict control for a long time, and while his seems very smart and observant, he occasionally seemed to be a little lost and clueless. It was sometimes an endearing dichotomy- but sometimes just had me shaking my head. I think I liked the secondary characters and town a bit more than I liked this particular romance. I saw the stumbling blocks a mile away, and while some worked out just fine and I enjoyed the ride- there was one that really frustrated me, and it seemed to me like Christopher never really understood the problem. I did like the final resolution and found the story as a whole to be entertaining and enjoyable, that one thread of the story bothered me enough that I did not love the book as completely as I expected to.

Faking It With the Grump is a solid opposites attract romance with the promise of more stories to come.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for access to an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

From the title and description of the book to the cute, colorful cover, I was so excited to dive in and to soak up the story, and from there, to see what else would happen at the Second Chance Cafe later on in the series. Now, I'm glad that I ended up getting my hands on this for free so that I didn't have to make the mistake financially. Grumpy x Sunshine is one of my favorite romantic tropes, and I have always loved a good, cheesy Hallmark movie, so the idea of a grumpy, overworked professional from the city coming in to close down the only business keeping a small, rural town going and falling for the brightly colored cotton candy girl of his dreams once he's there had me frothing at the mouth. But this book fell so flat for me in so many ways, and multiple times within the first few chapters I was actually insulted by the way the characters and their thought processes were being portrayed. I mean, Christopher nods at Harper at one point in what she called 'a weirdly formal way of his' and then she immediately ends up assuming that he's from Japan? Which I think may have been the red flag that finally tipped me over the edge into DNFing the book. 32% in. Because that was too much to handle on top of the way that Christopher kept putting himself down in his own mind every time it was suggested that he might enjoy something that made him appear remotely effeminate (Hallmark movies were only something he watched because of his sister, obviously) and the cringey, juvenile way that so many of Christopher's chapters specifically were written (his coworker openly bullies him *in the office* by calling him the most boring man alive--which doesn't seem particularly scathing but is still pretty darn unprofessional).

But aside from all of my concerns with the redflags of the book, the couple--from the start at least--had very little chemistry together, the focus of every single person in this town on the love life of one girl (however on brand for the hallmark comparison it was going for) was a little heavy handed when I'm used to more fleshed out casts of characters with lives and interests of their own, and the apparently 'grumpy' male lead was the farthest thing from it. If anything, Christopher was a neurodivergent workaholic, and if that had been leaned into more and the book had been written fully from Harper's perspective rather than as a dual POV (it was generally Christopher's chapters that seemed to struggle finding a cohesive voice), then I may have been able to stick with it a bit better. It's kind of a curse of the contemporary romance genre that a lot of people go in expecting a story to have little to no substance outside of a cheesy romance and an HEA, but I have read so many that have so much more heart, chemistry, and weight thrown behind them that still succeeded in giving all the same warm and fuzzy feelings this one was trying to give, and I just wish it had delivered.

So many tropes that I love!!! I love fake dating and grumpy & sunshine so this was a very entertaining read for me. Definitely going to read the other books in this series as well.

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed. The beginning gripped my interest, as did the drama near the end. However, I did find the middle of the story and some of the relationship-building between Christopher and Harper a little slow--but this is probably just personal taste, as fluff conversation isn't my thing. Having said all that, this is a nice, relaxing read that focuses on detailed character interaction. I was team Harper at the beginning, and then Christopher grew on me. I did root for them to end up together. On a side note, there were a few annoyances I had with each lead character, but that's real life--people aren't perfect--so if anything, those imperfections helped bring life to the story.

I do recommend reading this one if you enjoy sweet, slow-burn romances. A book is 5 stars to me if I can't put it down, and I could put this one down at times--so that's why it's 4 stars for me. I tend to enjoy more drama and less off-topic relationship-building, but that's just me. It's a solid sweet read.

This was just bad. I enjoy a good sunshine x grump trope type of story. This was not enjoyable. I should have DNF'd it.

It felt like the author took these two tropes and all the stereotypes and put them into her main characters, making them very flat. The way the fake dating started was weird and ridiculous to me. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two .. it was too insta-like/love for me.

And the inner dialogue was so painful to get through that I started to skim because it was getting repetitive.

From the beginning of this book, the topic of Hallmark movies is mentioned. I think that was what the author intended this book to become. I thought it was cute but so much more could have been done with this story. Its every premise that I enjoy, just not well executed.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. As I am my own person, the above is an honest review.

This was an incredibly fun and light read, and was a perfect palette cleanser. Some of my favorite troupes were included, so that's always a plus. I will never turn down a fake dating/grumpy x sunshine type book. There isn't a whole lot of spice (if you count kissing), but it didn't take away from the plot at all. This is the first book in this series and I'm not exactly jumping to read the next one though. This book is very hallmark-movie esque, so it wasn't my normal read. I definitely recommend if you're looking for something cutesy and fun if you just finished a heavy/emotional read.

what a pure delight this book was!! it was just so much fun to read. the characters were charming and full of heart. i adored this and will be adding it to my shelves so soon!! thank you so much netgalley!!