This book was a pretty cute romance. I don't think it will be my favorite romance of 2025, but overall I still enjoyed this book. I did find the male main character to be a bit unrealistic. Also I liked the audiobook narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc/alc.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage Review

Thank you so much to Net Galley and St. Martins Press for the ARC! I received this copy in exchange for my honest review and as always I’m so appreciative of the opportunity.

I will be posting this review in full on my goodreads profile and featuring parts of this review on my Instagram account story on 3/1/2025.

I was drawn to this book because I’m a sucker for the trope of fake marriage and reading about the couple and how they eventually fall in love.

The beginning of this book kind of threw me off at first but then just when I was like what the heck is happening I found myself laughing out loud. Beck and Hazel are the sweetest couple and make my inner nerd heart so happy. There is nothing I hate more than a bully so I really can’t blame Hazel for stepping up and doing what she did as I would have done the same thing.

I really loved watching Hazels jaded soul, turn into a soft mushy heart with her adventures with Beck. It’s just goes to show the power of being loved by the right person. My favorite line of the book was “ Someone needs to save your cinnamon roll ass from evil, and apparently that someone is me.” Girl after my own heart for sure.

Hazel is the epitome of “hurt people hurt people” and I get her behavior behind it just seems like at the end of the book during the breakup scene it was kind of rushed/forced and just annoyed me more than did anything to set up an epic get back together scene. But to be honest I ate this book up and enjoyed it for the lighthearted spicy romance book it is.

Also side note: I LOVE Alfie and Mabel and definitely need to read their origin story. Overall I think the authors own words of “Because I don’t like it when people try to crush something good in the world. There’s too little of it as it is” sum up this book perfectly. Take it at face value for the sunshine it is.

Thanks again to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!

As always I really enjoy Charlotte Stein’s writing style. This was a sort of grumpycat/ sunshine reversal with Beck our leading man being the sunshine. Well written, decent chemistry between the leads and plenty of heat in the second half. 3 🌟

I found this book very disappointing. There really wasn’t enough character development or plot, it’s genuinely 97% dirty talk and smut. Which would be fine if this weren’t being marketed as a romcom.
I am a big Ted Lasso fan, but it does bother me that there isn’t much difference between him and Beck. I am all for characters being inspired by other characters, but this just read like self insert fan fiction.
A lot of the passages had my eyes glazing over, because it was the sixth or seventh time it had been said.
Overall, not a very enjoyable read.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage takes an outgoing aspiring writer and a wholesome top editor and places them together at a writing retreat where she pretends to be the fake wife he has been telling his colleagues about. Mabel (from book 1) works with Beck and let him know about the empty apartment across the hall from Hazel. Hazel is suspicious of his consistently nice and cheery manners, having been burned too many times by "nice" guys.

If 'When Grumpy Met Sunshine' was a Roy Kent fanfic, then this is the Ted Lasso MC. A big and tall American, too nice to survive the London scene. Hazel slowly realizes that it's okay to be her true self as she gets more comfortable around him, and Beck is able to let loose a little more with Hazel's encouragement.

You can expect -
Romcom
Golden Retriever x Black Cat
Fake Marriage
Opposites Attract
Forced Proximity
Only One Bed
Pining & Banter
Writing Retreat
English Countryside
Mid30s MCs
Single, 1stP POV

This was funny and spicy, and gave everything you could want from a fake relationship. I liked that Mabel called it after her fake dating scenario in her book, and helped Hazel work through it. It was great having that supportive friendship in the background of this. This is an interconnected standalone, so you do not need to read the first book, but it is fun to have both.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's for providing an eARC for my honest opinion.

While this book was very well written, I didn’t particularly enjoy the storyline which felt overly familiar. The characters were not relatable to me and that definitely impacted my opinion. If you’re looking for a light, easy read then this will definitely suffice!

Very propulsive--I read this all in one shot. Stein is so good at continually ratcheting up the tension until it has to break in an explosive way, and we all know she can write a killer sex scene. In many ways, though, it felt very surface--there didn't seem to be a lot of depth to Connie/Hazel or to Beck, and getting his POV might have been useful here. I was also very confused at the naming. Why did she have to be called Connie at all? Why did her best friend suddenly start calling her that out of nowhere when she didn't seem to know that Beck was calling her that? The bleak moment/ending also felt a little rushed. Still, it was a bright and sparkling read that I enjoyed.

Oh this book is SO good! Warning don't listen to it while trying to work. Oh my it's steamy! I highly recommend this one.

Here’s what you need to know about My Big Fat Fake Marriage; it’s all about the vibes, and in this case, they’re immaculate. If you’re looking for heavy plot and lots of supportive characters, or vivid imagery, none of that is important and I don’t mean that as a negative. Instead Stein writes from a first person single POV that almost reads a a stream of consciousness and is deeply into the mood, feelings, dialogue, and actions of the moment. This book was excellent on audio for this reason, because the reader is either inside of Hazel’s head or observing her interactions. So back to the vibes; Hazel has never had a quality relationship with anyone and approaches feelings with caution. Sex is transactional and at this point in her life she’s kinda down on men and distrustful of one who seems especially nice. Beck on the other hand is the biggest cinnamon roll hero I could ever imagine—he’s American, huge in size, mustachioed, virginal, and bright-eyed, and just happened to invent a fake wife to his publisher. Agreeing to be his fake-wife for a retreat, Hazel begins to see Beck for all his wonderful qualities and begins to believe that just maybe not all guys are unlikeable.
The dynamic between Hazel and Beck is so good. It’s unfathomable for her to think that “what you see is what you get” with Beck, but that’s what softens her up. He truly is authentic. Seeing Beck explore everything (even if it seems pretend—spoiler, it’s not) with Hazel is so refreshing, and Hazel derives pleasure from seeing Beck’s reactions to her. Hazel eventually feels comfortable enough to let some major walls down and it’s a beautiful thing when it happens.
The other thing that makes this a Charlotte Stein™️ book is that the sex is Hot, with a capital H. Let me crown her the new Queen of Dirty Talk, because for MULTIPLE chapters, her characters engage in frisky only-one-bed-we—are-pretend-married-mutual-masturbation-horniness. Beck is trainable (wink), and loves knowing he makes Hazel feel good whether that’s emotionally or physically. Penetrative intercourse doesn’t even happen until 86%, but Stein will have you so worked up for the six chapters before that it’s just icing on the cake. These are MCs who TALK. How else would you understand your fake-partner, when you haven’t been around them enough to notice their likes and dislikes? And the dialogue heavy aspect of this book makes is revelatory to see how expressing yourself can be tantamount to showing love. I think this is a great place to start if you haven’t read Stein before. She took one of my admittedly least favorite types of MMCs (the nice guy) and made me adore him. This book is also for the jaded girlies who maybe don’t think there’s anything better out there for them. There is. I received an early copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭🪭🪭
Vibes: ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
Level of horniness: 📯📯📯📯📯

DNF @ 13%

I really wanted to like this -- I've heard great things about Charlotte Stein for a LONG time -- but I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of a story with no explanation of what was going on. This could be because I believe this is the second book in a series where I haven't read the first, but for a contemporary romance, I expect to be able to pop in wherever and pick up where things are.

I think this will be a story most people can enjoy IF they can follow along with the story.

Enjoyed this. Cute idea for a romance plot and the writing about Beck was fun to read. Kind of a big bear Ted Lasso with vintage fashion. Lots of spicy scenes. One thing I couldn’t wrap my mind around was the two main characters discussing how they could hear someone farting through the thin walls but if that’s the case wouldn’t the people in the next room also hear their secret conversation?

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for letting me read this one early in exchange for my review!

✨ Cinnamon Roll / Spicy Black Cat
✨ Fake Marriage
✨ Deliciously Spicy
✨ Writer / Editor
✨ Only One Bed

What do you get when you mix a spicy mouthed black cat nerdy writer fmc and a cinnamon roll “touch her and get your ass kicked in basketball” mustached editor mmc? Well, this delightful spicy rom-com of a book.

To be 100% honest, I knew this was going to be right up my alley when I requested it, but it turned out to be even better than I imagined. I adored the growth, the honesty, the evolution of feelings, the forms of communication, it was all just so cleverly put together.

If you’re into any of the tropes listed above, or are looking for a book that will leave you kicking your feet giggling at the end, snag this one when it comes out.

This was a sweet as sugar romance between Hazel, a bad at love/romance aspiring author and her cinnamon roll neighbor, Beck, who is an editor at a publisher.

She finds out he made up a wife to get a work bully off his back and volunteers to become his fake wife for. Two week reading retreat.

Beck was so cute and endearing. And while Hazel was a mess she was fun.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for this ARC.

Summary:
Henry, Connie's new neighbor, seems nice enough, but so do most guys. Connie has a lot of trust issues and has been told time and time again that she is just too much. When she finds out that Henry has lied at work about having a wife, she steps in to help Henry save face at a writing conference. As it turns out, Henry actually is nice and Connie starts to fall head over heels... and head over horny.

Rating: 3.75/5
Spice 2.5/5

Tropes:
Fake Marriage
Forced Proximity
Virgin MMC
Opposites Attract

Triggers:
Work Gaslighting

My Thoughts:
Okay, this book is super cute. It took me a few chapters to get into it, but once I did, I finished reading it in one sitting. The chemistry of the characters is top notch and usually a virgin trope is an ick for me, but Henry's sweetness really won me over. I do have an issue that kept the book from being a full 4 stars. Henry is an American working in a British office and, especially at the beginning of the book, the author makes him seem like a bumbling American idiot. He says things like "golly" and seems entirely clueless even though he is a high powered editor and supposedly very well read. Once the "dumb American" vibe cooled down, Henry became very likable as a character.

This book was so amazing. The chemistry between the characters was out of this world. I loved Beck’s character so much, I kept catching myself giggling at what he would say. I love that Hazel continued to feel more and more comfortable in herself as the book went by. It made me happy that they brought the best out in each other. Beck and Hazel’s chemistry throughout the book had me blushing. The spice was also SO SPICY?! I knew what I was signing up for, but I was still so shocked by shy little Beck being like THAT. So hot. Have the biggest crush on that burly mustached man. I love Charlotte Stein’s writing so much, she really captures me from page one. I was giggling, blushing, crying, and so giddy over every little interaction Beck and Hazel had. I loved this book so much, and am already wanting to reread it to feel that giddy high again.

An adorably hilarious unhinged fake marriage, I loved it. This is the book you read when you want to have a good time and escape from reality. Individually the characters are special and together they make a great team to fool a Beck’s coworker on a marriage that doesn’t exist.

This is your typical romance with plenty of smut and misunderstandings, but there are a few things that work for me whereas most traditional romances don’t.

First Beck. He is endearingly earnest and incredibly dorky. I love the nerdiness. I love that he can’t lie without feeling nauseated. I love that he’s the inexperienced one. And I love how he makes our girl heal and feel.

Hazel has a taste for toxic men, or she thinks she does, until Beck shows her how good being treated well can be. I kind of like how she’s the one with the experience and leads Beck down that merry road.

But of course the two are pretending to be fake married so of course there will be miscommunication.

It was a good time for me.

This one was a gosh darn delight to read! A fake marriage between the good-guy editor and the aspiring author who lives across the hall gets the forced-proximity treatment when they go on a writing retreat together with his coworkers.

Oh my heart, there’s just something about a love story between two good people falling for each other.

At a glance:
- Single POV
- Characters in their 30s
- British setting
- Ted Lasso-esque love interest
- Super smart nerds—one who has been told she needs to cover up those aspects of herself and one who proudly embraces his geeky side
- Curvy FMC
- Gentle giant love interest
- Cinnamon roll hero
- Fake marriage
- Neighbors
- Forced proximity
- Only one bed
- Kissing (and more) lessons
- Food as a love language
- TV and film references

I received an advance copy of the book from St. Martin’s Press. All review opinions are my own.

I first learned about this book when Leni Kauffman shared her fantastic cover, and I immediately wanted to read it based on what I saw and the title, and I actually loved it so much!

I started to read the arc & then immediately realized the other book I'd seen by this author was connected and first, so I started that one but was already too interested in this one and had to come back to it. I'm curious to see what I'll think of Hazel as the best friend in book 1, because I love her as the MC in this one. She's fiesty, a little rude, loves going for shock value, all while being standoffish because she was essentially trained by her mother to be exactly what men "want", to hide her real self and interests, and except all nice guys to be fake. Then her adorably oafish, gentle-giant neighbor, Beck, sees right through that and without her even realizing it at first, encourages her to own who she is. She situates herself as his fake wife to help him save face with an awful colleague at a two week writer's retreat, where she struggles with the fact that the more she sees who he is, the more she feels her walls dropping and wishing she was someone worthy of his real love.

This book is such a great mix of so beautifully soft and incredibly horny. It's all from her POV so there were times I wanted to shake her and say, "Get it together! This sweet man CLEARLY wants you for real!" Beck is nearing 40 and very inexperienced, and I loved the way that was handled in the story, with her not only not judging him for it, but ultimately being excited by the fact that she's the one who gets to have firsts with him. He may be polite, and seem rather innocent because of his general demeanor with the public, but he also knows what he wants and is a very quick to apply what he's learned.

The ending made me feel a little emotional for them both and I think it's because the "everyone deserves someone to love them just as they are" message got to me a little, because isn't that what so many of us want?

Thank you to SMP for the arc, I very much enjoyed the story and will definitely look for more from this author in the future.

Could not stand the FMC had to put this book down and walk away several times she was just so insufferable