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I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

5/5 stars

I loooooved Charlotte Stein’s “When Grumpy Met Sunshine” and “My Big Fat Fake Marriage” does not disappoint. In fact, Connie is Mabel’s best friend!

This big, as you can glean from the title, is about a fake marriage, between Connie and Beck. Beck is not the usual guy Connie goes far… he’s far too chipper, dorky, and… virginal. But he is also large, sexy, and sweet.

In typical Stein fashion, there is a LOT of spice!

Read this if you like spice, one bed, fake marriage, and friends to lovers.

This was another sweet love story in this series. These two characters so deserved their happily ever after and the epilogue was simply lovely. This author never disappoints.

My rating is based on the fact that this book wasn't what I was expecting. The writing is great, the story, eh I would have like to know more about the characters....and maybe switched off between mmc and mfc telling the story. It definitely was extra spicy 🔥. So 5 stars for the writing, 3 for the story just fell a bit flat for me.
Thanks to netgalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read this ARC for an honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

This was very cute and almost made me cringe…a lot. But I still enjoyed it as a fluffy read. I got a lot of secondhand embarrassment from our MMC. The spice was legit tho so I’ll let it pass.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for my review copy.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage follows Connie (aka Hazel), an aspiring writer who just can't seem to avoid so-called "nice guys" in her dating life. Jaded and perpetually alone, Connie avoids her next door neighbor book editor Beck like the plague - with his dorky bowties and gifts of delicious pies at her doorstep. But when this goofy, put-together imposing tower of a man suddenly shows up in the elevator disheveled and distressed, Connie can't help but to feel curious. It turns out that Beck has been lying to his coworkers about having a wife. As events and shenanigans unfold, Connie (now going by Hazel) and Beck somehow end up in a fake marriage at a writing retreat with Beck's evil coworker. Can they keep up this charade without falling for each other in the process?


Y'all know how these stories go. Fake marriage, forced proximity, only one bed, a sweet guy who blushes when he sees ankles and can't keep his food down when he lies. This book is very cute, sometimes almost too cute. And that cuteness often verges into cringe. Beck is an embarrassing parody of Clark Kent, saying things like "oh my goodness" and "dilly of a pickle" and Connie/Hazel is written so tumblr millennial (I'm a millennial btw) with her pink streaks and her ballet flat shoes. But honestly -- regardless of how cringey the characters are -- the spice is excellent, so I'm willing to look past it. This book is also incredibly plot-lite; I'm pretty sure the plot was an afterthought and an excuse to just write back to back chapters of smut. The miscommunication trope also runs rampant throughout the book, causing a lot of frustration for the characters and the reader.

If you need a mindlessly smutty book with awkward, desperately millennial plus size characters and can get over the cringe & frequent miscommunication, this one's worth a read.

3 stars

title: My Big Fat Fake Marriage

author: Charlotte Stein

publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

publication date: March 11, 2025

pages: 304

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings: none

summary: Connie/Hazel has had extraordinarily bad luck with dating, so much so that she doesn't trust any nice men she meets, including her new neighbor Beck. He's not just nice, he's Ted Lasso nice, so of course, he must want something from her. Through a series of silly events, she discovers that he's been pretending to be married for the benefit of a jerky co-worker. In a fit of protective spirit, she claims to be Beck's wife, a ruse they have to maintain on a two-week writers' retreat run by his publishing house.

tropes:

fake marriage
Ted Lasso
burned by love

low confidence main characters
only one bed
we have to practice kissing
he's got no sexual experience; hers is all lousy

what I liked:

His Ted Lasso-ness was well done, including a basketball equivalent to the famous dart scene
spicy intimacy scenes

what I didn’t like:

bad guy is too icky to be believable
takes her too long to figure out how much he likes her

overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)

This book is wonderful. I loved that it was funny, cute and very spicy. Even though the MCs had their own personal issues to overcome, they pretty quickly realized they were attracted to each other both physically and personally and their HEA was very sweet. It was nice to see the characters from When Grumpy Met Sunshine again but this book could totally be read as a standalone. I also enjoy when characters are exploring their passions so I loved when Beck encouraged Connie to take advantage of the writing retreat and she became very inspired to write. Thank you to Charlotte Stein, NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for giving me a chance to read it early.

I’m always a sucker for a fake relationship and this book did not disappoint! This was a such a cute and quick read for me. I didn’t realize this was a second book in a series but I didn’t think I missed anything by reading this first. I’ll definitely be checking out book 1!

I could not get into this novel - I. did not care for any of the characters and did not care for the writing style of the author. I gave up at 20% in. Life is too short to read books I don't enjoy. This one went into my DNF pile.

Thank you so much for the ARC! This was so cheesy and adorable! The character development in this story was great and the spice was spectacular! Some parts of the book I didn't find enticing and I didn't find myself wanting to pick up the book often. Overall it was well done, however, not my favourite. I will however read another book by Charlotte Stein.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein is a well written book about the relationship between two unlikely neighbors. Connie’s neighbor Beck is quite a nerd, and she is surprisingly drawn to his quirky ways.
Beck is going to attend a writer’s retreat and then tells his co-workers he will be bringing his wife. Oops, he does not have a wife, so Connie tells him she will go along and pretend to be his wife; a massive surprise to him, and even more of a surprise to Connie as she cannot believe she offered to do that. Needless to say, this has humor and crazy situations.
This story took a bit of time for me to get into and I will tell you that it is quite graphic but also entertaining in a quirky way! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this ARC.

Super fast fun read! The characters are relatable (don't we all doubt ourselves at times?!) There's humor, spice, romance, and friendship - what's not to love!

I loved so many parts of this story. I loved the nerdy banter and wish there would have been more of it. I loved that they were older and fluffier. I loved the setting of a writer's retreat. But I usually like my sex scenes more PG and definitely less foul language.

I really wanted to like this book. It had so many things I adore, but I just couldn't get into it. This was a DNF for me. I found the dialogue to be forced and contrived.

DNF - I love that this book attempts to be normalizing and affirming for a variety of readers and yet it is so distracting to any kind of story line that I couldn't finish the book.

Good golly, this book is soooo hot. And at the same time so sweet. Hazel and Beckett are neighbors. He is kind and awkward and weird. And she is jaded about men, and tired of hiding her own awkward and weird. I must admit Beckett also crosses the line of too naive I guess. He is just that kind. But his kindness makes Hazel blossom. And her life experience light him up. And just to reiterate, this book is hot. Kudos to Charlotte Stein for writing a kissing scene that had me fanning my face. I am so glad I got a chance to read it early.

I wasn’t sure about this one at first, but I ended up truly loving this story! I totally identify with all the doubts Hazel has about herself. I read the second half all in one sitting! I will definitely be seeking out more by this author.

This book dances between humor and heat, blending fake romance with real emotions. Its playful twists make it a joyful exploration of love and happily-ever-afters.

This is fun! Lots of excellent banter, especially the written exchanges between the main characters. And the steam....whew! I did wish for some additional plot complications. This is very much a relationship story with 2 very likable characters. I would definitely read this author's books again.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Connie thinks she has nice men figured out. For that reason., she does not trust her neighbor. This book made me laugh at times.