Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this charming book. I saw someone say MMC is Ted Lasso and I can't unread that. It really makes sense. I liked the fake dating/marriage trope and the chemistry these two had!

This book didn't quickly draw me so I decided to not complete it. I found the characters uninteresting and it was taking too long to develop the story. Based on other reviews, I am alone in this opinion so I hope other potential readers ignore my grumpiness.

4.5 STARS!
This book brought me a huge surprise.

From the beginning, I was not sure what to expect. The writer’s prose was something I had to get used to as it was different than typical. The characters were definitely unique and one of a kind compared to any other similar story.

But what was interesting is that the author took us from the most awkward people ever to a steaming long foreplay session that is not only hot but beautiful. The author’s prose for Sam is amazing. His characteristics are overly sweet and almost dorky, which aligns perfectly with the plot.

The female lead, Connie, is tough on the outside, but tender-hearted and a bit broken on the inside. She is the balance that Sam needs and as they grow together, they become fire.

There are a few unbelievable parts in this story regarding Sam which I am not spoiling, but the author continued to reel me in and by the closing HEA, my heart was singing. That man is hot and together they are burning up the sheets.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage is refreshingly different and definitely memorable. This is one you need to check out!

My Big Fat Fake Marriage is an enjoyable fake romance/forced proximity story with a cinnamon roll type of guy and a prickly woman.

While I enjoyed the book and appreciated the plus-size representation in both characters, I did not enjoy it as much as the first book, When Grumpy Met Sunshine. The characters did not connect with me as well and I did not find it as funny as the first. All that said, I still liked the romance and look forward to future books from the author.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

After a series of dates with so called “nice guys”, Connie has decided they simply do not exist. In fact, whenever she comes into contact with one she’s immediately distrustful. But when she meets lovable, goofy, and kind hearted Henry Samual Beckett aka Beck, her beliefs about nice guys begin to waiver. Could it be that nice guys exist after all?

Beck believes in treating everyone kindly. He’s the epitome of a nice guy and a genuinely good person, but he’s got a secret: he’s been single his whole life. There’s only one problem: everyone at work believes he’s married. When the office bully begins to bother him at a work party, Connie jumps to defend him and accidentally becomes his fake wife. Now the two must continue the charade at a two week work retreat, but will a fake marriage turn into something real?

There were a lot of things that really worked in this novel, and some things that were a bit of a miss. I really liked Connie/Hazel. She was witty, and her dialogue kept me laughing. She’s been hurt many times, and yet she is still open to the possibility of something more. The story is told entirely from her POV, and I can’t help but wish we got to see Beck’s POV as well.

Here’s the thing: he’s based off of Ted Lasso, and while the tv show portrayed a man who’s kind but had multiple layers below the surface, I can’t say the same for Beck. He’s a bit of a doormat, and there’s no real substance to him. What motivates him to be so kind to such an extreme? What’s his backstory? I think if we had a clearer understanding of what drives him, it would have been easier to connect to him. As of now, he reads a bit like what an idea of a nice guy is, but not a flesh and blood human with real feelings.

I did appreciate the care with which he treats Hazel and their banter was extremely cute. The spicy scenes were hot, and I will say that Ms. Stein did an excellent job of maintaining Beck’s characterization consistent. He didn’t suddenly turn into a dirty talking sexpot, so I do appreciate that.

I also wish there were higher stakes when it came to their fake marriage. I think it could have been used more to create opportunities for them to work together to convince people their marriage was real. Despite this, I did enjoy reading this story. It was also nice to see Mabel and Alfie from the previous story.

This is the 2nd book I have read in the series/author.

As a Ted Lasso fan, I am enjoying the sweet connection in the series brings with characters showing similar characteristics. As always the plus size rep is great and done well. 5/5 would recommend.

Let me just start this off by saying that My Big Fat Fake Marriage LITERALLY pulled me from the edge of s reading slump! I started this book and was immediately pulled in with the characters, quirkiness, AND the MOST golden retriever/cinnamon roll book boyfriend, Beck. He literally bakes her cakes and pies WHEN HE'S JUST HER NEIGHBOR and they know so much about each other before they even really meet!

This gorgeous book has some aspects of personal growth, fake dating/fake marriage, forced proximity, and one bed! As well, last year, I read When Grumpy Met Sunshine and was ABSOLUTELY obsessed! So when Alfie and Mable from WGMS showed up and are besties with the female main character, Connie/Hazel, I was so excited and happy to see them in a different time/perspective! 🥹

I don't know if I can really describe how much I loved this book and why I loved it so much but suffice it to say that I think I highlighted like 80% of the book on my Kindle because there were so many cute + quotable moments!🤩

Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for an early copy of this book!💖

This book was so delightful, I loved the humor, the romance, everything about it. Hazel and Beck’s chemistry was a palpable on page thing. I loved their emails, I would have loved more of that. And I especially loved Hazel realizing she doesn’t have to hide the parts of herself her mother deemed too much. I would have enjoyed seeing Beck defend her to them, or tell them off.

This was a sweet read. My only issue was the MMC was little too “Ned Flanders-esque”. It didn’t seem realistic. It also was far-fetched that this attractive 6 foot five inch tall man that we learn played college basketball is unattached let alone has no relationship experience.

4.5/5 🌟
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this laugh out loud romantic comedy ARC.

This book had some of my favorite tropes:
😍 Fake dating/ Fake Marriage
😍 Plus Size fmc
😍 Romantic Comedy
😍 Nerdy MCs
😍 Forced Proximity

Connie/ Hazel's neighbor Beck is always cheery when she sees him and she is under the assumption he's married. Jes a brar pf a man amd just like Connie, hes a guge nerd. When she walks into his apartment and finds weird pictures of magazine cutups of models and no furniture she's curious. Turns out he's not actually married but he's told his work nemesis that he is. He's expected to take his wife to a work trip and he's panicking that his lies will be revealed.

Connie agrees to pretend to be his wife and stay with him on the retreat. The more Connie gets to know Beck the more she falls for him and their fake relationship starts to feel real.

I highly recommend reading 📚 tht book to find out what hilarious antics happen during the retreat and after.

This was a relatively fasy rrad bit there were some parts that dragged on for me. Overall I thought this eas always cute read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. *Spoilers in this review*

This was my first book by this author. I loved the premise of this book, but I felt like something was missing. Maybe if Hazel's backstory with her parents was flushed out a little more? There are some humorous parts which I enjoyed; The author is really witty. The spice level is high in this book so be prepared if you're not used to that.

Beck is a quirky, super, sweet guy who doesn't think he's good enough for Hazel. Hazel has a lot of trauma from growing up and no one ever loving her. In the process of pretending to be married, Hazel discovers Beck is really actually a nice guy. Neither of them think they are what the other person wants in a relationship. They discover they are just what each other needs while on the writer's retreat.

Unfortunately, this was not my cup of tea. I was actually really looking forward to this book, but the prose made me cringe. Maybe I don't enjoy this style of writing? The main character seemed immature and the neighbor seemed like a creep. I got stalker vibes from this weird book. Would not recommend.

Such a cute story! Loved the story: it was simple but effective. The characters were so sweet with each other, I loved it

Book review template

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.