There was a great quote from Alan Yang when Master of None won an award for best comedy. "Thank you to all the straight white guys who dominated movies and TV so hard, and for so long, that stories about anyone else seem kind of fresh and original." With romance novels, for so long, stories have been centred around white Americans and Europeans, that it feels incredibly fresh to have such a great Indian novel, with characters who are uniquely Indian and really breathe fresh life into a familiar trope.

Harsha has moved to Bangalore (a city I was not familiar with and fell down a rabbit hole googling) after finishing college at Berkeley and is still trying to find her place in her grown up career as a photographer. When her boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her, she has to find a date for a family wedding asap. Enter Veer, her favourite barista, who needs the money to help pay his brother's tuition. Despite feeling resentful that Harsha asks him to lie about his job to impress her family, he agrees. And a fake dating romance begins!

I enjoyed that the characters were so culturally specific - social media plays a role in communicating in a way that felt very different from an American influencer, and there is considerable mention of the nuances of the Indian film industry and that kissing in public is not appropriate around older relatives. I also appreciated that the conflict that the main characters have with their families is not over an arranged marriage - Harsha's cousin Neha does have an arranged marriage, but there is no disagreement between generations on this issue and it is treated as one option amongst many to find a partner. There is also the reveal of a character as LGBT, which is handled very sweetly and kindly.

I do wish we had gotten more of a sense of the perspective of Harsha's parents. She has an ongoing conflict with them about wanting to feel supported, and I never quite felt like I understood where they were coming from or why they felt that Harsha needed to find someone else. I wish I had more of an idea of what motivated them.

Can't Help Faking in Love was such a fun read - I read it late into the night because I couldn't put it down - and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a good fake dating trope!

"Harsha Godbole has never been dumped like this before."

Harsha Godbole is from a rich family with connections to Bollywood. Determined to make it on her own, Harsha has recently moved back to Bangalore. She's trying to start a photography business and was recently dumped by her rich boyfriend (who her parents probably WOULD have approved of).

Veer is a barista who dreams of being an actor. But he needs to help take care of his mom and brother, who needs money to go to school or he will be kicked out.

After an encounter with her cousin and facing the reality of going to the wedding alone, Harsha decides to put her trust fund to use and hire Veer to be her boyfriend. He needs to money for his brother's tuition so he agrees. They'll both benefit and definitely won't be falling in love ;)

I thought this was a super sweet story. I loved the character growth in both characters and reading about how their love story bloomed. I also loved watching Harsha become who she wanted to be without her parents. I can't wait to read more by Swati Hedge!

Thank you to Random House Publishing group and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an unbiased review.

3.75 stars This is a classic fake dating romance set in Bangalore. She's grown up with a snobby rich family that she's estranged from, he's a barista who is putting his brother through school. Her snobby cousin is getting married. You can probably guess the general arc from here, especially given the title. :)

The first couple chapters of this book I couldn't stand the female main character to the extent that I was dreading getting through the rest of the book. However, she has a great arc and quickly softens and opens up. This book was exceptionally sweet and I loved that it took place in India (I've read a lot of books about the Indian diaspora but having protagonists living in India was a big difference and I found it very different.) .

It's also a great length for a book like this, it moves quickly and I was never bored. I'm tempted to doc a quarter point because of how much I disliked the female main character in the first few chapters but she becomes likable fast enough that I won't.

Thank you to Random House Publishing group for providing an ARC for an unbiased review.

3.5 ⭐️ Swati Hegde delivers the best easy, feel-good escapes to India! I also loved the nostalgic romance quotes from TV shows in the chapter headers!

There were a ton of things I really enjoyed about this book. I loved learning more about Bangalore and Indian culture in general. The vibrant descriptions make the reader want to travel there and see experience it for themselves.

I also loved that the male main character has a gay brother. This isn’t the main plot by any means but it was an important addition and we get to see Veer’s very culturally conservative mother grapple and ultimately accept her son’s homosexuality. I thought it was handled with grace and realism.

I think the discrepancy in the main characters’ wealth and upbringing was another aspect that was both important to the story and handled very well. We see Harsha struggle with both wanting to be financially independent from her parents but also deal with the downside of growing up with extreme wealth and then facing the real life difficulties of being poor. The author also brings up the fact of Harsha always having a safety net of generational wealth which is completely different from being poor and from a poor family.

All in all, this was a great book. I thought parts of it were a bit repetitive and I wanted to shout “just talk already” since there could have been a much quicker resolution with some heart-to-hearts but this is a romance book and we needed that third act friction in order to enjoy a happy ending.

Very cute and fun! Loved all the sitcom references in each chapter and thought the representation of Indian culture and family dynamic was very accurate. MMC was such a simp for the FMC which I absolutely love!

3.75/5 ⭐
.5/5 🌶

Such a fun, Indian rom-com! Quick read and chemistry from the beginning! Young, modern Indian characters navigating tradition, unconventional family dynamics, faking their way to love and their dreams. This was my first read by Swati Hegde and overall enjoyed.

Tropes:
💚 Fake dating
💜 Only one bed
💚 Indian Culture
💜 All-BIPOC cast
💚 Big desi wedding
💜 Closed door romance
💚 Complicated family dynamics

Book Blurb:
Harsha Godbole has never felt love from her family, but she’s always been surrounded by their Bollywood business mogul wealth. Now back in Bangalore after studying in America, Harsha is ready to start her adult life without their money. But that becomes impossible when everything she’s worked so hard for comes crumbling down. Fearful of showing up to her cousin’s upcoming wedding as a failure—and worse, a single failure—Harsha decides to put her trust fund to good use . . .

Veer Kannan does everything for his family. He even gave up his dreams of becoming a Bollywood star to get a more consistent gig . . . although working as a barista wasn’t really the big break he was hoping for. It’s a humble life, but a happy one, nonetheless. Then financial aid falls through for his brother’s first year in business school, so now Veer needs to come up with a large sum of money, and fast.

Harsha’s outlandish plan to hire her favorite barista as her fake boyfriend for the weekend-long wedding bash is received surprisingly well by Veer, who hopes this will be his ticket to Bollywood. But Harsha and Veer get way more than they bargained for in this heartwarming journey to finding unexpected love and courage.

Tropes:
Opposites attract
Fake Dating
Slow burn
Bollywood

This book was so fun! A quick and engaging read.

I loved Harsha and Veer, and why they started fake dating. I actually loved that their reasons were meaningful, not just surface level.

Add in A LOT of slow burn, and some Bollywood, and you get a fun rom com that's different than all the rest (in such a good way).

I loved the side characters and the culture written into the story as well. It really made a well rounded book that was fun to read.

Harsha comes from a family of wealth and privilege, but it working hard to make it on her own as a photographer and independent woman. In order to save face with her family, she goes along with her cousin mistaking the local barista, Veer, for her boyfriend. Veer has Bollywood dreams, but works his coffee shop job in order to put his brother through business school. He proposes a deal with Harsha: he will pretend to be her boyfriend for the family wedding if she pays him 500 million rupees. She agrees, not knowing that along the way of fake dating she will behind to feel the chemistry growing between them.

Honestly, this story just didn’t click with me. The beginning encounters with Harsha and Veer were so off putting I don’t see how it was able to turn into love along the way. Their love story just wasn’t conveyed to me as the book progressed. In the end, I just didn’t believe and feel their happily ever after. They seem to have nothing in common other than fake dating, forced proximity, and a commitment to their mutually beneficial ruse. Harsha works hard to benefit herself and impress her family while Veer works hard to benefit his family. Their values just seem in complete opposite of each other. To me, the only reason they end up together is because the author wrote it that way. If I could give half stars, I’d give this 3.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Swati has very quickly become an automatic buy-author for me. swati has such a great way of writing stories you can easily play in your head and make you feel like you’re watching a romcom rather than reading one. while in Match Me if You Can, the FMC resembled the typical (and loveable) quirky stereotype (think Jessica Day), Harsha is much more of a Cece type, in which she picks and chooses where her soft spots land and she’s very protective of her own self (not to say she is selfish, do Not get it twisted). she is firm in who she is even if it doesn’t always work out for her. it’s always refreshing to read about a main character who knows what she wants, who is doing what she loves to do, and is firm to who she is throughout the entire book. she doesn’t compromise herself or her ambitions to make her life easier for anyone else.

ranting about women because it’s almost galentine’s day #oops let me love on my man Veer really quick because he is a DREAM. i think part of what makes this book and this couple work so well is because while harsha sort of has to take care and look after herself, veer’s role is taking care and looking after the people around him. i love a “i can do it myself” x “but you don’t have to do it alone” couple and this is very much what they are to me and i love them with all my heart <3

the perfect friends to lovers, fake dating book i’ve read in a long time and i cannot wait for more from swati!!

thank you @dellromance for the arc

This was such a sweet fake dating story. I really loved the nods to Bollywood and the Indian wedding. Veer and Harsha had such great banter and chemistry.

This a classic on the fake dating trope. We have our two main characters, Harsha who comes from a rich influential family, and Veer who is an aspiring actor working in a coffee shop. Harsha has rejected her family's money to try and make it on her own as a freelance photographer.. Veer is trying to figure out how to make extra money to pay for his brother's college now that the full scholarship was pulled. This is where the book actually starts to get good, as you expect, Harsha ropes Veer into being her fake boyfriend in front of her family and they fall in love through the shenanigans, It did take me a while to get into it.

This was mostly just fine, but I mainly feel like it didn't really achieve what it set out to do. Harsha starts off pretty unlikable with her spoiled rich girl vibes, and she simply doesn't go through enough character growth. She doesn't want anything to do with her parents if she doesn't have to, but when by the end her dad says he respects her wishes and he then cuts her off from his bank account, she's very hurt and offended. Like Harsha, I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Either you're going to be independent and make your own money with freedom from your parents, or you depend on them, but either way, just make a consistent choice. I think as a reader I was meant to be proud of Harsha for how far she's come, but nothing in her behaviour felt consistent, so I just didn't know what to make of her and had a hard time sympathizing.

Harsha Godbole's boyfriend has dumped right before her cousin's wedding. All she wants is to prove to her wealthy family that she can be successful in life without their money or connections. That's why she moved to Bangalore, rather than near them in Mumbai. Her career as a professional photographer isn't going great and she was hoping that showing up with a successful boyfriend would at least prove to her family that she was doing fine on her own. At least her favorite coffee shop hasn't let her down and the barista there knows exactly how she likes her coffee, making it perfect every time.
Veer, the barista at Sunstag coffee likes making Harsha smile. He's got a tad bit of a crush on her, but he know she'd never date someone like him. He has bigger problems anyway. His brother's scholarship to a top university has fallen through and now he needs to figure out how they're going to pay the tuition.
When Veer is mistaken for Harsha's boyfriend, she decides to offer him a deal. She'll pay him to pretend to be her boyfriend and win over her family.
Veer, desperate for the money, agrees.

This was a cute little story. Harsha, thankfully, doesn't come off as a spoiled rich girl, in fact, I actually felt bad for her. All she wanted was supportive parents. Veer was a total green flag, he was sweet and understanding, I actually wish he'd had some slight flaws.

While the first half of the book built up Veer and Harsha's relationship, the second half felt a bit rushed to me. There were so many things that were either unresolved or casually pushed aside like they weren't a big deal. It left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. They weren't part of the main plot, but would have added a lot more depth the if given more space in the story.

Overall, this was a nice, quick read and a cute little love story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Bollywood + fake dating - I'm SOLD! This was absolutely adorable. The MCs had great chemistry and the thoughtful actions between them made me swoon over and over. Absolutely loved it!

Harsha needs a date to show off at two family functions. She is a photographer whose boyfriend just broke up with her to have an arranged marriage. Veer needs money to pay his brother’s tuition at business school. He is a barista who dreams of being an actor. When her cousin thinks that Veer is her boyfriend, she decides to pay him to pretend to be him. It was only supposed to be for six weeks.

I enjoyed the flow of this book. It was a very good fake dating story. They seemed to fall for each other naturally. The discovery of their deceit was right on time and not forced. And their happily ever after made sense. I liked this book a lot.

Can't Help Faking in Love was such a quick, fun, and fast-paced read! Harsha and Veer start fake dating when Harsha, freshly broken up with, needs a date for her cousin’s wedding. Veer, the cute barista, is also juggling taking care of his little brother and mother after being abandoned by his father as a teenager. He needs to make a lot of money, really fast, to pay his little brother's tuition.

The best part of this book is the yearning! It takes so long for these two to finally kiss, but the build-up is full of tender, intense moments. Their relationship feels incredibly wholesome and loving by the time they cross the boundaries of their fake dating arrangement.

I also really enjoyed the side characters. The friendships and family dynamics were touching, especially the evolving relationship between Harsha and her cousin. Their strained connection plays a significant role in the plot, and their resolution at the end was satisfying—though I wished we’d seen more of their interaction.

The writing style did leave me feeling like something was missing at times, but overall, this book was a lovely, enjoyable read that’s perfect for when you need something quick and fun.

This novel offers a lighthearted and entertaining take on the popular fake-dating trope, set against the vibrant backdrop of Indian family life and cultural expectations. Harsha Godbole, a privileged but emotionally neglected heiress, hires Veer Kannan, a hardworking barista and aspiring Bollywood actor, to pose as her boyfriend at her cousin’s extravagant wedding. What begins as a business deal soon evolves into something far more complicated as both navigate love, family, and their dreams.

One of the book’s strengths is its depiction of Indian family dynamics. The pressures of societal expectations, especially around success and appearances, are relatable and woven seamlessly into the story without overshadowing the romance. The grand wedding setting is richly described, full of colourful customs, rituals, and drama that bring the narrative to life. Harsha’s struggle to save face at the wedding as a “failure” will resonate with many readers familiar with the cultural importance of maintaining a polished image.

The romance between Harsha and Veer is sweet and satisfying, with the opposites-attract dynamic working well. Harsha’s guarded nature contrasts with Veer’s grounded personality, and their growing connection—moving from a transactional relationship to genuine care—is the highlight of the story. The chemistry between them feels natural and engaging, even if some of the emotional beats feel a bit predictable.

However, the book doesn’t quite deliver on its full potential. The pacing is uneven, with some parts dragging while others feel rushed. Harsha’s journey toward independence and Veer’s struggles with family responsibilities are only explored at surface level, and secondary characters lack depth, leaving some emotional moments feeling underwhelming.

Despite its shortcomings, this is an enjoyable rom-com with moments of heart and humour. While it doesn’t break new ground, it’s a cosy and charming read for fans of fake-dating romances, Bollywood-inspired settings, and feel-good love stories. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Wow oh wow did this book come out of left field in the best way!!! Swati’s writing is so captivating & with this being the second book of hers I’ve read, I’m even more inclined to see more from her!

This was a beautiful story of two humans just trying to figure it all out - and if that’s not relatable I’m not sure what is! Thank you to Swati and her team for the ARC - everyone should pick this up!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an eARC. A cute fake dating romance. Takes place India and enjoyed the cultural aspects of the story.