Interesting story in a great setting. I enjoyed that the FMC & MMC were from Indian descent. The fake boyfriend trope is always fun. Good romcom with a slow build to chemistry.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

I tried to like it, but it was very superficial and I didn't feel like there was a lot of character depth. The side characters felt flat to move the plot forward.

There were some cute moments and I did like the setting, but not much else.

Thanks to NetGalley, Dell Romance, and PRH Audio for the ARC/ALC.

I thought this book was a dazzling debut novel. I loved the chemistry between Harsha and Veer, and their fun banter. Furthermore I thought the audiobook narration by Mehr Dudeja was fabulous, and I would listen to more books narrated by her. I would also be interested in reading more books by Swati Hegde in the future as well.

Pretty cute rom com. Lots going on but it’s handled well. The author is good at descriptive text and it makes the reader feel transported to the book locations. An easy and satisfying read.

Super cute fast read where the fake dating can’t stay fake with how much chemistry they have. I absolutely adored this. The complex family made things a bit more difficult for them but I loved how it was portrayed

This was a really fun fake dating for hire romcom featuring two South Asian main characters living in India who make a deal where barista, Veer, will pose as aspiring photographer, Harsha's boyfriend for a number of family events. In exchange Harsha will pay Veer so he can help fun his younger brother's college tuition. Flirty and fun, with the perfect blend of family drama and romance. I also liked the chapter heading quotes from popular sitcoms and the LGBTQ+ side plot involving Veer's gay brother and his mother's slow acceptance of his sexuality. Good on audio narrated by Mehr Dudeja and perfect for fans of authors like Sajni Patel, Annika Sharma or Naina Kumar. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: closed door

Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for this book. I received this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are entirely my own.

In this book we meet Harsha and Veer who fake a relationship and go to her cousins wedding. Harsha comes from a rich family but doesn’t want anything from them and wants to make it on her own. Harsha gets Veer to agree to be her boyfriend to attend her cousins wedding. Harsha uses money from her secondary account to pay Veer who needs the money to pay his brother’s tuition. The more time they spend together the more they fall in love with each other. Then at the wedding Harsha’s father finds out the truth and freezes her assets on the secondary family account. Veer gets an acting job which takes off and Harsha and Veer finally get together and admit their feelings. A year later and Harsha and Veer are engaged and both of their careers are thriving.

LOVED her last book and i was so excited to receive an arc of this title!!! her books are always so deeply romantic and i love their development 🫶🏼 hedge is a romance writer for the ages and i recommend her to EVERYBODY

Swati is such a talented author, and her writing gives me such joy. I am definitely giving this as a birthday gift to many of my friends. :)

DNF at 25%. What initially pulled me out was the random epigraphs from other stories which I didn’t find related much to the story. Plus, the characters don’t feel substantial enough for me to care. And fake dating has become so ubiquitous, it takes a really promising one to draw my interest, and this wasn’t really doing much different.

Can’t Help Faking In Love
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“The bottom line is, in life, sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen. But, honey, if you don’t take a chance, nothing happens.” ~ Dorothy, Golden Girls
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This is how you do a closed door romance 👏🏼😍 I was hooked right away, I absolutely loved these relatable characters. I felt the pull, the chemistry, and I didn’t miss the spice at all! There’s one spicy scene, but it’s pretty much a fade to black situation. It was funny, cute, dual POV, it’s a feel good romance in my opinion, but the characters still had a lot of depth and we explored some deeper topics like figuring ourselves out, our lives, jobs, passions, and relationships outside of our families expectations and how different that life may look once you prioritize yourself. I honestly could have read it in one sitting! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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I had a lot of fun exploring Bollywood music while I was reading and I was actually chatting with Swati and asked if she has a favorite song and this is the one she said reminds her most of Can’t Help Faking In Love and I absolutely love it 🥰 I also loved all the sitcom quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It allowed my mind to explore where that chapter may be going and I loved that!
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Thank you @swatihegdeauthor @dellromance and @netgalley for this e-arc, Can’t Help Faking In Love comes out February 11th!

So cute and adorable. It was a perfect distraction from the news. This author is now an auto buy for me because her stories are so good. Great characters from the main ones to the side ones. Enjoyed the main characters falling for each other while “fake” dating. Just a great, fun read.

I received an arc from netgalley and the publisher.

I fell in love with Harsha and Veer! This was such a sweet romance! I loved learning more about Indian culture and seeing that we all have the same growing pains. This is a fade to black romance, if anyone is searching for something without spice. The fake dating was super cute, because was it ever really fake?! It was so easy to get swept up in this romance and in this beautiful setting in India.

This was a cute/clean book set in India!! I loved reading about the Indian cities, attractions, and the food!! The author created great visuals to picture being there amongst the locals!

I also loved the slow build up to the romance between Harsha & Veer!! 💘 Veer was SO good/doing everything for his family, and Harsha was trying SO hard to be independent from her wealthy family to be able to stand on her own!!

I absolutely loved Harsha’s Aunt!!!! Also need to give a shout out to Veer’s best friends who were supportive throughout it all!!

I recommend this book for a cute and sometimes emotional read!! I will definitely be adding the author’s debut novel to my TBR list!!!

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc! I really enjoyed this book. It’s a super quick and easy right, and it’s light and fun. It has fake dating, a little bit of forbidden romance, and friends to sort of enemies to friends to lovers. I also appreciated that there was a bit of a slow burn!

I discovered last year that fake dating is perhaps my favorite romance trope, so after a little research on Goodreads turned up Can't Help Faking in Love, I rushed to get an advanced copy. This story is set in present-day India and offers a peek into a country and culture I don't know that much about, which I really enjoyed, especially as the background to a romance.

I thought the main plot was set up and carried out really well, but there were a few sub-plots that didn't feel complete enough to me. Specifically Harsha's fraught relationship with her parents, which wasn't fleshed out enough to really resonate. Unfortunately I felt the same way about Harsha herself, as I didn't even like her for the first half of the book. I wish the author had given us more backstory for her and her family so I could have felt more of a connection to her.

That said, I did end up falling for Harsha and Veer. I didn't buy into their chemistry until the second half of the book, but eventually I couldn't help rooting for them. An added bonus: I absolutely loved that each chapter began with a relevant quote from a famous sitcom.

Book Name: Can't Help Faking in Love
Author: Sawti Hegde

ARC
Thank you to the random house publishing group - Ballantine for an ARC

Stars: DNF at 30%
Spice: DNF

Pros

- Great descriptions
- Fun Tropes (Fake Dating, Golden Shackles, Complex Family Dynamics, Rich Girl Poor Boy)
- Conceptually Amazing

Cons

- Hallmark Style Banter (he jokes about her coffee order and boom… crush… that's all we're given to establish any connection)
- Flat One Note Characters
- Shallow FMC
- MCs internal dialogue felt so forced and flat
- No backstory or motivation
- No “buy-in” for either character emotionally
- Ending up putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up ….

Out of respect to the author and publisher and Due to the negative nature of this review I will not be posting this to any other platforms

Okay so will start with everything good!!

I loved the mmc!! I enjoyed the entire dynamic they had with each other but also how the l=romance was slowly built without making the readers loose interest in the book.

But sadly the book really felt flat to me. I felt the book being based in India with Indian Characters and written by Indian Author certain terminology felt out of place (millions, grands.. etc) I felt that the author was trying to put it out there fore the white audience which made me look interest at quite a few places.

Also there was random rendition of famous names as well as fell were just used directly. I though that is something that required consistently in the book.

A lot of things in the story required depth and soul searching but they were abandoned. I felt a lot of things where only placed in the book for the sake of it. Especially Veer's brother coming out, the revelation of his dad, why Harsha's cousin didn't like her.

what I enjoyed the most were the quotes from tv shows!!

All in all it was a great story but was just not for me.

As with Hegde's previous novel, my favorite parts of this book were the Indian setting - mostly Bangalore with a quick trip to Mumbai - and the food and culture, which are infused throughout the story. I struggled to warm up to the characters, especially the heroine Harsha, a freelance photographer trying to escape the golden shackles of her family wealth. I do think Hegde did a decent job of showing why Harsha was the way she was, but unfortunately a lot of that came later in the book and I was already irritated with her shallowness and entitlement by that point. Harsha needs cute barista Veer to be her fake boyfriend (and to give himself a fake job upgrade) for a series of stressful family events. Veer is a struggling actor who is mainly focused on taking care of his mother and younger brother. Since this is a romance, I don't need to tell you where the story is going. This was a fun, fast read. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for a digital review copy.

This a solidly good fake dating story. I loved the setting and the experiences of the two main characters. Both wanting to succeed at their chosen art careers. And there journey to love was definitely a pleasure to read. (I read an ARC)