Whatever Chip writes I know it is going to be beautiful and deep! I absolutely adore his creative genius and the characters he brings to life!

This book follows Asher and Theo, two strangers who due to the serendipity end up as a fake couple competing on a reality show.

I loved everything about the story: both main characters - golden retriever Theo and rather shy Asher, their development as individuals and as a couple; the plot and all the adventures caused by reality TV line, travel destinations and challenges; and of course the beauty of writing style! Absolutely stunning!

Thanks to Putnam for sending me an advanced copy of Winging It With You by Chip Pons.

This book, styled like The Amazing Race, is about two men who just meet at the airport and decide to pose as a couple to compete in The Epic Trek, a reality TV show. As they travel around the world and fake date for the camera, they might develop more than just on-screen chemistry.

I enjoyed the fake dating and Amazing Race elements of this book. The mozzarella stick meet-cute was fun and probably my favorite part. I wasn't a fan of the third-act breakup, but it was a quick read, and if you like adventures, you'll enjoy this book.

Such a sweet and fun MM romance. I have always been a fan of the amazing race and I loved the take on that vibe to set the stage for this book…I mean if you don’t count the TGIFriday and some mozzarella sticks! Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes and this was such a fun and unique take. I like their opposite personalities and how they both were really just what the other needed. Asher is such a cute nerdy type, while Theo is more of the golden retriever. The side characters were fun and helped round out the story, even the super competitive ones.

This book has great banter and humor and I love that went got a dual POV as well. Everything about this book will leave you with a smile on your face!

TROPES
💖Fake Dating
✈️Travel Competition
🧲Opposites Attract
📎Work/Life Balance
🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA+
🧳Forced Proximity
🛏️ Only One Bed(s)

3.5 stars. This is a sweet, fun romance with two men meeting at an airport TGIF, fighting over mozzarella sticks and agreeing to participate in a traveling reality show. The reality show was kinda lame, but the romance between the two characters was sweet and I enjoyed their interactions. This was a great summer read.

This book was absolutely phenomenal! I loved every minute of it and how their story played out! The concept was beautifully executed and the romance was sweet and the spice was so well balanced with this being a complete strangers to lovers story!

A MM romance meets The Amazing Race, I swear that’s all that was going through my mind when I Picked up this book and I was here for this Adventure.

This book did not Disappoint in any way, I had such a great time reading it and the romance was just the Right about. I’m so Grateful I was able to read tis Arc and can’t wait to pick up a Physical Copy to add to my collection

Oh my goodness, Winging It With You was such a ROMP! I've been a huge fan of Chip Pons for a long time, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read his trad pub debut. It's swoony, spicy, and sweet. It's a must read for anyone who loves reality shows, golden retriever MMCs, and queer joy. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Winging It With You follows the two MMCs as they compete in an Amazing Race-style travel competition. The story is action packed and fun, at times hilarious, and often pretty freaking swoony. OMG y'all, I absolutely LOVED Theo. He's kind, considerate, and all in for Asher, and I was so here for it. The banter between Asher and Theo is a ton of fun, definitely one of the best parts for me. They are hilarious together, and I loved all of the shenanigans they get up to with the cry and the other contestants. And the SPICE! Whew, Chip really took things up a notch in this one, omg.

I don't watch reality TV, but if I did I'd definitely be there watching Team Thrasher! I loved all the humor, the different settings, and omg the ending. And y'all, I made it through the entire book without crying, and then sobbed over the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS? Don't skip those, they are so sweet and perfect. Super excited for Chip, and I can't see what he comes up with next.

Putnam eARC
This was such a fun strangers to friends to lovers romance. It was full of adventure and high stakes that created such great tension. Theo and Asher were both easy to root for, and I loved the trajectory of their budding romance. I think a reality television show, think the Amazing Race, was a unique way to throw characters together and force them to trust and communicate. There was such good growth here, lovable side characters, and fun scenarios. I can't wait to see what this author does next!

4.25 stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Winging It With You" by Chip Pons! Asher and Theo.... ugh, I loved and adored them so, so much. What a wonderful couple! I am usually wary of insta-love/insta-lust, but their story worked for me from the get-go. I was all in on their strangers-to-lovers tale as they both enter a reality show competition together as a "couple" (fake dating!!), only to *really* fall for each other on the way! I loved their very first interaction involving mozzarella sticks and how it continued to come up throughout the rest of the story. Their chemistry and banter really helped propel their love story. Pons' writing is fun, flirty, and adventurous, and it can even be serious at times. I loved the travel aspect of this book, and Pons creates a beautiful portrait of every country and city where Theo and Asher travel. I also enjoyed the spice elements of this story... it was really well-written and surprisingly emotional at times. Though it might be a teeny tiny bit long, I still really loved this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, Chip Pons, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

I love Theo and Asher! Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, and add in the higher stakes of being on a reality show where everyone is watching, I was hooked. I loved the travel aspect of this book. The book was funny and sexy and sweet and tender all at the same time. Would definitely recommend!

A huge thank you to @putnambooks for the gifted copy!

"𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘬𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯."


I truly adored this book and these two glorious men. I loved everything about this book (except Clint... IYKYK... and Bianca and Jackson 😅)

As someone who relates HIGHLY to Asher, I loved seeing him come into his own outside of his comfort zone. And incredibly proud of everyone's growths!

✈️ Fake Dating
🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏼 Travel Competition
✈️ Opposites Attract
🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏼 Work/Life Balance
✈️ LGBTQIAP+
🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏼 Forced Proximity
✈️ Only One Bed (lots of them 😂)
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#bookstagram #booksta #books #booksbooksbooks #avidreader #ilovereading #thetwistedlibrarian #professionalbookworm #wingingitwithyou #chippons #whatsnikkireading #putnambooks #putnampartner #giftedcopy #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #fakedating #travelcompetition #oppositesattract #lgbtqiap #lgbtqromance #forcedproximity #onlyonebed #theoandasher #thasher

It’s a case of emotional whiplash for Asher who’s having the worst day ever. First his long term boyfriend dumps him right before they board a plane to participate in a reality tv competition. Then he somehow manages to make a deal with off duty pilot, Theo to stand in at the last minute. Who comes up with this? Chip Pons, obviously.

This was such a fun intro to his writing that’s filled with funny banter, humor and sarcasm. I’ve seen snippets of the Amazing Race so that gave me enough of an idea of the challenges played out in this story. Theo and Asher being strangers at this point are naturally awkward. I liked seeing two very opposite characters interact, pretend they’re together, and convince an entire viewing audience that they’re in love. Their personalities do compliment each other, and the chemistry is there so it’s inevitable that the lines get blurry that it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s for the cameras. The heat between these two though is 1000% real!!

Highlights:
🏃 Romance, dual POV
🏃 Fake dating, opposites attract, reality tv
🏃 Humor, banter
🏃 Spice, open door
🏃 Different countries, games, physical challenges

If you’re a fan of reality shows, unexpected meet-cutes, and compulsive decision making that turns out to be the best decision ever, add this to your summer reading list now!

Thank you @putnambooks for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved everything about this book! Asher Bennett and his long-time boyfriend are set to be on an international travel competition reality show, The Epic Trek. His boyfriend dumps him at the airport on their way to filming so Asher needs to find a new partner. Luckily, pilot Theo Fernandez has been forced to take a vacation, and what better vacation to take than a travel reality show?

I loved the set-up for this book (although I did have to suspend some disbelief that the show would let the partner switch right before filming). The travel and competition gave such an exciting backdrop for the sweetest romance to develop. The chemistry between Asher and Theo was perfect! I also loved the addition of the other reality show contestants that rounded out the story. The book was funny and emotional and swoony!

This was my first Chip Pons book, and I absolutely loved the writing style. I highly recommend this romance! Thank you to Chip Pons, Putnam, and NetGalley for this e-ARC; all opinions are my own.

Read if you like:
💕 Dual POV
💕 LGBTQ+ rep
💕 Fake dating
💕 Reality competition shows
💕 Traveling the world

Admittedly, I loved this book more than I anticipated liking it. It ended up being the perfect level of swoony romance with navigating more complicated feelings and experiences. The spice was spicy, but I came to love the characters for all of their flaws and growth amidst the journey too.

This was honestly just such a fun and quick read. It definitely would serve well as a quick palet cleanser book inbetween 2 more dense reads. However, despite having quite a lot of fun reading this book I did also have my issues with it, and overall don't see this one sticking in my memory for very long.
Basically let's start with what I liked. As I mentioned before I just generally had a blast reading this book. I've been quite on the edge of a reading slump lately, and this pushed me right away from that. I also really liked the reality tv show setting. We don't focus on it too much but at the start the challenges definitely serve as a great frame from seeing these characters just become more of a team. I also really liked the cast of side characters. I just thought they were really fun.
As I mentioned before I also had some small issues with this book. I thought the characters were a bit one dimensional. This book is dual POV but it was nearly impossible to distinguish the two narratives, depite the two of them supposedly being very different people. I also thought the romance was quite underdeveloped. They were quite cute together but I never fully felt invested in their romance because I feel like it just came a bit out of nowhere. In the second half we also kind of forget about the tv show setting, and I often got lost in the lack of transition between different scenes. I also thought the third act conflict was extremely stupid, so that kind of lost me as well.
So yeah, none of those are really major things for me, especially with how much fun I had overall reading this book. However, add them all together and overall you just get a bit of an underwhelming book for me sadly enough. However, I would still definitely recommend this book to those who are interested in it.

This was freaking cute!!! This was my first book my Chip Pons, and I will definitely be following for his future books.

To start - I really loved the plot. It felt original without being too over the top. The reality show vibes + the circumstances under which they met were both exceptional and within the realm of possibility. Theo and Asher were adorable and such a perfect couple. They complimented each other so well and it felt like it could actually be the story of a real relationship. Even the third act break-up (which I’m personally never really a fan of), was written well and handled (mostly) well by the characters.

I only didn’t give this book a full five stars because there were a couple parts that felt a little disjointed in the writing/timeline and took me out of the story for a second. I’m sure they were fixed with a final edit!

Overall thought: From the way they met to the adventures they went on, I was into it. Definitely recommend.

I loved the premise of a fake dating MM romance to participate in an Amazing Race type reality competition! Asher and Theo are both such likable characters. I loved Asher’s nerdy science references. And Theo is such a positive golden retriever MMC. There were so many funny moments and I really appreciated Chips sense of humor and style of writing. But he also managed to include more serious topics like family dynamics, messy relationships, and other LGBTQ community struggles.

This is a spicy one so if MM spice is not your thing, look for spice chapters to skip. It’s still worth the read.

What a beautiful display of queer joy! This book is like one giant hug.

I loved the element of travel in this book. Through the game show, we as the audience were able to join Asher and Theo on some amazing experiences. I also appreciated the slow burn and healthy boundaries established as the couple formed feelings for each other.

I hope to read more by this author soon!

Winging It With You is such a fun, beautifully written romance! From page one, I was swept up in the charm and delightful chaos of Theo and Asher’s story. The absolute joy they discover in each other is utterly heartwarming—it practically jumps off the page. I LOVE a character‑driven romance, and these two? They are the best pairing. Theo’s exuberance balanced so well with Asher’s quieter strength makes their dynamic irresistible.

What truly sets Chip Pons’s novel apart is how he balances humor, sweetness, and meaningful growth. Watching Theo and Asher soften each other’s rough edges and evolve both as individuals and as a couple made their romance feel authentic and earned—not just swoony, but emotionally satisfying.

I could yap nonstop about everything I loved: the playful game‑show setting, the snappy one‑liners, the mozzarella sticks cameo (yes, mozzarella sticks!), the charming supporting cast, the dual POV, the forced‑proximity trope, and the fake‑dating that turns genuine—all underpinned by strong backstories and character development.

If you're craving a feel‑good, fun, and heartfelt M/M romance with genuine emotional stakes—and a generous side of laughs and sweetness—Winging It With You by Chip Pons should absolutely be on your radar. I smiled the entire way through!

This book started out a bit slow for me, but as I kept reading it got better. I really liked Theo as a character almost immediately, and how him and Asher interacted during the 'Trek' was really great. I liked how the show they were on was a mix of survivor and amazing race, and how they grew closer together as they traveled. this story does have a third act breakup, but it is resolved well. Overall, a really enjoyable book.