
Member Reviews

Truly enjoyed this book and the romance of it. After reading, I saw the author started on Wattpad (my OG favorite) and I am truly so excited to see what this author has in store for the future; as well as, the other books in the series!!

i enjoyed the romance but i had a hard time with the plot. it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. i’m not sure how i felt about Wrens crush on Athalia was handled. then she confessed her crush right after she met someone. i had a hard time with that. i felt like a lot happened but im not sure if it all made sense. i really love the fake dating but i feel like the plot could have been done differently. thank you netvalley for gifting this to me.

Cute book! It was easy to read and follow. The banter and humor between the main characters was awesome. I really enjoyed the female character development and McCarthy is just perfect.

I devoured this book in less than 6 hours. It was lighthearted, amusing, sweet and captivating all in one. I do wish there was a little more hesitation in their fake relationship as time progressed, and maybe even a bigger story arc, but it still served to be an enjoyable read.
The humorous anecdotes (J names being toxic gave me quite the laugh) mixed with the sexual tension/chemistry was a perfect blend that lended to the enemies to lovers trope. The connection painted between Athalia and McCarthy is so fierce that it almost jumped off the pages, coming alive in my mind as I read. There were only a few spicy scenes, but they were 3.5/5 spiciness.
Overall, I would recommend this book to those who love sweet romances with a more playful than serious feel to it.

I really enjoyed this as a enemy to lovers romance, it uses that concept perfectly and was able to tell the story that I was wanting. The characters were so well written and had that feel that I wanted in characters in this type of book. Selina Mae has a strong writing style and was able to weave this in a way that was perfect and glad I got to read this.

I think I would have really loved this book if I was still in high school. Unfortunately I think I have aged out of the demographic for these books. I found these characters to be very immature for their age and I struggled with the scene jumps within the novel. While this is not a book for me, I do think there is a target audience which would really enjoy this novel.

I chose this book for the fake dating trope and stayed for the plot. It’s fun and filled with witty dialogue, but it also tries to dig into deeper themes—grief, reconnection, and the tension within families. Athalia is relatable in her desperation to reconnect with her estranged twin brother, even if her plan (fake dating his sworn enemy Dylan McCarthy) is extremely far-fetched. Honestly, the setup is kind of unhinged—but in the best way. The chemistry between Athalia and Dylan is great, and the slow shift from reluctant allies to something real was sweet and satisfying. Dylan is definitely the standout: he's charming, dependable, and he clearly fell first.
That said, the book does lean on tropes and occasionally tells more than it shows. I wanted just a little more emotional depth in some scenes—especially when it came to Athalia’s inner growth and her complicated relationship with Henry. Some moments felt rushed or surface-level, and a few characters (like Wren) felt underdeveloped.

fake dating your brother's enemy? yes please, the trope i didn't know i needed. so much angst and tension.

I was definitely drawn to Lessons in Faking with the tropes. We've got fake dating her brother's nemesis, who also happens to be her tutor! Athalia is failing statistics and McCarthy (Dylan) is the one who's going to help her. However Athalia is hung up on her brother not paying her any attention so she thought the best way to change that is to date McCarthy, his nemesis, to really stir the pot. Well, we all know where this leads to!
Now I hate being critical, but I have to be honest, I felt the story wasn't executed all that well. At times I'd be lost in the middle of a scene and confused what the characters are doing. I thought maybe the writing style is different, but it made it difficult to read at times. I thought the characters' personalities fell flat for me. I feel like I barely know them, what their interests are or what they like about each other even. I still wonder why McCarthy would work different jobs if his family has money. I didn't like the reasoning in the beginning for their fake dating, it felt a little weak. I needed something a bit more.
That being said, some of my fav moments were when they were drawing up the fake-dating contract, Thanksgiving, and a twist I didn't see coming. I also liked the progress that Athalia made on her emotional journey and connection with her brother. I can tell that Athalia just wants a family with love and support (don't we all?). Overall a cute story with some sweet romantic moments.

Lessons in Faking is such a cute read. I read this in a day and do not regret for a single moment blocking out life to read it in its entirety.
What do you do when your twin brother does something that irks you to your soul time and time again? Why that's easy, you pretend date his nemesis. Only this time, it wasn't so bad pretending.
Athalia and Dylan are enemies because her family deems it so. After spending some time with him, she realizes he's not as bad as others have made him out to be and they build a friendship.
This story is full of surprises, secrets, drama, and love. It's brought to us with creative writing, wonderful characters and an excellent storyline.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Athalia Presley has 2 problems: failing statistics, and the crippling despair that comes from the fact that her twin brother has become practically a stranger to her. After experiencing the loss of her parents Athalia knew that her brother Henry is the only family she has left, so why is he so preoccupied with everything else? The only time she’s able to get his attention is why Henry’s arch nemesis Dylan McCarthy Williams becomes her statistics tutor. In attempt to gain Henry’s attention Athalia decides to form a fake relationship with Dylan, but somehow everything starts becoming a bit too real. As the line blurs between fake and real both Dylan and Athalia need to face their feelings.
This book wasn’t bad by any means, but I don’t think this is the best fake dating story i’ve read. Supposedly this book is a published wattpad fanfic, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but the writing style definitely feels like published fan fiction… It was not unbearable writing by any means, but some of it was a bit distracting. I also feel like the author relied on the already established personality of the characters in the original source material (Harry Potter) which works if you know you’re reading fan fiction, but not if you are writing this as a standalone book. I liked Dylan’s character and the flirty banter between him and Athalia. I think some of the characters needed a bit more fleshing out.. namely Athalia and Henry. Henry felt really flat to me, and I don’t think I vibed with Athalia’s character, she felt very childish. I REALLY liked Athalia’s friend wren, she was a fun character. Overall I think the plot only partially works. Athalia is doing this to get the attention of her brother and become closer with him again, which doesn’t really work if you’re dating his nemesis. If this was real life that would presumably just make Henry mad and make the rift between them even worse.. Again, not a bad book by any means, maybe just not for me.
A big thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for sending me this eARC!

Lessons in Faking is a story about Athalia Pressley, her twin brother Henry, and Henry's long-time rival, Dylan McCarthy Williams. After losing their parents as teenagers, Athalia feels a lack of attention from the only immediate family she has left - her brother. In an attempt to gain his attention, she decides to fake-date Henry's rival, Dylan. Somewhere along the way, however, their feelings start to feel decidedly less fake.
I didn't love this book, but I suppose I didn't not enjoy it either.
Pros:
- I liked Dylan. I thought he was cute and charming and I liked his family, especially when they let it slip that he'd had a crush on Athalia for a while.
Cons:
- As much as I wanted to, I really didn't like Athalia at all. I just found her incredibly childish and short sighted. She felt more like a high school student than a college student. I thought her argument with her best friend was ridiculous, and 100% should have been on Athalia to reach out first.
- I thought the frequent use of Dylan's full name and the switching back and forth between his first and middle name was a bit odd, especially considering no one else's name ever really changes.
- I noticed several times throughout the story that there were points where the writing would be cohesive and flow well right up until the author wrote something that didn't *quite* make sense in the current context. I found myself re-reading sentences several times, trying to figure out if I had missed something.
Overall, the story was cute and it was an easy read that felt to me like a solid palate cleanser between fantasy novels!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5
Love a fake dating trope although wished the brother was mentioned more since he was the reason for the fake dating. Overall it was good.

Okay, so it started a bit rough, and I almost gave up. But then, the romance between Athalia and McCarthy really pulled me in! Chapter 22 was AMAZING. The second half was way better than the first, but the rest of the book was kinda meh. I'm still a little confused about their "hate" and how it all began – it wasn't super engaging. Still, I had a good time reading it overall.

This book was ADDICTIVE
I couldn’t put it down. I just loved the teasing nature of these two. I finished this in one day because I was here for the vibes!! This feels like a perfect college romance to read in the fall! I loved the dynamics of the characters. The way the MMC had feelings for our FMC was a little obvious but it was so cute seeing her figure it out that I honestly didn’t care. My only ONLY complaint and it’s truly just a personal preference thing is that I wish there was a clearer line of I now have feelings for you and we are doing this for real. We got a bit of that but like a whole month or so passed before we had a moment of like “obviously we are together”. I just like an exact moment! I did however appreciate not having a 3rd act break up! I was expecting it and was so REFRESHED not having it!! All in all I love Alathia! On paper she should be the worst. Big ego, conceited, not a crazy hard worker. But she is actually so relatable! She is self aware of those things and holds her self accountable and has desires to be better - and it seems like she does grow and works on herself. As well as having sooo much more depth to her than just being those things! She truly does love and care BIG. So thankful for this ARC and a chance to meet these characters and hear their stories!

This was a cute little fast read! I enjoyed the tropes in this book like: fake dating, college romance, sports, tutor, he falls first). So many good moments that were super adorable and I overall had fun reading this book!

Arc Review !!
Tropes: enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, fake dating, college setting, brother's rival
I really loved the set up for this, I've never really read a book with the brother's rival as a trope before and I can say that after reading this book that I'm a fan! STOP AND THE TUTORING TOO PLZ! I was hooked on this book as soon as I picked it up honestly! The banter between the fmc and mmc was just too good. G
Thank you so much NetGalley + LYX for the e-ARC!

This one was quite a surprise! Athalia finds herself miserably failing out of her Statistics class which is when golden boy Dylan McCarthy becomes her tutor. He also happens to be her twin brother’s absolutely off limits enemy and rival. They strike a fake-dating bargain which ends up creating complicated feelings and a lot of drama. I was hooked by the fifth chapter!
The banter was so good, the tension between Athalia and Dylan was addicting and the butterflies were flying! I loved the fake-dating and college romance setup. A lot of heartfelt moments that almost made me tear up a few times.
Tropes to look for:
Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers
Fake dating
College romance
Brother’s rival
I overall really enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend this book to fans of the mentioned above tropes!
Thank you NetGalley and LYX for the copy of this book!
*Cross posted and translated tp french for my Goodreads profile

This book was very cute, and I really enjoyed it. That said, there were things that bothered me, and I almost want to give it a 3.5 because of those things...but the story did make me very happy, and I liked how everything worked out so I'm keeping it a solid 4.
A few things irked me:
1. How many times there were lists in the book. I mean, I genuinely think there are at least five of them.
2. Breaking the fourth wall. It weirded me out being reminded that I was reading a book because the narrator brought my attention to it. "But you probably guessed that already, didn't you?" type of wall-breaking.
and 3. Sometimes I didn't like the FMC. I felt like she very quickly blamed other people when she was responsible for her own actions as well. And I know she's got issues to work through... but still. I didn't like how much an argument relied on the other person to say sorry first when the FMC was just as guilty of reacting poorly.
4. Also, I felt like the whole point of the relationship was to get closer to Henry... which I already thought was kind of a weak idea anyway... and then we just, never really saw her try at all with Henry except to make him angry twice and then we don't hear about him again until Thanksgiving.
But other than that, Dylan was such a cutie, and this book was so easy to read and entertaining that I finished it in a single setting.

📖ARC Review📖
⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Selina delivers a college romance. After their parents' death, Athalia wants to reconnect with her twin brother, so she begins dating his arch-nemesis. The dynamic between Athalia and Dylan (the brothers' rival) is a slow-burn chemistry with witty exchanges.
What could have been improved: In some areas throughout the book, the pacing could have been better. Another is character depth - I felt that Athalia and Dylan weren't developed to their full potential. And lastly, there didn't appear to be any "surprises." It was all pretty predictable.
Tropes:
Fake Dating
Enemies to Lovers
Sibling Rivalry
Sports Romance