This was a cute and fun easy read! The fake dating to actual dating was a bit too fast paced, but overall i still enjoyed this book.

I loved this fake dating book! The romance was so cute and it has so much tension in this book! I highly recommend!

This book was such a sweet read. I really enjoyed reading it! I truly fell in love with Alli & Jared! I was searching for a cute read for summer and it was the perfect book to get me into the end of summer, beginning of school feels! I will definitely be looking out for the next Seraphina Chen book! Thank you!

THANK YOU SO MUCH. i had SO much fun reading this book!

this is such a fun romance book! i seriously can not say enough how much fun i had reading! i was fully engaged from the beginning.

I love Alli & Jared story, I also really loved the little stories inside the big story. Alli & her aunt, Jared & his mom. Serena & well.. everyone. it felt so real being inside their little world.

i went with 4 stars over 5 because-
1. i truly thought this was going to be a football romance due to the cover. & as much as it technically is, i do wish there would have been more football involved.
2. i sometimes got very lost in the time line. and that easily could have been reader error! i just think i was very confused on how the time frame felt like weeks when it reality, it wasn't even a month..?

overall SUCH a fun book & im so glad i got to be apart of it!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

This book was a cute read! I really loved the emotional moments in the book and the way Alli and Jared grew together as a couple. I did find the fake dating trope a little unnecessary and the side characters frustrating but overall I enjoy this one.
Thank you NetGalley ❤️

Seraphina Chen's first book, Wonderstruck, was so cute and wholesome so I was excited to hear that she was coming out with Alli and Jared's book. I was intrigued by what little hints that were dropped in Wonderstruck, so when I started to read this book, my expectations weren't really met.

One of my main issues with this book is that it is falsely marketed. Alli and Jared maybe fake date for twenty percent of the book, and then the typical plot for the trope was crammed into ten percent. After that, it feels like you're reading a completely different book. And in my opinion, the fake dating wasn't done that well. The whole reason they "fake dated" was because Jared was getting harassed by girls and Alli wanted to gain confidence to talk to her crush. Alli quickly moves on from that guy. It wasn't even necessary to have the fake dating trope if it's not truly a fake dating book.

The writing also was a lot of telling and little to no showing. Being told how relationships and situations went and currently are doesn't give the reader a chance to piece that information together. It allows the reader to use their brain and makes them obsessed with the story. As I got further into reading, I found that I just didn't care because everything was being told to me like I was in my typical college lecture.

Before the switch up in books, I liked Alli and related to her college struggles. It can be hard to balance schoolwork and a social life. After the plot shift, that was never touched again about gaining confidence and finding herself. I'm disappointed, because it would have been a good message to college girls like me about how you shouldn't allow school to be your life. Instead, the problem we focused on was her family telling her to life the way they wanted her to. That's a good plot to explore and I have nothing against that, but we were led to believe that Alli was going to work through her college struggles in a healthy way.

I don't like Jared. He should not have been forgiven so easily during the third act breakup and should probably go to therapy before trying to be in a relationship with Alli. He fumbled TWICE and she still took him back. And also, I don't know why this book is marketed as football when Jared's games were not shown a lot. It wasn't a big focus on the story either. The blurb of the story was supposed to focus on Jared's problems with girls stalking him but then, halfway through, we focus on a new problem: his relationship with his mother.

This book felt so messy for me, and I also did not like being told information instead of being shown it so I could make the connections myself. I really wanted to like this book since I enjoyed Wonderstruck. When it seems like I'm reading two different books in one, that's when you lose me.

This was average for me. Not bad but not good either. I thought it might have been my reading slump but it took me a while to get through it.

this book was a good read. It had an enjoyable plot, which was brilliantly written and easy to get invested in . I loved Alli and Jared were such a cute couple I enjoyed their personalities and the sweet connection they formed.

You know a romance novel is good when it has you gushing and squealing “they are sooo cute” every 10 minutes. I had a lot of fun reading this book, which is, in, my opinion, the most important part. When I read cheesy YA romances, I want to fall in love with the process of these characters falling for each other and to live vicariously through them. I need something light-hearted but also engaging, and Heartstruck hit these points to perfection.

It tells the story of Alli and Jared, two former classmates with a history that suddenly find themselves sharing a college campus and a class once Jared transfers in from his old university. Alli is your stereotypical nerd and Jared is the newest star in the football team. Through a fake dating scheme that should have been mutually beneficial and definitely pretend, then the unthinkable happens and fake starts to become real.

It is an YA fake dating story, so I already expected it to be somewhat cliché. No problem with that, and it obviously includes a lot of popular tropes. What I do appreciate, however, is that Seraphina Chen did her best to bring some three-dimensionality to these characters. Alli is a nerd, true, but she is also riddled with anxiety and struggling with her family's expectations of her. Jared is the hot popular jock that all the girls want, but that too comes with its own set of complications, like too much unwanted attention and stalkers. All characters dealt with very real issues and eventually managed to open up and lean on each other for support. It made following their journey even more impactful, since I was also interested in watching them learn how to deal with their insecurities and baggage at the same time that a romance developed.

The only reason I am not rating Heartstruck a full five stars, is that I personally found their romance too fast-paced. From the start of their fake relationship to the acknowledgment of their feelings took seemingly no time at all. I also have personal dislike for characters that almost purposefully misconstrue and misunderstands what others say. I am not a fan of miscommunication in general, but I like it even less when it comes from a character's own insecurities instead of the circumstances. Regardless, I know it is a personal feeling and that a lot of readers enjoy the added conflict.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a cute and feel-good YA romance story, with engaging characters. Maybe a good choice for when you are feeling a bit down and just want to enjoy some fluff, with a healthy dose of angst and a dash of spice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Seraphina Chen for the advanced copy. This review is left voluntarily and honestly.

Alli and Jared had some really cute moments, and I enjoyed the chemistry that built between them. The fake dating setup was fun, even if a few parts of the story felt repetitive or unfinished. Overall, it’s a quick and easy college romance that fans of sports tropes will probably enjoy.

Heartstruck was a great edition to the sports romance genre. I really lo edition the dynamic between Jared and Alli and the representation of anxiety. I did really struggle to follow all the characters and relationships at the start of the book. I honestly kept confusing Ethan and Jared and couldn't remember who the true love interest was. However between the anxiety representation and the way that the author chose to show that Jared had dreams beyond football I really liked the book. I especially enjoyed the fake dating and lessons tropes in the book.

I enjoyed the book, but struggled to get in to it at the beginning. This book is a cute slow burn collage romance that end up fake dating that turns genuine. Alli and Jared are a lovable and relatable character, who support each! That being said I do feel like there were some plots that just fell off and weren’t explored.

I loved how the book had mental health rep what they were both going through, and was very relatable.

This was average 🙂♥️. Neither good nor bad.

This book follows Ali who's just joined university but she's finding it hard to cope and feels out of place. She's also dealing with a bitch of an aunt who doesn't know what boundaries are.🙂

Our MMC, Jared, who's a football star, transferred from his previous school because he was being stalked by a girl called Chelsea.

I honestly hoped that the author would have added it to the plot somehow at the end but she didn't. 😐 What the point was in mentioning it in the first place if you're not going to incorporate it? 🤷🏾‍♀️

Jared decides to help Ali get her confidence back by telling her that they should fake date🚶🏾‍♀️. The goal was for her to gain confidence to ask a guy in her bio class out. 🙂

At some point during the story we forgot about the guy 💀 and we focused on Jared and his baggage. 😭

I liked the book don't get me wrong but it's not something that I'll be remembering for years to come. 😐


Thank you netgalley and bookbuzz for the Earc copy. 🎀🌸

This was a wonderfully written and compelling novel, with wonderful characters and a plot worth remembering. Unfortunately I didn't download it to my phone in time, but I managed to get it on my tablet before I could lose it to the archives!!!

Heartstruck was such a cute read! I really enjoyed Alli and Jared’s story—their dynamic as lab partners-turned-fake-dating felt natural and fun, with just the right amount of heart and tension. I especially liked the mix of late-night study sessions, honest conversations, and those little moments where their “fake” relationship clearly became something more.

It’s a sweet, college romance that balances real struggles like anxiety and self-doubt with lighthearted banter and swoony chemistry. If you’re looking for a feel-good story with relatable characters and a charming fake-dating twist, this one definitely delivers.

Such a cute read, I loved Alli and Jared so much!!! I looooved how they supported each other and made each other grow. I really enjoyed all of their small moments, you could really feel how deeply they cared about each other and how they were both slowly starting to fall for each other too.

The only thing i'm confused about is the fake dating trope. I'm not sure this was necessary? I actually forgot they were "fake dating" and it kinda felt more like a friends to lovers type of story. I also didn't really enjoy the side characters, felt like they were there to create more problems than anything else. Except the boys from the football team, loved how supportive and attentive they were with Jared.

That being said, I had such a fun time reading this book. I loved the more emotional, vulnerable and raw moments.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion 🫶🏽

This was such a fun read! I really enjoyed the dual POV and the overall plot. The smut caught me a little off guard, but nevertheless, still very enjoyable book! The way the story touches on men's mental health is also a good touch, as that is very underrepresented. It makes me want to read the first one, Wonderstruck, so I can see how the other couple came to be! I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars!

3.5 ⭐️ overall this was a cute and fluffy romance. I give the author props for creating characters that have chemistry hoping of the page. The writing itself leaves a little to be desired. The first 20% feels like a revolving door of the same thing said over and over again. There were some points that feel like they were fully followed through (Jared’s stalker, family dynamics). It was a fast and easy read, could be an easy book for getting someone out of a reading rut.

thank you netgalley & Independently Published for the ARC.

i was excited to read about the mental health rep. the writing isn't cohesive and doesn't flow too well, at least at the beginning. i couldn't get absorbed into the story. i couldn't connect and the characters aren't memorable to me. it felt like the story and writing was more fit for a YA novel.