This was a really cute book that gave off Hallmark vibes and the fall themes made me all the more excited for the coming season!
I like the cover art and the map of Maple Falls.
It was a quick and easy read that flowed easily and I enjoyed that it was so fast paced.

The actual hockey playing was less than I expected but also appreciated since there wasn't any unnecessary filler.

I enjoyed the characters and even Phillip made me laugh.

The problems the mfc encountered could have easily been solved by calling her mother and explaining what was happening, but of course then we wouldn't have the story!

Fake-dating trope is always fun but I do wish we could have gotten more romance.

All in all I enjoyed this book and the writing was easy to fall into.

Thank you Netgalley and the author/publisher for this ARC.

Although it’s hockey and chill the heat between Jamie and Ashlyn is palpable.
I felt sorry for Ashlyn because she had so much to deal with! She needed to save the town, save her home, plus save her parent’s marriage from imploding. That’s a lot for a professional closet organizer!
I loved how Jamie is an absolute chicken around the bears and those scenes were hilarious!
I thought Allegra should have become bear bait!
Jamie is a sweetie and I loved the scene where things finally comes to fruition and he scores for life!

Ok this book is about fate. Not so much about hockey. Not so much a romance either.

And fate being so important, some things happen that are way toooo easy, unexplained and/or unexpected to save the day. It actually disturbed me and killed it a bit for me.

That being said : I really liked Ashlyn (way less superficial that her job let us think) and I loved Jamie !!!! They are very cute as characters and as a couple.

The secondary characters are really interesting (bouh ouh how I hated Philip ! He was perfect for the part !)

3.5 rounded to 3 as it lacked a bit of romance for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Whitney Dineen for providing an eARC in echange for an honest review.

This story follows Ashlyn, who covers for her father, the mayor of Maple Falls, in order to save her parents. Meanwhile, Jamie is a hockey player that is getting a fresh start in Maple Fall joining the new hockey team. Neither are looking for love, but they might just find it in their time together.

Something I enjoyed about this book is the pacing and how it kept my attention consistently. I also enjoyed that their seemed to be a bit of humor to the writing and the characters which can be refreshing. The book does have room for improvement as far as developing the romance a little better. For the most part, Ashlyn and Jamie feel platonic most of the time, and that bridge from being friends to having romantic feelings was not well enough established. Also, I feel like it would have been a bit better if we, as readers could have more page time of Jamie and Ashlyn being a couple because that could have helped established them as a romantic couple more, and given the readers more to root for.

Fake Off With Fate by Whitney Dineen is a charming and heartfelt romance filled with humor, warmth, and irresistible chemistry. The small-town setting and lovable characters make it a delightful escape from start to finish. I enjoyed this sweet and uplifting story and rated it five stars.

If Hallmark and Hockey Romance had a baby, it would be this book.
Fake Off with Fate was a lighthearted small town romance, with hockey ajacent elements. If you’re looking for a hockey-heavy book this may not be for you, because there was barely any hockey involved that wasn't surface level. The hockey was mostly overshadowed by Ashylyn’s stint at mayor, which was fine because it was really enjoyable. The romance was so sweet with the friends-to-lovers/fake-dating trope. It was very light on the romance, which I enjoyed but others might not. The chaos, comedy and other characters made up for it, making this a really enjoyable read.

The book is witty, funny and charming. I had a great time reading it up until the land conflict and the legalities.
Jamie and Ashlyn had most of their romantic scenes off-screen or so it seemed. They were friends and that's about it. We, as readers, didn't get to see them have those dinner conversations where there was tension, or even a little bit of chemistry. The majority of the book centered around Ashlyn's mayor complications or her housing situation or her parents' situation. On that topic, I hated her take on her parents' relationship and her forcing Jamie to take back his ex? Just because they had 3 years together? It's the only reason to work on the relationship?
However, I enjoyed this book in bits and pieces. There were moments where I rolled my eyes because there's no way it's remotely possible for those things to happen. But there were also times when I was laughing and having a great time with my fellow Mapple Falls citizens.
Overall, I give this book 3 stars for its plot and wittiness. I didn't feel like there was any romance in the air, so there's also that.
Thank you Netgalley, Xpresso Book Tours and the author for providing the ARC.

4 ⭐️

This book gives Hallmark movie vibes in the best way possible!

This story centers around Ashlyn, who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her father is the mayor of Maple Falls, and is completely dedicated to his job- maybe a little too much.

Her mom calls her to let her know that their marriage is at stake, because her father isn’t present and is more focused on the town than his wife. She goes home to Maple Falls, even though she doesn’t typically visit, to save their marriage. She books them a trip away so they can get alone time and her dad doesn’t get sucked back into his work as mayor.

The problem? Her dad doesn’t want people knowing he isn’t there, so she has to lie to everyone and pretend he is there just not showing his face. Seems easy enough, until the town is in danger of being bought out by a billionaire.

Then comes another problem for her- Jamie. Jamie is the captain of the icebreakers, the new NHL team in town. Jamie is from New York and moved after his post breakup. He is trying to build a new life and having a tough time adjusting, but Ashlyn makes the move feel all more comfortable.

This story has a fake dating trope and so many heartfelt moments! There isn’t any spice, which typically isn’t my favorite, but it was so Hallmark coded that I didn’t mind that it didn’t have space.

Thank you NetGalley & Whitney Dineen for the ARC!

3.5 🌟

This was such a cozy fall read! 🍁🍂☕️

Total Hart of Dixie vibes. No spice but the story was enjoyable and quick. I love the cover art and the concept of each book in this series written by a different author. I will definitely pick up the others as they release.

Now I want a pumpkin spice latte and crisp fall weather.

I received a complimentary copy of this book and all opinions are my own. Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

This book revolves around our two main characters; Ashlyn and Jamie, who both find themselves leaving their big city lives and in the small town of Maple Falls. Ashlyn comes home with the hopes of saving her parents’ marriage, and ends up filling in for her father as acting Mayor. Jamie comes for his new position as Captain on the local NHL team, and ends up facing cereal-eating bears in his yard. The two end up working together to try and resolve the problems plaguing Maple Falls.

I loved Ashlyn’s parents' relationship with each other and her. I thought they were very cute and showed genuine care and compassion for one another. I thought the character of Phillip was intriguing and would have liked to see him develop more and gain some more insight into his personality. When they were together, I loved Ashlyn and Jamie’s relationship and interactions and thought they were very natural with each other and made an adorable couple.

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, I felt like it was trying to do so many things that it couldn’t fully explore all of it. This book combined; cozy-autumn, small-town, and hockey romances. I would have liked to see the festival with our couple together, rather than the brief look we got. I also would have liked to see Ashlyn’s interactions with Jamie’s career more, other than her engaging his team for a fundraiser. I felt that there was a lot of potential that was left unexplored. I wish that either this book was longer to afford our characters time to develop or that book two got to continue with these characters before moving on.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, it was a cute, quick read I wish I had gotten to spend more time in.

Fake - Off with Fate is Ashlyn and Jamie’s entertaining fake dating romance. It’s book one in the new Love in Maple Falls Series written by multiple authors.
The Ice Breakers hockey team have been promoted into the NHL and they are continuing to bring star players to Maple Falls. Jamie is there latest addition and it’s not long before he finds himself spending time with Maple Falls Mayors daughter Ashlyn.
Ashlyn is back home trying to save her parents marriage and her answer is to pack them off to the Caribbean without the town knowing her father is not in the country. Stepping up to try and run Maple Falls she enlists the Ice Breakers captain, Jamie and what follows is an entertaining, sweet, loveable romance that touched me on so many levels.
I loved everything about this quick and entertaining read from the characters to the witty banter and everything in between.

This was cute. Unrealistic, but cute. I didn't know going into this book that it was a 'clean' romance. Not usually my preferred type of romance, but if you're a Hallmark Romance fan, then you'll likely enjoy this one.

Jamie was super adorable. His screams every time he encountered a black bear were hilarious. He was a likable guy with a big heart. Ashlyn was a good character as well. I liked that she was smart, determined, and witty.

The romance in this book is molasses slow. It's slower than a slow burn. They're basically friends the entire book, until the last chapter where they decide to date. So I can't really say this was a great romance since there was literally no romance to really be seen. I'd label this book more chick lit than romance.

I didn't like that the entire book / plot was spent trying to remedy the land situation, and then the author wrapped it up in a couple paragraphs. It felt very underwhelming and was a letdown. I expected to have the guy make an on-page appearance at the very least instead of just getting a sentence about his intentions in the end. Kinda like the romance, it began and had a HFN in the same chapter. I was also disappointed that we didn't get a follow-up on the mayor's assistant (I didn't read the bonus epilogue, so I'm only reviewing the actual book where this definitely was not wrapped up).

I don't think I'll read any more by the author. It's probably a 'it's me, not you' thing and this book just wasn't for me since I expected more substance and a sense of fulfillment when the book finally ended.

With her parents marriage on the line, Ashylyn agrees to come home to help run the town, and save her parents from divorce. Jamie, hiding from the press, and trying to mend a broken heart and a new position as Captain of the Ice Breakers.

Fake-Of with Fate, gives hallmark vibes. It’s cosy, it’s beautiful, and its full of all of the things that you expect it to be full of. There’s trouble brewing in the town, and love slowly brews in the background. It’s paced beautifully, and while we don’t get to fully see the relationship between leads grow as much as i would have liked, it does tell you what happens of page. That while time is passing, they are talking to one another every day.

It follows your typical small-town romance, but if anything, it’s honestly done better. The relationship feels real, not book real. It develops naturally. If you like romance, and a lot of it, it might not be for you because there isn’t a lot of romance involved, romance is there, but its not the main focus, and i actually like that, and it’s still beautifully done. So yea, i really enjoyed this and i’ll def look into the other books in the series.

I thought I’d get through this super fast, but I was metaphorically reading through my fingers. I knew it was all going to go to pot at some point but I didn’t know when and that kind of ruined it for me. This wasn’t a romcom, it was a tragedy, as in it was tragic. Though it ended up being so tragic that it’s good. The writing itself was alright for most of the book. The characters felt real even if their actions were the kinds of things that never happen outside of a romance book.

As a child of divorce the way the fmc was desperate to keep her parents together at her big age gave me such an ick. It was obvious that she was actually more bothered about her position in regards to her parents than her parents happiness. Her dad was so toxic, which is probably where she gets it from. Yes they both sorted themselves out, but most of that was off-screen so we didn’t actually get to see the character development from either of them. The ending was a bit rubbish to be frank. It felt really rushed and about 50 pages short.

The fmc was so incredibly naive that it was actually painful. The parents not being able to get back was so obviously going to happen that it felt ridiculous when it did.

If you’re going to have a character properly pray during a crisis either have them be visibly religious all the way through the book or make a big deal out of how it’s driven them to do something they wouldn’t’ve done ordinarily. The way it was written about felt a bit clunky.

Surely there should’ve been some actual legal process involved in the transfer of power between the fmc’s dad and the fmc. I grew up in a town of about 5,000 people and the mayor fucking off on a last ditch attempt to save his marriage and leaving his daughter in charge would’ve involved a significant amount of paperwork there. I thought it was just the criminal justice system in the States that picked and chose when it followed legal process.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This was a cute and fun read and I’m intrigued that it is apart of a fairly large series/collection of books by lots of authors. Will be reading more!

I would like to thank Netgalley, Xpresso book tours and the author for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

It was lovely to be back in this world, and I can’t wait for the rest of the series.

This was such a fun, quick, and cozy read! I might be biased, but the FMC having the same name as me (Ashlyn) automatically made me root for her even harder. I loved the small town vibes, hot hockey players, and the mix of humor and heart. The slow burn and friends to lovers dynamic were done so well, and the quirky town drama kept me hooked. Perfect if you’re looking for something sweet, funny, and warm to curl up with!

Thank you Netgalley for the arc🍂🧸☕️

Fake-Off with Fate follows Ashlyn who visits her hometown of Maple Falls to save her parents marriage. Her dad is the mayor of the town. She books a vacation for her parents. While they are out of town she will take on the responsibility of being mayor. Jamie is new in town plays for the Ice BreakersWhich is a new hockey team in Maple Falls. Part of Ashlyn being major is to show Jamie around. While Ashlyn is acting as mayor a town conflict arises. So she is taking care of that. Jamie also needs Ashlyn’s help and ask her to pretend to be his girlfriend. Ashlyn was only suppose to be in town for a little bit. But now things might just have to change.

I really really liked this book. BUT calling it a romance book was a bit of a stretch in my opinion. There wasn’t much romance vibes in this book. I think because this book had a lot of different subplots going on it; the romance got lost. I also prefer spice in romance books. The main characters kissed only one time and that was it. I know that is just a personal thing but I wanted more. But I did think this was such a cute and cozy fall book. I do highly suggest this one though. It was like a cozy a Hallmark movie.

Thank you so much, Whitney Dieen and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This comes out on August 13!

Fake-Off With Fate is a fun fall read. Easy to pick up and read in one sitting. The story has the small town Gilmore girls vibe going for it.
The chemistry between mmc and fmc for a romance was weak but there was some cute moments to make you chuckle. It felt more like strangers to friends trope than anything else. Then ending felt rushed especially with how drawn out everything else was in the beginning.

Thank you Whitney Dineen and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

This was a cute small town, sports, fake-dating romance. I really enjoyed the fact that both characters were City people moving to and back to a small town, it made a change to the usual small town guy and big city girl we often see.

I liked the fact that we went straight into story telling, no messing around! Also, Maple falls sounds like a dream and definitely somewhere I want to visit if it were real :D.

I will say I found there wasn't a huge amount of romance and it took 80% ish for them to even kiss (don't get me wrong I love a slow burn) but I just didn't feel their romantic connection. On the other hand they met once, and they were both saying how much they like each other??

Overall, I had a good time reading this and would recommend as a pallet cleanser.