Release Blitz + Review: "Faking It With the Grump" by Kate O'Keeffe

I'm delighted to participate in the release blitz celebrating "Faking It With the Grump" by Kate O'Keeffe, book #1 of the Second Chance Cafe series.

After supporting her high school sweetheart, Dex, through years as a struggling actor, he's finally landed a starring role on a hit TV show, and second grade teacher Harper Cole thinks she's about to be rewarded with an engagement ring. Instead, Dex publicly dumps her and the resulting video goes viral, sending Harper fleeing back to her hometown of Hunter's Creek, Washington. Meanwhile, attorney Christopher Young thinks he's about to get an assignment in Chicago that will guarantee him a promotion to partner upon his return to New York City. Instead, he's sent to the tiny town of Hunter's Creek to evaluate a timber mill for possible acquisition. He meets Harper in passing at her aunt's coffee shop, the Second Chance Cafe, shortly after they've both arrived in town. The next day, she starts a temporary job at her old elementary school, and her new colleagues are all just a bit too excited to fix her up on pity dates with their single-for-a-reason friends and relatives. Desperate to put a stop to the blind date suggestions, Harper blurts out that she's already dating someone new: Christopher. Now she just has to convince him to go along with her plan...

I really enjoyed this funny, sweet story. Harper and Christopher had great chemistry, their banter was a ton of fun, and the obstacles they faced were realistic and relatable. I couldn't help but empathize with Harper as she realized what it meant for her to have been a people pleaser for so long, particularly in terms of what she'd given up for Dex and his career. Christopher came a long way over the course of the story too as he realized that it was okay for him to make the choices that made him happy even if they weren't the ones that led to him making the most money.

I highly recommend this story for all fans of sweet contemporary romance and romantic comedy. I look forward to the next book of the series.

 

*Review copy provided by the author via Wildfire Marketing Solutions. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

About "Faking It with the Grump"

He’s grumpy, boring, and thinks it’s okay to wear a suit and tie to a small town bar full of lumberjacks. But when I kiss him? Let’s just say I wasn’t expecting THAT.

Harper
It's one thing to be dumped by the huge Hollywood star you thought you were going to marry. It’s quite another to move back to the small town you're both from.

As a booby prize for being shown the door by Dex Ryder, everyone is trying to set me up with their son, their nephew, or their long-lost cousin’s gardener. Either that or they’re throwing me pitying looks that say, “You’re a big loser.”

I’m not going to put up with their patronizing sympathy anymore.

So, when I spot new-guy-in-town Christopher Young, I set out to make him mine. Or you know, pretend to make him mine. I’m still in a horrible funk over Dex, and Christopher is an uptight grump. Not exactly my type.

The fact that despite appearances, he’s gorgeous and doing weird things to my blood pressure doesn't mean a thing.

Really.

Not. A. Thing.

Christopher
Hunter’s Creek, population next to nothing, is the reason I work all the time. I’m solely focused on buying the town’s lumber mill so I can go back to NYC and get my big promotion. This small town is a means to an end. Nothing more.

That is until the prettiest girl I've ever seen superglues her lips to mine in an unexpected and very public way. She’s not the kind of woman I usually go for with her boho dress and ankle boots, but that kiss…

I’m disappointed when she comes up for air and tells me it’s all for show. But if Harper Cole wants me to be her fake boyfriend while I'm here in town, who am I to turn her down? Being attached to a local might ingratiate me to the townsfolk and make my job that much the easier.

After all, dating Harper can only be make believe. Not when my entire future is at stake.

Faking It With The Grump is a grumpy-sunshine, opposites attract, fake relationship romance set in the small town of Hunter's Creek, Washington. It's the first book in the new Second Chance Café series. Each book follows a different sister's love story and can be read as a standalone novel or as part of a series.