Review: "Falling for the Fake Boyfriend" by S.E. Rose and Sierra Hill

Falling for the Fake Boyfriend by S.E. Rose and Sierra Hill
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like "Falling for the Fake Boyfriend," but in a lot of ways, it felt more like a first draft than a finished book. The main characters, their relationship, and several key aspects of the plot felt underdeveloped to me. In short, while it had potential, IMO the story fell flat in the execution and would have benefited from further editing prior to publication.

My biggest problem related to the central romantic relationship between college football player Emmett Hudson and his tutor, fellow college student Lucy Parker. Their chemistry was questionable and it seemed as if they mostly latched on to each other out of convenience, not because of any genuine romantic interest. Lucy's main concern was making her high school crush, Hendy, jealous, a sub-plot that went on for way too long and consumed far too much of the story. It was tough to believe in the strength of Lucy's feelings for Emmett when she was busy "staring dreamily" into Hendy's eyes and kissing him at 86% of the way through the book. Emmett's feelings weren't necessarily believable either because for as much as he claimed that Hendy was one of his best friends, they didn't actually seem to like each other very much. I couldn't tell if Emmett truly cared about Lucy or just wanted to beat Hendy at winning her affections.

My other big problem with this book was the way the football program was described. It wasn't clear to me if it was a Division I (D-I) program, but it seems like it must have been since Emmett was attending college on a full athletic scholarship. My understanding is that D-II schools usually only give partial athletic scholarships, and D-III schools don't normally offer athletic scholarships at all. Bottom line, Emmett was probably a pretty good player, so why did he spend so much time agonizing over what to do after graduation when there was probably a realistic chance for him to go pro? He made it seem like Hendy was the only player on the team who had a shot at being drafted, which seems very strange to me. If Hendy (and only Hendy) was that talented, he wouldn't still be playing for their team. He would have transferred to a more prestigious program to give him a better shot at the draft. At any rate, I wish all of this had been fleshed out a bit more, though I know it may not be as bothersome for other readers as it was for me. (I'm a huge NCAA football fan and my brother played for a D-I program, so I've been around it for a long time.)

Despite the above frustrations, there were several things I did like about the book, particularly some of the secondary characters. I was especially intrigued by the setup for Emmett's friend and roommate Killian's book, which I believe will be the next one in the series. Hopefully the authors will take the opportunity to address some of the outstanding questions about the football program in that story.

*Review copy provided by the authors. All opinions expressed are my own.

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