SUMMARY
In this fun, fast-paced romantic comedy, a bookish firefighter who knows his Jane Austen suggests a little fake dating to fend off an ex. What’s a feminist English professor to do—except say yes…
You can’t fake heat like this…
To an observer, hauling a baby grand piano onto a college quad to publicly serenade an ex might seem like a romantic gesture. To literature professor Eva Campbell, it’s the latest manipulative move by a cheating jerk who won’t take a hint. Plus, she never liked that song anyway.
Setting the piano on fire might be an overreaction, but Eva’s at the end of her rope, at least until hot young firefighter Sean Hannigan talks her down. And that’s not all Sean does. Soon he’s offering to be Eva’s fake boyfriend to get her creepy ex off her back. Unexpected, maybe, but there’s something about Sean—beyond the angelic face and take-me-now body—that makes Eva say yes.
Sean battles infernos for a living, reads romance on the side and is a straight-up, family-loving good guy. Eva’s not sure she’s ready for the danger he poses to her jaded heart. Given their differences, a relationship can’t last, right? But the line between fake and real keeps blurring, daring her to take the biggest risk of all…
Summary from Goodreads.
REVIEW
Fake Flame ended up being my next physical TBR jar pick and I always enjoy letting the jar decide what I read because it encourages me to finally pick up books that have been sitting on my shelves for far too long. Unfortunately, this one ended up being a bit of a mixed experience for me.
Overall, I’d call this a low three star read.
It wasn’t a bad book by any means, but it also wasn’t one that really grabbed my attention. I kept waiting for that moment where I’d become completely invested in the story, where I’d be telling myself “just one more chapter” before staying up far too late to finish it. That moment never really came. Instead, I found myself reading a few chapters, putting it down and not feeling any urgency to pick it back up again.
As someone who absolutely loves the fake dating trope, I thought this book had a lot of potential. It’s usually one of my favourite romance tropes because it naturally creates so much chemistry, tension and emotional payoff. Here though, the fake dating setup felt a little too convenient. Rather than developing naturally, it often felt like the story bent itself to make the trope work instead of letting it unfold organically. I never completely bought into why everything happened the way it did, which made it harder to become invested in the romance.
The reverse age gap element was something I actually enjoyed. It’s not a trope you see nearly as often and I appreciated that the story tried something a little different. It added an interesting dynamic to the relationship without becoming the entire focus of the novel, which I thought worked well.
Unfortunately, the characters themselves never really clicked with me.
I didn’t dislike Eva and Sean, but I also didn’t find them particularly memorable. I kept hoping I’d connect with them more as the story progressed, but they never felt fully developed. Because I wasn’t emotionally attached to either of them, I found it difficult to care about whether they ended up together. In romance, that’s probably the biggest hurdle a book can face because the relationship is meant to carry the entire story.
Another aspect that didn’t quite work for me was the constant switching between points of view. I don’t mind multiple POVs. In fact, I usually enjoy them but here I often found the transitions a little confusing. Just as I was settling into one character’s perspective, the story would switch again. Sometimes it was in the middle of the chapter and other times in mid conversations and it interrupted the flow more than it added to it. I think a smoother structure would have helped me stay immersed in the story.
There were also several points where I genuinely considered DNFing the book. I wasn’t actively disliking what I was reading, but I also wasn’t excited to pick it up each day. It simply lacked that spark that keeps me thinking about a story when I’m not reading it.
That said, I can still see why this book might work for other readers. If you’re looking for a light romance with fake dating and a reverse age gap dynamic, there’s definitely an audience for it. It just didn’t deliver the emotional connection or chemistry I was hoping for.
Overall, Fake Flame was an okay read, but not one I’ll remember for very long. The fake dating trope didn’t quite hit the way I wanted it to, the characters never fully came to life for me and the pacing made it difficult to stay engaged. It wasn’t a bad book, it simply never rose above being an average, low three star romance for me.
-Rachelle
I’m on Instagram at @rachellesbookshelf
