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Your Favourite Fake Girlfriend
Sweet and swoony fake-dating romance - because life's never perfect but pretending might be. A dreamy contemporary love story from the brilliantly talented author of We Used to be Magic.
When her boy next-door first love breaks her heart, Dee is devastated. Wilf's been the boy of her dreams forever. . . till he moved to uni and made moves on his flatmate. But an unexpected offer from his awkward but hot uni neighbour, Arthur, brings a whole new spin with an invitation to a gorgeous week-long wedding celebrations. Maybe Dee can get her sweet revenge and show Wilf exactly what he's missing? The fact that he loathes Arthur doesn't hurt either.
The only catch is, she's not there just to fill the guestlist, Dee's been invited as Arthur's 'long-term girlfriend', and Arthur just happens to be the brother of the bride. This wedding party's about to get complicated . . .
A dreamily romantic slow-burn love story as fake-dating gets a gorgeous wedding twist. Perfect for fans of Lynn Painter, Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood.
When her boy next-door first love breaks her heart, Dee is devastated. Wilf's been the boy of her dreams forever. . . till he moved to uni and made moves on his flatmate. But an unexpected offer from his awkward but hot uni neighbour, Arthur, brings a whole new spin with an invitation to a gorgeous week-long wedding celebrations. Maybe Dee can get her sweet revenge and show Wilf exactly what he's missing? The fact that he loathes Arthur doesn't hurt either.
The only catch is, she's not there just to fill the guestlist, Dee's been invited as Arthur's 'long-term girlfriend', and Arthur just happens to be the brother of the bride. This wedding party's about to get complicated . . .
A dreamily romantic slow-burn love story as fake-dating gets a gorgeous wedding twist. Perfect for fans of Lynn Painter, Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 20, 2026
I really enjoyed reading this book! YA isn’t my usual go to genre but the writing of this book made this a 5 star read. I read nearly 70% of this in one day as I enjoyed it so much I had to keep reading at any opportunity I had!
This book follows Claudia who is navigating a recent break up and Arthur, who lived next door to Claudia’s ex at university. Arthur has been pretending to his family he has a girlfriend and together he and Claudia agree to attend Arthur’s sister Birdie’s wedding as a couple.
Unsurprisingly Claudia is a hit with his family and there is no question where this will end up going!
A really great read, and the plot flowed really well! I look forward to reading more from Bea Ingalls in the future.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my thoughts.
This book follows Claudia who is navigating a recent break up and Arthur, who lived next door to Claudia’s ex at university. Arthur has been pretending to his family he has a girlfriend and together he and Claudia agree to attend Arthur’s sister Birdie’s wedding as a couple.
Unsurprisingly Claudia is a hit with his family and there is no question where this will end up going!
A really great read, and the plot flowed really well! I look forward to reading more from Bea Ingalls in the future.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my thoughts.
June 1, 2026
This was adorable and basically an unputdownable read. Arthur and Dee had me hooked in to their love story, with all their small bickering and moments of raw honest and vulnerability. I loved Nell too, Dee’s supportive best friend. Really, there was such a great cast of characters, with both Dee’s and Arthur’s families being wonderful. Loved how Arthur’s mum was willing to adopt Dee in to the family, whether she was with Arthur or not.
I really appreciated the OCD representation and I put a label to it before the narrative named it. The fear and the debilitating thoughts were accurately portrayed. As someone with OCD, I felt very seen and had a bit of a kinship with Arthur and his struggles. I loved that Ingalls didn’t magically cure his OCD with love, but showed that there is a world where you can still have a life, while still living with this awful disorder. Seeing Arthur reconnect with life was beautiful. Not easy, not all fixed, and certainly effort, but it was wonderful to see him want and trust the people around him to love him.
I loved Dee and her struggles with perfectionism and performance. I loved her character journey of her realising that who she is is more than enough for people, and she doesn’t have to perform and be perfect to please them. The heart to heart she had with her mum in the latter end of the book did make me cry. (So did Arthur’s conversation with his friend Nico. Tears all around).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. A good cast of characters. Plot was steadily paced. My only issue is the classic miscommunication trope, as I don’t particularly like that and often find it just unnecessary. I see how the author played in to it with Arthur’s character, and how he has the tendency to jump to the worst, but I really do think the book would have been fine without it. Personal preference, just didn’t enjoy it.
I really appreciated the OCD representation and I put a label to it before the narrative named it. The fear and the debilitating thoughts were accurately portrayed. As someone with OCD, I felt very seen and had a bit of a kinship with Arthur and his struggles. I loved that Ingalls didn’t magically cure his OCD with love, but showed that there is a world where you can still have a life, while still living with this awful disorder. Seeing Arthur reconnect with life was beautiful. Not easy, not all fixed, and certainly effort, but it was wonderful to see him want and trust the people around him to love him.
I loved Dee and her struggles with perfectionism and performance. I loved her character journey of her realising that who she is is more than enough for people, and she doesn’t have to perform and be perfect to please them. The heart to heart she had with her mum in the latter end of the book did make me cry. (So did Arthur’s conversation with his friend Nico. Tears all around).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. A good cast of characters. Plot was steadily paced. My only issue is the classic miscommunication trope, as I don’t particularly like that and often find it just unnecessary. I see how the author played in to it with Arthur’s character, and how he has the tendency to jump to the worst, but I really do think the book would have been fine without it. Personal preference, just didn’t enjoy it.
May 31, 2026
I loved this book so much 😭
The perfect blend of romance, comedy, and heartfelt sincerity - whilst also addressing some incredibly “real” topics
A must read green pepper romance for your summer tbr’s, this book deserves so much more hype!!
Ps - this is a formal request for Nico & Zoey’s story 🤭
The perfect blend of romance, comedy, and heartfelt sincerity - whilst also addressing some incredibly “real” topics
A must read green pepper romance for your summer tbr’s, this book deserves so much more hype!!
Ps - this is a formal request for Nico & Zoey’s story 🤭
June 1, 2026
This book was everything I needed after falling into a reading slump, it was vibrant, romantic and hopeful with two incredibly brought to life romantic leads and it had be flying through it!
I am a big romance fan at heart anyway and to read something that both acknowledges the tropes we all know and love but also challenges and subverts them to create something new was such a refreshing thing to encounter and made it so readable as I couldn't guess where it was going as I read it.
While I loved Claudia and Arthur, I think the thing that really made this book stand out was the strength of the supporting cast whether that was the icon that was Birdie or Nell I felt they were so multi-layered and real it really drove the plot and added a lot of realness and richness to the book which I loved!
Cannot wait to read what she writes next and this was the perfect summer beach read which should be in every beach bag!
I am a big romance fan at heart anyway and to read something that both acknowledges the tropes we all know and love but also challenges and subverts them to create something new was such a refreshing thing to encounter and made it so readable as I couldn't guess where it was going as I read it.
While I loved Claudia and Arthur, I think the thing that really made this book stand out was the strength of the supporting cast whether that was the icon that was Birdie or Nell I felt they were so multi-layered and real it really drove the plot and added a lot of realness and richness to the book which I loved!
Cannot wait to read what she writes next and this was the perfect summer beach read which should be in every beach bag!
June 1, 2026
that was a nice book!
slightly cliche tho
slightly cliche tho
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews