Maria Coletti has survived three Valentine's Balls as the town's favorite single florist, and she's done smiling through the pitying looks. This year, she's showing up with a date—even if she has to fake one.
Enter Chris charming corporate lawyer, commitment-phobe extraordinaire, and the man who accidentally set last year's office Valentine's party on fire (the less said about the flaming heart centerpiece, the better). When Maria's cousin suggests a mutually beneficial arrangement—Maria gets her plus-one, Chris gets to rehabilitate his reputation—it seems like the perfect plan.
No one needs to know it's all pretend.
But between delivering candy-grams to half the town, surviving her five overprotective brothers' "casual" interrogations (and her matchmaking Nonna's pointed questions), and the infamous spiked punch bowl incident at the Valentine's Ball, their fake relationship starts feeling dangerously real. Chris's smile lingers a little too long over rose arrangements. Maria's heart does things it shouldn't when he defends Coletti's Flowers to the town council. And that kiss at midnight? Definitely not in the script.
With the whole town watching—and her entire Italian family analyzing every glance—Maria has to is she brave enough to turn their Valentine's charade into something real?
Sometimes love needs a little fake dating, a lot of roses, and one spectacularly disastrous punch bowl to get it right.
This was my very first fake dating trope and now I get the hype! 🥰 Be My Fake Valentine was such a fun, cute read. The chemistry between the characters was adorable, and I’m honestly impressed with how well Daisy Woods developed everything in such a short book. It was light, sweet, and left me smiling. Definitely a great introduction to fake dating for me!
What a delightful Valentine's love story that can be enjoyed any time of the year. Family everywhere, and all caring about each other. Flowers explode from most of the chapters in images, imagined smells, and happiness. I loved the honesty of the characters, especially Chris's grand gesture debacle! (I also loved that he owned up to it without shame.) This was my first book by this author, and I look forward to discovering others she has written.
The characters in this book have some really strong emotions that stem from their upbringing. Can they change how they feel about love ? Time and family are the key.