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Lakeshore Medical #1
Faking the Fiancé
462 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2026
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July 3, 2026
Faking the Fiance by C.G. Macington is book one in the Lakeshore Medical Romance series. This is a slow burn medical romance between two clueless doctors that have been pining for each other for two long years. And let me add here that this book is bursting with ALL the pining and yearning. Keep reading and I’ll tell you a little bit about these two and a few of my own thoughts.
Dr. Arjun Kapoor is thirty three years old and is a brilliant neurosurgeon at Lakeshore Medical. He is also the oldest of three in the very powerful and wealthy Kapoor family, headed up by his mother. Arjun lives a controlled life, working over one hundred hours a week. His operating rooms are silent, kept at a strict temperature. He’s known at the hospital as the Dread Prince. His biggest secret is that when he looks out the window that overlooks the emergency department, he only sees one man, the man he has been pining for for two long years. When his mother calls and says that she has chosen who Arjun will marry, he panics. When he tells her that it’s impossible because he is already engaged, it’s that man’s name that pops out of his mouth, Casey Welling.
Dr. Casey Welling is a former hockey player. He is a huge man, both in height and width. He is the kindest man Arjun has ever known and can make a scared child smile with his magic tricks, his flowers out of napkins, and his dinosaur stickers. He is the golden retrievers of all golden retrievers. He lives alone with his dog, Oliver, and has been in love with Arjun for two years. When Arjun drags him into a supply closet and informs him that he told his mother that they were engaged and that they now need to travel to his home in Rajasthan, India to face his family, Casey doesn’t hesitate for a second.
Arjun prepares Casey as best he can for the Kapoor family. And Casey faces every challenge with a huge smile on his face. He slowly wins them all over and the walls Arjun keeps up slowly begin to crumble. But he will never be good enough for Arjun’s mother. She has trick after trick up her sleeve.
Reading this book is like reading a poem. It’s so beautifully told, the descriptions made me feel like I was there. And the emotions of Arjun and Casey as they yearned for each other broke my heart. But, this is where I need to add that the print length of this book is 464 pages. I was mesmerized in the beginning. But my attention waned at around forty percent. By fifty percent, I was beginning to lose interest. The part of me that really wanted to know how these two ended up kept me going. By around seventy percent, things picked up. But again, there is a third act break up which shattered my heart. I’m not a fan of third act break ups.
In the blurb, this is called a rom-com but it’s really not. It’s beautiful and heart breaking and witty and did make me smile. But, there are SO MANY words. Too many in my opinion. The ending was sweet. I did love the way Arjun and grown. The author says there will be more in this series. I am not sure if it will be on the same couple. Whether I read it or not will depend on the page count.
“There is nothing in this world I would not do for this man.”
Dr. Arjun Kapoor is thirty three years old and is a brilliant neurosurgeon at Lakeshore Medical. He is also the oldest of three in the very powerful and wealthy Kapoor family, headed up by his mother. Arjun lives a controlled life, working over one hundred hours a week. His operating rooms are silent, kept at a strict temperature. He’s known at the hospital as the Dread Prince. His biggest secret is that when he looks out the window that overlooks the emergency department, he only sees one man, the man he has been pining for for two long years. When his mother calls and says that she has chosen who Arjun will marry, he panics. When he tells her that it’s impossible because he is already engaged, it’s that man’s name that pops out of his mouth, Casey Welling.
Dr. Casey Welling is a former hockey player. He is a huge man, both in height and width. He is the kindest man Arjun has ever known and can make a scared child smile with his magic tricks, his flowers out of napkins, and his dinosaur stickers. He is the golden retrievers of all golden retrievers. He lives alone with his dog, Oliver, and has been in love with Arjun for two years. When Arjun drags him into a supply closet and informs him that he told his mother that they were engaged and that they now need to travel to his home in Rajasthan, India to face his family, Casey doesn’t hesitate for a second.
Arjun prepares Casey as best he can for the Kapoor family. And Casey faces every challenge with a huge smile on his face. He slowly wins them all over and the walls Arjun keeps up slowly begin to crumble. But he will never be good enough for Arjun’s mother. She has trick after trick up her sleeve.
Reading this book is like reading a poem. It’s so beautifully told, the descriptions made me feel like I was there. And the emotions of Arjun and Casey as they yearned for each other broke my heart. But, this is where I need to add that the print length of this book is 464 pages. I was mesmerized in the beginning. But my attention waned at around forty percent. By fifty percent, I was beginning to lose interest. The part of me that really wanted to know how these two ended up kept me going. By around seventy percent, things picked up. But again, there is a third act break up which shattered my heart. I’m not a fan of third act break ups.
In the blurb, this is called a rom-com but it’s really not. It’s beautiful and heart breaking and witty and did make me smile. But, there are SO MANY words. Too many in my opinion. The ending was sweet. I did love the way Arjun and grown. The author says there will be more in this series. I am not sure if it will be on the same couple. Whether I read it or not will depend on the page count.
“There is nothing in this world I would not do for this man.”
July 2, 2026
Edited to add extraordinary update at the end.
I have been toying with the idea that C.G. Macington has an alter ego. Macington One wrote the St Jude's books, which lean in joyously to OTT; they are short and sharply witty:
Macington Two, on the other hand, writes the sappy schmaltzy stuff—though there are, to be fair, odd flashes here of Macington One's wit in this book ("she is pushing the samosas at me with the focused, irresistible force of a hostess who has elevated food-based hospitality to a martial art") but 'Faking the Fiancé' went on too long and took itself too seriously. I'd take half the repetition for double the pleasure.
Part of the problem is the central relationship conflict between Arjun & his mother, which is too lopsided to be convincing as a plot device. She is controlling and unpleasant and it takes far too long for Arjun to stand up to her, which he does just once, then caves again over an obvious nothing. The reveal about his father should have come earlier in order to explain his approach to her—as it's left so late, however, he lost my sympathy for most of the book, not least because he's made to speak like a cyborg most of the time.
The Rajasthani background is certainly colourful, but I'll leave it to those with more knowledge than me to say whether it's actually realistic. Macington One's US-set books also feature a Very Extremely Obscenely Rich Family and barring the food & dress code, there are few apparent behavioural differences between the family cultures.
The rest of the issue is down a worrying over-use of repetition as a stylistic crowd-pleaser. It does work if used in moderation, as does the whimsy of phrases like "it smelled of rain and disappointment". But with 'Faking the Fiancé' clocking in at 144k words, less would very definitely have been more.
It's not dreadful, but if the other C.G. Macington would kindly stand up...
No editor credited.
Not-particularly-accurate-cover artist: Lucia Saldutti
Extraordinary update
Not 72 hours after I posted the review above, C.G. Macington sent out a newsletter which read:
I have been toying with the idea that C.G. Macington has an alter ego. Macington One wrote the St Jude's books, which lean in joyously to OTT; they are short and sharply witty:
"It is a deconstructed scallop foam with truffle dust," he whispers back.
I squint at the plate. "Where’s the scallop?"
"The scallop is implied," Maxwell says.
"The scallop is implied?" I hiss. "Max, I haven't eaten since 06:00. I can't eat an implication."
“My dog is listless... I suspect a neurological event...She sighed, Dr. Silva! She sighed heavily.”
“Dogs sigh, Ma’am. It’s a respiratory function.”
“Not like this. This was an existential sigh.”
Macington Two, on the other hand, writes the sappy schmaltzy stuff—though there are, to be fair, odd flashes here of Macington One's wit in this book ("she is pushing the samosas at me with the focused, irresistible force of a hostess who has elevated food-based hospitality to a martial art") but 'Faking the Fiancé' went on too long and took itself too seriously. I'd take half the repetition for double the pleasure.
Part of the problem is the central relationship conflict between Arjun & his mother, which is too lopsided to be convincing as a plot device. She is controlling and unpleasant and it takes far too long for Arjun to stand up to her, which he does just once, then caves again over an obvious nothing. The reveal about his father should have come earlier in order to explain his approach to her—as it's left so late, however, he lost my sympathy for most of the book, not least because he's made to speak like a cyborg most of the time.
The Rajasthani background is certainly colourful, but I'll leave it to those with more knowledge than me to say whether it's actually realistic. Macington One's US-set books also feature a Very Extremely Obscenely Rich Family and barring the food & dress code, there are few apparent behavioural differences between the family cultures.
The rest of the issue is down a worrying over-use of repetition as a stylistic crowd-pleaser. It does work if used in moderation, as does the whimsy of phrases like "it smelled of rain and disappointment". But with 'Faking the Fiancé' clocking in at 144k words, less would very definitely have been more.
It's not dreadful, but if the other C.G. Macington would kindly stand up...
No editor credited.
Not-particularly-accurate-cover artist: Lucia Saldutti
Extraordinary update
Not 72 hours after I posted the review above, C.G. Macington sent out a newsletter which read:
I'm revising Faking the Fiancé down, and re-releasing it as a second edition.That's an author I can respect. I'll be here for the second edition.
Here's the truth, laid bare. The current version clocks in at nearly one hundred and fifty thousand words. For those of you who don't live in word counts the way I unfortunately do, that is, in technical publishing terms, an absolute unit. That is not a romantic comedy. That is a romantic comedy that ate a second romantic comedy and is now wearing it as a coat.
I got carried away. I fell in love with these two idiots and their feelings and their beautiful, poetic, painstakingly crafted longing, and I simply could not stop writing sentences about it. Every scene felt essential. Every metaphor felt load-bearing. I looked up one day, blinked, and realized I had written a doorstop and lovingly called it a rom-com.
Now, for those of you who bought or read that first edition: that one is yours, and it's mine too. It stays on my shelf, spine cracked and cover and all, and it will always be the truest version of their story to me. Nothing about a second edition changes that. You didn't read a rough draft. You read the book, the whole overgrown, lovesick, hundred-and-fifty-thousand-word heart of it, and I will love you specifically forever for it.
So I'm bringing the new edition down to a leaner ninety-five to a hundred thousand words. Still the same story, same heart, same slow-burn ache, same two men refusing to admit the obvious. Just tighter, quicker on its feet, and easier to fall into. The prose I'm proudest of stays. The prose that was mostly me showing off gets a gentle, tearful goodbye.
August 9, 2026
First of all, that awful cover (the darker one and NOT the lighter one with them in the hospital hallways) does NOT do this book justice in any way, shape, or form. Because this is such a beautiful book. The prose is gorgeous, the tension is INSANE, and the yearning and pining between these two? I was literally sitting there reading this with the biggest smile on my face because THESE TWO!!! Ugh. I loved Arjun and Casey SO much.
This might have officially solidified itself as my favorite MM book ever, and that is saying A LOT. I just absolutely adored this for so many reasons, and I honestly could go on and on about how beautifully written this book is. I have seen some reviews mention that they found the writing long-winded or more tell than show, but I actually think the opposite. I think the writing works BECAUSE of who these characters are and because we are so deeply inside their heads. We get a dual first-person POV, so we really get to know exactly how both Arjun and Casey think and feel, and that was one of my favorite parts of this book.
Arjun is so clinical and neurotic and constantly analyzing everything, while Casey is so sweet and stable and warm, but underneath all of that he has this deep fear of loss and of losing the person he loves. So of course their internal monologues are going to be A LOT. And I loved that. I loved getting all of those thoughts and feelings and descriptions and really being inside their minds. I think it added so much to the story and made their relationship feel incredibly intimate. It was gorgeous and so well done to me.
And THE TENSION. The yearning. The pining. THESE MEN HAD CRUSHES ON EACH OTHER FOR TWO YEARS! TWO YEARS!!! And somehow they were both just walking around being completely oblivious to what the other one was feeling. I was losing my mind. This is a slow burn, but it is such a beautiful slow burn because you can feel everything building between them the entire time. Every little interaction, every look, every moment of closeness just had me waiting for them to FINALLY figure it out. I was GIDDY reading this.
I also really loved the family dynamics, especially everything Arjun was dealing with within his Indian family. His mother has these incredibly high expectations for him, and Arjun genuinely believes that he will never be able to live up to them no matter how hard he tries. And he DOES try. Constantly. Even when it is hurting him. I will say, I wanted him to stand up to his mother SO much sooner and so much more because, baby, you could have just told her NO!!! 😂 She got away with WAY too much and I was so frustrated with her because of that. But I also understood why Arjun struggled so much to push back against her, and I really loved watching him work through that and start figuring out what he actually wanted for himself.
And I loved his family. Daadi especially. Priya. Yash. Cousin Karan. Even Rohan and Dev. I just adored them. They brought so much warmth and personality to the story, and I loved seeing Arjun around the people who actually knew and loved him.
But my favorite character just has to be Casey. Casey Welling, you wonderful man. He was extraordinary. He is such a sweetheart and truly gave me the biggest Ted Lasso vibes. He is this six foot three golden retriever of a man in dinosaur print scrubs who does magic tricks for crying kids, and somehow he is also the absolute perfect person for Arjun. They are SO different, but that is exactly why they work.
Casey made Arjun a better man, but I loved that Arjun also gave Casey something he needed. They both had their own traumas and their own fears to overcome, and I thought the way they responded to those things differently was so fascinating. Arjun tries to control everything because control makes him feel safe, while Casey is so much more outwardly open and steady but has his own deep fears about loss. I loved that those two things collide and then they slowly learn from each other and love each other.
And of course, the fake fiance part of it all! The fact that Arjun literally panics about his mother's arranged engagement and just blurts out that he's already engaged TO CASEY, who has absolutely no idea what is happening, is SO them. 😂 Then you throw them into three weeks in Rajasthan, surrounded by family, gossiping aunties, a rival who is flirting with Casey, one bed, a pillow wall, and all of this unresolved tension that has been building for TWO YEARS??? I was DONE. Cooked. Fried up and battered and served.
Because Casey was never actually pretending. And Arjun slowly realizing that the thing he thought was a spectacularly bad lie was actually becoming the most real thing in his life was just beautiful.
I think that is ultimately what I loved most about this book. It is funny and romantic and has all of the tropes I love, but underneath that, it is really a story about two people who have spent so much time protecting themselves and trying to manage their own fears finally allowing themselves to be loved. And I FELT that.
This was beautiful. The prose was beautiful. The characters were beautiful. The romance was beautiful. The yearning was EVERYTHING. I loved these two men so much, and I genuinely did not want to leave them when the book was over.
I am OBSESSED with this book. Seriously. I adore Arjun and Casey, I adore their relationship, I adore their families, and I adore how much this book made me smile.
PLEASE GO READ THIS. Seriously. I loved it SO much!
Quotes from the book I loved (may contain some slight spoilers SO BE WARNED):
He turns on his heel and walks, and I follow, because honestly, Arjun Kapoor could walk straight off the edge of the building and I'd follow him down, trying to figure out how to cushion the landing with my body.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that my mother is essentially a warlord in a silk sari.”
I have been in love with him for two years. Two years of watching him from across the ER floor. Two years of memorizing the way he tilts his head when he's reading a scan, the specific sigh he makes when a resident disappoints him, the way his ears turn the softest shade of pink when someone catches him off guard. Two years of finding excuses to be on the same cases, handing him coffee he didn't ask for, learning the way he takes it (black, scalding, in a mug he wipes down with an antiseptic wipe first because of course he does).
“Grief is not weakness, Arjun. It is the tax you pay for caring. And you care. That is why you will be extraordinary.”
“You had a surgical caseload. That's your excuse. You were too busy saving brains to watch a dinosaur eat a lawyer.”
“Additionally,” she continues, as if I haven't spoken, “I will need your exact birth time, date, and location for the astrological compatibility assessment.” “3:47 a.m., March 12th, 1993, Huntsville General Hospital.”
“He’s enormous. Good. Arjun needs someone who can reach the top shelf. The boy has been climbing on chairs his whole life and it’s undignified.”
Tarun looked at Casey Welling and saw sunlight, and built him a suit out of it.
“The first time I saw Arjun work, he was in surgery for eight hours. A little boy, four years old, with something in his brain that shouldn’t have been there. And I watched him through the gallery window, and his hands never shook. Not once. Eight hours, and those hands were steady the entire time, and at the end of it, that little boy was going to grow up and go to school and fight with his siblings and do all the normal, messy, beautiful things that kids do, all because of him.”
“The man is so in love with you he’s about to commit polo-based homicide, and he still thinks he’s being extremely subtle about it.”
Because Casey Welling does not do anything halfway. He does not perform. He does not strategize. He walks into burning buildings because it doesn't occur to him not to, and he is kissing me the same way, with everything he has, holding nothing back, and I am drowning in it. And all I want to do is drown.
He eats like a man who respects food, he laughs like a man who respects joy, and he looks at you like a man who respects love.
“Take care of him,” she says. “He is difficult and repressed and he will try to process your entire relationship through medical terminology at least twice more before the year is out. When he does this, do not leave. Hit him with a newspaper. It worked on his grandfather.”
This might have officially solidified itself as my favorite MM book ever, and that is saying A LOT. I just absolutely adored this for so many reasons, and I honestly could go on and on about how beautifully written this book is. I have seen some reviews mention that they found the writing long-winded or more tell than show, but I actually think the opposite. I think the writing works BECAUSE of who these characters are and because we are so deeply inside their heads. We get a dual first-person POV, so we really get to know exactly how both Arjun and Casey think and feel, and that was one of my favorite parts of this book.
Arjun is so clinical and neurotic and constantly analyzing everything, while Casey is so sweet and stable and warm, but underneath all of that he has this deep fear of loss and of losing the person he loves. So of course their internal monologues are going to be A LOT. And I loved that. I loved getting all of those thoughts and feelings and descriptions and really being inside their minds. I think it added so much to the story and made their relationship feel incredibly intimate. It was gorgeous and so well done to me.
And THE TENSION. The yearning. The pining. THESE MEN HAD CRUSHES ON EACH OTHER FOR TWO YEARS! TWO YEARS!!! And somehow they were both just walking around being completely oblivious to what the other one was feeling. I was losing my mind. This is a slow burn, but it is such a beautiful slow burn because you can feel everything building between them the entire time. Every little interaction, every look, every moment of closeness just had me waiting for them to FINALLY figure it out. I was GIDDY reading this.
I also really loved the family dynamics, especially everything Arjun was dealing with within his Indian family. His mother has these incredibly high expectations for him, and Arjun genuinely believes that he will never be able to live up to them no matter how hard he tries. And he DOES try. Constantly. Even when it is hurting him. I will say, I wanted him to stand up to his mother SO much sooner and so much more because, baby, you could have just told her NO!!! 😂 She got away with WAY too much and I was so frustrated with her because of that. But I also understood why Arjun struggled so much to push back against her, and I really loved watching him work through that and start figuring out what he actually wanted for himself.
And I loved his family. Daadi especially. Priya. Yash. Cousin Karan. Even Rohan and Dev. I just adored them. They brought so much warmth and personality to the story, and I loved seeing Arjun around the people who actually knew and loved him.
But my favorite character just has to be Casey. Casey Welling, you wonderful man. He was extraordinary. He is such a sweetheart and truly gave me the biggest Ted Lasso vibes. He is this six foot three golden retriever of a man in dinosaur print scrubs who does magic tricks for crying kids, and somehow he is also the absolute perfect person for Arjun. They are SO different, but that is exactly why they work.
Casey made Arjun a better man, but I loved that Arjun also gave Casey something he needed. They both had their own traumas and their own fears to overcome, and I thought the way they responded to those things differently was so fascinating. Arjun tries to control everything because control makes him feel safe, while Casey is so much more outwardly open and steady but has his own deep fears about loss. I loved that those two things collide and then they slowly learn from each other and love each other.
And of course, the fake fiance part of it all! The fact that Arjun literally panics about his mother's arranged engagement and just blurts out that he's already engaged TO CASEY, who has absolutely no idea what is happening, is SO them. 😂 Then you throw them into three weeks in Rajasthan, surrounded by family, gossiping aunties, a rival who is flirting with Casey, one bed, a pillow wall, and all of this unresolved tension that has been building for TWO YEARS??? I was DONE. Cooked. Fried up and battered and served.
Because Casey was never actually pretending. And Arjun slowly realizing that the thing he thought was a spectacularly bad lie was actually becoming the most real thing in his life was just beautiful.
I think that is ultimately what I loved most about this book. It is funny and romantic and has all of the tropes I love, but underneath that, it is really a story about two people who have spent so much time protecting themselves and trying to manage their own fears finally allowing themselves to be loved. And I FELT that.
This was beautiful. The prose was beautiful. The characters were beautiful. The romance was beautiful. The yearning was EVERYTHING. I loved these two men so much, and I genuinely did not want to leave them when the book was over.
I am OBSESSED with this book. Seriously. I adore Arjun and Casey, I adore their relationship, I adore their families, and I adore how much this book made me smile.
PLEASE GO READ THIS. Seriously. I loved it SO much!
Quotes from the book I loved (may contain some slight spoilers SO BE WARNED):
He turns on his heel and walks, and I follow, because honestly, Arjun Kapoor could walk straight off the edge of the building and I'd follow him down, trying to figure out how to cushion the landing with my body.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that my mother is essentially a warlord in a silk sari.”
I have been in love with him for two years. Two years of watching him from across the ER floor. Two years of memorizing the way he tilts his head when he's reading a scan, the specific sigh he makes when a resident disappoints him, the way his ears turn the softest shade of pink when someone catches him off guard. Two years of finding excuses to be on the same cases, handing him coffee he didn't ask for, learning the way he takes it (black, scalding, in a mug he wipes down with an antiseptic wipe first because of course he does).
“Grief is not weakness, Arjun. It is the tax you pay for caring. And you care. That is why you will be extraordinary.”
“You had a surgical caseload. That's your excuse. You were too busy saving brains to watch a dinosaur eat a lawyer.”
“Additionally,” she continues, as if I haven't spoken, “I will need your exact birth time, date, and location for the astrological compatibility assessment.” “3:47 a.m., March 12th, 1993, Huntsville General Hospital.”
“He’s enormous. Good. Arjun needs someone who can reach the top shelf. The boy has been climbing on chairs his whole life and it’s undignified.”
Tarun looked at Casey Welling and saw sunlight, and built him a suit out of it.
“The first time I saw Arjun work, he was in surgery for eight hours. A little boy, four years old, with something in his brain that shouldn’t have been there. And I watched him through the gallery window, and his hands never shook. Not once. Eight hours, and those hands were steady the entire time, and at the end of it, that little boy was going to grow up and go to school and fight with his siblings and do all the normal, messy, beautiful things that kids do, all because of him.”
“The man is so in love with you he’s about to commit polo-based homicide, and he still thinks he’s being extremely subtle about it.”
Because Casey Welling does not do anything halfway. He does not perform. He does not strategize. He walks into burning buildings because it doesn't occur to him not to, and he is kissing me the same way, with everything he has, holding nothing back, and I am drowning in it. And all I want to do is drown.
He eats like a man who respects food, he laughs like a man who respects joy, and he looks at you like a man who respects love.
“Take care of him,” she says. “He is difficult and repressed and he will try to process your entire relationship through medical terminology at least twice more before the year is out. When he does this, do not leave. Hit him with a newspaper. It worked on his grandfather.”
June 2, 2026
Arjun Kapoor is thirty-three, a neurosurgeon. He’s a rigid, emotionally closed-off personality. While this is a thing with patients, he’s very adequate as a surgeon.
Casey Welling is a paediatric generalist, the frontline defence of the emergency room (I copied it from the book to be correct)
Casey is huge, too-loud, a golden retriever, and for the last two years hopelessly in love with Arjun.
His mother organized a party for Arjun’s engagement. She wanted to pair him with a guy. In a state of panic, he told his mother he’s already engaged… to Casey. After confessing this to Casey, Casey agrees to be Arjun’s fake fiancé, travel with him to Rajasthan, India, to Arjun’s family estate, and pretend to be his fiancé for three weeks. Imagine being in love with Anjur and faking (ha! not faking) to be his fiancé.
Arjun is very punctual. There’s a leather notebook ready with notes and rules for Casey. They’ll have the same backstory about their lives and relationship.
What follows is something I can’t describe, read it yourself.
I think I said this before but this author is quite the wordsmith. The way he uses medical terminology and definitions goes beyond my imagination, the vocabulary is chef kiss, absolutely marvellously done. I really love this author’s mind, how it works to write these amazing, acceptable over-the-top stories.
…….
Casey Welling is a paediatric generalist, the frontline defence of the emergency room (I copied it from the book to be correct)
Casey is huge, too-loud, a golden retriever, and for the last two years hopelessly in love with Arjun.
His mother organized a party for Arjun’s engagement. She wanted to pair him with a guy. In a state of panic, he told his mother he’s already engaged… to Casey. After confessing this to Casey, Casey agrees to be Arjun’s fake fiancé, travel with him to Rajasthan, India, to Arjun’s family estate, and pretend to be his fiancé for three weeks. Imagine being in love with Anjur and faking (ha! not faking) to be his fiancé.
Arjun is very punctual. There’s a leather notebook ready with notes and rules for Casey. They’ll have the same backstory about their lives and relationship.
What follows is something I can’t describe, read it yourself.
I think I said this before but this author is quite the wordsmith. The way he uses medical terminology and definitions goes beyond my imagination, the vocabulary is chef kiss, absolutely marvellously done. I really love this author’s mind, how it works to write these amazing, acceptable over-the-top stories.
…….
Read
May 31, 2026I need you all to understand that this book is so much better than this cover. Casey's hair is CURLY.
Anyway. Absolutely perfect black cat/golden retriever dynamics in a typical fake dating (or engagement) context. I laughed, I made wounded animal noises, I am desperately hoping we get a book about Gabriel Moretti and also Dev and Rohan and basically all the side characters. This was ridiculously charming.
Anyway. Absolutely perfect black cat/golden retriever dynamics in a typical fake dating (or engagement) context. I laughed, I made wounded animal noises, I am desperately hoping we get a book about Gabriel Moretti and also Dev and Rohan and basically all the side characters. This was ridiculously charming.
Review of advance copy received from Author
3.5 ⭐️
I received this ARC from the author and this is my voluntary and honest review.
Wheeeeew this book is much longer than I expected and it’s based on a very shakey premise.
We have a rich emotionally stunted doctor, whose incredibly traditional and wealthy family wants to arrange his marriage so he goes and finds himself a fake fiancé to bring home - and my brain goes: Couldn’t he just stand up to his family and say no?
The story started well and I felt the emotional tensions between Arjun and Casey. However after the first 10-15% of the book this emotional connection that we have been investing in gets lost - there’s a lot of unnecessary chunks and fillers and there’s massive paragraphs and paragraphs of essays telling us but not showing us what is happening. The interaction between Casey and Arjun is diluted by the chunks of paragraphs instead of the actual MCs talking and interacting together.
The book does pick up again in the last 20% and it becomes quite enjoyable to read again. The “separation” in the end felt a little contrived and rushed and not enough grovelling done and maybe not dramatic enough but that’s just my personal preference I guess.
The side characters were quite fun to read. This looks to be a series but for the life of me I cannot guess who will be the next book. Looking forward to more books from this series.
Note: There’s a few inconsistencies in the book and some repetitive paragraphs but overall nothing that detracts from the story.
I received this ARC from the author and this is my voluntary and honest review.
Wheeeeew this book is much longer than I expected and it’s based on a very shakey premise.
We have a rich emotionally stunted doctor, whose incredibly traditional and wealthy family wants to arrange his marriage so he goes and finds himself a fake fiancé to bring home - and my brain goes: Couldn’t he just stand up to his family and say no?
The story started well and I felt the emotional tensions between Arjun and Casey. However after the first 10-15% of the book this emotional connection that we have been investing in gets lost - there’s a lot of unnecessary chunks and fillers and there’s massive paragraphs and paragraphs of essays telling us but not showing us what is happening. The interaction between Casey and Arjun is diluted by the chunks of paragraphs instead of the actual MCs talking and interacting together.
The book does pick up again in the last 20% and it becomes quite enjoyable to read again. The “separation” in the end felt a little contrived and rushed and not enough grovelling done and maybe not dramatic enough but that’s just my personal preference I guess.
The side characters were quite fun to read. This looks to be a series but for the life of me I cannot guess who will be the next book. Looking forward to more books from this series.
Note: There’s a few inconsistencies in the book and some repetitive paragraphs but overall nothing that detracts from the story.
August 31, 2026
Part of me really wants to give this 5 stars - I truly understand why people love it - but, at the same time, it just didn’t really work for me. I’m also irrationally angry at the third act breakup.
Arjun 🩺 Casey
Basic premise: Casey and Arjun work at the same hospital and have been eyeing each other for two years, without the other knowing. Arjun’s mom calls one day and announces his arranged engagement to someone named Dev; he panics and tells her that he’s already engaged to Casey. Casey readily agrees because he’s already in love with him and so travels with him to India for three weeks to meet the family and engage in a seemingly endless array of events.
It started so strong! The writing is almost poetic at times. We have two very likable and/or sympathetic characters who are clearly crazy about each other. I loved the golden retriever energy in Casey and the pain and loneliness Arjun is hiding. Arjun, who speaks in a cold clinical manner and is referred to as Dr Dread. They are put in a crazy situation, where the tension rises, and we see our men show their love through all kinds of big and small acts.
But then…. but then… it just fell off a cliff. At 60%, we could have had Arjun stand up to his awful mother, defend his love for Casey and together ride into the sunset. But no. Instead, we have manufactured drama. Arjun caves, Casey flees, and THEN we hear about all their respective daddy issues. 😭.
Major spoilers: ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
Here’s where the story went wrong for me:
- We’re not told that Casey has a crush on Arjun - ok stead, we’re told that he “loves” him. LOVES him. How? They’ve never had a proper conversation. Arjun has a crush on Casey and grows to love him over the course of two weeks. That makes sense. Casey’s love and endless patience - eh.
- They each have daddy trauma that we’re not really told about until after the ridiculous breakup.
- The mother is causing all this trouble by not accepting Casey, meanwhile the entire extended family adores him. In addition, they work together, are supportive of each other, fall deeper and deeper, even declaring their love the night before the mother announces that she’s called the family astrologist. The ‘family astrologist’ declares them an incompatible match and THAT is Arjun’s breaking point. He leaves Casey sitting there alone w all of his relatives and panic calls his mentor in Toronto. Rather than - I don’t know - talking to Casey!!????? Casey overhears him on the phone, gets upset, they barely talk, and Casey leaves. To me, this all came out of nowhere.
- Also, Arjun has already left his family twice bc of their insane pressure (college and then for work in Toronto). So, why and how does his mother still have so much sway over him?
- Lastly, I wanted Arjun to directly confront his mother about her awfulness and he never really does. To me, this is just left dangling. Like, Arjun, grow a spine. Dammit.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
💔Third act breakup. Casey flees and Arjun doesn’t follow him for over 3 days. Each is miserable and both are wrong and know they’re wrong. 😑 .
➡️Opposites attract -
- Golden retriever/black cat
- large hockey player physique/smaller lithe and lean
- precise cold neurosurgeon/golden retriever empathetic general pediatric ER doctor
- middle class upbringing with amazing mom/ultra wealthy Indian family with controlling mother
- you get the idea
🗣️Communication - they do communicate fairly well throughout most of the story. Arjun speaks in some sort of constipated medical jargon, but Casey seems to get him and has patience with him. Arjun does occasionally and specifically describe his feelings for Casey so it’s clear it’s a two-way street.
✍️Tropes - fake engagement, forced proximity, opposites attract. Loved the faulty pillow wall and the way they curled up together in bed.
🏠Meddling family - so many meddling family members and side characters.
🫣No OM - There is no mention of any prior relationships. There is a deliberately flirty cousin who is all over Casey; Casey doesn’t care and only wants Arjun but it drives Arjun nuts (which is ultimately the point) and then Dev, the arranged marriage guy joins them at the family compound for several days. Idk why.
🌶️Spice - this is a slow burn with first kiss around 40% and then open door scene and I love you’s around 60%. It was fine.
👥Dual POV; HEA. Engagement 5 months later
I’m being really harsh because I’m mad at the last 40%. The writing is good, but it just got so over done and the plot just didn’t really hold together.
The good:
- The writing. There are some really beautifully constructed sentences and imagery. These characters feel real.
- So many small moments and real emotions.
- The opposites work in this case. I can see their compatibility
- Loved the grandma, Daadi and Casey’s mom, Brenda
- Loved all the references to Indian culture; no idea whether they’re accurate
Arjun 🩺 Casey
Basic premise: Casey and Arjun work at the same hospital and have been eyeing each other for two years, without the other knowing. Arjun’s mom calls one day and announces his arranged engagement to someone named Dev; he panics and tells her that he’s already engaged to Casey. Casey readily agrees because he’s already in love with him and so travels with him to India for three weeks to meet the family and engage in a seemingly endless array of events.
It started so strong! The writing is almost poetic at times. We have two very likable and/or sympathetic characters who are clearly crazy about each other. I loved the golden retriever energy in Casey and the pain and loneliness Arjun is hiding. Arjun, who speaks in a cold clinical manner and is referred to as Dr Dread. They are put in a crazy situation, where the tension rises, and we see our men show their love through all kinds of big and small acts.
But then…. but then… it just fell off a cliff. At 60%, we could have had Arjun stand up to his awful mother, defend his love for Casey and together ride into the sunset. But no. Instead, we have manufactured drama. Arjun caves, Casey flees, and THEN we hear about all their respective daddy issues. 😭.
Major spoilers: ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
Here’s where the story went wrong for me:
- We’re not told that Casey has a crush on Arjun - ok stead, we’re told that he “loves” him. LOVES him. How? They’ve never had a proper conversation. Arjun has a crush on Casey and grows to love him over the course of two weeks. That makes sense. Casey’s love and endless patience - eh.
- They each have daddy trauma that we’re not really told about until after the ridiculous breakup.
- The mother is causing all this trouble by not accepting Casey, meanwhile the entire extended family adores him. In addition, they work together, are supportive of each other, fall deeper and deeper, even declaring their love the night before the mother announces that she’s called the family astrologist. The ‘family astrologist’ declares them an incompatible match and THAT is Arjun’s breaking point. He leaves Casey sitting there alone w all of his relatives and panic calls his mentor in Toronto. Rather than - I don’t know - talking to Casey!!????? Casey overhears him on the phone, gets upset, they barely talk, and Casey leaves. To me, this all came out of nowhere.
- Also, Arjun has already left his family twice bc of their insane pressure (college and then for work in Toronto). So, why and how does his mother still have so much sway over him?
- Lastly, I wanted Arjun to directly confront his mother about her awfulness and he never really does. To me, this is just left dangling. Like, Arjun, grow a spine. Dammit.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
💔Third act breakup. Casey flees and Arjun doesn’t follow him for over 3 days. Each is miserable and both are wrong and know they’re wrong. 😑 .
➡️Opposites attract -
- Golden retriever/black cat
- large hockey player physique/smaller lithe and lean
- precise cold neurosurgeon/golden retriever empathetic general pediatric ER doctor
- middle class upbringing with amazing mom/ultra wealthy Indian family with controlling mother
- you get the idea
🗣️Communication - they do communicate fairly well throughout most of the story. Arjun speaks in some sort of constipated medical jargon, but Casey seems to get him and has patience with him. Arjun does occasionally and specifically describe his feelings for Casey so it’s clear it’s a two-way street.
✍️Tropes - fake engagement, forced proximity, opposites attract. Loved the faulty pillow wall and the way they curled up together in bed.
🏠Meddling family - so many meddling family members and side characters.
🫣No OM - There is no mention of any prior relationships. There is a deliberately flirty cousin who is all over Casey; Casey doesn’t care and only wants Arjun but it drives Arjun nuts (which is ultimately the point) and then Dev, the arranged marriage guy joins them at the family compound for several days. Idk why.
🌶️Spice - this is a slow burn with first kiss around 40% and then open door scene and I love you’s around 60%. It was fine.
👥Dual POV; HEA. Engagement 5 months later
I’m being really harsh because I’m mad at the last 40%. The writing is good, but it just got so over done and the plot just didn’t really hold together.
The good:
- The writing. There are some really beautifully constructed sentences and imagery. These characters feel real.
- So many small moments and real emotions.
- The opposites work in this case. I can see their compatibility
- Loved the grandma, Daadi and Casey’s mom, Brenda
- Loved all the references to Indian culture; no idea whether they’re accurate
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2026
C.G Macington this is for you *forehead kiss*, and i do not give those to just anyone.
July 30, 2026
This was sooo cute! Albeit a little long, but I loved the characters so much. When I saw the premise, I knew I just had to read it. A pediatrician going to India with a man and trying to impress his family? Heard that story before. @Erin, you probably have to read this just because.
June 4, 2026
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Great book, I absolutely loved it.
Arjun was a brilliant surgeon who built up many many walls to protect himself. And Casey oh that man was so loveable, patient, and genuine.
I loved this take on fake dating where they didn't jump right into intimate gestures and sex. We were given hand brushes, eye contact and internal longing. When Casey finally broke through the walls it was amazing because Arjun didnt open for the world he opened his heart for Casey.
I enjoyed the side characters and chaos.
I think Arjun's mother was too easily forgiven after bringing the other suitor Dev and his bestie Rohan to visit. I think Dev handled it beautifully.
I will admit it made me angry that it took 3 days and seeing fear in Arjurn's eyes before Casey finally put a stop to Rohan touching him and whispering in his ear. One day fine but 3 days of it was too much. Casey knew how fragile their connection was and he pushed it.
Side note: It did get a repetitive/wordy at times.
Great book, I absolutely loved it.
Arjun was a brilliant surgeon who built up many many walls to protect himself. And Casey oh that man was so loveable, patient, and genuine.
I loved this take on fake dating where they didn't jump right into intimate gestures and sex. We were given hand brushes, eye contact and internal longing. When Casey finally broke through the walls it was amazing because Arjun didnt open for the world he opened his heart for Casey.
I enjoyed the side characters and chaos.
I think Arjun's mother was too easily forgiven after bringing the other suitor Dev and his bestie Rohan to visit. I think Dev handled it beautifully.
I will admit it made me angry that it took 3 days and seeing fear in Arjurn's eyes before Casey finally put a stop to Rohan touching him and whispering in his ear. One day fine but 3 days of it was too much. Casey knew how fragile their connection was and he pushed it.
Side note: It did get a repetitive/wordy at times.
July 19, 2026
SYNOPSIS
Dr. Arjun Kapoor saves children's lives with surgical precision and the bedside manner of a Victorian ghost. He's also been hiding a devastating crush on his complete opposite: Dr. Casey Welling, six-foot-three of golden retriever chaos in dinosaur-print scrubs, who does magic tricks for crying kids and has been hopelessly in love with the Dread Prince for two years.
So when Arjun's mother announces she's arranged his engagement to a perfectly suitable surgeon from London, he panics. He tells her he's already engaged. To Casey. Who has absolutely no idea.
Now they have a deal: two weeks at the Kapoor family estate in Rajasthan, fake dating in front of Arjun's terrifyingly powerful family. There are rules. A leather notebook of pre-approved pet names. One bed. (Obviously.) And a pillow wall that's already threatening to collapse.
The problem? Casey was never pretending. And somewhere between the scheming mother, the gossiping aunties, the dangerously charming rival who won't stop flirting with his fake fiancé, and the slow burn that's quickly becoming an inferno, Arjun is discovering the most terrifying thing a control freak can do: fall in love for real.
A laugh-out-loud MM romantic comedy about two doctors, one spectacularly bad lie, and the mortifying ordeal of realizing your fake relationship is the most real thing you've ever had.
TROPES
🏥 MM medical romance
🩺 Golden retriever MMC x uptight MMC
🏥 Rom-com
🩺 Opposites attract
🏥 Friends to lovers
🩺 Fake dating
🏥 Forced proximity
🩺 Grumpy x sunshine
🏥 Only one bed
🩺 Men who are catastrophically bad at feelings
Thoughts
This book might just take a podium spot as one of my most treasured rom-coms of all time 🥹👉👈
Arjun and Casey share very similar grumpy x sunshine dynamics to those that Preston and Max share with their respective love interests in Macington's St Jude's Medical series. I love that series to pieces. However, "Faking the Fiancé" is particularly special to me because the slow burn of Arjun and Casey's relationship, amid the one-of-a-kind humour of dinosaur stickers and "papers adjacent" (IYKYK), allows an incredibly beautiful and tender relationship to form.
By the end of FTF, what you observe isn't a picture-perfect romance. Instead, we get to see a wholesome and tear-jerking realness. Because the work Casey and Arjun must put in to show up for each other doesn't stop, and their traumas don't automatically go away, just because they've chosen each other.
I am also very impressed by the amount of effort Macington clearly put in to give every main and secondary character a unique voice, a distinctive personality, and a clear narrative purpose. Casey has a taste for Uncrustables and has a knack for making sick children smile with magic tricks and dinosaur stickers. Arjun speaks to sick children's parents with the charisma of a Victorian ghost and is known by his colleagues as the "Dread Prince". Daadi (Arjun's sassy grandmother) taps her cane once when she approves of something, or twice when she's considering it. And Gabriel, Arjun's mentor, endears readers to him with his patented blend of theatrics and supportive dad vibes.
Reading this book made me reflect on some advice I read over the past week, too, in a book discussing the emotional craft of fiction. The book advises writers to magnify the "small moments" to evoke an emotional response from readers. Macington's style of writing exemplifies why that strategy works so well. You know those moments in a romantic movie or TV show where the camera zooms in on the sweat rolling down a MMC's abs? Or when it focuses on the FMC'S lips parting, when she gasps at the sight of said MMC? The tension and intimacy between Arjun and Casey was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. All because the writing was so visceral, with those coveted gaze-locking and hands-brushing moments that make a romance book come alive.
It has been a while since I have yearned so badly for characters to kiss. I loved it all so, so much.
See below for some of my favourite quotes/ moments ♥️
⭐ 4.5/5
🌶️ 2/5
~ “You have the bedside manner of a Victorian ghost, Dr. Kapoor,” Gabriel says, his voice dangerously quiet as he rounds his massive desk. “And frankly, that is an insult to the ghosts. At least a ghost occasionally rattles a chain to show some personality.” ~
~ There’s a holographic dinosaur sticker on my stethoscope because a four- year- old named Maisie put it there this morning and told me it was “for bravery,” and I would rather die than take it off. ~
~ Every framework I have ever built, every emotional defence I have ever constructed, every wall and protocol and carefully maintained margin of error, is dissolving under the weight of a sleeping man's arm around waist and the sound of his breathing and the devastating, world-ending, unbearable feeling of safety when being held.
~ I am not ready to name it. I am not ready to catalogue it or file it or assign it a framework. But I am ready, for the first time, to stop pretending that the warmth moving toward me across the mattress every night is an accident, and to stop pretending that I am not moving toward it too. ~
~ The truth is that I stopped rebuilding the wall because I did not want it there anymore. Because the space between us in that bed, the open, unobstructed space where I migrate toward him every night and wake up in his arms every morning, is the only place in this entire estate where I feel like myself. ~
~ And I am so tired. I am so tired of being afraid. I am so tired of clinical detachment and strategic arrangements and engagement covenants and pillow walls and three- second limits and the constant, exhausting, soul- crushing effort of pretending that I am not desperately, catastrophically, irrevocably in love with this man. ~
Dr. Arjun Kapoor saves children's lives with surgical precision and the bedside manner of a Victorian ghost. He's also been hiding a devastating crush on his complete opposite: Dr. Casey Welling, six-foot-three of golden retriever chaos in dinosaur-print scrubs, who does magic tricks for crying kids and has been hopelessly in love with the Dread Prince for two years.
So when Arjun's mother announces she's arranged his engagement to a perfectly suitable surgeon from London, he panics. He tells her he's already engaged. To Casey. Who has absolutely no idea.
Now they have a deal: two weeks at the Kapoor family estate in Rajasthan, fake dating in front of Arjun's terrifyingly powerful family. There are rules. A leather notebook of pre-approved pet names. One bed. (Obviously.) And a pillow wall that's already threatening to collapse.
The problem? Casey was never pretending. And somewhere between the scheming mother, the gossiping aunties, the dangerously charming rival who won't stop flirting with his fake fiancé, and the slow burn that's quickly becoming an inferno, Arjun is discovering the most terrifying thing a control freak can do: fall in love for real.
A laugh-out-loud MM romantic comedy about two doctors, one spectacularly bad lie, and the mortifying ordeal of realizing your fake relationship is the most real thing you've ever had.
TROPES
🏥 MM medical romance
🩺 Golden retriever MMC x uptight MMC
🏥 Rom-com
🩺 Opposites attract
🏥 Friends to lovers
🩺 Fake dating
🏥 Forced proximity
🩺 Grumpy x sunshine
🏥 Only one bed
🩺 Men who are catastrophically bad at feelings
Thoughts
This book might just take a podium spot as one of my most treasured rom-coms of all time 🥹👉👈
Arjun and Casey share very similar grumpy x sunshine dynamics to those that Preston and Max share with their respective love interests in Macington's St Jude's Medical series. I love that series to pieces. However, "Faking the Fiancé" is particularly special to me because the slow burn of Arjun and Casey's relationship, amid the one-of-a-kind humour of dinosaur stickers and "papers adjacent" (IYKYK), allows an incredibly beautiful and tender relationship to form.
By the end of FTF, what you observe isn't a picture-perfect romance. Instead, we get to see a wholesome and tear-jerking realness. Because the work Casey and Arjun must put in to show up for each other doesn't stop, and their traumas don't automatically go away, just because they've chosen each other.
I am also very impressed by the amount of effort Macington clearly put in to give every main and secondary character a unique voice, a distinctive personality, and a clear narrative purpose. Casey has a taste for Uncrustables and has a knack for making sick children smile with magic tricks and dinosaur stickers. Arjun speaks to sick children's parents with the charisma of a Victorian ghost and is known by his colleagues as the "Dread Prince". Daadi (Arjun's sassy grandmother) taps her cane once when she approves of something, or twice when she's considering it. And Gabriel, Arjun's mentor, endears readers to him with his patented blend of theatrics and supportive dad vibes.
Reading this book made me reflect on some advice I read over the past week, too, in a book discussing the emotional craft of fiction. The book advises writers to magnify the "small moments" to evoke an emotional response from readers. Macington's style of writing exemplifies why that strategy works so well. You know those moments in a romantic movie or TV show where the camera zooms in on the sweat rolling down a MMC's abs? Or when it focuses on the FMC'S lips parting, when she gasps at the sight of said MMC? The tension and intimacy between Arjun and Casey was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. All because the writing was so visceral, with those coveted gaze-locking and hands-brushing moments that make a romance book come alive.
It has been a while since I have yearned so badly for characters to kiss. I loved it all so, so much.
See below for some of my favourite quotes/ moments ♥️
⭐ 4.5/5
🌶️ 2/5
~ “You have the bedside manner of a Victorian ghost, Dr. Kapoor,” Gabriel says, his voice dangerously quiet as he rounds his massive desk. “And frankly, that is an insult to the ghosts. At least a ghost occasionally rattles a chain to show some personality.” ~
~ There’s a holographic dinosaur sticker on my stethoscope because a four- year- old named Maisie put it there this morning and told me it was “for bravery,” and I would rather die than take it off. ~
~ Every framework I have ever built, every emotional defence I have ever constructed, every wall and protocol and carefully maintained margin of error, is dissolving under the weight of a sleeping man's arm around waist and the sound of his breathing and the devastating, world-ending, unbearable feeling of safety when being held.
~ I am not ready to name it. I am not ready to catalogue it or file it or assign it a framework. But I am ready, for the first time, to stop pretending that the warmth moving toward me across the mattress every night is an accident, and to stop pretending that I am not moving toward it too. ~
~ The truth is that I stopped rebuilding the wall because I did not want it there anymore. Because the space between us in that bed, the open, unobstructed space where I migrate toward him every night and wake up in his arms every morning, is the only place in this entire estate where I feel like myself. ~
~ And I am so tired. I am so tired of being afraid. I am so tired of clinical detachment and strategic arrangements and engagement covenants and pillow walls and three- second limits and the constant, exhausting, soul- crushing effort of pretending that I am not desperately, catastrophically, irrevocably in love with this man. ~
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2026
Two Physicians Long-Attracted…
What an amazing exploration into an extreme of opposite attractions, of a neurological pediatric surgeon and an ER pediatrician one who originates from a small town lake community in Canada and one who has fled India along with his family’s dynasty and his expected role in it.
The story captivates with these two men, such a slow, slow, slow revelation of hidden layers of a person patiently supported, adored, and wanted.
Colorful characters and conflicts abound. And two mothers, a cast of cousins, a staff of experts, many aunties, and Oliver, a labradoodle add charm, comedy, and drama.
What an amazing exploration into an extreme of opposite attractions, of a neurological pediatric surgeon and an ER pediatrician one who originates from a small town lake community in Canada and one who has fled India along with his family’s dynasty and his expected role in it.
The story captivates with these two men, such a slow, slow, slow revelation of hidden layers of a person patiently supported, adored, and wanted.
Colorful characters and conflicts abound. And two mothers, a cast of cousins, a staff of experts, many aunties, and Oliver, a labradoodle add charm, comedy, and drama.
August 19, 2026
Rebranded characters from the St. Luke’s Medical series but I don’t event care because this was hilarious and entertaining and very sweet
May 30, 2026
Fantastic
This is incredible. We go from “I’m not interested in thinking about you”, go through “It is an inappropriate, unproductive, clinically unjustifiable infatuation that I have been managing through strict emotional compartmentalization, and the current situation has... compromised my viral containment protocols” and we end with two men together, for real, for better or worse, because they choose each other, they love each other, they see the good, the bad, and the ugly in themselves and each other, and still want to stick together. This is a long journey that started well before the book even begins, and hopefully has no end, because these two together are perfect. And Priya… fantastic. I think that all the surrounding characters are catalysts of sorts for their relationship, if things hadn’t combined the way they did, if Arjun hadn’t panicked because his mom wanted to marry him to a stranger, if other people hadn’t flirted with Casey, if Arjun hadn’t let go of his tight control little by little and Casey hadn’t been patient in peeling all the layers of aloofness and obsessive control in Arjun, if Oliver hadn’t absolutely decided that Arjun is his, this book would have had a very different ending. I loved how each character, yes, even Oliver, has such an impact on their relationship, plays an integral part in getting them together for real, via support, misfits flirting, threats of arranged marriages, or simply accepting them as they are. Fantastic read, I hope there are more of them, and I recommend this book and all of this author’s books, because they’re both only hilarious, but heartwarming, and restore hope in love and HEAs, even if it’s just in books.
(Read via KU)
This is incredible. We go from “I’m not interested in thinking about you”, go through “It is an inappropriate, unproductive, clinically unjustifiable infatuation that I have been managing through strict emotional compartmentalization, and the current situation has... compromised my viral containment protocols” and we end with two men together, for real, for better or worse, because they choose each other, they love each other, they see the good, the bad, and the ugly in themselves and each other, and still want to stick together. This is a long journey that started well before the book even begins, and hopefully has no end, because these two together are perfect. And Priya… fantastic. I think that all the surrounding characters are catalysts of sorts for their relationship, if things hadn’t combined the way they did, if Arjun hadn’t panicked because his mom wanted to marry him to a stranger, if other people hadn’t flirted with Casey, if Arjun hadn’t let go of his tight control little by little and Casey hadn’t been patient in peeling all the layers of aloofness and obsessive control in Arjun, if Oliver hadn’t absolutely decided that Arjun is his, this book would have had a very different ending. I loved how each character, yes, even Oliver, has such an impact on their relationship, plays an integral part in getting them together for real, via support, misfits flirting, threats of arranged marriages, or simply accepting them as they are. Fantastic read, I hope there are more of them, and I recommend this book and all of this author’s books, because they’re both only hilarious, but heartwarming, and restore hope in love and HEAs, even if it’s just in books.
(Read via KU)
May 31, 2026
Arjun is a brilliant doctor who is bothered by the fact that interesting cases are attached to people with (eww!) feelings and things. He is the perfect surgeon. Very similar to having robotic surgery. Arjun is from a very VERY wealthy Indian family. Arjun is afraid of his mother.
Casey is an emergency pediatric doctor. He wears dinosaur scrubs and does magic tricks with medical supplies. He was raised by his mother, who runs a gift shop in a little town in rural Canada. They talk several times a week. He has a crush on Arjun.
When Arjun's mother announces she has arranged a marriage for him, he panics and announces he is already engaged.
To Casey. Because Casey is one person he can stand to be in a room with for more than five minutes with.
And suddenly they are on their way to India for the engagement parties, all specially modified for a same-gender couple.
But a woman like Arjun's mother will not be thwarted so easily. She has more than one trick up her sleeve to see her boy married to a "proper" gentleman, not some "lumberjack" like Casey.
It looks grim for a bit, but this is in the capable hands of C. G. Macington. Love will win out.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Casey is an emergency pediatric doctor. He wears dinosaur scrubs and does magic tricks with medical supplies. He was raised by his mother, who runs a gift shop in a little town in rural Canada. They talk several times a week. He has a crush on Arjun.
When Arjun's mother announces she has arranged a marriage for him, he panics and announces he is already engaged.
To Casey. Because Casey is one person he can stand to be in a room with for more than five minutes with.
And suddenly they are on their way to India for the engagement parties, all specially modified for a same-gender couple.
But a woman like Arjun's mother will not be thwarted so easily. She has more than one trick up her sleeve to see her boy married to a "proper" gentleman, not some "lumberjack" like Casey.
It looks grim for a bit, but this is in the capable hands of C. G. Macington. Love will win out.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 3, 2026
I am a huge fan of C.G. Macington and I can say this maybe my favorite book to date. Arjun Kapoor, better known as Dr Dread needs a fiancé fast so he tells his parents he is engaged to Dr. Casey Wellington. Now they’re on their way for two weeks with his family. He’s had a crush on Casey and Casey is absolutely in love with him but neither of them expressed these feelings before they embark on this family adventure. They came prepared though with a book of rules. As you can imagine nothing is going to go as planned. I laughed out loud more times than I can count. I cried and absolutely fell in love with these characters from the main character to the side characters. They’re great. This book is sad. It’s happy it’s hilarious and most of all. It’s really fun to read.I absolutely enjoyed this book so much and I cannot wait for book two.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 31, 2026
Gah!! So Freaking Good!!!
I adore C.G. Macington's work, particularly the medical romances, but this one takes the cake! It is beautifully written (many sections read like poetry), and pure, unadulterated, true romance with the perfect amount of comedy sprinkled liberally throughout, along with enough angst here and there to make the story compelling.
Also, I absolutely loved both MCs. They are vulnerable and exasperating in their own ways, but are, at the end of the day, amazing, lovely men who really worked hard for their HEA.
There is definitely spice (the slowest of burn, though, but so entertaining in the interim that you forget about the burn entirely until it's ready to be present), but so gorgeously written that it feels transcendent when it finally happens, rather than something dropped in to fit some kind of romance novel formula.
In a word, perfect.
I adore C.G. Macington's work, particularly the medical romances, but this one takes the cake! It is beautifully written (many sections read like poetry), and pure, unadulterated, true romance with the perfect amount of comedy sprinkled liberally throughout, along with enough angst here and there to make the story compelling.
Also, I absolutely loved both MCs. They are vulnerable and exasperating in their own ways, but are, at the end of the day, amazing, lovely men who really worked hard for their HEA.
There is definitely spice (the slowest of burn, though, but so entertaining in the interim that you forget about the burn entirely until it's ready to be present), but so gorgeously written that it feels transcendent when it finally happens, rather than something dropped in to fit some kind of romance novel formula.
In a word, perfect.
May 31, 2026
Oh my gosh I loved every word of this book! I laughed out loud so many times while reading, my mom found me and asked for a description of what I was reading. The author has a truly amazing way of telling a story. His descriptions make me feel like I know all the characters like family. I loved the dual perspectives, I totally fell in love with Casey and Arjun, even the smaller characters are well rounded and fun. This is my first book written by C.G. Macington, I am so excited to dive into his other stories!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 12, 2026
I love Casey and Arjun. Their relationship was filled with so much tension from the very first page. Casey is the golden retriever character we want and Arjun has all the emotional growth we’re hoping for. He also has a family that would stress me out but I would still do anything to be part of it. I received this ARC and I was so flippin excited. Another comfy MM medical romance and I cannot wait for the next.
June 5, 2026
All the dang stars! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This couple! Ugh! There are no words! This author does such a great job writing humor and there definitely was humor in this book but WOW! It was so lovely, the feelings and the poetic descriptions. I just can’t put it into words. Just read it. 💕😭❤️💝
June 2, 2026
Idk what it is about this author, but I am addicted to this writing style. I think it's the ANGST and the YEARNING!!
June 25, 2026
This is one of the sweetest books I've ever read. I love Arjun and Casey so much.
September 11, 2026
DNF about 40% of the way through
Unfortunately I just don't think this book is for me. The writing isn't necessarily bad or anything, and going in knowing it was a fake dating romcom, I expected it to be tropey, but this felt too over the top in a way that I couldn't really enjoy. Not sure what it is about it exactly, but it just felt off. The characters didn't feel like characters, there really wasn't much grounding it or verisimilitude (breaking out the big words here)
The uptight one spoke in detailed scientific jargon. The golden retriever one was constantly referred to as such. They have one real heart to heart in that 40% and even after that I was struggling to believe that they feel so strongly for each other, because the way it starts had me wondering if they even interacted before the events of the book
We're constantly told how fearsome the mother is, how the family is all knowing and gossiping, the aunties groupchats, etc etc, and it just got to a point for me. The sister knows their relationship isn't real, the grandma knows, the mother suspects, and it just makes me wonder: what's the point of fake dating then? I mean I'm sure it's some message about them accepting their feelings and seeing it's been real all along, but I suppose I'm just not feeling that plot, or assumed plot. I know it's unfair to judge it despite not finishing it, but the bit I read did not really inspire me to keep reading I'm sorry to say.
“He is a calculated provocation in a linen suit,” stuck out to me because a lot of the descriptions felt like this, where a character is [x] in [y], and we are told this rather than experiencing it for ourselves, and it makes it all feel flat, like the characters are described to be little more than #relatable captions for instagram or something
Sorry, I don't mean to be so scathing, because I don't think the actual writing or anything is terrible. I do love a book where being gay is like, normal and nobody really cares about that aspect, not your boss (lowkey though) I do think Arjun needs to go talk to HR about the way his boss was speaking to him ngl) or your rich domineering mom. Unfortunately I just was not vibing with this book, but I'm sure there's an audience out there for it all the same.
Unfortunately I just don't think this book is for me. The writing isn't necessarily bad or anything, and going in knowing it was a fake dating romcom, I expected it to be tropey, but this felt too over the top in a way that I couldn't really enjoy. Not sure what it is about it exactly, but it just felt off. The characters didn't feel like characters, there really wasn't much grounding it or verisimilitude (breaking out the big words here)
The uptight one spoke in detailed scientific jargon. The golden retriever one was constantly referred to as such. They have one real heart to heart in that 40% and even after that I was struggling to believe that they feel so strongly for each other, because the way it starts had me wondering if they even interacted before the events of the book
We're constantly told how fearsome the mother is, how the family is all knowing and gossiping, the aunties groupchats, etc etc, and it just got to a point for me. The sister knows their relationship isn't real, the grandma knows, the mother suspects, and it just makes me wonder: what's the point of fake dating then? I mean I'm sure it's some message about them accepting their feelings and seeing it's been real all along, but I suppose I'm just not feeling that plot, or assumed plot. I know it's unfair to judge it despite not finishing it, but the bit I read did not really inspire me to keep reading I'm sorry to say.
“He is a calculated provocation in a linen suit,” stuck out to me because a lot of the descriptions felt like this, where a character is [x] in [y], and we are told this rather than experiencing it for ourselves, and it makes it all feel flat, like the characters are described to be little more than #relatable captions for instagram or something
Sorry, I don't mean to be so scathing, because I don't think the actual writing or anything is terrible. I do love a book where being gay is like, normal and nobody really cares about that aspect, not your boss (lowkey though) I do think Arjun needs to go talk to HR about the way his boss was speaking to him ngl) or your rich domineering mom. Unfortunately I just was not vibing with this book, but I'm sure there's an audience out there for it all the same.
August 3, 2026
DNF @ 22%
The intro? Gross. I was not a fan of reading the details of brain surgery.
I liked how we were given justification for Casey being so immediately ok with faking a relationship with Arjun despite them not really knowing each other. Him harboring a two-year long crush was believable.
Slightly contradictory writing on page 31-32. Casey offers Arjun coffee but says the milk has gone bad. Arjun says he doesn't need milk because he takes it black, and Casey replies that he knew that. The fact that he offered the milk in the first place implied that Casey did not in fact know that and him saying that he did was for comedy, but Arjun's internal thoughts say that hebwas surprised that Casey had catalogued his coffee preference. But Casey didn't? If Casey did know that Arjun took his coffee black, then he shouldn't have offered the milk in the first place.
The writing was a bit too simplistic amd formulaic in my opinion. So many of Arjun's paragraphs start with "I/Casey [verb]" which was then followed by a description of some sort which then looped into the "I/Casey [verb]" paragraph. This was especially noticeable from pages 93 - 98 when Arjun introduces Casey to his family.
I probably would've continued, but I just got tired because I'd read nearly a 100 pages and realized there hadn't been any real romance between Arjun and Casey. There was Casey's crush, sure and hints of Arjun's attraction, but next to no actual romantic development, so I'm DNFing.
The intro? Gross. I was not a fan of reading the details of brain surgery.
I liked how we were given justification for Casey being so immediately ok with faking a relationship with Arjun despite them not really knowing each other. Him harboring a two-year long crush was believable.
Slightly contradictory writing on page 31-32. Casey offers Arjun coffee but says the milk has gone bad. Arjun says he doesn't need milk because he takes it black, and Casey replies that he knew that. The fact that he offered the milk in the first place implied that Casey did not in fact know that and him saying that he did was for comedy, but Arjun's internal thoughts say that hebwas surprised that Casey had catalogued his coffee preference. But Casey didn't? If Casey did know that Arjun took his coffee black, then he shouldn't have offered the milk in the first place.
The writing was a bit too simplistic amd formulaic in my opinion. So many of Arjun's paragraphs start with "I/Casey [verb]" which was then followed by a description of some sort which then looped into the "I/Casey [verb]" paragraph. This was especially noticeable from pages 93 - 98 when Arjun introduces Casey to his family.
I probably would've continued, but I just got tired because I'd read nearly a 100 pages and realized there hadn't been any real romance between Arjun and Casey. There was Casey's crush, sure and hints of Arjun's attraction, but next to no actual romantic development, so I'm DNFing.
August 7, 2026
New author to me. This book was cute but I think there was too little angst/conflict in the first half and almost too much in the second.
They're fake fiancés to persuade his large and meddling family, there's a whole dossier about the different family members, but then it is extremely easy to fake it because they're both “in love” with each other anyway. Cue lots of sappy looks, romantic speeches, Aunties sobbing and “everyone clapped” moments. It was all rather cheesy and unbelievable.
At 50% they've basically declared they love each other, so of course there's a rather drawn out breakup in the second half.
I enjoyed that it was a slower burn on the physical side of things and they don't have sex until quite a while later, after saying “I love you” and it feels kind of weird that it's so unusual to see that.
They're fake fiancés to persuade his large and meddling family, there's a whole dossier about the different family members, but then it is extremely easy to fake it because they're both “in love” with each other anyway. Cue lots of sappy looks, romantic speeches, Aunties sobbing and “everyone clapped” moments. It was all rather cheesy and unbelievable.
At 50% they've basically declared they love each other, so of course there's a rather drawn out breakup in the second half.
I enjoyed that it was a slower burn on the physical side of things and they don't have sex until quite a while later, after saying “I love you” and it feels kind of weird that it's so unusual to see that.
Read
May 24, 2026I loved this book! It was funny, romantic, sad, joyous. The character development was stellar. Flawed but very likable characters, navigating a an unspoken romance. Tender moments without being whiny, funny moments that didn’t distract from the story. There are quite a few characters in the story but C.G. Impressed me by giving them a voice but not distracting from the main characters.
I have read quite a few of C.G.’s books, this was the best one yet. I actually cried a few times and laughed out loud. I didn’t want it to end and hope there is a sequel.
I have read quite a few of C.G.’s books, this was the best one yet. I actually cried a few times and laughed out loud. I didn’t want it to end and hope there is a sequel.
June 3, 2026
Way more than a cliche troupe
I was hesitant because the fake fiance shtick can be incredibly cliche. This was was far more than a faking fiance troupe. It had many vulnerable moments and a lot of knowledge of the Indian culture. It made me smile and frown and just feel warm with overall goodness. It sure is clear we should expect another book for the wedding but I hope we see romance from more of these men in the book from both the family and the hospital. This might be my favourite book from CG Macington yet.
I was hesitant because the fake fiance shtick can be incredibly cliche. This was was far more than a faking fiance troupe. It had many vulnerable moments and a lot of knowledge of the Indian culture. It made me smile and frown and just feel warm with overall goodness. It sure is clear we should expect another book for the wedding but I hope we see romance from more of these men in the book from both the family and the hospital. This might be my favourite book from CG Macington yet.
Want to Read
June 17, 2026I have a feeling this is gonna be kind of shit but desperate times call for desperate measures ok. U take all the indian queer guys you can get
July 7, 2026
This could have been GLORIOUS. It ... was glorious? It failed to deliver after delivering so much.
I've been in a picky mood, lately. I am really hoping it won't turn into my whole personality and I keep repeating it in reviews but I feel it bears repeating because I picked up this book the day before yesterday before bed and I thought: THIS. This is something special. I meant to savour it, I was giddy when I returned to it yesterday and I thought what I rarely do these days: 4 stars, at minimum. This is a read to remember.
I want to be very clear about that. At one point in this book, I was ready to lavish praise on this masterpiece; I wanted to explain that the plot may be simple but the language, the narration, the writing style elevated everything beyond reproach. I used to revel in flowery, almost silly and dramatic but actually hard-hitting words that just make you feel like writers are simple folk but some authors are wordsmiths and it is an art beyond comprehension of mere mortals. I want to say I was not impressed when Sophie Gomaged but these two guys in a supply closet, their first on-page meeting, made me squeal. I want to say the first time he put his hand in his tigh was more romantic and erotic than most sex scenes in most books. I want to say their romance was a beautiful, stunning dance that gave us just enough to keep things going, to keep it real and raw and emotionally charged. That the side characters felt more like impressions or literary devices that moved the plot in the right direction and it felt right because this is romance and their relationship, those two characters are tht only ones that truly matter.
I want to be clear that version of events still exist and I don't deny it and I absolutely understand why this book has such high ratings and had things gone differently, I might have hit those 5 stars.
Things are different. I was disappointed, and it was worse because of how much I liked the... first part? One part? Some parts?
The flowery language supported something mundane and afraid. The drama of cultural differences hid simple characters doing simple things and pretended to be a national emergency. The characters I wanted to praise for not being opposed and nasty on principle turned flat sna sallow when xth confrontation rolled around; very little changed but the guy who said "managing 10 million people administratively must be tough, my mum manages an inventory of her gift shop and it's hard" is also the guy who... ok, deep breath, no spoilers.
Their relationship was doing great until they both turned into a raging mass of trauma just in time to not just start but absolutely explode into a third-act break-up and at that point, I was trying not to see the cracks of Meera, the purported matriarch that was elevated and made into an institution, turn into something... ugly? I think her character was described and really put onto a pedestal so high that when I saw her in a negative light, it all came crashing down. The extended family that was supposed to be tough were already eating out of his hand, feeding him and cooing over him in a bit of a ridiculous manner. If I hear of Auntie's WhatsApp group again, I might scream.
I think that break from awe and respect and literary rupture into something quite mismanaged was felt on every level and that contrast is what ultimately killed it. The literary devices turned flat, his grandmother quoting his inner monologue from some pages ago, only changing the pronouns, like she could read his mind, like she didn't have her own way of speaking, only parroting what the plot needed. If I had a penny for every repeated sentence and every plot point we were reminded of, not just once, but several times, I'd have way too many pennies. The book didn't know how or when to let go of its narration until every scene, every character and every new development read like their inner thoughts, poetry style.
I wake up way too early, not being able to fall asleep and I consumed this book whole - first with the joy and hope and awe I thought it deserved and then with a resigned anger at what it became, what my disappointment made me see.
I am not sure how much of my feelings were understood; I had quite a lot of them accumulated. I almost just blamed it ona simple 3rd-act break-up disagreement, but there were just too many inconsistencies to blame it all on one plot choice. I listend to The Great Meera try to dissect and eviscerate Casey and I suddenly couldn't comprehend why I was supposed to care about this character's opinion and why they did. Why a guy who left his family, his whole life and never came back, who left India and ended up a surgeon in Toronto, was this torn and determined to please.
I know how deep the responsibility, the family shame and obligations and culture and opinions can weigh down a person. But he left and while I could have accepted the engagement as a way to bring them together, it also made things... angsty. The dossier and threat levels and all the big-words vocabulary speak about a group of middle-aged women who obviously have nothing better to do for 14 days than to observe the mating rituals of their nephew... Maybe you need to be born into such a culture to place their opinions about some things we consider very basic. I guess him leaving gave me too much of an opinion on his ability to, say, live his life, or do things he wants to.
Sigh
I cried and I grined and I thought this was an experience and I still feel dejected and disappointed and should probably end this before I start dissecting individual scenes. I am going to try a different book from the author in hopes of finding something not completely warped by Cassey's effervescent hope and Arjun's medical encyclopedia that felt cute at some point, it really did - he just overdid it. They both did.
P.S: the ending just cinched everything, I like seeing the after-love-you's but... meh
I've been in a picky mood, lately. I am really hoping it won't turn into my whole personality and I keep repeating it in reviews but I feel it bears repeating because I picked up this book the day before yesterday before bed and I thought: THIS. This is something special. I meant to savour it, I was giddy when I returned to it yesterday and I thought what I rarely do these days: 4 stars, at minimum. This is a read to remember.
I want to be very clear about that. At one point in this book, I was ready to lavish praise on this masterpiece; I wanted to explain that the plot may be simple but the language, the narration, the writing style elevated everything beyond reproach. I used to revel in flowery, almost silly and dramatic but actually hard-hitting words that just make you feel like writers are simple folk but some authors are wordsmiths and it is an art beyond comprehension of mere mortals. I want to say I was not impressed when Sophie Gomaged but these two guys in a supply closet, their first on-page meeting, made me squeal. I want to say the first time he put his hand in his tigh was more romantic and erotic than most sex scenes in most books. I want to say their romance was a beautiful, stunning dance that gave us just enough to keep things going, to keep it real and raw and emotionally charged. That the side characters felt more like impressions or literary devices that moved the plot in the right direction and it felt right because this is romance and their relationship, those two characters are tht only ones that truly matter.
I want to be clear that version of events still exist and I don't deny it and I absolutely understand why this book has such high ratings and had things gone differently, I might have hit those 5 stars.
Things are different. I was disappointed, and it was worse because of how much I liked the... first part? One part? Some parts?
The flowery language supported something mundane and afraid. The drama of cultural differences hid simple characters doing simple things and pretended to be a national emergency. The characters I wanted to praise for not being opposed and nasty on principle turned flat sna sallow when xth confrontation rolled around; very little changed but the guy who said "managing 10 million people administratively must be tough, my mum manages an inventory of her gift shop and it's hard" is also the guy who... ok, deep breath, no spoilers.
Their relationship was doing great until they both turned into a raging mass of trauma just in time to not just start but absolutely explode into a third-act break-up and at that point, I was trying not to see the cracks of Meera, the purported matriarch that was elevated and made into an institution, turn into something... ugly? I think her character was described and really put onto a pedestal so high that when I saw her in a negative light, it all came crashing down. The extended family that was supposed to be tough were already eating out of his hand, feeding him and cooing over him in a bit of a ridiculous manner. If I hear of Auntie's WhatsApp group again, I might scream.
I think that break from awe and respect and literary rupture into something quite mismanaged was felt on every level and that contrast is what ultimately killed it. The literary devices turned flat, his grandmother quoting his inner monologue from some pages ago, only changing the pronouns, like she could read his mind, like she didn't have her own way of speaking, only parroting what the plot needed. If I had a penny for every repeated sentence and every plot point we were reminded of, not just once, but several times, I'd have way too many pennies. The book didn't know how or when to let go of its narration until every scene, every character and every new development read like their inner thoughts, poetry style.
I wake up way too early, not being able to fall asleep and I consumed this book whole - first with the joy and hope and awe I thought it deserved and then with a resigned anger at what it became, what my disappointment made me see.
I am not sure how much of my feelings were understood; I had quite a lot of them accumulated. I almost just blamed it ona simple 3rd-act break-up disagreement, but there were just too many inconsistencies to blame it all on one plot choice. I listend to The Great Meera try to dissect and eviscerate Casey and I suddenly couldn't comprehend why I was supposed to care about this character's opinion and why they did. Why a guy who left his family, his whole life and never came back, who left India and ended up a surgeon in Toronto, was this torn and determined to please.
I know how deep the responsibility, the family shame and obligations and culture and opinions can weigh down a person. But he left and while I could have accepted the engagement as a way to bring them together, it also made things... angsty. The dossier and threat levels and all the big-words vocabulary speak about a group of middle-aged women who obviously have nothing better to do for 14 days than to observe the mating rituals of their nephew... Maybe you need to be born into such a culture to place their opinions about some things we consider very basic. I guess him leaving gave me too much of an opinion on his ability to, say, live his life, or do things he wants to.
Sigh
I cried and I grined and I thought this was an experience and I still feel dejected and disappointed and should probably end this before I start dissecting individual scenes. I am going to try a different book from the author in hopes of finding something not completely warped by Cassey's effervescent hope and Arjun's medical encyclopedia that felt cute at some point, it really did - he just overdid it. They both did.
P.S: the ending just cinched everything, I like seeing the after-love-you's but... meh
May 29, 2026
Dr. Arjun Kapoor is a paediatric neurosurgeon working in the same Canadian hospital as Dr. Casey Welling, a paediatric generalist. Both men have crushed unknowingly on each other for several years. Now Arjun approaches Casey after lying to his mother that he's engaged to Casey to escape her choice of a fiance for him. Fake fiances with very real cases of the hots for each other. Detailed, clinical, methodical, humorless, stick in the mud, aristocratic, gorgeous Arjun. Sunshiny, golden retriever, messy, charasmatic, agent of chaos, sun god, beautiful Casey. It's painful to read how they interact yet both long for each other. It's funny and sweet and adorably wonderful to read. C.G. has a talent for creating two characters that shouldn't work on paper but absolutely fit together. I love her hospital books! I received a copy of this through BookSirens and this is my voluntary opinion.
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