All For Show

by Paula Rogers

Sun, sea, and the very last man she expected to find on a tropical island.

Dana Lequire's book on infidelity made her a household name. What it didn't do was prepare her for being ghosted by the charming — and devastatingly Scottish — Graeme, leaving her humiliated and more than a little heartbroken.

So when she's offered a slot on True Hearts, the summer's hottest reality dating show, Dana says yes. An island escape and a behind-the-scenes exposéis the perfect hook for her next book.

Until she comes face-to-face with the one man she swore she'd never see again.

Graeme’s still gorgeous, still maddingly sure of himself — only now he's hiding behind a fake name. Turns out they're both undercover. Both lying to everyone. And both about to discover that pretending not to want each other on camera, in front of thirty million viewers, is a lot harder than it looks.

Between staged dates, scheming producers, and a villain edit with Dana's name on it, the cameras keep rolling. But the chemistry crackling between them? That part was never in the script.

Dana came to True Hearts to write the story.

She never meant to become the love story.

A sharp, funny, slow-burn, romantic comedy packed with reality TV drama, secret identities, second chances, forced proximity and sizzling chemistry on a tropical island. Perfect for fans of Portia MacIntosh, Emily Henry, Christina Lauren and Love Island.

Paperback

Expected publication June 30, 2026

About the author

Paula Rogers is a novelist and twice BAFTA-nominated writer in video games, journalism, film, and television.

She was Lead Writer and Story Editor of the game Neo Cab, which was named one of the best titles of 2019 by the L.A. Times, The Washington Post, and Paste Magazine. She was a lead writer on the 2023 Tribeca award-winning game Goodbye Volcano High, and has worked on IP for Marvel, DC, and others.

She is also the creator of the anti-algorithm, rom-com webcomic, Blind Data, where she chronicles her dating experiences and draws the men as cats.

Reviews

[Anita Boeira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came across this on NetGalley with the following blurb: “Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Christina Lauren and Love Island.” Well, guess what? That’s me to a TEE. So I picked it up because, long story short, I once had this idea of writing a murder mystery book set in a dating reality competition show (I made it to about 45k words and it’s not fit for consumption), so of course, in general books about reality tv are a topic I love! I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this from the get go, because even though the premise was my cup of tea, my skepticism was high cause I haven’t been vibing with contemporary romance lately. But All for Show was the book to break the curse! The premise is the following: Dana (named after Dana Scully from the X-Files, another check mark for me) is a hapkido instructor and nonfiction writer and she is in a rut. The last boy she dated ghosted her, her book did not do the sales she thought it would even though everyone in her life is acting like she’s a big important writer now, and ti make matters worst she has no idea what to write next. Her best friend is also in a professional rut working for a reality tv series and trying to stand out amongst her colleagues, but her assigned contestants keep dropping like flies. The friends decide to help each other out: the plan is that Dana will go on the show for just a day to be voted off immediately, and then will write a tell all about being a participant in a very popular reality tv, and her friend will look good to her boss. Except….. people like Dana too much, and she does not get voted out, and HAS TO ship immediately to an island to live in “captivity” with 7 other hot strangers wearing very little clothing. But when she arrives in the island, to her surprise, the boy who ghosted her is there… with a new haircut, new name, and new personality… cause he is also an undercover journalist! So they fight, they make up, they can’t help being attracted to each other, but also the cameras are always rolling and the microphone is always hot (oh, that should be the tagline for this book… 😅) and very fast what’s real and what’s not gets very confusing. My favorite thing about it is the behind the scenes of the reality tv show, the producers, the people working to make it happen. I am fascinated by that stuff. I am still mad about Riki, tho, Paula!!!!! Final Rating: 4.5🌟

[Justina R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cast on a reality dating show, Dana, a published writer wants to write a new story about this experience.
Twists and turns throughout, the usual drama you'd find on shows like Love Island, are captured beautifully on the page.
The other characters on the island were fun and mostly memorable, although a few, I kind of forgot about.
Dana's trauma surrounding abandonment and her love life were very relatable and Rogers does a good job of not making it her whole personality. You see, Dana's been ghosted one too many times, and the last guy Graeme, he was different. (No spoilers allowed!)
The writing style took a bit for me to get used to, for example: it was sometimes hard to understand who is saying what. But this was really funny! I havent loled this much at a book in a long time.
I thought the first person POV of Dana worked well here. There are no MMC chapters, but Dana was so great, it was okay with me! The twist at the end was great and really showed who your real friends are with the found family of it all!
Thank you to Joffe boCast on a reality dating show, Dana, a published writer wants to write a new story about this experience.
Twists and turns throughout, the usual drama you'd find on shows like Love Island, are captured beautifully on the page.
The other characters on the island were fun and mostly memorable, although a few, I kind of forgot about.
Dana's trauma surrounding abandonment and her love life were very relatable and Rogers does a good job of not making it her whole personality. You see, Dana's been ghosted one too many times, and the last guy Graeme, he was different. (No spoilers allowed!)
The writing style took a bit for me to get used to, for example: it was sometimes hard to understand who is saying what. But this was really funny! I havent loled this much at a book in a long time.
I thought the first person POV of Dana worked well here. There are no MMC chapters, but Dana was so great, it was okay with me! The twist at the end was great and really showed who your real friends are with the found family of it all!
Thank you to Joffe books and NetGalley for this eARC for my honest review.

[Conch Bean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the author (Paula Rogers), the publisher (Joffe Books/Choc Lit), and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

I'll be honest and say that I picked this book because I've been so so on contemporary romance novels at the moment and wanted something to get back into the genre.

I had a hard time getting into this book because Dana's character felt a little bit flat at the beginning. She had such potential with being a strong, independent woman who sought to understand relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed her open and honest relationship with her mom and felt like that was easy to get behind, but she was so stuck in the rut of the "boy she wasn't serious about" ghosting her.

It wasn't until she actually got onto the Love Island style dating show that I felt like her character became more interesting. That is where I felt like I saw more depth in her exploring her feelings, figuring out who she was internally, and expanding on the reasons for her distrust of Graeme.

And while I didn't think Graeme's character made the right decisions every time, I think the way the story plays out with him leaving her in the hotel room was a great climax point in the book. I do wish she would have asked him to stay rather than falling into the same maladaptive patterns of feeling insecure because of fear of abandonment, but that might be a smidge unrealistic for where she was at on her emotional journey at that point regarding her dad. Also, I know that it brings closure, but it just felt a little jarring that Dana's dad after abandoning her and never reaching out for years all of a sudden sent a postcard and apologized.

Regardless, all is well that ends well because the ending of the "show" is adorable. I like that she got the love and romance in the end of it all. It was a nice, easy, mostly lighthearted read. My favorite characters were honestly Dio and Ollie because they seemed the most grounded!

[Sylvia Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

All for Show by Paula Rogers is the story of Dana and Graeme.

Dana and Graeme have a fantastic romantic encounter together, after which he promptly ghosts her.

Reeling from the situation, Dana is talked into being a last-minute replacement for a contestant on a reality TV dating show. Imagine her surprise to discover that Graeme is also a contestant on the show, going by the name of Zach.

What follows is a behind-the-scenes view of a reality dating competition with predetermined storylines, heroes, and villains. And through it all, Dana is trying to figure out if Graeme/Zach is the man that she thought he was all along.

This was a really fun, romantic comedy with some drama thrown in along the way. There were lots of lies, betrayals, and a fair bit of intrigue as Dana and Graeme try to figure out if what they had was real, or all for show.

[Isabelle D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books about reality TV are among those I find most fun to read, so I had high expectations for this one and I'm now pleased to report it entirely met them (and that's despite the 1st person in present tense narration that is my least favourite kind). I greatly enjoyed following Dana's eventful experience in the dating show she entered as a favour to a producer friend who needed a new contestant at very short notice. I also loved the hidden identity part, and how the MC and LI had to pretend they didn't know each other. I never wanted to put the book down.

[aribooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m soo sad to say that this is not something I really enjoyed….i was really excited to read this because the description intrigued me a lot…but I’m a little disappointed…
I’m not gonna lie when I started reading the first chapters wasn’t that enjoyable so I had a hard time reading the rest…
I did really like the storyline and some of the characters but I didn’t really get attached or anything…. I think my biggest problem was that I didn’t like the writing so I couldn’t be into it as much as I wanted too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by the blurb for this book as I’d never read anything like it before.
There are some moments of really clever writing that break the fourth wall and there are some other moments that can be quite slow to push through.

If you’re a fan of dating shows and reality tv, this book allows you to explore the world behind the screen and question how much of it is really true.

Every girl needs a friend like Ollie - great character!

Thanks to Joffe Books for my advanced copy.

[Nikola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Wow, wow, wow. I was not expecting that ending at all. This book was a crazy whirlwind and I enjoyed every part. From the characters to the plot to the tropes, this book hit every mark that I needed. If you are a reality tv show lover like me, you will definitely love this book and the twist and turns in it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great summer read. All for Show has all the typical reality tv drama but also had some heavier elements as well. The side characters were fun but not super memorable.