Love Overwrite Command

by Mara Townsend

Who better to play fake boyfriend than his business partner?

OLIVER
Oliver has carved out a good life for himself with his business partner and best friend from college, Micah. It might not be the life Oliver’s snobby family planned for him, but it’s all his and that’s what matters. Oliver and Micah’s dating assistance app is doing well, primed for expansion. But then the invitation—the summons—to a family event comes and throws Oliver’s carefully cultivated balance into chaos.

One thing is certain: Oliver can’t face his family alone. Not when he’s been feeding his family a story about having a boyfriend to keep them out of his hair. He’s screwed if he doesn’t find a guy to bring with him to the event, risking an opening for his family to pick at after he built up his shield against them.

The one person he trusts to play his pretend boyfriend is the only one that’s off-limits, but Oliver ignores the voice of reason. Oliver needs Micah’s help in order to survive this event.

MICAH
Micah’s been crushing on Oliver since their college days.

It’s never been a big deal. Micah refuses to let his feelings jeopardize anything between them. He hides it well enough from Oliver, especially after they launched their indie startup and Oliver turned into a quieter, more serious version of the guy Micah befriended in college. While Oliver handles the boring parts of their business, Micah spends his days subsisting on far too much coffee, tending to his collection of office plants, and losing himself in lines of code.

But then Oliver proposes something Micah never expected: the chance to play boyfriends for one night. It’s too tempting to resist and Micah is always willing to help Oliver. Can he keep his emotions in check or will their business partnership suffer the strain?

[Love] Overwrite Command is a fast-paced MM friends-to-lovers romance featuring fake dating, pining business partners, an overabundance of plants, interesting flavor combinations, a moat, and a HEA. This 19,000 word standalone novella contains explicit sex and strong language intended for 18+ readers.

Genres: M M Romance, Contemporary, LGBT, Friends To Lovers

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2019

About the author

Mara Townsend is a bisexual indie author of LGBTQ+ romances. She loves to explore intimate relationship development of the feels-inducing variety to invoke the eternal just kiss plea from the reader, as well as crafting strong platonic friendships with heaps of heart and soul. Her stories showcase diverse representation, love stories with realistic emotions—never mindless fluff, a healthy dose of humor, and a side helping of her favorite tropes.

She hangs out in fan communities online and learned how to write the kind of stories that she’s passionate about through experimental character-driven fiction based in her favorite worlds. When not writing, she can be found soaking up sunshine at the beach, traveling the world to fill in her passport, perpetually collecting plants, and reading as many fake-dating romance books as she can find.

Reviews

[Len Evans Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novella was quite a fun read... no sexy stuff till the epilogue, though somehow that felt perfectly appropriate. Oliver and Micah are business partners and much more, yet both assume it would ruin everything if they became more. The story is about them finding out just what would happen if they did!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/3

[DC · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet, albeit unmemorable, short story. While the characters were certainly likable, I never got a feel for who Oliver and Micha are. Yes, we learn about Oliver’s disgusting family but that’s about it. As for Micha, we’re given no details about his family and background at all. And with Micha’s description changing back and forth between bronze and tan, which are not the same to me, I couldn’t create a vision of what he looked like.
I didn’t care much for the writing style. It’s in third person so the alternating POV for each chapter didn’t make much sense. There were a few inconsistencies in the story’s timeline and some of the details, but they weren’t enough to distract from the story.

[Alex (HEABookNerd) · Rating 2 out of 5]

LOVE OVERWRITE COMMAND was a classic case of two idiots in love and while I usually like that kind of vibe in a book I wasn't feeling it here. Oliver and Micah just needed to talk to each other! There were so many times where all of their problems would have been fixed if one of them just said something. It just got too frustrating. Additionally, this was written in third person present tense which feels very awkward to read and it made it difficult for me to get into the flow of the writing.

[Ser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review, through the MMRG Don’t Buy My Love Program.

I enjoy both the friends-to-lovers and the fake boyfriends tropes and this novella was such a sweet take on those tropes. I really like how Micah and Oliver's original relationship, their friendship, felt in the first third of the book, how clear their love for each other was, how good they were for and to each other.

They take care of each other in little and big ways, which just becomes more clear while they are acting as fake boyfriends at Oliver's brother's engagement party because Oliver needs a buffer between himself and his family because they are controlling, belittling, and generally awful. This acting as fake boyfriends also allows Oliver and Micah both to live a few of their own hidden desires to be more than just friends. Comfort, protection, dancing, and acting blur the line between pretend and real and they get a little carried away.

In a closet at the party. And even that feels sweet and loving and good, until Oliver's brother catches them and ruins the moment. Neither man has time to process what they just did or say anything to the other about what they just did and what it might mean. In the face of Oliver's brother's awfulness, Micah runs away and things get awkward between them. They both flounder and try to forget and go back to how things were before, at work and in their friendship, but unsurprisingly, neither one can pull it off.

For me, the awfulness of Oliver's family required some active willingness to suspend disbelief, but I was willing to do it. But the rest of the angst and struggle in the last third of the book worked for me. Up until the last five pages.

The ending was too short and generally left me dissatisfied. It didn't really work for me, though the set-up of the ending (Micah using the app they created together to get out of a date and Oliver responding) was really promising. And the epilogue didn't help. For me, the epilogue was an attempt to paint a happily ever after and include a larger sex scene that didn't fit the rest of the story.

I like the story, though I don't connect with the ending. The character's relationship was built well enough for me that I do believe they will have a happy ending, even if the one written doesn't do it for me. I decided to round up my rating to a 3 because my only major complaint was the ending, which is important, but didn't prevent me from enjoying the rest of the book.

[Geralynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mara has this impeccable ability to create characters that are warm, loving, and complex all at the same time. With every single story that she's released I am always take under by the beauty of the story, and how she's able to blend the environment with the characters flawlessly.

Fake relationships is literally one of my favorite tropes, and [ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴏᴠᴇʀᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴀɴᴅ] hits all my happy buttons in every way possible. Oliver comes from a very uptight and privileged family, and his best friend slash business partner Micah is the programmer for their start up company Escape Hatch. The company specializes in people escaping from bad dates, and Micah is the programming brains behind the deal, while Oliver does the business front.

This whole story is such a wonderful tale of disasters who have no clue how to deal with their emotions, who get a bit caught up and then have to come back around to it all. On top of which is the uncertainty to what it will do for their business going forward. I love love love how Mara is able to take such popular tropes, spin them in her own way and then you just feel like it's completely and totally original. As if she has birthed the idea on her own.

I strongly recommend this book, which is just about 20k, and a quick little read. Oliver and Micah give me epic amounts of joy, and the fire between them is too much to handle! 10/10 would recommend!

[Courtney Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book free from the author for my honest review.

This story y’all. It was short. It was sweet. It was perfect. Micah is just a sweetheart. Oliver is trying so hard to please everyone. I’m a sucker for the ‘friends to lovers’ and the ‘fake boyfriend’ tropes so I adored this.

The emotion these two felt when they were at the engagement party had me feeling it! I could feel their anger, frustration, and all the sexual tension. It was wonderful.

Then afterwards when they are both thinking they screwed things up and the other will never forgive them, that hurt my heart. I wanted to drag both of them in a room and tell them to just talk it out!!

And of course, their product, Escape Hatch, saves the day. Oliver’s panic and subsequent realizations his feelings when he hears Micah on the phone (on a date no less!) had me swooning.

That epilogue, that was steamy and perfect. And showing that Oliver has become more like himself since the two go together, that’s a great character arc.

I adored this. It was a spectacular short, sweet, perfect read.

[T Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very sweet story of friends to lovers. The relationship Micah and Oliver have as friends is unsurpassed, add in the love aspect and it’s sweet as sugar. The adversity of Oliver’s family is short lived in the story, which was welcomed, as they were brought extreme negativity to our heroes. The story, itself, wasn’t overly long yet it delivered a good storyline with likable characters. The book was ends down easy to read. The HEA was well played.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Urszula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of false boyfriend in mm kind of romance. It is well written. Characters are well created and reality is good. Lots of issues, not easy relationships among people and issues. But, something the pretending boyfriend is not pretending at all. Nice and easy to read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Cynthia Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oliver and Micah have been friends since college. They started a business together, a dating app, that keeps growing. They have feelings for each other but are afraid to show them, they're afraid it could affect their friendship and business. Oliver needs a fake boyfriend for a family function so he asks Micah and things start to change. I really enjoyed this book.

[Mim Crenshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Oliver and Micah's story. I felt for Oliver and his issues with his family. And I could connect with Micah and his feelings for Oliver. The author really handled those issues and situations brilliantly, and in a way that managed to keep me engrossed.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable, would have like more though.

[KerriLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, cute and a fun little read to start my day.