The Shopping List

The Neighborhood #3

by Megan Derr

Shannon's had just about all he can take, and catching his boyfriend cheating on him was the last straw. Single again weeks before Christmas, all he wants is to get through the holiday without further trouble. The only real thorn in his side is that he now has no date for Winter Wonderland, a Christmas event put on by the popular Art in the Park, where his ex is sure to show up with his beautiful new girlfriend.

A chance encounter in the grocery store leads to a wild proposition from Crispin, the man his ex vehemently hates: pretend to be boyfriends for Winter Wonderland, and help each other out. In exchange for helping Crispin secure a promotion, he'll help make Shannon's ex furious and miserable.

Genres: Romance, M M Romance, Contemporary, Queer, LGBT, Fiction, Contemporary Romance

70 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2022

About the author

Megan is a long time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.

meganderr.com
patreon.com/meganderr
meganderr.blogspot.com
facebook.com/meganaprilderr
meganaderr@gmail.com
@meganaderr

Reviews

[Ami]

3.5 stars

Sweet quick read - I am glad that Shannon finally able to tell his ex-boyfriend that he is a douche. And I'm happy for Shannon and Crispin - Crispin seems like an adorable guy, a bit dork despite his appearance 😄

[Natalie H]

Short and sweet. Corey got what was coming to him. Was disappointed in Walters. It felt like the author was trying to cram a lot of backstory in. Shannon and Crispin made an adorable couple.

[Renée]

3.5 stars

[Deeze]

Short but sweet little read.

I do love a good asshole ex and the good guy that replaces him. My only question was why he was ever a boyfriend to begin with.

[Choyang]

'The Shopping List' by Megan Derr (Kindle)

September 2026

A funny tale about revenge featuring two guys: Shannon who has just dumped his ex-boyfriend for cheating on him, and with a woman...
and Crispin, who Shannon's ex hates with a vengeance and who happen to be work-place rivals for a new promotion.

"A chance encounter in the grocery store leads to a wild proposition from Crispin, the man his ex vehemently hates: pretend to be boyfriends for Winter Wonderland, and help each other out. In exchange for helping Crispin secure a promotion, he'll help make Shannon's ex furious and miserable."
(Amazon)

Another familiar trope in the MM arsenal of
"fake-dating" to piss off an ex, which actually turns into an unexpected friendship and maybe something more. It's a cute storyline and I appreciated the fact that one of the guys (Shannon) was a POC plus a fabulous artist, and I had to laugh as the other guy, Crispin, was dubbed "the Vampire" by Shannon's co-workers, since Crispin's skin was an almost translucent white while his hair was thick and midnight black with a widow's peak in front, a commonly seen vampire look, except for some older vampire descriptions of them looking like blood-sucking monsters (ie, 'Nosferatu', creepy vintage film, from 1930s? earlier). I've seen it, it is creepy!

Anyway, this book was a sweet revenge tale that, as Shakespeare would say, "All's well that ends well!"

(psst! I'd really like to know what happens next with them, after their big stunt; guess it'll have to be in my imaginatorium)

[the.argumentative.bong]

3.5⭐ (rounded off)

[Monika]

**3.5 Stars**

This was my favorite of the series. It was sweet with a bit of humor, plus some very satisfying comeuppance added in. I really wish it wasn't so short.

[Bec]

Sweet

I love Megan Derr, love the books she writes and this one did not disappoint. This was a sweet story. For Crispin it's a fantasy come true as he was drawn to Shannon from the first meeting. I love that Shannons ex gets his comeuppance.
I love the characters, Shannon an artist who owns his shop, he draws, paints and sews. Crispin who is crazy good looking and dresses sharp everyone thinks he must be a vampire, he deals with numbers for a large toy company.
I recommend this book to any who like MM sweet romance. It is a short and sweet and sassy. The intimacy is the emotional type at the beginning of the relationship. It is clean read not detailed porn. I enjoyed it. Even the cats are sassy!

[Katherine]

Such a sweet story! It does have a sequence of events that go a little too perfectly, which is both perfectly funny and actually just right. There is foreshadowing a-plenty with what gets added to the list and things that are on the mind. There's also quite a bit of revelation over a short time that perhaps a failed relationship was something long coming and long overdue. But overall there is really just a sweet story that in any other circumstance could have been a meet cute and the start of a relationship, but had some other history to trudge through first. Great little short!

[Emilye]

Checking It Twice

Neighborhood3

Really liked this one!

Despite naming her first character Shannon Weiss, with a church-going mother, it was a surprise to realize he was the black male referenced on the cover.

But I enjoyed the flow of the story, (in spite of the odd naming conventions that mark these three books) and how Reginald Crispin Gaylord-Jones went about his pursuit of happiness.

I liked that Shannon bloomed under Crispin’s attention, and that Crispin was quietly in love, and trying to make that state more of a reality.

Just. Beautiful.

[jackie Davis]

Great 1st impression

I loved that Shannon and Crispin were just two people who worked for what they got and acted like every day people. Crispin family and college life added a fresh dimension that's usually only for 5'5 , 120 lb white male waifs with big blue eyes, not tall white men who are interested in a black man who's not poor, a drug dealer or named Demarcus or Jovaughn. And a black man on the cover too! Kudos!!

[Lora Graham]

At first, I didn’t like Shannon, because as soon as he gotten out of one relationship, he got into a rebound relationship with Corey. And within 24 hours he’s ready to move on? Okay….

Outside of that, I did like Crispin, and the book had a good ending.

[Maureen]

An utterly gorgeous novella, at times amusing and then sweet, I loved it. Crispin asks Shannon, who he had his eye on, to be his fake boyfriend for a company dinner, and so . . . . well, you know what happened next. A lovely read.

[...]

Adorable 🥰

[Barbara]

Loved this short story with Shannon and Crispin as both characters that fit together just right. Megan Derr is one of my favorite authors and I always appreciate her stories.

[Chanelle]

The Shopping List

A fun cutsey winter tale.
The adorable scatterbrained art store owner meets the sexy accountant.
A Cute, fun and quirky quick read for a cozy winters day.

[Indira Rivera]

Pretty cute.

[Trang (In My AO3 Era)]

Wow, that was incredibly short. Sweet, tho! Ofc, it's Megan Derr

[Kevin]

MM romance. Enjoyable, but the villain in the story is just too over-the-top despicable to be believable.

[Shanelle]

4.5

[Ann]

I mostly read MD for fantasy, and I dislike the fake relationship trope in general, but this is a lovely contemporary story. Won me over :)

[Jeremy Taylor]

A very interesting and brilliant read

[YonnoMaus]

I’m really enjoying these Megan Derr short stories. I wish there was more in this series. They’re all just so sweet with super realistic people and a HEA I’m happy to root for.

[Ollie B.]

Felt like there was a bit too much crammed into this short story.

[Michaele]

3.5 stars

[Ro]

This was so cute! Shannon is disorganized but the master of the list (a man after my own heart) and Crispin is organized and a little bit of a nerd. The two were made for each other and I was so happy to see the cheater put in his place.

[fishreads (back? from hiatus)]

This was definitely my favorite installment in the series. Both Shannon and Crispin were such lovely and kind characters who deserved all the happiness together.

Themes: single POV, fake dating, character of color, bisexual character, animals

[Sharon]

A reread and I do love the characters. Shannon caught his boyfriend cheating and feels its somehow his fault.

A short fake dating story to warm our hearts!