The Fake Out Review

By Stephanie Archer

Vancouver Storm Book 2

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Audiobook rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Blurb

 The best way to get back at my horrible ex? Fake date Rory Miller--my ex's rival, the top scorer in pro hockey, and the arrogant, flirtatious hockey player I tutored in high school.

Faking it is fun and addictive, though, and beneath the bad boy swagger, Rory’s sweet, funny, and protective.

He teaches me to skate and spends way too much money on me.

He sleeps in my bed and convinces me to break my just-one-time hookup rule.

He kisses me like it’s real.

And now I wonder if Rory was ever faking it to begin with.

The Fake Out is a pro hockey fake dating romance. It is the second book in the Vancouver Storm series but can be read as a standalone.

Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

Read if you Like:

⛸️ Hockey Romance

⛸️ Enemies to lovers

⛸️ She doesn't date hockey players

⛸️ Fake dating

⛸️ Workplace romance

My Thoughts:

Is there anything better than a formerly annoying character turning out to be a total cinnamon roll who just doesn't know how to show people he cares? I loved watching Rory learn how to connect with people and Hazel learn to trust.

I adore fake dating! The forced proximity and potential for comedy are gold. In this case, it gave Hazel time to learn to trust Rory and him time to figure out how to have people in his life. I loved watching Hazel slowly realize how much Rory cared about her and the slow burn between them was really fun!

The arc with Hazel's ex was also really well handled. I liked getting to watch Hazel learn that nothing about that situation was about her. I also appreciated that everyone supported Hazel when things got difficult with him. It would have been easy to just use him to push them together but instead, he was a foil to Rory in a lot of ways.

This series is so good and I can't wait for the next book! I am pretty sure I can guess the couple from this book and I want their story so much! If you haven't read this series yet what are you waiting for?

🌶️🌶️🌶️ - There are a handful of spicy scenes, but it is a pretty slow burn and some are foreplay only.

🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 - I listened to the audio for this book and loved it! Connor Crais and Kit Swann do an amazing job with the duet narration. You may recognize Conner from If You Hate Me and Kit from House of Earth and Blood. I don't always think duet narration is necessary but in this case, it made the audio shine.