what I'm reading: happily never after by lynn painter.

By Shanna on July 29, 2024

When Sophie finds out right before her wedding that her fiancé has cheated on her, instead of canceling the wedding Sophie hires Max to interrupt and object during the ceremony. Sophie thinks she'll never hear from Max again, but he contacts her a couple of months later when he needs someone to help him out objecting at another wedding. Sophie and Max start spending time together, objecting at weddings and embarking on a fake relationship to fool their friends and families.

I liked this book a lot. I thought it was funny and charming and I loved the relationship between Sophie and Max. The banter between them was great and I couldn't stop myself from smiling at their antics.

I did think the synopsis of this book was a bit misleading. It made it seem like Sophie and Max are objecting at many weddings or that they even start some sort of business, but they don't. They object at three weddings. I really just wanted a montage of them going to weddings and objecting. That's what I expected from this book from the synopsis and it did not deliver.

In my opinion, the main trope of this book is fake dating. Max and Sophie start a fake relationship in order to help Sophie get the promotion she wants and to get Max's parents off his back. And while the synopsis mentions the chemistry between Sophie and Max, it doesn't really say anything about a fake relationship so that was a bit of a surprise.

The fake dating really worked for me. I usually find the reasons characters fake date to be stupid or think that it doesn't make sense but I thought it worked here. And while there is major insta-lust, I thought the chemistry between Max and Sophie was good. Both of them are skeptics when it comes to love but they slowly fall for each other over the course of the book.

This is the first book I read by Lynn Painter and I liked it!

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