The Husband Hoax

Don't let the 3 stars put you off! This was a very sweet, wholesome romance propelled by quite a few classic tropes in the genre

This book would be perfect for a beginner MM reader who's not quite yet familiar with the norms of the genre. This book's got the overbearing family who are the driving obstacles to the romance, fake-dating (fake marriage?) trope, a formulaic and comfortable plot where the love interests get their HEA, and lovely side characters who support the main characters through every step of the way. It really is the whole package as an ideal introductory book for the genre, which is amazing!

But as someone who priorities rating based on enjoyment, the things I just mentioned were a pitfall for me. The plot was good, but was certainly predictable for me as someone who's already quite invested in this genre. Nothing really stood out as special or memorable, the characters were pretty run-of-the-mill love interests who are good people for each other and sufficiently compatible, it's got an adequate amount of humour sprinkled throughout, but the book basically delivered exactly what it promised, so I can't fault it. Also, it doesn't help that I love my romanced angsty and complicated, and this was anything but that.

The only real criticism I have is that, even though I go into all romance novels with a hefty amount of suspension of disbelief, Christian's clumsiness throughout the book as a quirky character trait felt overdone. Maybe I'm just ignorant since there are probably people like him out there, but the second had embarrassment was exhausting