Believe me, I am just as shocked as you are. I really wanted to love Faker. SO. FREAKING. MUCH. It goes without saying that it wasn't my cup of tea. (But don't let that stop you from giving it a go.)



Debut author Sarah Smith nails this fun and sexy multicultural romance where two office foes hammer out their differences to build a love that will last...

Emmie Echavarre is a professional faker. She has to be to survive as one of the few female employees at Nuts & Bolts, a power tool company staffed predominantly by gruff, burly men. From nine to five, Monday through Friday, she's tough as nails--the complete opposite of her easy-going real self.

One thing she doesn't have to fake? Her disdain for coworker Tate Rasmussen. Tate has been hostile to her since the day they met. Emmie's friendly greetings and repeated attempts to get to know him failed to garner anything more than scowls and terse one-word answers. Too bad she can't stop staring at his Thor-like biceps...

When Emmie and Tate are forced to work together on a charity construction project, things get...heated. Emmie's beginning to see that beneath Tate's chiseled exterior lies a soft heart, but it will take more than a few kind words to erase the past and convince her that what they have is real.


Hello mixed feelings, thy old nightmare. By all accounts, Faker should have been one of my favourite books of the year. Diverse! Enemies to lovers! Office romance! Count me in. With all the glowing reviews and comparisons to The Hating Game I had high, high hopes for it. We all know that I cannot say no to a good office romance.

Especially if that office romance is rooted in enemies-to-lovers tropes. Give me all the chemistry fueled banter, thank you, please! Add a sprinkle of tension and I'm yours.

While Faker had a lot of great going for it, including the use of some of my favourite tropes and a solid amount of chemistry, it still ended up not working for me 100%. At first, it was minor things like awkward dialogue, but then it kind of grew into something more. Something rooted in characters. Or, er, one in specific: my dislike one of the main characters, Tate. Which is likely more of a personal preference thing than anything else. (I'd even argue that it just means that Sarah Smith's writing is so good, because in my eyes she wrote a convincingly annoying character.)

I'm not a fan of characters that come across like he does, and there's really no working around that. Not even a fantastic character like Emmie, and the obvious chemistry the two have, could make him more tolerable to me. There's just something about this type of characteristics that automatically put me off of various men in romance.

That being said, I also felt like the development of the main relationship, going from 'enemies' to lovers, was lackluster and out of the blue. What could have been much more of a slow burn felt like changes in the blink of an eye. Which is a shame, because Faker had such a smooth flow to it that even though it wasn't my favourite I still read it in one siting.

Regardless, this book wasn't my favourite of the year. I'm still glad to see more and more diversity popping up in the romance genre. There's a great importance in the fact that this book is out there. I can easily see other's connecting with it in a way that I couldn't. I'll definitely be giving Sarah Smith's future works a go!