Available on Kindle Unlimited.
This book is part of my 10 Christmas Books For This Holiday Season – 2023.
The Faking Game by Portia MacIntosh is a heartwarming and entertaining romantic comedy full of witty characters and humorous situations. It’s the sequel to The Plus One Pact, but can be read as a standalone.
My Overview
After a few years of being a couple, Cara and Millsy have broken up but haven’t told their families. Cara still lives in Leeds, but Millsy is living in Los Angeles for a movie role. This December, their families are planning to celebrate Christmas together in Scotland. It will be the first time both families will celebrate together! Clearly, now’s not the time for Cara and Millsy to inform their families about the break-up. Best to postpone that for after the holidays. Instead, they agree to pretend they’re still a couple, so Millsy returns from Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, Millsy has been working with a dialect coach in Los Angeles, as part of his preparation for the movie. He brings his dialect coach with him, and she continues helping him with his Southern accent. She’s constantly with him, reminding him to practice the accent. Obviously, having the dialect coach around constantly, complicated the faking game for Cara and Millsy.
Overall, this is a heartwarming and entertaining story of the fake date/second chance romance tropes. I enjoyed catching up with Cara and Millsy, and their quirky family members. I especially liked Uncle Paddy’s personal anecdotes, which consist of tall tales based on popular movies such as Home Alone, Good Will Hunting, and Saving Private Ryan 😄. My only quibble is that since I listened to the audiobook, Millsy constantly practicing the Southern accent quickly wore on me 😕.
The Faking Game is the sequel to The Plus One Pact. This latest book is fine as a standalone, because it includes plenty of background from the previous story. So, if you haven’t read The Plus One Pact or can’t remember it, it won’t matter. In a nutshell, in The Plus One Pact, Cara and Millsy became a couple when they agreed to fake date so they wouldn’t have to attend a series of social events alone. In The Faking Game, Cara and Millsy are no longer a couple but agree to fake date so their families won’t find out they’ve broken up.
My Recommendation
I really enjoyed this heartwarming story, set against the backdrop of Leeds and Scotland during Christmas time. It has all the humorous and clever elements I’ve come to expect from the author’s rom-coms, with the perfect amount of holiday cheer.
The audiobook is narrated by Karen Cass. Unfortunately, although she did a great job with the narration, listening to Millsy constantly practicing the Southern dialect was annoying to me. So, I recommend the Kindle edition but not the audiobook.
Other Christmas books I’ve enjoyed by this author:
Have you enjoyed any books by this author?
