The Faking Game is a deliciously addictive brother’s-best-friend, fake dating romance with high tension and high heat. It follows a heroine who’s forced to move into the mansion of West Calloway — rich, sharp, annoyingly gorgeous, and very off-limits. What starts as protection (there’s a real stalker threat and real stakes) quickly becomes an arrangement: they’ll fake-date in public so she looks unavailable, and behind closed doors he’ll teach her how to actually date. The setup feels classic in the best way, but Olivia Hayle makes it feel fresh by making every “lesson” charged, intimate, and increasingly not so fake.
West is exactly the kind of hero readers fall for. On paper, he’s cold, confident, and emotionally unavailable. In practice, he’s insanely attentive. He gives gifts, pays attention to what she likes, makes her feel safe in her own body and choices, and slowly pushes her to stop shrinking herself for other people. The dynamic between them is protective and tender, but it’s also absolutely loaded with chemistry. Private “practice” dates turn into real desire, pretend kisses turn into something breathless, and the whole time there’s this growing sense that West is catching feelings he swore he didn’t have space for.
Beyond the tension, the book has a lot of heart. The heroine’s arc — going from insecure and accommodating to someone who knows what she wants and asks for it — is genuinely satisfying. And because she’s still technically off-limits, every moment with West feels risky in all the best, sneaky ways. If you love tropes like fake dating, forced proximity, protective hero, brother’s best friend, and “we’ll just practice,” this gives you all of it: heat, tenderness, and that slow slide from pretending to absolutely, definitely not pretending anymore.
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