Faker
by Sarah Smith
Release Date: October 8, 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Standalone
Number of pages: 336
Kindle Edition
Source: MCL
Contemporary Romance M/F
Rating: R
Read 12/14/19 to 12/16/19
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.
This is a new-to-me author. Well, technically she is new to most people author since this is her debut. And, although there were some slips here and there, this is a solid first showing.
There was a lot of good about this story. While it wasn’t dripping with intense chemistry, there was definitely an almost innocent chemistry between Emmie and Tate. They gave me the warm-fuzzies, and that’s the most important thing for me in a romance. The way they’d get a bit flustered with one another was really sweet and kept me wanting more.
The couple had quite a few up and downs, but not in an overdone way. It was actually a bit realistic while staying entertaining. The relationship between Tate and Emmie is whole and has a complete narrative. I didn’t always like the way one was acting toward the other, but they are humans with human flaws. And, the more you read, the more you realize Tate has some sort of developmental disorder…which I wish had been delved into a bit more besides saying he has social issues.
Any other small problems I had were more with the peripheral characters or backstory. I felt as though Emmie’s best friend was going to be a big part of the story, and then she was not mentioned for a very long time. Which, to me, seemed out of character from what we’d been told up to that point about these characters. She does pop back up, but not as much as you would think. It leaves me feeling the story has holes and there was some disruption to the flow due to those holes.
All in all, this is a great debut novel for an author and I’ll surely check out her next book when it’s released to see how/if she grows and learns as her career progresses.
All In Good Time 