Reprise Review: Her Fake Romance by Donna Fasano

Genre: Romance

Description:

Julia Jones is a single parent trying to hide her heart from rejection; she won’t let it happen again. She has become a workaholic to protect herself; and has a successful catering business she runs with her friend and fellow foodie, Charlotte. When Julia’s fourteen year old daughter challenges her to ‘get a life’, she and Ryan Shane concoct a deal for a fake romance.

Ryan Shane is a divorce lawyer who sees marriages fall apart everyday and has no intention of ever getting involved in a relationship. He has a problem though; he is being pursued by his mentor’s beautiful gold digging daughter who is looking for husband number four. With Julia’s help he hopes to avert her advances.

Author:

Donna Fasano, also known as Donna Clayton, has written over thirty published novels with sales in excess of 3.6 million copies. Many of these novels have gone out-of-print with the rights reverting to Fasano. She is giving them a facelift and republishing them for your favorite eReader.

Donna Fasano is a three time winner of the HOLT Medallion, a CataRomance Reviewers Choice Award winner for Best Single Title, a Desert Rose Golden Quill Award finalist, and a Golden Heart finalist. Her books have been published in nearly two dozen languages.

Fasano has two grown sons and lives with her husband on the eastern seaboard of the United States. For more, visit her blog.

Appraisal:

This author always has a wonderful way to bring her characters together. This one was HOT, and the sexual tension starts at the very beginning and never lets up. She offers the perfect balance of narrative, description and dialogue in this character driven story. I love the way she allows us into Julia and Ryan’s thoughts, both trying to protect their hearts for different reasons. 

Cherry, the gold digger, and Kelly, Julia's fourteen-year-old daughter, provide the perfect amount of conflict that brings Ryan and Julia together. The fully fleshed out characters are realistic, intelligent, and their story is heartwarming. I have read several of Fasano's books and this is my favorite so far, I could not put the book down. The author added just the right amount of heat to keep me reading, and the mother daughter scenes were very touching. I applaud this author’s insight into human nature and sensibilities.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK  

FYI:

Steamy and adult situations, but no explicit sex.

Added for Reprise Review: Her Fake Romance by Donna Fasano was the winner in the Romance category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran August 27, 2012

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant errors.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words