His Fake Fiancé

Erin Parisien

May 2022 · Purrfect Publishing

About this ebook

Best Friends. A simple plan. Except nothing will be the same...

Jake Callahan needs a wife. Or at least a pretend one. A stable, serious relationship will show the judge he's the perfect parent to be given custody of his daughter. Except, he doesn't really do relationships. He's more of a one-and-done kind of guy. Which is why his best friend, Claire, is the perfect person to play house with—it’s the perfect plan. What could go wrong?

Claire McKinney's been in love with Jake since he came to her defense on the playground in first grade. Her knight in a Star Wars t-shirt. But he's never seen her as anything as the girl-next-door. She knows going along with his ridiculous plan is a bad idea, but she can't seem to say no. And she loves his daughter to pieces, even though looking at the baby sometimes hurts too much. She just needs to keep her already bruised heart safe for however long the lie lasts, and everything will be fine.

*** This book touches on issues and themes that may be difficult for some readers. Please see the Content page on my website for more details.

Ratings and reviews

Sweet friends-to-lovers romance Jake and Claire, each the youngest in their families, have been friends throughout their childhoods. Claire puts her heart and soul into writing songs, while Jake hides his passion for photography underneath a thick layer of low self esteem issues. He's quite the ladies man, believing that that is the only thing he's truly good at and valued for. Now, though, a wrench is thrown into the works, in the form of Olivia, Jake's infant daughter from a one-night-stand who was deposited on his doorstep months ago. His family stepped up and helped him take care of her, and then her mother shows up wanting to take her back. Jake asks Claire to pretend to be engaged to him so he stands a better chance of getting custody, and Claire, who could never say no to Jake, agrees. This is a truly sweet story of how Jake learns to see Claire for who she is while also gaining enough confidence to become the man he was always meant to be. The narrative goes deep into how the youngest in a group of siblings usually feels left out and less than. Both Jake and Claire struggle with self-doubt and the need to prove themselves, which gives them the determination to see things through and find love along the way. Jake and Claire get a fresh start with their HEA, though I would have preferred a more happy ending for all concerned. It was nice to visit with the Callahan family again, especially Mason and Grace. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

About the author

Words have been an important part of Erin's life ever since she received a manual typewriter for her tenth birthday and she used it to write her very first novel. She’d like to officially apologize to Beverly Cleary for essentially writing very bad Ramona fan fiction.

When she does step away from the computer, she enjoys crafting, reading, day drinking (which she doesn’t get to do often enough), playing video games poorly, and the occasional movie–and by that she means most of the new releases in any given year. A triple-feature Saturday is not unheard of in her world. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology, so of course, she works in finance.