As the last unwed daughter out of five, Emily Hung is getting tired of her mother’s attempts at setting her up with the perfect man. Her newest attempt is Mark Chan. When they meet at her sister’s wedding Emily is not impressed with this boring engineer. At her mother’s second attempt at tricking them into a date Emily decides to fight back and convinces Mark to fake date her, but her mother has spies everywhere so they have to step it up. They start going on real fake dates and Emily finally see’s behind Mark’s sweater vest wearing persona. Maybe mother does know best?

This author has a great sense of humor! Emily’s inner dialogue often had me laughing and her characterization of Mark, before she got to know him, was quite spot on. Until she saw behind the sweater and could read his slight facial expressions. This stoic engineer had a sense of humor but found it hard to open up to people. Well, everyone except Emily it seemed. Their cute interactions and made them easy to root for but it was their idiosyncrasies and the way that they supported each other that sold me on the story.

As you got to know these characters the reader was given insights into their characters, making these sweet and funny moments more poignant. Both of them were fighting against insecurities and challenging family dynamics giving the story some much needed conflict so it wasn’t just about a fake dating scheme. As with most of our own lives Emily and Mark’s were balancing acts and throwing “finding love” into the mix caused ripples both good and bad. The author’s spin on this story was fun and cute, but the real-life problems resonated for me and I think it will for other readers as well. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

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