Acting Merry

Rule number one of Christmas cabin trips? Don’t show up single when your friend brings her new boyfriend—especially when he happens to be your ex.

Rule number two? If you’re about to break rule one…bring a fake boyfriend.

Which is exactly how Reese Cameron ends up with Cole Bradley. He may be a contractor rather than an actor, but he’s convincing enough at the boyfriend gig to make her wonder if it’s really all an act.

But Cole has a strict two-date policy, and Reese’s heart isn’t built for casual. Which means she’s in danger of forgetting the most important rule of all: fake boyfriends don’t last past Christmas.

©2025 Martha Keyes (P)2025 Paradigm Press

sweet romance ish

I bought this immediately when seeing it, since I love everything from Aspen Hadley. This time though, Aspen jumped in the same murky waters that so many clean authors are swimming in. It makes me uncomfortable to think that my teenage boys or girls would read a clean romance and think it's ok to share a bed with your makeout buddy and think nothing is going to "happen." I sincerely dislike this misleading trope. I can't recommend it to any of my young reader friends for i don't want to normalize non-committal sleeping together.

I wish if they had dual narration

This book was such a breath of fresh air, nothing major is happening but it was all cute and adorable, exactly what I would expect from a Christmas book
The story is about Reese, she feels so alone this Christmas because her best friend is dating her ex ( not the friend's fault ) and she can't show up to their annual gathering while she is the only single person, enter Cole, he is the previous owner of Reese's house and after a huge misunderstanding they agree to fake a relationship to help Reese save face and for him to get away from the crazy ex who is following him .. over the weekend they both realize that reality and fake is such a blurry line when they have this strong chemistry

I liked how soft this book was, very clean and predictable in a very good way, I really enjoyed it, and I plan to read more of this author, my only criticism is I wish if there was a male narrator to narrate Cole, I know it's hard to be on a "manly voice" for a whole chapter but at some point I was lost on whose point of view we were in