Not Your Valentine

Not Your Valentine

Jackie Lau

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Helen Tsang is tired of the pitying looks. From her parents, her friends, and even the bubble tea shop guy, who recognized her from the video. Almost one year ago, some loser couldn’t mind their own damn business and filmed an unsuspecting Helen's very public break-up during what was supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. A video of her ex-boyfriend saying, "It's not me, it's you. You're holding me back" went viral. Desperate to give everyone something else to talk about and with Valentine’s Day approaching once again, she asks her long-time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend, just to prove that she's moved on and hasn’t sworn off love. (Spoiler alert: She's totally sworn off love.) Taylor is the perfect option—single for once, and for some godforsaken reason, he loves Valentine’s Day. But Helen didn't expect was how easy it would be to get Taylor on board, fitting right into the boyfriend-shaped hole in her life. All she wanted was a couple sickeningly sweet dates to fill her social feeds, not corny text messages of silly heart-shaped cakes, and bouquets of flowers that harbor hidden meanings. Wanting to be around his sunshine attitude and delicious forearms all the time? That definitely wasn't expected. With February 14 quickly approaching, it's getting increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings, especially when she starts wishing it wasn’t all an act. Oh God. What has she done?


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    A cute, straightforward little romance novella that pretty much does exactly what it says it will do. The characters are great, and I deeply appreciated having the woman in a m/f grumpy/sunshine relationship get to be the grump for once (and without anyone trying to 'fix' her! so refreshing!). But the plot is a little one-note, and while it was enjoyable in the moment, especially since it really is such a short, fast read, I don't think it's one that will last with me. A quick fun read for Lunar New Year or Valentine's Day.

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