Fauxmance

In this era of social media, we all pretend.

We pretend to be prettier, happier, more confident versions of ourselves, but not Ellen Grant. She takes it to a whole other level and pretends to be someone else entirely. Adopting the persona of a woman far more interesting is the only way she can break free of the socially awkward, romantically inept girl she really is.

And it’s all going swimmingly until she catches the eye of a man at her local coffee shop. Julian Fairchild has been noticing her for a while and he’s fascinated. Little does he know, the woman he thinks he’s obsessed with is a fake.

It’s not long before the jig is up, and Julian discovers Ellen’s true identity. However, he has a proposition. If she really wants to pretend, he can introduce her to a world where she can be anyone she wants. Ellen is intrigued by the prospect, and, blind to the nature of Julian’s profession as a male escort, closes her eyes and lets him lead the way.

Can Ellen keep her feelings in check while discovering a new world of thrills and excitement? And will Julian let it show that he isn’t entertaining Ellen purely out of the goodness of his heart?

Fauxmance is a standalone contemporary romance featuring characters first seen in L.H. Cosway’s Showmance.

I started out loving the heck out of this book. A shy heroine and a male escort?! Yes, please! Give me more! I live for stories like that and for a while this book was everything I expected. Entertaining, unique and absolutely relatable. Then… things got a little out of hand and went downhill for me. It was still an entertaining read and it was still as unique as a story can be but the relatable side of it started slowly drifting far, far away until I could no longer feel that connection with the characters which ultimately brought my overall love for this book down a couple of stars.

I’m used to finding L.H. Coway’s books utterly romantic, fun and heartfelt so naturally, that is what I expected going into FAUXMANCE. But I was fooled, y’all! I went into this hoping to get an innocent yet sexy read and I got way more sexiness than I signed up for. I don’t have anything against very sexual reads, I don’t mind them at all but I wasn’t really in the mood and I also missed having a very romantic story from L.H. Cosway.

I would also like to briefly mention another huge reason I found it hard to love this book. I have severe social anxiety, almost as bad as our heroine in this book and while in the begging I could relate to most of the things she went through, the story reached a point where I couldn’t find her social anxiety believable, if that makes any sense. I’m having a hard time explaining without going into a full rant but I guess what I want to get across is that everything started out amazing then as the story progressed and as it got more steamy, it seemed to me like the author rushed to “fix” the heroine’s social anxiety with her sexual awakening. As if sex was the solution to social anxiety. But maybe I got it all wrong and she just caught me on a ready-to-rant bad mood.

Anyway, aside from the anxiety thing and the lack of romance, I enjoyed everything about this book. It was a very refreshing and fun book to read on a late summer afternoon. The characters made me smile and their chemistry made me blush more than a hundred times. If you would like to read an unconventional book about a painfully shy woman whose life is very undercover, the ultimate dream and oh, so very exciting and a man with a kind heart and who’s an expert at seeing the beauty in people then this is the book for you!

L.H. Cosway lives in Dublin, Ireland. Her inspiration to write comes from music. Her favourite things in life include writing stories, vintage clothing, dark cabaret music, food, musical comedy, and of course, books. She thinks that imperfect people are the most interesting kind. They tell the best stories. L.H. is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.

Recommended Posts

travel books
Books Review

The 3 best travel books

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts Rolf Potts, an American writer, takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and exploration in his book, “Vagabonding.” With vivid storytelling and captivating images, Potts recounts his own […]

Sabrina Cox