Don't Go Faking My Heart

✨ "If Pride and Prejudice has taught me anything, it's the significance of a hand flex." ✨

SOME SPOILER-FREE THOUGHTS: Kate Watson continues to make me want to give up my life in the big city to finally start my own marketing firm in a small town in the hopes that the love of my life has just been waiting there for me (preferably on a strawberry farm...). But alas, for now I'll just have to live vicariously through her incredibly world building, character development, and storytelling, which she has once again crushed! I think I've had a crush on Rusty longer than Lottie has, so I was so happy for him to finally be front and center across from his perfect leading lady, Ash!

Author: kate watson

Finished: august 31, 2024

Reading Method: e-book

Star Rating: 5/5 ⭐

Spice Rating: 1/5 🌶️ (clean romance)

What To Expect:

✨ Friends to Lovers

✨ Fake Dating

✨ Small Town

✨ He Falls First

✨ Secret Crush

✨ ADHD & Dyslexia Representation

✨ Clean Romance

✨ "Don't You Ever Touch Her Again..."

✨ Dual POV

SPOILERS IN

3...

2...

1...

✨ "I love making her laugh. Now if I can only make her swoon." ✨

This series has been one of the greatest delights of 2024 for me! Which is why I'm so distraught (not really, but kinda... lol) that I have to wait until May to get the final installment with Lou's story! But we'll come back to that... first things first:

Rusty and Ash! What can I say about Rusty and Ash?

What CAN'T I say about Rusty and Ash?

This book is by far my favorite in the series and I think a lot of that has to do with Watson's ability to make her readers fall so truly, madly, deeply in love with her characters. Rusty and Ash have both been key players in all three of the lead ups to their story, which have just made me feel an ever greater connection to them as our leads than any of our other Sugar Maple friends (though, I really do love them all!).

And as a huge fan of character development in books, Rusty and Ash are true testaments to why that is so powerful in storytelling.

Rusty's biggest fear for most of his life was becoming his father. But then he met Ash and his biggest fear turned into her loving someone other than him. However, he never truly faced his ghosts and ultimately allowed them to get in the way of the one thing he wanted because he would rather hurt himself than potentially ever hurt Ash. It wasn't until he realized the message his father had beat into him his entire life was a lie that he knew he could be the man he wanted to be for Ash.

Ash continuously convinced herself that she wasn't worth someone else's love, so even when Rusty was the best friend, always there for her, she never even imagined that he could possibly be in love with her until she started seeing how much more there was to him than just the surface-level friend she'd been keeping all this time. Once she started to see his layers, and she only loved him more because of them, she realized it could be true for him too, that he could love, faults and all.

Where he zigged, she zagged. Where she twisted, he turned. All their pieces just fit together. It just took them some time to realize it.

And of course, we had such a killer cast of secondary characters with all our incredible townsfolk including the Chicks and their Hens, the intro of Sean and Patty, and our villains of the story Phillip, Bill, and Mayor Teddy. Not to mention the Jane's and their beaus from books past. With so many different personalities and names buzzing around, I would normally get so lost, but Watson does such a phenomenal job of introducing side characters in such a descriptive manner that they stick in your brain like a pneumonic device, unforgettable no matter how fast or slow a reader you are.

Also, honorary mention to the Double H Hockey scene because oh my gosh, I literally had to look up Hillbilly Hockey after I read that and I spent a good hour on YouTube just deep diving through videos. I think I've found a new obsession.

Before I officially wrap up, I wanna circle back to Lou real quick...

I loved how Watson amped up Lou's story throughout the book without ever taking away from Ash and Rusty. Plus, it was a super fun way to toss in a few easter eggs of the book titles being her song titles and I absolutely loved that! ALSO! I'm calling it right now: Patty is totally the Duncan of Duncan and Nash. If I'm wrong, I'm going to be sad. But I don't think I'm wrong...

So, go and grab a copy of Don't Go Faking My Heart by Kate Watson (available on KU!) if you're a book bestie who loves a good friends to lovers, fake dating, he falls first, small town romance! And honestly, even if you're a lover of the spiciest of books (it's me, hi...) this series is so worth the read. Watson is a true storytelling talent and I will forever recommend her sweet romances no matter how steamy my friends usually like it.

All My Love,

Jane-Anne