My Phony Valentine

By: Courtney Walsh

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Alex Kydd

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.

Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt, and nursing my broken heart.

Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop and claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey's most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story.

When his no-nonsense manager and meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant and Dallas's less-than-stellar reputation: A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates, and phony PDA.

As I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn't real...someone better tell it to my heart.

©2023 Courtney Walsh (P)2024 Podium Audio

Perfect for V Day

Poppy chuckled a bit too much for me, and Dallas was uber serious. But I loved the story, here for the hockey hunks!

Loved This Story!

Loved this story! I don’t want to share anything about it, but great relationships, friendships, and connections. And the performance was great, too! 😍 A new favorite!

Loved this sweet wholesome story

Really loved the story, it was sweet and wholesome. My only issue was the sharp and loud inhalations from both narrators at times was super distracting. I feel this was more of an editing issue rather than an issue with the narration as I know these are normally taken out in post production.

The plot was great!

The book was hilarious. The narrators were awesome. The sisters we just like mine, very nosey and critical.

Cute story

I loved the whole story line. I didn’t like when the male narrator did Poppy’s voice. It was so so bad.

Romantic sizzles with humor and heart

This was my first Courtney Walsh book. I’m hooked. It had all the thrills and chills without any smut. The dialogue is snappy and humorous. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at several points. The characters felt warm and real, and I found myself routing for them to overcome every obstacle. It was so refreshing to read romantic scenes that gave me goosebumps, but didn’t make me feel like a peeping Tom. The readers were great actors, which is not always the case with audio books. My only negative would be that it’s a bit off-putting to hear a male voice attempting the female lines. I know there are probably logistical issues with recordings that might make it hard, but I would love to hear all the male thoughts and dialogue in only a male voice, and ditto for the female. It was a very minor distraction, though, to what was an extremely enjoyable experience.

good story, light hearted and cute

i really liked the story. it was well written and nice to read around valentine’s day. however the chapters are all kinds of messed up. there are only 45 chapters and then an epilogue but the audio book has 54 chapters so at one point your like 4 chapters off from the one you’re actually on. still a good book and was performed well.

Exactly what my heart needed

My Phony Valentine is exactly what my heart needed. This charming and funny romcom has unexpected connections, with the line between fake and real getting blurred, that left me rooting for a love story that defied all expectations.

Poppy is a struggling restaurant owner who unexpectedly finds herself in a fake romance with hockey's notorious bad boy, Dallas Burke. Sparks fly in a whirlwind of contract negotiations, pretend dates, and phony PDA. As she navigates a web of deception, she discovers that the man behind the reputation may just be the one to mend her broken heart.

A lighthearted, funny read with great character development that will have you rooting for a love affair.

🎧 Jorjeana Marie’s and Alex Kydd’s performance was very enjoyable.

RATING
📝 Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 Performance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CONTENTS
🛀 Squeaky clean read
💋 Sexual content: Sweet kissing. Stolen kisses.
🤬 Foul language: None
💪🏻 Violence: Mentions hockey violence in the rink. Car accident.

Lighthearted Sweet and Easy Read

Throughly enjoyed the story, the male narrator was very enjoyable to listen, the female narrator was good but halfway through the story I started to hear each inhalation which grated a bit, but the overall story was very sweet and one of my favorite tropes.

Nothing phony about this love story

Courtney’s plot is so fun and light hearted, but kept my attention throughout the book. I enjoyed it so much that I’m ordering the next book immediately.

The audio narration is well done and also easy to follow.