Not Pretending Anymore

By: Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland

Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Sebastian York

From New York Times best-selling authors Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland comes a new stand-alone novel.

Finding a good roommate through a classified ad isn’t as easy as it sounds. I was starting to lose hope. Until a knock at my door came, and God answered my prayers. Except...uh...wrong prayer, God. I’d definitely requested the big guy find me a drop-dead gorgeous man on more than one occasion...just not as my roommate.

Declan Tate talked me into interviewing him anyway. While he was amusing and charismatic, I wouldn’t have been comfortable living with a man, so I regretfully declined. Then, cupcakes showed up at my door - freshly baked by Declan and just as sinfully delicious as he was. You could say he was persistent. I eventually folded.

It wasn’t like I had another viable candidate anyway. Plus, I was interested in someone else. And Declan was into another woman. So it wasn’t like anything would happen romantically. After he moved in, the two of us became the best of friends. We even started to give each other advice on getting our crushes to notice us. Eventually, Declan concocted an idea: We should pretend to be a couple to make our love interests jealous.

I was hesitant, but went along with it anyway. To my utter shock, his crazy plan worked. Now, I was dating the supposed man of my dreams, and my best friend had the woman of his. But there was one problem. I couldn’t stop thinking about Declan. Those feelings we were trying to fake? Yeah...I wasn’t pretending anymore.

©2020 Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland (P)2021 Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland

This hit me hard!

Light spoiler warning!

This book thoes talk a lot about mental illness, in particular bipolar disorder and depression, which I do think should have had a trigger warning since it could definitely trigger some people.

Now I suffer from bipolar disorder myself, and in alot of books, and TV for that matter, I think its portrayed very wrong, but this book hit the nail on the head! I myself cryed quite alot during this book, and not because it was sad, but because it struck a cord with me. Declans hardships in fearing he will turn out like his mother reminds me so much of my own fears of my illness getting worse, and like him I think I also choose to not really let myself to fall in love, since it could hurt the person in the long run. This book actually gave me some clarity in that aspect, and made me realise that is honestly quite stupid.

Other than that, this is also just a great book. The story is sweet and compelling, and the characters seem real, and they are very likeable.

The narration by Sebastian was great as always, and I enjoyed Erins preformens as well.

Enjoyable story

These authors are two of my favorites. They never write a bad book. This one dragged a bit in the first half for me…but it was still good! The characters and story are interesting and easy to become invested in.
Sebastian York was his usual fabulous self. Five stars!
Erin Mallon is good but it drives me crazy how she holds onto the last syllable of words. It takes me out of the story and makes me do a dramatic eyeroll. Or should I say eyerollllllll. 🙄 She’s so talented. I wish she would stop doing that. Anyway…
Good book, good story, good narration.

SLOW burn

I always enjoy this writing duo so my only complaint is the extreme slow burn of this story. performances were fantastic as always!

Loved it! Such a sweet story! Excellent narration!

I LOVED this story! You'd loved to meet the characters l.I was cheering them on!
YEH!
ENJOY!⭐🤩⭐🤩⭐🤩⭐🤩⭐🤩

Love ❤️

This was such an easy read - from beginning to end. Of course, the narrators (two of my faves) made it extra special, but the story of finding friendship before love reminds me of my own relationship. They always say you'll meet your special someone when you least expect it and this story tells it beautifully. I love how it shares the fears of the characters - I felt this way when my now hubby and I were best friends and our relationship started to evolve into a different kind of love. The bar in Wisconsin was an awesome funny detail! Well done!👏👏👏❤️

Beautiful

This story was nice. It had a nice spicy 🌶️ scene and was a sloooow burn. I loved it.

Loved it!

I loved this book, and also hated it. A good book makes you feel things, and this one made me feel too much. With 3ish hours to go on it I was sobbing so much my husband got up in the middle of the night to comfort me. It was torture. A lot of romance novels have the same themes and this one is a common one, but I still got so emotionally involved that my heart was breaking.

I just hope that real people don't do this. If you feel something for someone, just tell them. Life is precious, time is short; don't waste it.

Oh my word!!!

This book takes you on a journey of friendship, stupidity, and laughter. So worth the read!! The story line was amazing. Declan, Molly, and William

Tearful

Another amazing book by 2 wonderful authors and narrators. I laughed and cried throughout the entire book. What a beautiful story. Love out of friendship makes the strongest relationships. My favorite was Mr D@ckalicious!!!

Great story - slow build

I loved the characters and the story! However, I struggled with the female narrator. The way she spoke and over enunciated. Felt like she was trying to talk in a cute way, and it made my skin crawl. Still, really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it.