Not Pretending Anymore

By: Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland

Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Sebastian York

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

❤️ A WRITING DUO & NARRATING DUO NOT TO BE MISSED ❤️

When these two talented authors put their heads together and collaborate on a romance you know it’s going to be good, you know you’re going to meet some charming loveable characters and you know that the path to happily ever after may take a wee bit of time.. but the journey will be a sweet ride. Well, Molly and Declan’s story was all that.. and so so much more as they room-mated, friend zoned yet gravitated towards each other and took some wrong steps along the way. However, love conquers all in the end and Declan‘s anxieties over his bouts of depression, Molly’s meander down the wrong path and them living in very different Zip Codes all got sorted out in the end. Their round-about journey into each other’s arms was wonderfully entertaining as it has delicious feels of anticipation which grew and grew as they analyzed their true feelings. And even Molly’s journey back to her once-estranged dying father was heartwarming, held a poignant meaningful message to us all and was so very bitter-sweet and beautiful.

Worth a credit? Yes absolutely, it was a slow-build of a story about recognizing love.. about taking chances.. about following your heart.. and about eventual happily ever afters. And Molly and Declan’s well-paced journey came from the mighty minds of Ms Ward and Ms Keeland.. two gifted authors who excelled, captured the warmth, the humor, the conflict of heart, the tortured dilemmas, the father-daughter bond.. and described love.. love.. love. And Erin and Sebastian brought their A game, breathed life into the characters and turned this impressive dual POV tale into an awesome audiobook.

Slooooooow Burn!

Ward and Keeland are two of my all-time favorite authors...and man, do they know how to write a story!! This really was a great story. My major hang up with this one is simply that the slow burn was ultra, majorly, next level slow...to the point of ultimate frustration. The main characters were literally dating other people for almost the entirety of the book. Their sweet/entertaining/swoon worthy interactions and “obvious to the reader” feelings toward each other were the only things that allowed me to persevere and finish. There were also some really sad elements to this story...but again beautifully written. The ending was amazing and I absolutely loved the epilogue. At that point, I was wishing for more. Finally to the good stuff! This one was not as steamy as some if you’re really into that. Is this my favorite work from this dynamic duo? No. Is it still worthy of a credit/listen? Yes. Excellent narration. Two authors that are the best in the biz. Lovable characters. “Pull at your heart strings” storyline. 4 stars overall for me.

Disappointment from my favorites

Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward are the dream team of romance, but this book just doesn’t compare to their other books. It actually doesn’t even come close in my opinion. It was unoriginal, not very steamy, and hard to finish. I never ever thought I’d say that I had a hard time finishing a Vi Keeland book.

They did it again!

Omg! This book was one of the sweetest roommates to lovers romance I have ever read! If you are a lover of friends to lovers or roommates to lovers you have to read this book. Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward know what they are doing.

Rating: 10/10 ❤️

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.

Boring and no steam

I listened to this knowing I wouldn’t be disappointed with these great authors & narrators. Wrong! I was disappointed. This was a boring listen. The narrators were great but the story was not. The couple would not communicate their feelings to one another. There was no steam in this. The couple dated other people the entire book until they decided to reveal their feelings at the end. For me the book was not credit worthy.

You never know what to expect with these ladies!

While I was expecting something different from the title of this book. I have to say I enjoyed this listen. What a great way to tackle the tough conversation of mental illness and the act of falling in love. I do wish that these ladies would every once in a while write just a happy book. What I mean is just the regular book drama without people having to get sick and die from cancer or some deadly disease. Even though they make it work very well it just makes an already sad book even sadder. Anyway I enjoyed the narration I adore Erin and Sebastian. However I may not listen to this one again.

DO IT!

I have listened to quite a few books from these authors and each time I walk away happy I did! I think I have a serious fake book crush on Declan (shhh don't tell my husband 😆)
Not Pretending Anymore is a great book and I'm extremely happy I listened to it!

Slow burn, but worth the wait!

Now this story is a slow burn, strangers to friends to lovers. Sometimes I am pretty antsy with a slow burn, but I wasn’t with this one. Obviously I couldn’t wait for Molly and Declan to get together, but it felt like I got to live the development of feelings and a relationship in “real time.” I wanted more sooner, but you could tell the characters weren’t ready for that, and it wasn’t the foundation they needed for the long term. The way it played out was so much better than a rushed relationship.

While this book is happy and lighthearted in so many ways, I felt some seriously sadness and heartache. Molly and Declan did everything right for the situations, yet the only thing that came easy was the friendship. One thing I always love about the books written by these women is the HEA feels earned and worked for. It’s never a simple shift in feelings and now things are ok. For Declan and Molly, they had to work hard to even become something more. It was hard to “watch” them go through that, but worth it. The Epilouge was so good and perfectly wrapped up the story.

Declan and Molly were both so likeable and relatable. Both main characters had some difficulties in this story. The tough topics in the book were delivered so well and handled with such respect. Vi and Penelope always find a perfect way to address some really hard subjects. They write characters with complicated pasts and emotions, and it never feels overdone. This is the case for Declan and Molly, which makes both the heartache and joy a little bigger in this one.

As always, Sebastian York and Erin Mallon were fantastic. Sebastian always adds so much character to Vi and Penelope’s works. It was great to hear Erin narrate one of theirs. She was so good as Molly.

Wow wow well done

This book is phenomenal. Well done; well done. Great details on love, struggles and commitment. Wow! The narrators did excellent and the story, wow.

unputdownable

I thoroughly enjoyed Declan and Molly's story. I was growing more impatient wondering, 'When are they going to get together.'

Absolutely love it

What can I say other than it’s another amazing book from The perfect duo!!
Great story kept me engaged at all time’s I loved how it made me smile and get teary at the same time it’s a lovely story!

Fabulous

Such a great story wonderful characters so many emotions the narrator s are so great bringing the story to life loved it x

Good storytelling

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narration was good. I really liked the story line, I prefer a bit more spice but it was still a nice story.

Lovely romance

What a great story. I loved the characters and some of their issues that formed part of the storyline.

YAY 😁 LOVED IT!!

Loved it!
After thinking that I had listened to all the best books this beauty came along!
Narrated perfectly, this story left me with a big smile & warm feeling inside.
If you love a funny & lovely rom com with a cute ending then Get it! You won’t regret it x

Lovely story.

Loved it. Fell asleep listening, had to roll back. Loved Declan..ll

Well worth buying.

Entertaining love story

Everything you could want from a friends to lovers room mate hookup! The underlying character dilemmas made them much more human and more lovable for their flaws. Great voice acting too, I really believed what was being said without any cringe moments.

Really good read

I loved this book, it made me cry as I have recently lost my dad. I couldn't stop listening to it a couple of nights I wasn't turning my iPad off until 2.30am. Can't wait to read more from these writers.

5 stars

This writing duo, is one of my favorites, so I was quick to snap this book up. I was not disappointed. This is a great roommate/best friend to lovers romance.
The characters have so much depth and the story was definitely a journey worth hearing about. With fantastic narrators to top it off.
Don’t hesitate to get this one!!