Fake Dating Starter Pack
Curated by BookMatcher Editorial · The pretend relationship that becomes the actual one.
Eight books built on the trope where two people agree to fake a relationship for one specific reason, and then have to live with the consequences. From the trope's BookTok queens (Hazelwood, Armas) to the queer crossover hit (Bellefleur) to the YA blueprint (Han). The lowest-stakes setup in romance and the most reliably re-readable.
“Catalina drags her American coworker to her sister's Spanish wedding as a fake boyfriend. The BookTok breakout that brought fake-dating back to bestseller lists — wedding-week setting, every grand gesture earned.”
“A grad student fake-dates the department's hottest professor to convince her best friend she's over an old crush. Hazelwood made fake-dating-in-STEM a subgenre with this debut, and the receipts are still arriving.”
“Alexa gets stuck in an elevator with Drew, who needs a plus-one to his ex's wedding that weekend. Guillory's debut is the modern Black romance that helped reshape the fake-dating shelf — and the start of a series worth following.”
“A small-town florist needs to learn how to date someone like the boy bands she grew up loving, so she enlists the very grumpy bodyguard of her childhood-crush rockstar. Adams keeps the fake-dating premise sweet and the chemistry sharp.”
“A bookstore-clerk hides her dating life from her grandmother by inventing a girlfriend — and then runs into the literal cover model whose face she's been showing her. The queer fake-engagement-to-marriage standout of the past two years.”
“Daphne and Miles got jilted by their respective partners — who left them for each other. They move in together, fake-date for spite, and Henry takes it from there. Her best ensemble of recent years.”