Awfully Ambrose by Sarah Honey & Lisa Henry
This book is the first in the Bad Boyfriends Inc. trilogy and though I still haven't finished book 2 much less the third one I'm fairly confident in saying that this one is the highlight of the series. I read this super quickly, which is a rarity these days. That's not to say that book 2 is bad by any means, it just doesn't have quite the same grip on my attention. But, ehm, this review is solely for Awfully Ambrose so I'll not mention anything else.
In Awfully Ambrose, the Ambrose in question is a theater student and wannabe actor running a side gig; he works as a Bad Boyfriend. That is to say, somebody hires him to be a truly awful boyfriend for a date, usually their parents. The purpose is normally that he will be such a bad boyfriend that when they then "break up" the parents will be too happy to make a fuss about whatever the hire-r wants to avoid. Sometimes it's a boyfriend the parents wouldn't approve of, sometimes they don't want a boyfriend at all, etc.
On one of these days, Ambrose meets Liam. (I'm telling this all wrong since it's actually Liam that's the main character as far as I can tell.) Liam is a waiter at a restaurant where Ambrose had one of the aforementioned awful dates, and things get out of hand when Ambrose tries to do a magic trick, fails miserably, and Liam gets a whole lot of work to do.
But Liam finds out the truth from the other person on that date, and a daring scheme is hatched. You see, Liam's family loves him and is very well-meaning, but he's getting sick of the constant badgering for him to get a boyfriend. Especially since his last one cheated on him and he hasn't told anyone. So he approaches Ambrose and it turns into the classic fake dating situation.
And it does it well.
As is the norm for a fake dating situation in a romance book, it evolves into a situation with real feelings in a fake relationship, not only in regards to what Ambrose and Liam feel for each other, but also what Ambrose and Liam's family create. There's some delicious angst, some heartwarming love, and it's tied together with a very nice bow.
All told, I quite loved this book and definitely recommend it. The romance is sweet, the characters are lovable, the ending nicely resolves everything. It was a pleasant experience from start to finish, and overall the story had good flow. I'm looking forwards to finishing the rest of the series [insert grinning emoji here]. After finishing this book, the prevailing impression I had was one of enjoyment. It was, not to understate it, a nice read.
If you're in the mood for something soft with good character writing, definitely give this one a try.