Ashlee (bookswithnopictures)'s Reviews > A Not So Fictional Fall

** spoiler alert ** 2.5 stars
Tasha is ecstatic to go to an event to meet her favorite author, Amelie De Pierre, who turns out to be a man. Said man is sexy and French and without proper documentation to continue his US tour. The solution is a whirlwind romance and marriage of convenience.
The bones of this book are good. I love a bookish couple and a marriage of convenience in a modern setting is like catnip. It just wasn’t for me. In order to avoid spoilers, I won’t list why, but I wanted more depth and backstory for believability and a deeper connection between the MCs.
Thank you to the author for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

Edited to add:
I decided that I have to explain my rating more thoroughly because I think it's a disservice to not acknowledge why it didn't work for me. Basically this needed a copy editor to push plot and edit down the redundancy/unnecessary explanations. I read across multiple genres and steam levels, so I think another perspective is completely appropriate.
I am in no way trying to beat this book up but just having read it and then seeing so many rave reviews makes me want to explain why my review looks sour in comparison.

Now into why it didn't work for me. As mentioned above, the bones are good. Give me the feels of one of my favorite romcom films, The Proposal, and I'm a sucker. But the potential consequences to committing fraud to get someone a green card is never properly addressed. There is no incentive for Tasha to agree to this charade besides helping her favorite author and getting 250K. How could that not be a source of contention to a couple? How can that consequence not be on page? I have a friend who married a non-US resident and it is no picnic with the government.
Which brings me to insta-love. It's very tell me not show me. They don't go through any angst or turmoil. There is little backstory to bring these characters to a deep foundation of a romance. I want more than winks and French words peppering interactions to believe they're in love. Had their relationship been rooted in friendship or as colleagues, it would have made more sense than literal strangers.
The miscommunication with a language barrier also didn't make sense. Tasha supposedly had been doing an app to get her some brownie points to impress Amelie. I don't speak French, but context clues would tell me that when someone is talking about coffee, they are talking about cream, not a crime. English is part French/part German/part Anglo-Saxon. And Pierre's American readership is pretty strong for someone who needs to be told repeatedly what Americanisms mean.
There were times things were explained as if one is talking to a child. For example, in this day and age there is literally no possible way that an author would not know what a hashtag is. It came across to me like this book was meant to make an influencer (bookstagrammer in particular) feel "seen".
Lastly, this is a sweet romance (not at all a complaint! I love sweet romances too, but I think it needs clarification) - it is not fade to black. I saw another reader make that comment and I think that would deter some readers who prefer sweet only and also set an expectation that will not be realized by those who prefer a little more steam.