I had to give Jae another shot after reading Under a Falling Star, and I am glad I did because I really enjoyed this one! If you haven’t been following the blog, Under a Falling Stars wasn’t a pleasurable read for me, but if you enjoy Christmas fluff then I recommend checking it out. I picked Just for Show because it sounded fun, and I was pleasantly surprised by its depth.
Here’s the premise-
Claire Renshaw is an ambitious psychologist who is wound just a little too tight. After her partner of 7 years breaks off their engagement, Claire is embarrassed, disappointed, and desperate to seal her book deal on lasting relationships. However, a therapist who can’t make her own relationship work doesn’t have the credibility needed to sell a book on the topic. To solve this problem, Clair hires Lana, a confident non-conforming actress, to play the role of her fiancée in order to fool the publishing company. Although Claire is grateful for Lana’s help, it takes time for the two to evolve past their professional arrangement into a friendship, and eventually they both admit to feeling something more- this is a tactful slow burn. I enjoyed the chemistry amongst the build-up.
I would say the conflicts here were very internal for the characters. Claire needs to learn to let loose and balance her work/personal time in a way that makes her significant other feel like they still matter in her life. Lana’s personality was the perfect opposite to Claire’s OCD-collected self, and pretty much drove Claire’s character change. Although Lana is more carefree, she isn’t irresponsible or immature. In fact, Lana’s perception was often times just as on point as Claire’s, which I liked and thought it balanced the relationship. Lana’s character change isn’t as severe, but she still develops nicely throughout the story.
If I was to be critical, this book definitely followed a predictable path and it was easy to see around the bends, however, this didn’t stop me from enjoying the ride.
The characters definitely built the momentum of this story. I really enjoyed Claire and Lana and found them relatable, especially considering all of my girlfriends have had opposite personalities to my own (I’m kind of a Claire). The side characters had some back story but weren’t given much page time. I keep seeing this in the romance genre where there are side lesbian friends who interact with the women leads to help further the relationship and that’s it. I liked how the friends here came up in the epilogue so they didn’t drop off the face of the earth once the conflict was gone, but I would have liked to have seen them more throughout the novel.
If you like your romances with a build-up of sexual tension, and if fake-girlfriend stories are your niche, then Just for Show might be perfect for you.
Follow Jae here: @JaeFiction and here: @jaeauthor