Title: Not Fooling Anyone
Author: Allie Winters, SmartyPants Romance
Series: Lessons Learned #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Year: 2022
I’m not going to lie. I was looking forward to reading this just because of the boxing connection. Although my chosen sport isn’t boxing, that atmosphere and level of testosterone in a room is seriously familiar. And for whatever reason, it made me feel completely at home from the very first page. Plus, Ethan is just too damn cute in Under Pressure. Such a happy go lucky character who just rolls with the moody people in his life.
Like Under Pressure, Not Fooling Anyone partners someone with a pretty big grudge with someone who is cheerful. That perfect ying yang balance in a relationship. But that’s really where the similarities end. Ethan is this completely happy, cheerful, go with the flow kind of character. He’s kind of got the calmness in the world that I wish I had in fact. He just stubborn through everything and finds the light wherever he looks. Lexis on the other hand has more walls than you can count. For good reasons of course. But still, a very prickly porcupine.
I’ve had a few books come across my shelves lately with the fake relationship trope. And they’re honestly always fun. I particularly liked that this one was set up because of a psychology experiment. And, as completely predicted, their growing feelings for each other actually worked really well into the study. Plus, Lexie’s acknowledgement of her pettiness in using their “relationship” to stoke the jealousy in a girl who was horrible in the past… not going to lie, I think we’ve all imagined a similar level of petty revenge.
Not Fooling Anyone does come with a warning at the beginning. If there’s issues with drug abuse or even sexualising assault, it may not be the best contemporary romance to grace your shelves. Having said that, even though Winters deals with some pretty heavy issues, the amount of pure cuteness and emotion throughout this story stop it from being dark in any way, shape or form. A beautiful story and I can’t wait to read more by Allie Winters.
Earth and Skye 
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