Faking with Benefits by Lily Gold

WANTED: Three fake boyfriends. Must be tall, ripped — and willing to teach me how to kiss.

My name is Layla Thompson, and I am undateable.
Seriously. I’m twenty-eight and I’ve never had a boyfriend. And with my thirties rapidly approaching, I’m starting to lose patience.

Look, I say this a lot, but seriously I went into this book expecting a light hearted rom com. And yet again I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of this story.

Faking with Benefits is the story of a woman who begins fake dating her three best friends. These men run a dating advice podcast together and use this fake dating scenario as a segment on their show. It’s supposed to be mutually beneficial. Until feelings get involved.

This book deals with a lot of very real struggles that people deal with in real life, like grief, divorce, abuse, bullying, and more, and deals with them very nicely. I felt a strong connection to Layla, personally, but I also related to one of her guys very much, too. So many raw emotions and heavy moments. But it’s not all heavy. There’s still plenty of soft and sweet moments and quite a few laughs. I really didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did.