what I’m reading: codename charming by lucy parker.

As a personal assistant to a member of the Royal Family, Petunia De Vere is used to dealing with unexpected issues. But when a photo taken during an unfortunate mishap leads to insinuations that Pet is romantically involved with her boss, the royal PR team comes up with a brilliant solution –  a fake relationship between Pet and Matthias Vaughn, one of the royal bodyguards. Pet and Matthias reluctantly agree to the charade but what happens when their feelings start to feel real?

I thought I would have liked this book a lot more than I did. It’s the sequel to Battle Royal, which I really liked (read my review here!). You don’t necessarily have to read Battle Royal to understand what is happening in this book, however, there is a lot of throwback to the first book and discussions of things that happened and some backstory of the characters and I kept stopping to try to remember what they were talking about. I really wish I had reread Battle Royal again before starting this one. Like I said, enough context is given in this book, but since things were mentioned it kept nagging at me to try to remember the exact scene they were talking about.

I also thought I would like the main character more because I definitely remember liking her in the first book. Honestly, this is a bit of a nitpick but I think a lot of my issues with Pet was her name. Her name is Petunia but she goes by Pet and every time I read her name I just imagined a household animal, like a household pet. The first thing that came to my mind was not a person. It was super challenging for me and I do realize this is a me issue and that other people probably didn’t have that problem.

Additionally, I had a lot of trouble picturing Pet and Matthias together. She is described as super short and he is described as super tall and very muscular so whenever they would be together, I just couldn’t picture this couple in my head. The illustration on the book cover helped me out zero in this regard as they appear to be close to the same height. Also, why does every couple have to be a super short girl and a super tall guy with lots of muscles?

That being said, I loved the basic plot. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes! I love when characters enter into a fake relationship and then start falling for one another and each person is wondering if the other is really faking or not. I thought Matthias was a great character. He had a lot of depth and a serious backstory that I wasn’t expecting.

Although this book wasn’t my favorite, I’m going to still be on the lookout for the next book in the series. I have no clue who the next book will be about but I can’t wait to read it.

---

To check out other reviews, find this book on goodreads or amazon. Please note, all links are affiliate which gives a small portion of profit to Rainy Days and Clichés. Thank you so much for your continuous kindness!

what I’m reading: battle royal by lucy parker.

Four years ago, Sylvie Fairchild crashed and burned on the hit baking show Operation Cake when her glittery unicorn cake exploded over the face of one of the judges, pastry chef Dominic De Vere. Now, Sylvie runs her own bakery, conveniently located across the street from Dominic’s own shop. The two meet again when not only do the producers of Operation Cake recruit Sylvie to be a judge on the next season but when Sylvie and Dominic learn that they are both in the running for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bake the cake for the upcoming royal wedding.

I loved this book. I thought it was super cute and I adored the characters. I read this book at just the right time because I was looking for something light and funny, with some romance. This book checked off all the boxes.

I loved the segments where Sylvie and Dominic were at the baking show and I wished there were more of them. They definitely reminded me of the Great British Baking Show (which I’m pretty sure was the intention) and as someone who loves that show, I was all in. I did think the baking show was going to be a bigger plotline and I was sad that there were not more scenes on set. It also seemed like there was going to be a subplot about cheating contestants in the baking show that didn’t really happen which kind of bummed me out because I was looking forward to reading about that.

The relationship between Sylvie and Dominic was sweet and charming. Even though he is a grump and she is all sunshine and daisies, there was no angst between them and there were no hidden secrets or miscommunication. I enjoyed the way that Lucy Parker uses touch between her characters. Sylvie and Dominic are always touching, be it a finger or Dominic touching Sylvie’s hair, to have that connection to one another.

The plot is a bit obvious – I had figured out what was going to happen by the time I finished reading the synopsis. However, that did not affect my enjoyment of this book. I mean, we all know how it’s going to end, right?

This book was such a fun read!

---

To check out other reviews, find this book on goodreads or amazon. Please note, all links are affiliate which gives a small portion of profit to Rainy Days and Clichés. Thank you so much for your continuous kindness!

what I’m reading: act like it by lucy parker.

The play that Lainie Graham is acting in on the London stage is not doing well. Despite having hot actor Richard Troy as one of its leading men, ticket sales and attendance are down. Could it be because of Richard’s arrogant and playboy public persona? When the producers concoct a plan to bring more publicity to the show, Lainie is on board, until she realizes it means staging a fake relationship with Richard. Lainie is a good actress but even she can’t pretend to be in love with someone she hates. However as the two are forced to spend time together, their relationship slowly changes from hate to love…

I love a romantic comedy and I thought this book was super cute! I enjoyed how the relationship between Lainie and Richard moved from them hating each other to becoming friends and more. It was a slow build, which made it all the more believable.

At first, I was hesitant and wondered how the author was going to make such a grouchy and grumpy character likable, but she did. Richard definitely redeems himself in the end and the relationship that formed between him and Lainie was charming and delightful.

There was a lot of British slang in this book and plenty of banter between the characters. Good banter always makes me smile and this book was a fun read.

This is Lucy Parker’s debut romance novel and I’m absolutely looking forward to reading more from her.