Book Review
Claire Brooks’s debut novel Play Pretend is a wonderful new addition to the romance genre! Brooks beautifully brings to life this charming tale of neighbors who enter into a fake relationship to appease a lie the heroine told her family over a year ago. Brooks writing is clear and fun, there is a wonderful level of care and understanding around her characters and who they are-the hero and his OCD and the heroine are her issues with her father. Her characters are brought to life with such ease that they leap off the page and extremely relatable. Play Pretend is such a well constructed debut novel and I really enjoyed it from cover to cover and am definitely putting Brooks on my authors to watch list!
Ronan and Willow have been neighbors for the past five years since Willow moved into the duplex next door. These two have both been harboring some attraction for the other but their social anxieties and uncertainties have kept them from really understand the other and assuming that they were both on opposing sides. Play Pretend on the surface seems like a simple and straightforward romance, but Brooks does a truly beautiful job adding in the complexities of the human brain with the simple tasks of everyday life. Ronan is one of those swoon worthy heroes you have to get to know and earn his trust because past his “gruff” exterior lies a true heart of gold! Willow and Ronan together create this beautiful balance and support system that easily blossoms into a rich and deeply emotional love. Brooks does a wonderful job showing the building blocks of this relationship and how small actions and touches create this deep understand of who the other is setting the perfect foundation for trust. The emotional understanding of these characters is additionally supported with the deepening of their physical relationship which helps to highlight the depth of their feelings!
I was truly blown away by this debut and was swept up into this really lovely romance. I would highly recommend you give this novel and Claire Brooks a try!
Thank you so much to Claire Brooks for an eARC, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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