Book 8, 2023
Fakers by Lucy Lennox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I finished reading Fakers by May Archer and Lucy Lennox last night. It's the first in the "Licking Thicket" series of m/m romance, featuring Brooks Johnson and Malachi "Mal" Forrester.
Brooks hasn't returned to Licking Thicket, TN, since he left ten years ago. He has an up-and-coming career as an ad exec in NYC, where casual hook-ups are a dime a dozen. But just as Brooks is about to tackle an account that can make his career and enable him to open his own firm, his mama calls from home, begging him to return to take over the duties of Head Licker at the Lickin' Festival. Brooks' father has had recent heart issues and can't take on the role as he's done ever since Brooks can remember. Brooks can't not go home, but if he's going to be confronted with meddling, small town neighbors, the girl whose heart he broke, and a match-making mother, he's not going alone. Brooks strong-arms his very straight co-worker, Paul, into playing the role of his boyfriend.
Mal escaped his own small town hell and is now making a career for himself in LA as an artist. When his best friend, Ava Ivey, begs him to accompany her back to her home in Licking Thicket and pretend to be his boyfriend, Mal can't say no. Especially since Ava is pregnant and needs lots of support and little stress. He's heard all about the no-good jock who broke Ava's heart, and there's no way Mal will let her face Brooks Johnson alone.
Sparks fly when Brooks and Mal meet, but the tangled web that they're both caught up in conspires to keep them apart. It's not until Ava and Paul start spending more time together that Brooks and Mal get a chance to explore the heat between them. However, what sort of future can they have with their careers and homes on opposite sides of the country?
This story was a hoot and a half. Puns abounded, not just in regards to the name of the town, but also its residents and even the cattle that are prevalent throughout the story. It was a fun and funny romp, but it was saved from being an utter fluff fest by misunderstandings and old hurts resurfacing. By the end, I wasn't just invested in Brooks and Mal, but also in Paul and Ava. It was heartening to see how things worked out for both couples.
Favorite lines:
♦ As far as I knew, my best friend hadn't gotten a hot beef injection since the Halloween party.
♦ The town assholes were still goofing off, and I secretly hoped they spilled their milk and cried about it. Hard.
♦ "And if two Nutters and a Johnson can't get the job done, I don't know who can." // I bit my lip against a whimper. Did they not hear themselves?
♦ "Turns out, you're not meeting my needs, Big Daddy. We just want different things. It's not you, it's...Okay, yeah, no, it's totally you."
♦ "Oh my God. Drunk Brooks might be my kryptonite," Mal told Ava in a hushed voice I wasn't sure if he knew I could hear. // "I'm not drunk," I protested. "I'm just a tipsy bit teeny."
♦ I switched to a playlist called Happy Beats which literally had a song on it called "Pour The Milk" which made me fucking cry and think of Annabelle and her soft udder and warm brown eyes, and Jesus fucking Christ, now I was missing a cow.
Delightful, hot, and sweet, with just the right amount of angst. Five stars! I personally lose a point for the fact that it took me about a third of the way through the book to realize that Brooks and his brother Dunn were named for the musical duo, although in my own defense, I'm not a fan of country music.