A fresh, fun contemporary rom-com from debut author Elle Gonzalez Rose, about an aspiring artist who agrees to fake date one of his family’s longtime enemies in the hopes of gathering intel good enough to take down their rivals once and for all.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Elle Gonzalez Rose’s Caught in a Bad Fauxmance, which is out December 5th.
Devin Baez is ready for a relaxing winter break at Lake Andreas. That is, until he runs into his obnoxious next-door neighbors the Seo-Cookes, undefeated champions of the lake’s annual Winter Games. In the hope of finally taking down these long-time rivals, the Baezes offer up their beloved cabin in a bet. Reckless? Definitely.
So when annoyingly handsome Julian Seo-Cooke finds himself in need of a fake boyfriend, Devin sees an opportunity to get behind enemy lines and prove the family plays dirty.
As long as Devin and Julian’s families are at war, there’s only room for loathing between them. Which is a problem because, for Devin, this faux game of love is feeling very real.
According to Maya, one lap through the woods should take fifteen minutes. It takes me thirty. Running for more than five minutes is too much to ask of my body, so I slow down to a jog. By the time I cross our backyard for my second lap, I’m down to a fast walk. Maya and Andy are so far ahead I can’t even hear their footsteps anymore, or Maya shouting at me to go faster. Once she’s done with her own laps, she’ll come looking for me.
In the meantime, I enjoy the solitude. I’m taking my time walking along the lake’s edge when the sound of a branch snapping near the trees makes me jump. My heart races as my knees lock into a runner’s stance, prepared to bolt whenever Maya jumps out to force me to start sprinting again. But she doesn’t pop out of the woodwork. Nothing does.
Cautiously, I edge toward the woods, realizing too late that I should’ve brought a weapon. For all I know, the ringleader of the crawl-space possums could be luring me in, prepared to take me out and lay its claim over the cabin once and for all.
What I find is a lot worse than the possum king.
“Jesus, calm down!” Julian hisses, lunging forward and covering my mouth when I gear up to scream.
I bite down on Julian’s pinky finger hard enough for him to let me go, nearly slipping on the damp grass as I push him as hard as I can. “What is wrong with you?” I spit, getting rid of the sweat his palm left behind on my tongue.
Julian ignores me, clutching his reddened pinky to his chest. “Did you have to bite me?”
“Hello, you just lunged at me in the middle of the woods, so yes I had to bite you.”
“Fine, I’m sorry.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “Stella said she saw you guys earlier, and I wanted to catch you before you went inside.”
I cross my arms, protecting my rapidly beating heart. “So you decided to scare the hell out of me?”
“I was trying to be quiet.”
“You can be quiet without being a creep,” I scoff, ignoring the way Julian glares at me. “What’re you even doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be reciting Latin backward, or something equally obnoxious?”
Julian rolls his eyes. “I want to talk to you, dumbass.”
“About what, dumbass?”
He takes a deep breath, calming himself before replying. “You ran away from me in the bathroom.”
“Yeah, because you cornered me in a dark, empty room. Excuse me for panicking.” I try to put an end to the conversation by walking away, but Julian grabs my arm before I can get very far. I briefly consider walking him toward the edge of the nearby dock, close enough to push him into the lake once his guard’s down. It’s a beautiful mental image, but sabotage never goes well for me, even up against the least feisty Seo-Cooke.
“I only did it because I want to talk to you,” he explains, sounding unusually earnest, but I still don’t trust it.
I let out a humorless laugh and yank my arm out of his grip. “What could you possibly want to talk to me about?” I know there aren’t many other people our age at the lake this year, but I can’t imagine Julian’s so desperate for conversation that he’d come crawling to me.
Julian stays quiet, biting his lip and shoving his hands into his pockets. I start a countdown in my head. I’ll give him to ten to spit out whatever he has to say.
I make it to five before I realize I don’t care enough to make it to ten.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Julian pleads when I start walking away again, running ahead and standing in front of me. “Can you please just hear me out for five minutes?”
He holds his arm out to block my path. I scowl, trying to get around his left side, but he beats me to it. As always, the Seo-Cookes prove that they’re the most frustrating people on the planet.
“You have one minute,” I warn, prepared to start counting out loud this time when Julian blurts out one succinct sentence.
“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Hell has officially frozen over.
