I Think They Love You: fake dating and only one bed

So Julian Winters is one of those authors that I’m just a fan of and that’s my entire reasoning for finally getting around to reading I Think They Love You. It’s been a good few months since it came out but I have a to be read list and I’m trying to get through that before reading new stuff but am not doing a very good job of that.

The blurbiana grande says that when Denzel “Denz” Carter’s workaholic father and CEO of 24 Carter Gold unexpectedly announces his retirement, the competition is on for who will become his successor. To convince his family that he’s capable of commitment, Denz impulsively lies about being in a serious relationship. Now he needs to find a fake boyfriend to seal the deal on the CEO position. Denz is forced to turn to the last person he wants to be in a pretend (or any) relationship with: Braylon, the man who broke his heart. Braylon’s sudden reappearance in Denz’s life turns everything upside down. But apparently, he needs Denz’s connections to the mayor to win his own promotion. So, they strike a deal. It’s all business until the funny texts and the confusing kisses leave Denz struggling to separate this temporary arrangement from the affairs of his heart.

The prologue starts five years before the events of the actual book, and Denz and Bray are going on a road trip so they can meet Denz’s family and obviously, Denz is bricking it. We then cut to five years later in chapter one, wherein we are following Denz as he’s forgotten to pick up the pastries for a staff meeting at 24 Carter Gold, so he runs off to this bakery where he runs into Bray, who has been in London after asking Denz to come with him. But then chapter two tells us that Mr. Man, Kenneth, everyone’s dad – not literally obviously – is stepping down and the meeting is actually to discuss that, and then since no one takes Denz seriously, despite the fact he’s the one that turned the company’s digital footprint around. He then, in a stroke of genius, nominates himself to be CEO after lying and saying he has a boyfriend. He ends up recruiting his friend, who flakes on him last minute, but then is able to scoop up Braylon to help him after the two conveniently run into each other. And, obviously, because they’ve got all this history, Braylon is able to fit right in the being Denz’s fake boyfriend since the two of them used to be together. It meant that dinner with Denz’s family wasn’t a trainwreck. And something I appreciated was that even though Denz’s family were clowning on him for putting himself in the CEO ring, they were very protective of him when they found out Braylon was his alleged boyfriend.

Now this was just romance, really. At its core. Yes, there was the whole competition to see who could become the next CEO for 24 Carter Gold was there, but it was a romance book at its heart, and sure, things happened about it, Denz did go to work – it’s like those books or shows set around high school, but then you just never see these kids at school. It’s like, what are you doing? No wonder none of you are graduating, y’all never went to class – but 24 Carter Gold never felt too prevalent. To me, a lot of the work stuff fell into the category of Denz growing and changing. Since his family was so affluent and well known (never mind all the designer brand name-dropping), a lot of Denz’s stuff comes from that, about how he’s just sort of fallen into working with his family’s company, regardless of what he wants. You see a good chunk of that when you get the occasional flashback to when he and Braylon were together during college and he’s thinking about their future together post-college and where he sees the two of them. I wasn’t all that bothered about not seeing all that much work stuff personally, but that’s just because I love romance, and I love a good trope.

Speaking of, the main one being sold is the fake relationship between Denz and Braylon. And I have to Olivia Wilde nod for the audience because yup, yup. I love fake dating, I loved that there was fake dating in this book. I made an entire post and YouTube video about how much I love it. Me and fake dating are besties, you can’t tell me otherwise. And did this book follow the typical pattern of fake dating, you bet your butt it did! But to stray from this line for a moment, saying that I love romance and fake dating. There’s a moment, I don’t remember specifically when in the book, when Denz and Braylon are talking about rom-coms. One of them complains they don’t like them because they all end the same, in the romance. But then there was the argument that it’s not necessarily about the two leads getting together, it’s about the journey they go on to get to the end and together. And you know what? That’s tea! I think about the Thai BL show, Vice Versa. That’s just a romance show, but the journey that Puen and Talay go on to get together in the end is absolutely off the walls. Like, why are these boys getting sent to parallel dimensions before they can be together? Why are they living other people’s lives before they get to be together? Wild stuff. But that’s precisely it, it’s the journey the two go on, like Denz and Braylon breaking up and fake dating is all part of their journey.

I did occasionally find myself getting confused about who some of Denz’s extended family were. His aunties were consistently mentioned, but since they only showed up on occasion – and yes, I’m considering physically turning up and being mentioned two different things – I found myself sort of just lumping them together. I will say, I don’t think that was helped by the fact that throughout the book, they were this presence that Denz and his sister, Kami, would actively try not sharing parts of their lives with, because their aunties were the judge-y ones (very much Rebecca Black, “I’ll stay hot and you’ll stay judge-y” core) that would spread every part of everyone’s life whether they wanted that or not.

Anyway, I really liked this book. Under the fake dating, and the only one bed (loved how that was snuck in), trope, it was just about breaking out of other people’s expectations and choosing yourself over anything else. But it was obviously still a romance book at its core, and regardless of everything else, that was the main focus. I think my favourite Julian Winters book is still Right Where I Left You, but then again, that blew my tits clean off when I read it. I’d definitely say give this a read.

Okay, bye!