Book Review: "Caught in a Bad Fauxmance" by Elle Gonzalez Rose

It’s been a tough few years for twins Devin and Maya Báez. Their mother died, and Devin left their Florida home to go to art school in California, while Maya went to college near home and resented her brother. But now their family will be spending winter break at their cabin at Lake Andreas, where they’ve not been for four years.

All hopes for a relaxing, stress-free break vanish quickly when they run into their neighbors, the Seo-Cooke family. The Báezes and Seo-Cookes have a complicated relationship—well, they hate each other. The two families have had run-ins for years, and the Seo-Cookes always seem to walk away victorious from the lake’s annual winter games.

This year, everyone swears it will be different, but it’s not long before the Báezes’ cabin is put up as a wager between the families. Maya, Devin, and their father are determined to finally bring their rivals down. And when Julian Seo-Cooke—looking handsomer than ever—asks Devin to pretend to be his boyfriend to get his ex off his back, Devin sees this as an opportunity to infiltrate their enemies and get proof they’ve been cheating all these years.

Of course, the more time they spend together, Devin realizes Julian isn’t as manipulative and horrible as he has always believed; in fact, he didn’t realize what his family has been doing to win the games. But while Maya keeps pushing him to sabotage the Seo-Cookes, Devin would rather forget all about the rivalry and just be with Julian. Is such a thing even possible?

I love fake dating and enemies to lovers tropes, but there has to be evidence that explains the characters’ dislike for one another, and you want to believe the chemistry between them is real. While issues between other members of both families were ugly, I never felt that tension between Devin and Julian. In fact, I didn’t feel either of those characters were well-developed, and I thought the pranks each family played on the other were really silly.

This was sweet in places, but it felt a bit too surface-level for me. I wanted more of Devin and Julian being vulnerable, more of them realizing their feelings. There were possibilities galore, but no real oomph to their romance.