Anna's Reviews > The Fake Mate

“The Fake Mate” by Lana Ferguson

3⭐️/5⭐️
3🌶/5🌶

“It’s funny, when I asked Noah to be my fake boyfriend . . . I never imagined a possibility where I might wish for it to be real.”

-This is a very straightforward story: Mackenzie and Noah enter a fake relationship that is mutually beneficial. She gets a break from all the bad blind dates her grandma sets her up with, and Noah satisfies the hospital board by proving he’s a mated alpha. Yes, alpha, this is an omegaverse story. Omegaverse/fake dating/workplace romance/grumpy sunshine/reylo vibes.

-If this is your first omegaverse story, it’s not a bad place to start. It’s a nice and gentle introduction to the omega/alpha dynamic, shifting, knotting, heats, etc. This isn’t my first shifter romance, so I wasn’t phased by all of that, and I think it’s really cool that there’s a trad pub omegaverse romance for people to enjoy! That being said, I admit…I don’t understand the negative reviews about this being a shifter romance. Y’all knew what you were getting into, and it seems very unfair to rate the book lower because you don’t care for the shifter stuff. What else did you expect?

-Now, there’s a lot I liked about this story. I enjoyed Noah as a character, I loved the dynamic between him and Mackenzie. The supporting characters were fine, I especially loved how each of their families was so supportive of them! The smut is very well written; plentiful, spicy, descriptive. The spice was definitely my favorite part of the entire book.

But there were some things I didn’t care for:

-I didn’t like how quickly the book jumped into the fake dating storyline. I wanted a better understanding of Mackenzie and Noah as individuals before they embarked on this fake relationship. I also felt like Noah’s storyline was much stronger than Mackenzie’s. In comparison, her need for a fake boyfriend was pretty weak.

-I think some of the plot points didn’t make a lot of sense. Parker knew about Mackenzie’s fake relationship right from the start, when the climax of the story happened I just didn’t understand how he couldn’t put two and two together earlier… I mean, Mackenzie vented to him about Dennis, they had weird run-ins with him together.

-The stakes felt pretty low. Yeah, Noah might lose his job, but he had already been approached by another hospital for a different and more esteemed position. It just felt very whatever by the time everything was sorted out.

-By the end of the book I felt kind of lukewarm about the conflict facing Noah and Mackenzie, and I didn’t care for how quickly they resolved the issue. It happened so late in the story, and then suddenly everything worked out.

-I’m not going to outright say no one should read this book, this might very well be your gateway omegaverse book! And if it is, I’m so happy for you. I just felt very indifferent by about 76% and on, so overall I’d say it was just an ‘ok’ story.