Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins – fake dating romance

Like a Love Song is heartwarming, fluffy and adorable YA romance. If you’re fan of fake dating romance just get this book.

Disclaimer – Many thanks to PRH International for free e-copy via NetGalley.
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Synopsis

This debut paperback original romance follows a Latina teen pop star whose image takes a dive after a messy public breakup, until she’s set up with a swoon-worthy fake boyfriend.

Fake boyfriend. Real heartbreak?

Natalie is living her dream: topping the charts and setting records as a Brazilian pop star…until she’s dumped spectacularly on live television. Not only is it humiliating—it could end her career.

Her PR team’s desperate plan? A gorgeous yet oh-so-fake boyfriend. Nati reluctantly agrees, but William is not what she expected. She was hoping for a fierce bad boy—not a soft-hearted British indie film star. While she fights her way back to the top with a sweet and surprisingly swoon-worthy boy on her arm, she starts to fall for William—and realizes that maybe she’s the biggest fake of them all. Can she reclaim her voice and her heart?

Review

Like a Love Song is lovely and cute YA romance that revolves around Natalie a Brazilian pop-star who has to fake date to better her image but it soon turns into real forever feeling that helps her find herself and reconnect with her culture and family. The story is about embracing roots and culture, dealing with pressure of fame, family, friendship, and love.

Writing is gripping, spell binding, and fast paced that sucked me into story right from the first page. Story is written in first person narrative from Natalie’s POV. Her voice is refreshing and relatable.

The story is interesting. It started with Natalie on red carpet with her boyfriend Trent. She is nominated for People’s Choice Award of the year for best artist. It is best moment of her life that soon turns into disaster when her boyfriend decides to dump her just when she is called on stage and her reaction is recorded on live camera. She never imagined her biggest moment of life being GIFed and MEMEfied all over social media. Seeing trash Trent with his new girlfriend and liking her humiliation makes her ask help from PR agent who suggests she fake date with someone who will also benefit with fake dating along with her. What she doesn’t expect is PR setting her fake date with a British indie film star, William, who is anti-Trent in all aspect.

It is great to read how this fake dating ship would sail, can Natalie make people change opinions about her with this fake dating or it will only give more spice to social media and tabloids, how it will change her life, and if it will turn into her forever love.

Natalie isn’t instantly likable character. She has that air of fame that we see when she is with William in the beginning. She is too quick to form opinions and sometimes is judgemental but what I liked most is she is quick in recorrecting her mistakes. As story progressed her character starts shinning more and more. She is actually very caring and compassionate girl but is also vulnerable with her anxiety of being in big events among big people who could easily judge her because of her origin. Writing songs, making music, and singing her own songs is her elements and she is proud of it and I liked how it gave her confidence and made her who she is.

I can understand what she must have gone through in school being Latina girl from Brazil and how that made her to be Americanised, change her name and look so she wouldn’t stand out and how in doing so she felt not fitting in with her original culture and family in Brazil. It was amazing to see how being with William and fake dating developed her character, made her want to be herself without changing anything about her and reconnecting with her family in Brazil, and accept her culture and even her Brazilian name. I loved how she turned heartbreak into something more than herself and do something to inspire and motivate people from home and girls like her.

William is cute, totally adorable and developed character. I could relate with his love for his family and financial struggle. I admired him for working for money so he could support his family. I second his views towards fame and privacy. I liked how uncomfortable he felt with whole fake dating and how that affected his image and family and still he went along with it as long as he could.

Natalie’s relationship with her mother was amazing. I also liked Natalie’s friends- Padma, a lesbian Pakistani-American famous DJ and Brenda- a bisexual friend who isn’t famous like Natalie and Padma. I liked how Brenda never felt not fitting in trio or jealous of their fame. I loved how they both supported Natalie throughout story and how they stood up for her in climax.

Best part of the book is Natalie’s struggle and her development and romance. So far fake dating trope is hit or miss for me but this made me fall for this trope. Fans of this trope won’t be disappointed. It has perfect chemistry, perfect drama and tension, beautiful lovely and fluffy moments, forced proximity (which is much better than other books I read with this arc), and right amount of hotness for YA category.

Twist and turns are good. Most of them are predictable. Climax is also predictable but it soon turned surprising that makes it different from other YA romances which is another best thing I liked. I felt sad for Natalie but at the same time I so much loved her conversation with her fan, how the whole thing brought change in her and what she decided to do about it. End is perfect with her big moment and yes with her forever love that takes more time to decide than I expected.

Overall, Like a Love Song is heartwarming, fluffy and adorable YA romance with fake dating trope and forced proximity arc.

I highly recommend this if you like,
YA romance
fake dating trope
forced proximity arc
Brazilian main character
theme of dealing with pressure of fame, embracing roots and culture
diverse story
exploring identity

Book Links

Add to Goodreads | Storygraph

Buy this book at Amazon.in | Amazon.com

Buy YA Romance at Amazon.in | Amazon.com

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