Hi y’all!

Happy Summer, my friends! I hope you are relaxing and enjoying the sunshine wherever you are.

Today I am excited to share my review of My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh. I have loved all the books I’ve read by Courtney and this was such a fun rom com.

Book Summary: “A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance. Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt & nursing my broken heart.

Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop & claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey’s most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story.

When his no-nonsense manager & meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant & Dallas’s less-than-stellar reputation. A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates & phony PDA.

But as I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn’t real. . . someone better tell it to my heart.”

I loved the chemistry between Poppy and Dallas. The fake relationship trope is so fun and I love the tension from the beginning. They both are more invested than they want to let on. I would call this novel a love at first sight, meet cute, fake dating delight. Such fantastic swoony kisses and passion for each other. The fake dating elements just make those more fun as they both realize how much deeper their feelings for each other run. And we talk about Dallas’ amazing, snarky grandmother for a minute? Her meddling into their love story is one of my favorite parts of the novel. I love how much she loves Dallas and how she sees the potential of his relationship with Poppy long before they do. Yet, I loved their building feelings for each other!

This story tackles difficult situations with poise and lovely second chances. I love how Dallas and Poppy build each other up after tough pasts. They both had experienced hard things that are unfair and sometimes not their faults. Poppy is still overcoming a crazy bad relationship and financial setback and Dallas is overcoming a traumatic accident and mistakes. They have held onto their hurt and their guilt for a lot time. But finally they help each other move forward. That doesn’t make the difficulties go away. But it does help them find hope and healing. They see the best in each other and I love that!

Courtney brings together some unlikely settings that make the story so much fun. As a sports fan, I really enjoyed the hockey plot lines in this book. So fun to have the hockey games and connections between the other hockey wives and girlfriends. The descriptions of Dallas’ skills and moves were really well done. I loved the descriptions of the games especially when Poppy comes to support Dallas on a difficult night. Their eyes meeting across the arena is a moment out of an underdog sports movie. Also loved the cooking and restaurant scenes. Poppy’s food sounds so good! I loved seeing how they both are so good at what they do and how they bond over their passions and determination for their jobs.

The ending is a lot of fun and I enjoyed the Valentine’s themed town events throughout the story. The dance at the end is a highlight for sure! I hope Courtney writes a series about Poppy’s sisters! I would love to read more in this world and get to know more of the characters. A fun read!

What are some of your favorite sports romcoms?
Any general sports novels that you love?