by Marina Adair
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You’ve Got Male by Marina Adair is a fun contemporary rom-com.
Evie is a single mom trying to reorganize her parents’ coffee shop business so it can survive. Her best friend posts a video of Evie describing her perfect man, and then the men start coming. To try to ward them off, she asks the sexy guy next door, Jonah–a recent widower and single dad of two–to be her fake boyfriend.
This was funny and I could totally see it being a Hallmark movie; it seems this author had some of her novels adapted there already. I initially picked this one up for the cover and because fake dating and rivals to lovers are some of my favorite tropes.
It’s always nice to read stories about characters who are roughly my age; Evie is around 35. Both she and Jonah have kids who are around high school age, and they’re both wonderful side characters as well. There’s also queer representation in Evie’s father and best friend.
Our main couple have great chemistry and their banter is on point. The steamy scenes are pretty well done, and there are several. I’m so pleased with how many romances lately have really leaned hard into uplifting clear and enthusiastic consent in those kinds of scenarios.
Though this is a rom-com there are also heavier scenes. Jonah is a widower who lost his wife to cancer immediately after they had a baby daughter a few years back. Evie became a single mom at 19 and though the father kept up with child support he wasn’t really present in their daughter’s life. He’s kind of the worst. But I think the author does a good job balancing the pressures of the characters with the lightness of the romance.
I’ll definitely read more from this author in the future!
Tropes in this book include: fake dating, guy next door, rivals to lovers
CW: grief, loss of spouse (mentioned, cancer)
I received a copy of this book to review. Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Amara for the complimentary eARC. All opinions contained herein are my own.
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