On Her Terms by Amy Spalding is a fun queer contemporary romance (3.5/5 stars)

On Her Terms by Amy Spalding is a fun queer contemporary romance.

Clementine just broke up with her boyfriend of almost two decades because they didn’t want the same things in life, like marriage and kids. Now in her mid-30s, Clem can finally explore her bisexuality. After running into an acquaintance outside of a queer club, the two women agree to fake date for the next few months, so they each have a plus one for events they are attending.

Though this is the third book in the Out in Hollywood series, it can absolutely be read as a standalone. That’s how I read it! Some of the friend group have their stories explored in earlier books, but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by reading these books out of order.

Fake dating is a big buzz word for me. I knew I had to pick up this book after I realized it also features a bisexual and plus-sized main character. I love seeing people who look like me in books!

There’s pretty good diversity represented throughout the book. The love interest for our main character is Korean American, a handful of characters are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns, there are a variety of body types including several plus-sized folks, and several characters are absolutely portrayed as neurodivergent.

I particularly identified the most with Clementine, for more than the reasons I’ve already mentioned. Some of this book deals with how friendships change as we grow older, and as someone who’s in my late 30s right now that really hit home for me.

The love interest, Chloe, unfortunately reminded me of one of my exes. She kind of comes across as a jerk at times, but she’s doing that as a way to hide her internal pain and struggles. Their friend group seems to understand that this is not a healthy coping mechanism and they do give some advice to Clem throughout the book, but it still rubbed me the wrong way at times (mostly due to my past history). Clem’s brother Greg is also kind of insufferable and I wished he had more comeuppance.

If you’re a fan of books by Casey McQuiston or Meryl Wilsner, you should absolutely give Amy Spalding a try!

Tropes in this book include: fake dating, friends to lovers, one bed

I received a complimentary review copy from Pride Book Tours. All opinions contained herein are my own.

If you want to see more from me, check out my Bookstagram, TheStoryGraph, or Bluesky.