The Counterfeit Date by Cami Checketts

From Goodreads:

To capture Lolly's heart, Mason tricks her into helping him get ready for his dream date ... with her. Mason Turner only has eyes for Lolly Honeymiller. She's vivacious and hilarious and unfortunately thinks of him as her best friend's ex. Lolly's friends cook up a scheme: pretending Lolly is making him over for a special date with his dream girl. The more time he and Lolly spend together, the harder it is to keep his feelings a secret.

Lolly offers to help Mason Turner prepare for a date with his dream girl. Through makeovers, shopping, and practice kissing, she tries to keep her distance but finds herself falling for a man she can never have. As the date approaches, both wonder if they can keep things fake or if the farce will implode and shred both of their hearts.

My Take:
What fun! It took me a chapter to realize that Mason was high school Mason from way back in Christmas Makeover from the first Echo Ridge anthology. It seems like I missed the story where he and his high school sweetheart Kaitlyn broke up in college (or where she meets and falls in love with Axel). Now they're all grown up and Kaitlyn is married. She's still friends with Mason who also gets along with her husband Axel.

Okay, got all of that straight? Enter Kaitlyn's other best friend, Lolly, who hasn't seen Mason in about three years. Throw in some sparks and some mistaken thoughts that it would be disloyal to like her best friend's ex and you've got a fun rom com. Lolly is determined to help Mason get ready for his dream date, not knowing it's with her! Kaitlyn keeps telling Mason to play hard to get, but all he wants to do is tell Lolly the truth and kiss her senseless.

It was so fun to see the good guy catch the girl in the end. I give The Counterfeit Date a 4 and Clean rating.

1-5 scale and what it means:

1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad

2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing

3: I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive

3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love

4: Solid mind candy / worth reading

4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read

5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

Movie Ratings in relation to my review:

Clean--Hallmark movies, some kissing, no nudity, no sex on or off "screen"

PG--Some innuendo but nothing kids don't hear every day, sex is all closed door

PG-13--some language (swear words not related to sex), more talk about sex, heavy petting, removal of clothing on screen, but sex is closed door.

PG-14—somewhere between PG-13 and R. Not erotica, but at least a paragraph of on screen sex

R--swearing (F bomb, on “screen” sex, sometimes feels like the whole story is about the sex and not the relationship or some other plot, but not always