This is another fantastic book by Jae, a heart warming romance
about a fake relationship between psychologist Claire Renshaw
and barista/actress Lana Henderson. Dr. Renshaw is a
successful couples therapist with a mild obsessive compulsive
disorder and a big reputation at stake when her fiancée calls
the engagement off. As an expert in relationships, a career
changing book deal might fall through if her publisher
realises that she’s been dumped. Hiring an actress to play the
role of her fiancée seems to be the perfect solution, at least
in theory. But when Lana appears in Claire’s life with her
untidiness, her diet full of carbs and tendency to put her
foot in her mouth, Claire starts second guessing her decision.
Will they be able to fake their relationship? And what if it’s
not so pretend after all?

Lately there’s been a few lesfic books on sham marriage or
fake relationships with different degrees of success. ‘Just
for show’ is one of the best (if not the best) I’ve read so
far. As usual, Jae likes to deviate from the common
stereotypes portraying Lana as a plus size woman proud to show
her curves and happy to enjoy food. Jae tackles issues such as
anxiety and OCD with tact and the rest with a healthy dose of
humour. She exploits the absurd fake relationship situation
with great skill.

“I want you to be my girlfriend.” For a moment, all Lana could
do was stare at her. Was this some kind of joke? Then the
humor of the situation overcame her. “Shouldn’t you at least
buy me dinner first?”

The dialogues are witty, the chemistry is off the charts and
the secondary characters are spot on. Jae is a master of the
‘show not tell’ in lesfic (no wonder she’s authored a non-
fiction book on the issue), the pace is perfect and the
growing chemistry is believable. A pleasure to read.

As a bonus, readers can catch up with the lives of Jill and
Crash from ‘Just physical’ and Lelah and Hope from ‘Heart
trouble’ who make their appearance as secondary characters.

Overall, a very entertaining, well written, heart warming
romance. Highly recommended. 5+ stars.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest
review.