Book Review: Fake Flame by Adele Buck

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I picked up this book on a whim because, for some reason, I’ve been on a bit of a reading streak lately. I wanted to try something I hadn’t read or thought much about before, and this book was just sitting there in my library, so I figured, why not?

The story follows Eva, our female lead, a tenured professor at a university who’s just gotten out of a relationship with her cheating ex. Her ex, Darren, for some reason, refuses to leave her alone and keeps trying to win her back. 

One day, he pulls one of his over-the-top public stunts to get her attention. She gets so annoyed that she decides to sabotage his setup by setting it on fire. This, of course, leads to the fire department being called, and that’s where she meets Sean Hannigan, our male lead, who’s a firefighter.

Somehow, they end up spending time together, and he suggests they start a fake relationship. His idea is that it’ll help her get rid of her ex, and at the same time, it’ll give him an excuse to spend more time with her.

The first thing that stood out to me about this book was how young everyone felt. If I hadn’t been told Eva was a professor, I honestly would’ve thought this was a young adult book. The tone, the dialogue, and even the writing style all felt pretty immature—not bad, but not what I’d expect from a book about mature adults.

I did like how Eva had agency and really took control of her life, but when the fake relationship idea came up, I was confused about why she just agreed to it so easily. She had doubts, and I really would’ve liked to see her think it through more or at least have a stronger reason to say yes.

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of fake relationship books (completely by accident), and it’s made me realize there’s a huge difference between the ones that give a believable reason for the fake relationship and the ones that use it as a quick plot device.

For example, in Desperately Seeking a Scoundrel, the fake relationship happens because our female lead needs to get rid of a creepy guy who keeps harassing her. In that case, it made sense because the guy was a real threat, so the stakes felt high.

I’m not saying every fake relationship book needs some big, dramatic reason like that. I’ve read some other books where the fake relationships happen just for publicity, and that worked great. 

In Talia Hibbert’s The Fake Boyfriend Fiasco, she starts the fake relationship to help him have a good holiday without being hounded by men and women because he’s just that attractive. Silly? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely. It only needs to make sense. 

But in this book, the setup felt so flimsy. Neither character really seemed sold on the idea themselves. Honestly, it would’ve been better if they’d admitted how dumb the plan was but decided to do it anyway because they liked spending time together. That would’ve felt more believable.

The fake relationship issue bothered me more because both Eva and Sean are super self-aware. They know exactly how they feel about each other, but somehow, the fake relationship is treated like this perfectly logical solution when it’s clearly not. If they’d just acknowledged how ridiculous it was, it would’ve worked better for me.

Don’t get me wrong—I love the fake relationship trope. But for it to work, there has to be something at stake or at least a solid reason to go along with it. Here, there wasn’t much. For example, the ex-boyfriend didn’t pose any real threat to their relationship.

If he had been, say, her boss or in a position to mess with her job, it would’ve made sense. But in this case, the fake relationship just felt like the author’s way of getting the leads to spend time together.

One scene that really drove this home for me was when Sean goes with Eva to a faculty event. Her ex shows up and tries to bother her, but Sean steps in to defend her.

Then, the dean of the faculty shows up and basically diffuses the situation by dragging the ex away. That moment proved to me that the fake relationship wasn’t even necessary because the ex had zero power over her.

That said, I really enjoyed the romance between the leads. On paper, they don’t seem like they’d even be friends, but they bonded over their shared love of literature (which is her thing) and a few other interests. Their connection was sweet and genuine, even if I wish there had been a little more tension or drama to spice things up.

So, would I recommend this book? If you’re looking for a light, fluffy fake relationship romance where the female lead is older than the male lead, and there are firefighters and academic settings, then yes, give it a try. Just don’t go in expecting deep stakes or high drama.