Faking for Now coming August 24th, 2026 from Bloom Books; 242 pages
Content Warning: Explicit language, sexual content
About the Author: “Welcome! I am a new adult romance author. A Midwest native transplanted to the desert, I like being outdoors (drinking on patios) and singing (in the shower) when I’m not writing books about hot guys and the girls who love them. I’ve been a book lover for as long as I can remember. I looked forward to reading assignments and book reports, trips to the library, and even the hand-me-down books I would get from my older sister and cousins. I love books and romance and sports, so being able to combine those things has been a dream come true!” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Rebecca Jenshak on the following platforms:
“Trust me. There is nothing going on between me and Rowan Blakenship.”
When forced to transfer to her rival school, Frost Lake High, Summer Lindsey now must navigate her new soccer team, new school, oh… and new relationship? Enter Rowan Blakenship, the carefree and funny guy on the men’s soccer team who takes immediate interest in Summer because of her talent and last name. She is, coincidentally, the sister of his enemy. But when Summer struggles with being shunned by her new teammates, and Rowan is desperately trying to win back his ex, Amanda, they form a plan: to fake date until Rowan wins Amanda back and Summer becomes a true member of her new team. But, of course, the line between real and fake gets blurrier as time goes on. Are they truly only faking it, or has it always been real?
To start off, I liked the concept of this book—fake dating will always get me; however, this story and these characters did not seem to make sense. Rowan was kind of rude throughout the story, yelling at his friends, discouraging them, etc. He was not the type of person you could rely on. He was almost too carefree in my opinion. I did not feel like there was any character development happening with Rowan. Plus, he was flirting with Amanda (Summer’s teammate) while he was with Summer, and I just never thought he was taking the “relationship” seriously. I did like Summer; she was spirited and determined, but again I saw issues with the way she was written. There was a point where she was apologizing to her brother for something he did to her, and that rubbed me the wrong way. It did not feel like a great example for teenage girls to be reading and/or learning from. The girls on her soccer team were rude and shunned her for an almost unrealistic reason, which was not something I could get behind. In terms of their relationship, I wasn’t ever really convinced that they liked each other, and when they did finally admit their feelings, it felt rushed and not truly fleshed out. That being said, I loved the friendship dynamics between Summer and her friends from Oakley; they were uplifting and supportive of Summer, and that was refreshing to read in between bits of drama. Summer’s determination and strength throughout the story kept me going.
Faking for Now releases August 24th, 2026.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Bloom Books for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Bryanna Thompson, Pine Reads Review Writer