This month we're taking a look at everyone's favourite romance trope: fake-dating. Think queer longing, jealous exes, one-night stands and slow-burn romance. Here are 10 LGBTQ+ fake dating fauxmance books that everyone should read:
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Trans Men, Queer Men
Reading Age: 14+
When sixteen-year-old Noah starts fresh at a new school, he has a plan to ensure the students see him as his true gender: to join the school's secretive Borrow a Boyfriend Club, where members rent themselves out to their classmates for dates. But he fails the audition.
Desperate, he strikes a deal with the club's prickly president, Asher: he'll help lead the nearly-bankrupt club to victory at the school's fundraising dance competition, and Asher will allow Noah to prove his skills as a boyfriend in a series of tests that include romancing Asher himself. As Noah passes test after test and his fake romance with Asher starts to feel surprisingly real, Noah is faced with a dilemma. If he fails to win the dance fundraiser the club will go bankrupt, and he'll not only lose the new friends he's made - the whole school will know he isn't "boy enough." But if Noah succeeds in securing the club their victory, he has to face the most important, unbreakable rule of the Borrow a Boyfriend Club: no real girlfriends (or boyfriends) allowed.
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading Age: 14+
When Nozomi Nagai pictured the ideal summer romance, a fake one wasn’t what she had in mind.
That was before she met the perfect girl. Willow is gorgeous, glamorous, and…heartbroken? And when she enlists Nozomi to pose as her new girlfriend to make her ex jealous, Nozomi is a willing volunteer.
Because Nozomi has a master plan of her own: one to show Willow she’s better than a stand-in and turn their fauxmance into something real. But as the lies pile up, it’s not long before Nozomi’s schemes take a turn toward disaster…and maybe a chance at love she didn’t plan for.
Adult Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Demisexual & Biromantic Women, Queer Women
Reading Age: 18+
One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.
Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading Age: 18+
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont.
International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Adult Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading Age: 18+
A fake relationship with a one-night stand is anything but an act in this witty and heartfelt new romantic comedy by Ashley Herring Blake.
Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are all coupled up, her siblings have partners that are perfect for them, and her parents are still in marital bliss. And she’s happy for all of them, truly. So what if she usually cries in her Lyft on the way home? So what if she misses her friends, who are so busy with their own wonderful love lives? They don’t really notice Iris is spiraling.
At least she has a brand-new career writing romance novels (yes, she realizes the irony of it). She is now working on her second book but has one problem: she is completely out of ideas after having spent all of her romantic energy on her debut.
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Trans Men, Queer Men
Reading Age: 12+
Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.
Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.
Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading Age: 14+
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating is a contemporary YA sapphic romance from the author of The Henna Wars - Adiba Jaigirdar. Everyone likes Humaira "Hani" Khan - she’s easy-going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys.
Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship… with a girl her friends absolutely hate - Ishita "Ishu" Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
YA Fantasy Romance
Queer Rep: Non-Binary & Genderqueer, Queer Men
Reading Age: 14+
Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder - or fail and remain stuck on land forever.
Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They've polluted the planet so much that there's a floating island of trash that's literally the size of a country.
In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest's perspective on humans begins to change, they'll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings...
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading Age: 12+
High school nemeses fall in love in this queer YA sports rom-com perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston.
After losing spectacularly to her ex-girlfriend in their first game since their break up, Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, the incredibly beautiful and incredibly mean Irene Abraham. Things only get worse when their nosey, do-gooder moms get involved and the girls are forced to carpool together until Irene’s car gets out of the shop.
Their bumpy start only gets bumpier the more time they spend together. But when an opportunity presents itself for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex (and climb her school’s social ladder at the same time), she bribes Irene into playing along. Hijinks, heartbreak, and gay fake-dating scheme for the ages.
YA Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Trans Men, Queer Men, Lesbian Women, Genderqueer
Reading Age: 14+
Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
BONUS: Chef's Choice
Adult Contemporary Romance
Queer Rep: Trans Women, Trans Men, T4T
Reading Age: 18+
When Luna O'Shea is unceremoniously fired from her frustrating office job, she tries to count her blessings: she's a proud trans woman who has plenty of friends, a wonderful roommate, and a good life in New York City. But blessings don't pay the bills.
Enter Jean-Pierre, a laissez-faire trans man and the heir to a huge culinary empire which he'll only inherit if he can jump through all the hoops his celebrity chef grandfather has placed in his path. First hoop: he needs a girlfriend, a role that Luna is happy to play for the right price.
She's got rent to pay, after all! Second hoop: they both need to learn how to cook a series of elaborate, world-renowned family recipes to prove that Jean-Pierre is a worthy heir. Admittedly, Luna doesn't even know how to crack an egg, but she's not going to let that any pesky feelings for Jean-Pierrestop her.
Have we missed your favourite queer fake dating book? Send us a message on Twitter @ProudGeekStore or email us at contact@proud-geek.co.uk ✌
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