Will Stella's best friend, Luka Peters, be able to save Stella from getting her application rejected? Will Stella fall into a relationship with her best friend? Will Stella win the contest? What will happen to the farm's future if she fails in her endeavor? The author tries to discuss all these topics in this book. You deserve good things, sweetheart.” He swallows hard, eyes searching mine. “Why can’t you see yourself? Why can’t you see how incredible you are?” We all know the story of best friends who fake being a couple, right? The question is does it work for Lovelight Farms? With side characters I would have loved to see more of Evie, who I really missed in this book. I liked her story (which was the second book) the absolute best. On the other hand I loved to see more of Stella´s and Layla´s friendship and to get more depth on their relationship. I loved Caleb´s abuela who kept giving him life advice and tips while cooking for him, it felt so homey. So of course they have to make things very hard. Like why don't they fake date so they can critique each other after a month to allow each of them to be better daters? Shaking my head at these two. I like how I never have to really worry, so much of the angst is self induced and there is plenty of comfort, support, good and bad advice. No one is really alone in these stories if they will just look up and realize that others are there for them.

We can see the protagonist trying to win a contest by faking a relationship and telling the problems associated with faking something in life. Fake it till you make it" compounds feelings of imposter syndrome when people start doubting their own skills. There is nothing new in the story that the author is discussing. We have read many books or seen many movies with similar stories. She is just discussing the best friends-to-lovers trope, and the story proceeds precisely as we expect. Still, the author beautifully linked it to a farm and the Christmas season to give us an enjoyable reading experience. This book and series are so good and heartwarming. It leaves me with a smile and this one had me craving croissants! We all know where this is headed! Again, it's about the journey and this was a sweet one! Layla and Caleb are both great characters. They are likeable and I was rooting for them the entire time!Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. This was such a cute holiday read and I have no excuse as to why I didn’t read this sooner. Stella owns a sort-of failing Christmas tree farm, and enters into a social media contest. But she wrote on her application that she has a boyfriend, which she very much does not. What she does have is Luka, her best friend of nearly a decade 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴. The logical thing for her to do was to ask him to be her fake boyfriend for the contest. This book is beyond sweet, a bit steamy, and made me giggle multiple times. I wish we had Luka’s pov beyond the epilogue but I’m okay with that. The next books in the series are dual pov. A pasture of dead trees. A hostile takeover of the Santa barn by a family of raccoons. And shipments that have mysteriously gone missing. Lovelight Farms is not the magical winter wonderland of Stella Bloom’s dreams.

Overall it was a pretty meh book and I have to say I am honestly glad that I finally managed to finish it. If the tropes are for you and you love insta-love, it still might be the book for you. The heroine of the story is Layla Dupree, who is exhausted after being involved in way too many disastrous dating experiences. She realizes she deserves the whole cake instead of settling for breadcrumbs. When her favorite customer at her bakery, the kind-hearted Caleb Alvarez, makes a dating offer to help each other's predicaments, she cannot refuse him. The plan is simple: Caleb will learn what he's doing wrong in his relationships, overcompensation, or overthinking. In return, Layla will date a guy who gives her the exact treatment she deserves: kindness, care, and devotion. For some reason they needed to fake date to realize that they have been actually fake friending all along.Layla is a great FMC and I could relate to her on some levels. She loves to bake and her bake shop is her whole passion. With Caleb on the other hand, I was a bit disappointed. Having read the previous two books in the series (which I loved) I expected a good, spicy police romance. Instead he suddenly changes his occupation from police officer to teacher in this book. At that without having any education or degree to be a teacher or anything like that, the job just changes like "that". It seemed so unrealistic. This was such an enjoyable and terrific book. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrators. I thought they did a great job.

The third-act disagreement in the book made me roll my eyes, but I loved everything about this small-town romance. But there's one ingredient they haven't considered. The chemistry between them is red hot and the urge to take things to the next level is more tempting than Layla's double fudge mocha brownies. Will the heat between them boil over? Or will it be another case of mixed signals? B.K. Borison tells the story of Stella Bloom and her Lovelight farms. Things are not running as smoothly as Stella wanted them to on the farm. So she decided to enter a contest run by a social media influencer. She thinks that winning this contest is the best advertisement she can get for her farm. In addition, there is also a good amount offered for the winner. The only problem Stella is facing is regarding what she wrote in the application. Evelyn, who runs the contest, is very adamant regarding the accuracy of the application, and Stella lied about her boyfriend in the application.I have a huge problem with him being fired. It’s over the top and so unnecessary. And since this is a POC hero, it makes me think all sorts of dark thoughts about racism when it doesn’t seem like this sort of book. Plus, the idea that he’s now acting as a substitute teacher!? Feels so wrong to make this choice. This feels like such a huge event for the male main character and to have it come out as an aside from the female main character when she’s sighing over how nice he is… ugh. I can’t. Stella's best friend of ten years is a good fit. Luka Peters and Stella would never want anything to hurt their best friend-ness but they can make this fake thing work. Of course the town thinks it's about time, they've known the pair were in love for the last ten years. And Luka's mom, grandmother, and aunts think it's the real thing, too. But for now Stella and Luka will fake it and deal with the fake breakup fallout later.

The communication was a lot better than I would have expected for this fake dating premise. They’d make sure the other knew their feelings instead of keep playing along like it meant nothing for them. The small things that were left to say felt realistic and added the right amount of angst. Thanks to Dreamscape Media, the author and NetGalley for my audio copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*Narrated by Pippa Jayne and Julio Maxwell for 10 hours and 16 minutes, easy to follow at 2-2.5x. Julio was alright as Caleb, but pretty awful with any other voice he tried. Pretty sure Pippa narrated Lovelight Farms too, and she did a fine job as Layla, but not her male voices.