Jackie Lau

After his family’s matchmaking extravaganza at Thanksgiving, high school teacher Zach Wong is terrified of what his parents might do for Chinese New Year. Surely they’ll try to set him up yet again, especially now that his older brothers are in relationships. Zach, however, has no interest in dating, not since his fiancée left him. The solution? Find a fake girlfriend to avoid his parents’ matchmaking. Jo MacGregor, the town dentist, is the obvious choice. They both live in Mosquito Bay and have been friends for years, ever since they bonded over broken engagements. A few kisses and dates around town, and everyone will believe they’re in a relationship. No problem. Except their fake relationship is starting to feel more and more real…

A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year

Lauren Sullivan

OK, just by the cover, you know there’s going to be yummy food in this one! Ginger beef! Nanaimo! Butter tarts! This is my favorite so far of the Holidays with the Wongs series, probably because I’m a big fan of both the fake dating and friends-to-lovers tropes.

“She was going to get exactly what she wanted.
Pity it would all be fake.”

Zach’s happy with his life in the small town of Mosquito Bay. He’s a high school science teacher, knows everyone, and gets to see his family at least once a week. He’s certainly not interested in another relationship, except that he suspects his family will try to ambush him with a girlfriend (again!) at Chinese New Year’s. So what’s a guy to do other than ask his best friend to be his fake date? For Jo, the town dentist, it’s an automatic yes – she’s been nursing a crush on Zach for years, after they met and bonded over their broken engagements at the local bar. But will the realities of fake dating in a small town ruin their friendship?

“She swiped the sauce off and wiped it on her napkin, but he wished he’d gotten a chance to suck it off her finger instead. His body didn’t seem to have gotten the message that this relationship was fake. He needed to have a few words with it in his stern teacher voice.”

This book kept me laughing constantly, from Jo and Zach’s disaster of a “first date” to seduction by pictionary. I loved that the fake dating extended for a few weeks around the actual family dinner (to make it more “authentic”) and how it gave Zach a chance to see Jo outside their usual drinks-at-the-bar night. Though this is still relatively low angst, there is a little bit around Jo hoping that the fake relationship will lead to Zach developing feelings for her, though her best friend thinks she’s deluding herself. The book itself is a good mix of sweet relationship bits (holding hands while skating, awww) and sexiness (what happens after the skating!), and of course there’s the wonderful Wong family (Ah Ma!) to provide warmth and more comedy. In previous books, Zach made fun of his brothers when they fell in love with their partners, and it was fun to see them turn the tables on him!

Overall, another delightful book, and I’m very much looking forward to the last book in the series!

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Jo H

Book three in this family based mini-series is yet more sexy fun and shenanigans, this time with one of my all-time favourite tropes of friends to lovers. We also have fake dating (as per the title!) AND an OWYM scenario, although Jo is only about three years older than Zack. 

Again, there is so much to love about Wong's overall and especially the grandmother, Ah Ma, who has cracked me up all the way through each of the books. Halfway into chapter 1, this is prime Family Wong Zach turned off Main Street and walked by Great Lakes Bed and Breakfast. It was another five minutes before he reached his destination. Though the front door was never locked, he rang the doorbell anyway. His mother answered.

“For you,” he said, handing her the bouquet as he stepped inside.

“How lovely!” Mom enveloped him in a hug. “Thanks, Zach.”

“Where are my flowers?” Ah Ma, his grandmother, asked as she shuffled into the hall. “Ah, I see. They are mums for your mum. It is not fair that there are no flowers called ahmas. They would be a bestseller! The biggest tropical flowers. Bright pink.”

“No, they’d be poisonous,” Ah Yeh said, coming up behind her. “Just like your cooking.” He stepped to the side as his wife attempted to swat him.

“My cooking isn’t poisonous!” Ah Ma said.

“You gave me food poisoning.”

“One time, forty years ago. You are always holding that over my head.”

She tried to swat Ah Yeh again, but he moved out of the way. They chased each other around the house, though it was hardly at a fast speed, as they were both close to ninety. It was more like watching two tortoises run a race.
...
“Stop it!” Dad entered the front hall. He looked at his parents and shook his head. “One of you will fall and break a hip, and that’s the last thing we need.”

“No, I am strong. Big muscles.” Ah Ma stopped chasing her husband and attempted to flex her arm.
Dad snorted, as did Ah Yeh. And Ah Yeh (Grandpa) is just as quirky as his wife. He has a strange fascination with the big A and is constantly buying unnecessary 'stuff' just because he can which the whole family rib him for, but try to use when he gifts them to everyone. (I do wish it had been eBay, rather than the other, but that is totally a personal thing totally unrelated to the book).

Anyway, back to the couple and their story...

Here we have fairly new friends, even though they have known of each other most of their lives, they only became friends a few years ago over their mutual pain of a break up. However, we do know from the outset that Jo has been crushing on Zack for about half of this time. Been there, done that... MANY times. Other readers prefer it the other way round, I don't mind because I know what it feels like and it grounds it in reality for me.

Zack, the most 'white'* looking of his siblings who had the easiest time growing up in their predominantly white town because of it (something both Nick and Greg had mentioned in their books in passing, and something I'm glad that the author slipped that in, to show how diverse the kids of interracial couples can be - something I myself can attest to) is a high school science teacher (yay for a male teacher!) and part-time school sports coach. Jo is the town dentist, after taking over the practice from her dad. My first female dentist MC, perhaps first dentist MC ever in romance lol! 

Unlike his siblings, Zack was more than happy to return home to the small town that is Mosquito Bay after graduating and start teaching at the same high school he attended as a student. And Jo was equally happy to return home, with no taste for the big city life. They are the only couple out of all four in the series who still live in the same town as they grew up in, and it's yet another differential between all the MCs of the books. 

Zack is a fairly popular man about town, and although he was left disappointed and disheartened by the break up of his last relationship, he is not bitter or angry or horrible to people or other women “More flowers for your mother?” asked the cashier at Foodland.

“Not this time.” Zach smiled at her and she flushed.

He knew his smile was powerful. It didn’t make every woman drop to her knees, but when he wanted to fool around, he had little trouble finding a partner. He certainly hadn’t been celibate since Marianne ended their engagement, but it wasn’t like he was sleeping his way through all the single women in town. I'm glad that the author wrote a single guy who didn't feel it necessary to sex up every willing woman with a pulse. It really is ok to just get a bit on the side every now and then rather than every night of the week. Take heed many other authors out there...

And Jo is... a tad clumsy “I want you to come to my parents’ house on Chinese New Year,” Zach said, “and pretend to be my girlfriend.”

A burst of laughter escaped Jo’s lips, and with it, unfortunately, a mouthful of dark beer. It landed on Zach’s sweater. Oh, God. She’d spit beer on Zach Wong. Totally relatable. Because I have done that to people, ok not always a crush lol, but certainly on a number of occasions!

Anyway, I thought Jo and Zack's journey to 'enlightenment' was funny and heartfelt especially when Zack caught on to the game so to speak. His family thought so too! Also, it must be said that whilst Jo had been pining over Zack for a couple of years, she was in no way pathetic or silly about it. She was an accomplished, professional and otherwise content woman who just got the jitters and internal nerves around her good friend every Friday night at the pub and sometimes when they got together to watch hockey. That was also a great perspective to have.


*something that Celest Ng talked about at length in her acclaimed and totally different and very serious novel Everything I Never Told You.

A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year

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