Faking it

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

With a clutch of chick-lit novels to her credit one might, at the very least, expect Crusie's latest to entertain and engage the emotions. Unfortunately, it just doesn't happen; Faking It has about as much substance as candyfloss on a windy pier, and has little to anchor it down as a good read. The book is a victim of overkill in the whimsy department. The characters suffer from Crusie's dangerously light style, coming across as unconvincing and thin, and as much of the novel is told through dialogue the individual voices need to contribute much to reader identification with character. This doesn't materialize and these self-consciously over-the-top people don't engage as a result. The plot skips along without a care in the world: mural artist Tilda Goodnight has had a good run at painting fakes but now she, and the family honour, are about to be found out. The mother is kooky, with her head in the clouds, the sister sweetly schizoid, her husband enjoys women's clothes. The love interest is between Tilda and a smooth-talking, good-looking conman, Davy Dempsey. Everyone has something to hide and the novel is a string of deceptions from cover to cover, echoing the title. But it's hard to finish the book because the whole thing is so airy, so insubstantial, that it simply doesn't grip. There is a constant irritating jokiness throughout which rather than having the effect of humour makes the characters unreal and merely vehicles for witty one-liners. Why should we care about these people if they seem as flippantly uninvolved with their emotions as Crusie makes them to be? Fans of her writing might enjoy the super-light froth of this ducking and diving romance, but no one else will be amused. (Kirkus UK)