fake it like you mean it by Megan Murphy

Elle is a successful podcaster with a series called Elle on the L in which she interviews people on the Chicago commuter train. This book has one of the cutest and sweetest openings from the first chapter! The first thing we read tells us more about the tone of the book than it does about Elle herself, but that comes later. Elle was raised by her grandparents, and her widowed grandmother Lovie lives in her Indiana hometown. Elle goes home to visit and take care of Lovie only to find a home health nurse named Adam Wheeler. Adam is a good guy, your typical hero that the Hallmark holiday movie heroine falls for when she is back in her hometown. He is completely non-problematic and funny.

Lovie mistakes them for herself and her late husband, how sweet is that? The majority of the book is them falling for each other and dealing with Lovie’s dementia and advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Lovie is such a firecracker, even in her advanced state of memory loss, with such zingers as “calories only count if you count them.” Adam helps Elle see her limitations in being a caregiver, together they learn that “you don’t have to have lost your memories to not want to keep coming back to what brings you comfort.”

Alzheimer’s is a main character in this debut novel, and it is so well done that I am sure the novelist is writing from experience. While the romance has some good banter and chemistry, the relationship between Lovie and Elle really takes center stage. The major theme is “Love is supposed to make you more yourself, not less” and Adam and Elle are able to love each other in a way they haven’t before.

Biggest criticism is my second lease favorite trope- the miscommunication/third act breakup. I would make a 3rd act breakup illegal if I could. I feel like it’s unnecessary easy pacing element that this book could have done without.

Overall, I loved it. A must read for any contemporary romance readers that have been through the life altering experience of loving someone with Alzheimer’s.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book to be released March 18, 2025.