This is such a fun romantic comedy of a book. Imagine You’ve Got Mail but in 2024, it’s a family deli instead of a bookstore, and there’s my favorite trope - fake dating. Ellie Greco runs her big Italian family’s deli in the suburbs outside Boston. Theo Taylor is the heir to their town’s wealthiest family, but he rarely agrees with his dad or his ruthless business decisions. The two of them team up to stop his dad from bringing in an Eataly-esque enterprise, which would surely put Ellie’s family deli out of business. There are hijinks, steamy moments, and plenty of family drama - good and bad. I really enjoyed reading it. 

tl;dr
A light and cheery read for fans of the fake dating trope. Also has a ton of great supporting characters. And a deli.

Thoughts
Well, I'm a sucker for a fake dating trope, so here we are. I also really love an ex girlfriend who is actually very cool and not entirely horrible, so that's two points in this book's favor. Although to be honest, Sam makes me realize why the ex girlfriends in books like these are so often terrible. She's maybe TOO good? This is not a complaint! I love her, but I found myself more invested in her and Ellie's relationship by the end. And honestly, that's probably my favorite part of the book. Don't get me wrong - the romance is cute, Theo's a keeper, the whole thing ends on the happy note that we all want. But I especially loved Ellie learning to make friends, especially with other women. The two women who show up alongside Ellie are super cool, and it was a great way to round out Ellie's own realizations about where she wants to be to have a full group of friends in the picture, and not just one dude.

But back to the romance, which is probably why you showed up. Ellie and Theo actually hit it off pretty early on. Not instalove by any measure, but it's never a full-on enemies/rivals situation, and their relationship feels like it clicked into place very naturally. The memory loss plot lasts very briefly, so don't expect that to be a huge part of the story, and the drama is barely between the two leads, and more the MC with herself. Ellie's natural position is to be self-sacrificial, even if it's what no one wants, so she doesn't always make the best choices regarding the relationship. It can be frustrating sometimes to Ellie not grab happiness when it's offered to her, but I'm glad she worked things out in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own!