Big Rock: A Fake Fiancé/Friends to Lovers Standalone Romance

While I would have liked to have had Charlotte’s POV in this story, it certainly was not lacking dialogue and banter.Charlotte agreed to Spencer’s idea of a fake relationship/engagement to help him and his family out and to get her ex off her back. Spencer decided on the spur of the moment that in order for him to clean up his reputation, he needed to settle down.The set up ground rules that were quickly broken and what was once fake became real. The heat level between the two characters was off the charts HOT!

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 /5Spice Level: 🌶🌶.5/5Recommend: YesRe-read/re-listen: YesTrope: Friends to lovers, Fake datingNarrators: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5•Favorite Parts: Spencer and Charlotte's banter• Thoughts: This book was sweet! I really enjoyed it! It was fun. it was easy read/listen. It was just sweet! I know I keep saying that. It just mad eme happy. I feel like it was a great in-between book if you just read a heavy book.Narrator: Sebastian York! Boom! Enough said! I love him and to be able to listen to him for the entire book made my heart happy.

This is the first installment in a series of six companion novels :) as in, all of them work perfectly well as standalones, but there are all sorts of different connections between characters in all of them, like heroine from one book is the sister of a hero from another and so on :) my sister originally read all of the books first... or should I say inhaled to be more precise... ;) and she so highly recommended it to me, that I decided to give them a try sooner than later :) and I have to say that I agree with all her praises, because this particular novel is just the start and I am already in love :) so let me tell you a bit more about our main couple and what the story is about :)Spencer and Charlotte have been friends for quite a few years... and business partners for some of them as well :) currently they own a few bars in New York and their friendship is going on strong as well :) everything gets more complicated when Spencer and his big mouth puts him in a peculiar position... :) because you see... his dad wants to sell his business... a high end jewelry store, and the investor is very conservative... and probably wouldn't look to kindly on Spencer and his playboy-ish ways... even though there's nothing wrong with them, since he's not misleading anyone, but you know... so Spencer being Spencer, announces unexpectedly that he and Charlotte are engaged... you know, since they usually help each other in tricky situations in bars when one of them needs an excuse to brush someone off... ;) Charlotte has reasons of her own to agree to this little charade, and no, that reason is not the love for Spencer :) I don't really want to get into too many details about the whole story, because I don't want to spoil you anything ;) long story short, they agree to pretend for a week or so, until the deal is done... of course the situation turns out to be much more complicated than they both anticipated at the beginning... :) now that we have this little explanation out of the way, let me tell you about all the reasons why I love this book :)The whole novel is written from the hero's perspective, which is actually quite unusual... :) or maybe I just haven't read many books like that :) it's definitely a different way of telling a story and I loved it... especially since I actually listened to the audiobook and let me tell you... *sighs dreamily* Sebastian York and his gravelly voice is pure perfection... I may or may not have done a search on Audible based on his name and added a whole bunch of books on my list based on him being the narrator of the story alone ;) but the whole writing style is amazing in this novel :) even though we don't get Charlotte's perspective, I fell in love and connected with her as much as with Spencer... what is even better, this is a story with basically no angst or unnecessary drama... don't you just love when adults act like actual adults and talk with each other to resolve certain issues? :) so not only our main couple is amazing, we have a few very interesting secondary characters as well... like Harper, Spencer's sister :) I can't wait to read her story in the second installment of this series... especially since we may or may not got to know the hero of said story in this book as well... ;) all in all I highly recommend you this absolutely hilarious and sizzlingly hot contemporary romance... it has it all... laughs, romance, amazing chemistry between the main couple, phenomenally entertaining writing style with a beautiful epilogue as a cherry on top :) if you haven't already, definitely give it a try :)

4-4.5 starsThis was a really good story. I thought both Charlotte and Spencer were great characters and really enjoyed seeing them go from friends to more.Charlotte is a smart woman that runs a trio of bars with her BFF, Spencer. They've known each other for years and even went to college together. Charlotte had been seriously dating a guy until 10 months ago when (right before they were getting ready to buy a place together) she found him banging their realtor. He's been trying to get her back for a while now and he won't leave Charlotte alone, much to her dismay.Spencer is a weird combination of a gentleman and a playboy. He treats his women great but always insists on keeping things casual and cuts things off if the woman seems to be getting too clingy. Spencer actually made a lot of money right out of college with an App that took off but after he sold it off he found himself looking for something to do. Going into business with Charlotte seemed like a good idea and now Spencer loves his life.Spencer's parents own and run an expensive jewelry boutique and there's some worry that the buyer (a staunch family man) might have an issue with Spencer's playboy exploits. Spencer has no involvement in the business but he wants to do what he can to support his parents while they try to get the deal to go through. When the buyer seems to be showing disapproval of Spencer's relationship status, Spencer unexpectedly (to everyone, even himself) comes up with a story about just getting engaged to Charlotte. His family is surprised (of course) but since they've been friends for years, he tells them that something finally just clicked with them recently and they'd been keeping things secret until they saw how things worked out. Afterwards, Spencer has a talk with Charlotte about this and she's not thrilled at the idea of lying to everyone. However, when her Ex makes another big show of getting her back, Charlotte decides that playing along with the engagement would be beneficial for her as well.For the years that they've known each other, it seems like Spencer and Charlotte did pretty well at keeping their feelings for each other platonic. But, once they share their first kiss, it gets harder and harder for them both to ignore them. Spencer tries to play it off as nothing but finds he's majorly turned on by everything about Charlotte now. They decide to have a deeper relationship while they're playing at being engaged (a sexual one) but it's only supposed to last while the fake engagement is going on. Despite this, they both seem to be realizing that they have deeper feelings for each other and maybe they shouldn't be planning a breakup in the end. Unfortunately, there is a troublemaker (or 2) that cause some drama towards the end but Spencer and Charlotte are able to get past it and end the story starting a HEA together.This was a really enjoyable story. I thought Charlotte was a very good heroine and I liked her attitude. It's hard to say much more about her because this whole book was from Spencer's PoV so we didn't get into Charlotte's head much. I thought Spencer was a great hero. I wasn't sure how to take him at first...I didn't like his playboyness and wasn't sure just how well he'd do at recognizing his own feelings and being willing to put in the effort for Charlotte. Thankfully, he did great at that, accepting his feelings for Charlotte a lot easier than I thought he would and going after her when it was required. Overall, I really liked this story and would recommend it.* note - I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator did a great job.

This was a good story but predictable. Spencer and Charlotte have been BB’f for along time but due to a “family issue” Spencer comes up with the idea of Charlotte being his fake fiancé. They come up with some rules so that when the time comes, they will remain friends. AND then one by one all the rules were broken! Good banter, some sexy scenes, low angst – overall a good read.

The part I loved the most about this book was the main character and his singular personality. I had good laughs out of this!

Este livro é bastante diferente de outros escritos por Lauren Blakely: as séries Seductive Nights e Sinfull Nights em que os personagens são muito parecidos - charmosos, envolventes e problemáticos.Mais uma vez eu me deparo com um livro desta autora que me encanta mais que as séries de sucesso. 21 Stolen Kisses e Big Rock definitivamente são meus preferidos.Em Big Rock o personagem que brilha é Spencer. O livro é escrito do seu ponto de vista e talvez este seja o principal atrativo do romance. Spencer é rico, atraente, bem humorado e divertido, conhecido e reconhecido pela imprensa de fofocas como um grande conquistador, mas que nunca mantém um relacionamento realmente sério e comprometido. Charlotte, sua sócia e melhor amiga é sua grande parceira na vida. Enquanto eles, ingenuamente, imaginam que o que os unem é somente uma grande amizade ambos terão a oportunidade e a sorte de descobrirem o amor.Eu simplesmente adorei tudo neste livro: o casal Spencer e Charlotte (definitivamente foram feitos um para o outro), o romance e a amizade que os une, os personagens secundários, o ritmo, o desenvolvimento da trama, o desenrolar do conflito sem excesso de drama. As cenas românticas são um plus, realmente envolventes e o ponto alto do livro é o que se passa na cabeça de Spencer, sua confusão e perplexidade ao descobrir que seus sentimentos por Charlotte vão muito além de uma inofensiva amizade.Poucas vezes os personagens secundários são tão merecedores de um livro somente sobre eles: Nick, o melhor amigo, e Harper, a irmã de Spencer, serão os próximos a ganhar sua história. Mal posso esperar.Um acerto em todos os sentidos e deve agradar quem procura um romance sexy e doce.

It's so funny and romantic, too. I loved the personalities of the characters, specially Spencer and the relationship with his father and sister.

Actually, I would give it two and a half stars. All in all, the book was nicely written, in terms of the language, and there were few funny parts, hence, a few chapters were even enjoyable to read. However, the whole story is a big déjà vu, nothing original, and it doesn't 'stay' with your after reading it. I found the plot feeble, and the climax even weaker, making the whole story, and the outcome, utterly predictable. I felt, toward the end, that the author ran our of the ideas, so she simply had to create a turning point of a narrative, fabricating ANY kind of tension or drama with a mere objective to wind up the story which had already started slipping away. I am truly in a doubt whether to recommend it or not. Probably...not.

Essa leitura foi divertida, rapida e steamy com personagens legais, sem drama e com um casal muito fofo.Recomendo se vc é fã de romances sem dramas e bem escrito.