Blog Tour—Pretending by

Blurb: In PRETENDING, April struggles to move on after a traumatic relationship. She’s kind, pretty, and relatively normal, but she can’t seem to get past the fifth date.  Every time she thinks she’s found someone she can trust, they reveal their awful selves to her and leave her heartbroken. Until April realizes that what men really want is Gretel.

Gretel is perfect - beautiful but low maintenance, sweet but never clingy, sexy but not a slut. She's a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems. And when April pretends to be Gretel, dating becomes so much more fun—especially when she reels in the unexpecting Joshua. Finally, April is the one in control, but it’s her own feelings that she can’t seem to manage. And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?

Perfect for fans of “Fleabag,” with winking narration and bitingly observant humor, PRETENDING is an emotionally authentic take on #MeToo narratives and explores the pain and frustration of dating men in an era when stories about assault are a daily occurrence. In PRETENDING, April struggles to move on after a traumatic relationship. She’s kind, pretty, and relatively normal, but she can’t seem to get past the fifth date.  Every time she thinks she’s found someone she can trust, they reveal their awful selves to her and leave her heartbroken. Until April realizes that what men really want is Gretel.

Review:

This has the best firstliner in a book I’ve ever read. “I hate men.” I just KNEW that once I read that short little line, that Pretending was going to be my type of book. April is my gal—beautiful, kind, and just so happens to have terrible luck in the lurveeee department. Don’t we all, April?

Bottom line, always be yourself. If you find yourself needing to lie to impress someone, you’re not only doing them a disservice, you’re doing yourself a disservice as well. April is 100% of herself but men just don’t like her. That’s when she comes up with a plan to act not like herself. She meets Joshua and the two start a relationship based on April’s one little lie. 

That one little lie turns into something quite big though. April and Joshua are a good pair. I liked them both a lot. While I loved April a lot, there were times where I got a teensy bit annoyed with her. She’s very...unique and obsessed with falling in love. Sometimes less is more. 

Overall, I had a ton of fun reading this! It’s romantic and funny. The message about always being yourself bares repeating. BE YOURSELF!

*Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are subjective but my own. 

See what readers abd reviewers are saying HERE!

Buy the book:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

About the Author:

Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general ‘agony aunt’ for a youth charity – helping young people with their relationships and mental health. 

Inspired by what she saw, she started writing teen fiction, including the best-selling, award-winning ‘Spinster Club’ series which helps educate teenagers about feminism. When she turned thirty, Holly wrote her first adult novel, 'How Do You Like Me Now?', examining the intensified pressures on women once they hit that landmark.

Alongside her writing, Holly has a keen interest in women’s rights and is an advocate for reducing the stigma of mental health problems. She’s helped create online apps that teach young people about sexual consent, works with Women’s Aid to spread awareness of abusive relationships, and runs Rethink’s mental health book club.