The Fake Dating and the War have nothing to do with each other, which is the first thing I want to address. I’m not sure why exactly, but reading the title, I felt like there were two couples, both lying about being in a relationship, and one of them would come out as the winner, having fooled everyone, while the other would be deemed liars. However, it’s more about a work-related “war,” which is more collegial bickering and prompting each other to do their best through always being in contest with each other. This is also a cool dynamic, just not what the title implied. 😅

Tropes like the man falling for the woman first definitely come up here, if that’s something you’re looking out for. It’s very cute how caring Jake becomes as soon as something is up with Reema, even though he himself does not understand why he acts the way he does. This also means that, although this is advertised as an enemies-to-lovers romance, they are never really enemies in the first place. They act as if they hate each other, but they clearly don’t, never have, and never will. So it’s really more of an interesting friendship dynamic turned romantic in the right circumstances.

They are both very fleshed out, likable characters, though I have to admit the spotlight of the story is clearly on Reema. Following her to her sister’s wedding, getting to know her whole family and culture while only really ever meeting one brother and Jake’s mother once, is a noticeable difference. This leads me right into my next point: the book should not have ended when they officially came together. I would have really loved seeing their relationship bloom, Reema in turn getting to know Jake’s family better, them exploring what it means to be in a romantic relationship now, and how this changes their relationship at work, etc. I would have genuinely been curious about that, that’s how well the characters were written, and I am kind of salty that I was cut off like that as a reader.

There are rather few spicy scenes in the book, which was quite sad to me too, but you get an exclusive “deleted scene” when you subscribe to Kaur’s newsletter, which I don’t know how to feel about. Not the scene itself, but the practice of it. Again, this ties in with my last point: we have seen their friendship, we have seen their bickering, we have seen them have hot sex like once, but we are denied seeing their relationship really unfold further. The epilogue, thank god there is one, takes place about one year after everything else. And I really, really don’t know why. I would not have needed to read about a whole year between them (but I think I could have), but at least their real beginnings.

Final verdict: While I find the title misleading, Kaur wrote a very funny and cute love story about work competitors who both see and bring out the best in each other. They are never really enemies, but more like friends who should have become lovers sooner. They are so interestingly written that I would have loved to know more about their story, but as a reader, I was denied. The spicy scenes are long, but there are not many of them, and one you only get by subscribing to the author’s website (possible blackmailing? 😆). I love the diversity of the story, getting to know Indian culture in a not-at-all-on-the-nose way, and also how open the male MC is to all of that. It really made me interested in reading more books by the author and getting more informed about Indian culture, its stories, and rituals.

I really liked seeing both of the main characters being neurodiverse, even though with Savvy there is no official diagnoses with the stuff she tells about her past and things always going wrong, it has certain hints of ADHD and such. The male MC Darwin is official stated to have OCD but is also very autism coded, yet still successful in life mostly. It’s rare to see that much representation, and it makes up for an interesting relationship dynamic not seen in these kinda of books too often, or rather it could have had the potential for it. Darwin’s condition comes up often times and is one of the main focuses of the book, but then his symptoms just vanish in time, compelled by the power of love I assume, and he is suddenly capable of things he was not before. Sadly, that’s not how these things work in real life, which is why I almost want to take the point for representation back. But I guess in the end, it’s still two neurodiverse protagonists, and how often do we see that?

The next problem is the age gap. It’s not a problem in general, since that’s what the book is advertised for and for the most part of the book both protagonists are consenting adults(there are flashbacks where Savvy is having a crush on him at 16, but nothing happens with that, it’s just mentioned) but if Savvy would not mention all the time, how Darwin was her father best friend, we would not know he is older than her. Apart from a brief mention of silver fox vibes at the beginning and the end, no age related problems EVER come up in the book. They don’t fight over generational differences, nor his body or anatomical issues, and noone is really commenting on their relationship from the outside aside from one friend who is just angry for how things went between them in the past. Darwin comments sometimes on how he is “too old for her” but it’s never really addressed why that could be a problem. Don’t get me wrong, I would not have wanted for it to become a problem but having a conversation about for example Savvy knowing he probably will die before her and accepting it out of love, would have made her bound stronger and also kinda adhered to the expectations I had when going into an age-gap relationship novel. Basically Darwin acts as if he was a teenager almost, physically and mentally, you never really get the idea he is an over 40 years old guy. Might be a downer for people who were specifically looking for such a dynamic.

In general, I think everything in the book happens a bit fast, too fast. They had a thing before, so falling back into love might be easier than falling in love for the first time, granted. But everything just happens that fast, Darwin getting better, the renovations, the development in their relationship etc. It’s basically: Savvy gets back in Darwin’s life, a few chapters later he declares his love, another few chapters they both think and talk about marriage and children, then the renovations are done, and the epilogue comes around. I think about 3-4 months pass while all of that is happening in the book, but it does not feel like it at all, it feels like we as the readers skip a lot of development. Like Darwin mentions how Savvy has been starting ripping out the old flooring, but we never actually have a chapter of them working on something, like cleaning an area or fixing old tech. It’s implied that all of that is happening, but we don’t get it shown. Same with the relationship, it feels like a lot of development just happens off-screen, and we see them just be happy together, though especially these first times and almost everything is a first for Darwin, get lost. There is also this whole part about Darwin being a virgin, but for some reason still also being a sex expert? Like he never touched a woman, but when fingering his girlfriend for the first time, he knows what to do perfectly, but why? How? I’d get if he would learn, maybe even learn faster, showing off some positive sides of his disorder being obsessed over learning how to please his girlfriend, but we don’t get to see that. He is just good at sex all of a sudden, which is quite unrealistic. I think the whole book could have been fleshed out a bit more.

Final verdict:
I think this book has so much potential! It could be a great representation of neurodiversity, but it lacks in actually tackling the problems that comes with it and makes them just vanish in time. It could be a great entry in the age-gap trope, if it wouldn’t be for the fact that nothing age-gap related really ever comes into play in the story. Furthermore, it could be an interesting way to show how two people at two very different points in their lives help each other grow in ways they couldn’t have without each other. But we don’t really see the growing together part, it’s all just implied, and we see only the outcome of the work that must have somehow gone into it? I still think it’s a great, light read for anyone who does not care about something deeper. The writing style itself was very funny, I was able to fly through the pages and what I read, was nice but nothing more than that. I just wish I would have been able to read more, a more detailed story that could live up top it’s potential, which sadly just did not happen here.