Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: first person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium to fast
When mains are first on page together: Not too far in, about 6% (chapter 1)
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes and there’s also a free extended epilogue you can grab
Format: read the book through Kindle Unlimited

Should I read in order?
These are readable alone but there is some character cross over and I feel like the if you read in order you get to know the town and the orc history a bit better.

Basic plot:
When Meli’s parents try to hook her up with a doctor she’s not interested in, she ropes Cairo in to be her fake boyfriend for their visit to Eastshore.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary Earth setting
- fantasy vibes – it’s Earth but with Orcs!
- small town – Eastshore Isle location
- baker heroine
- car mechanic hero
- grumpy and sunshine dynamic
- one bed
- fake relationship
- medium to higher steam – 4 scenes in about a 200 page count novel

Ages:
- hero is around 30, didn’t catch heroine

First line:
“Do you always frost your strawberry cupcakes with little hearts?”

My thoughts:
This one is officially my favorite of the series! I am here for alllll Cairo and Meli’s mutual pining. Fake relationship is such a fun trope to me – seeing them fall into these couple activities while also holding back because of that uncertainty – I just eat it up.

Cairo is a bit of a quiet ‘grump’ – more goes on under the surface than anyone knows. And the way he melts for Meli is just so sweet. Meli is such a lovable heroine – I love how Cairo lifts her up and helps her find her confidence with her family that loves her but pushes her for their own path without seeing her. They bring out the best in each other and were such a delight to get to know. Very sweet characters and my new fave of the series.

Few random reading stats for this author (as Veronika Kane and not including her Caroline Lee pen name)
# of books read: 3
Average rating: 5 stars
Favorite book: My Orc (Fake) Boyfriend

Cock/Hero Stats:

- hero is an orc – he’s green and has tusks, retractable claws
- it’s mentioned in book 1 about ‘their world’ and the human world and there is a veil that keeps the orc world hidden from humans.
- hero has exceptional hearing and scent and can tell when the heroine (or others) are aroused
- lips are rough and tongue is ridged
- cock is darker green and ridged, very well-endowed
- orcs have something that cause their partner to orgasm upon entering them to help ease the way
- orcs have something called ‘Kteer’ which is kind of what leads them to their fated mates
- orcs can go into heat, and their eyes get a green glow with intense emotion
- the orc world had a lower female population and males weren’t having as many mates/children and their generation made the decision to reach out to the human world
- hero is 7’ tall

Endearments

  Heroine calls the hero ‘honey’ and hero calls the heroine ‘cupcake’

Quotes/thoughts: (Any mistakes are my own)

She wore a white blouse and capris, for the love of shit. It’s not like she was here to seduce me.
Oh, please say you’re here to seduce me!
What? No.
No.
---
Mate.
I was an orc male; the scene of her arousal provoked a physical response in me, of course. I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and stomp off to the bedroom, where I’d gnaw her panties off and lick her until she came three or four times.
---
“I’m your pretend boyfriend.” That’s all this was. I was just helping her.
“Yeah, well...You can still be my real lover.”
---
“You think, if we fuck once, it’ll get rid of this tension?”
You’re wrong, sweetheart. Once isn’t going to be enough.
Maybe my crude words made her uncomfortable because I felt the exact moment Meli began to retreat. In the moonlight coming in from the windows, I could see her skin darkening, see her draw herself in, as if she wasn’t worthy of the boldness she’d been showing earlier.
“I mean...I thought…A quick…”
“Oh, Cupcake,” I breathed, dragging my hands up her bare skin, then back down to her thighs. “If we do this, it’s not going to be quick.”
---
“Love? Cupcake, this goes deeper than that. This is a knowing. I wake up in the morning and can feel your heartbeat, wherever you are. You are in my soul, and mine belongs to you.”

 

Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)

- some toxic parental aspects
- mention of torture and scientists studying orcs
Author given content warnings: None

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

Safe sex: 

I don’t believe so 

Hows the consent? 

  It’s good! (The hero asks in some of the scenes and the others are consensual) 

12% 🔥 - hero self pleasure in the shower (it’s a bit short)
Thinking of the way she’d look, naked and wet in here with me.
The way she’d look, head thrown back in ecstasy as I made her come again.
The way she’d look, hands squeezing those magnificent tits together, laughing and teasing me to taste her.
The way she’d look, thighs spread, fingers stroking herself as she beckoned me to join her on the bed.
Fuck.

21% - kiss
54% 🔥 - oral/fingering for her, him standing/her on the bed sex

“That’s my good girl,” he murmured. He pulled out just the slightest bit, that first ridge teasing my inside, which was still pulsing. “That’s how you do it. You needed that, hmmm?”

67% 🔥 - her on top

“You’re fucking perfect, love,” I groaned.

93% 🔥 - oral for her, him behind her in front of the mirror

“That’s it, sweetheart. Come for me now.”