Faking with Benefits
Faking with Benefits by Lily Gold
Published in 2021
Main Couple: Layla, Zack, Josh, and Luke
The Story: Layla has get married by 30 on her to do list, but it’s been one failed date after another trying to find a partner. Enter the neighbors across the hall, three men who host a dating podcast. Can they teach Layla how to date as a new segment for their show? Will their fake dating become real?
The Sex: Good. Really good. The focus for the men is always on Layla. There’s never anything sexual between the different partners. But boy do they share well. Sometimes the amount of orgasms she has is….ridiculously unrealistic. I get it, but c’mon. What about the women who have never experienced a multiple orgasm. It can be a little disheartening. One of the best parts about the relationships is that there’s a lot of communication between the participants. Each of the men have different styles of intimacy, no one is “better” than the others. When it came to the emotional parts, there were feelings of competition or insecurity between the guys, but not when it came to intimacy. I liked how they worked together to achieve a goal, usually satisfying Layla, and it didn’t always matter how. They also had respect for each other’s preferences. The fact that they had been in a polyamorous relationship before shows in how they work together when it comes to Layla.
Favorite Lines:
“I’ll take this secret to the grave, but this, right here, is what gets me off more than anything else. The idea of being shared.” Chapter 12 Loving that for you!
“Anyone who doesn’t care about whether or not you’re comfortable is a shitty date.” Chapter 17 Can we please keep reminding people their expectations should be higher???
Least Favorite Lines:
“For the first time, I understand what all of the hype over kissing is about. I feel like I’m on fire.” Chapter 14 I have no idea why this rubbed me the wrong way…
Final Thoughts:
REVERSE HAREM! HERE WE ARE! This book has an interesting premise, but it feels a little college to me. Like the way a guy in your dorm would offer to give you a “massage” and then suddenly you’re making out. Just me? I do applaud the author for making this relationship the second for the guys. The entrance to this relationship wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and there is a lot of baggage from everyone involved. Even though the guys have a history of polyamory, this relationship doesn’t start with all of them at once. They’ve done it before, this seems to be their sexual/romantic preference; however, it meant that we solely saw Layla’s journey to accepting herself. Which is also why this book can be so much shorter than Pucking Around.
Spice Level: 4/5
Kinks Explored: Polyamory. I KNOW THIS ISN’T A KINK. But I want to highlight that this is a book about polyamory.
Voices Heard: Josh is Asian. Everyone else is white.
Did I like it? Yup. And when I found out that there were three other reverse harem novels she’d written, I got right on that.