Lovelight Farms Book Review

Lovelight Farms Book Summary

Lovelight Farms by B. K. Borrison is the first installment in a series of four connected but standalone romance novels. It’s about Stella who asks her best friend Luka to fake date her for a social media contest. Her Christmas tree farm is failing and there are mysterious things happening, all while she’s trying to navigate her feelings for Luka. 

Lovelight Farms Book Review

Lovelight Farms has a fairly cute premise — two best friends are supposed to fake date for a somewhat valid reason — but it fails to deliver on it. For one, it’s very obvious from the beginning that both Stella and Luka have feelings for each other. Stella never stops talking about it and Luka is extremely obvious the entire time. Both of them are single and there isn’t a single valid reason why they aren’t already together. For reference, they were in love since they met. 

And fine, maybe knowing that the best friends in a friends to lovers romance are in love doesn’t ruin the tension — there can be a lot of yearning and pining, and we all love that. But in Lovelight Farms, there is none of that. They enter this fake dating situation happily, and a few pages into it, Luka already suggests that the fake dating could be a trial for a real relationship. You as the reader know that it’s a done deal. It’s only the main character, Stella, who is stupid enough to believe that it won’t work. And that’s frustrating.

When Luka outright confesses his feelings for her, she tells him that he’s wrong and not in love with her for real. It takes watching a video of him looking at her for her to agree that he does love her, even though she herself admits that she’s seen him looking at her that way before. 

Stella is also incompetent overall. She struggles running the farm even though the right choices are fairly obvious. She ignores all the signs that someone is sabotaging her, and then when it’s very obvious who it is, she’s oblivious. She signs her farm up for this competition and lies about having a boyfriend — which, fine, if she didn’t believe she’ll win — but she also knows the townies. She knows how gossipy they are and that they know, despite the fake dating, that Luka doesn’t own the farm with her. Yet she believes her little ruse will work and is surprised when it doesn’t. 

The whole premise of this novel also doesn’t happen until around 80% at which point the social media influencer arrives. We spend the first two or three chapters with Stella agonizing over asking Luka to be her fake boyfriend, then the rest of the book on them practicing the fake dating thing. The book is slow and not in a good, cozy way. Barely anything happens, and you’d think it would be because you get more romance scenes but no — most of the time is spent in Stella’s head and on useless, pointless side plots. 

Whenever a character from one of the next installments is introduced, you can just tell. I didn’t even know who the other Lovelight books are about before reading this one, yet it was obvious. These characters get a few paragraphs of description and they’re always described as perfect in every way, even if they’re just irrelevant side characters. 

And don’t get me started on how character-sheet-y these people feel. It’s like “I’m Stella, here’s my trauma, my biggest fear, likes and dislikes, etc.” Maybe it’s just me because I write stories and know how the other side of the process works — but it shouldn’t be that obvious, even to me. In good books, it never is. 

It doesn’t help that the prose is dry and basic. It’s very much “this happened, then that happened, and this is how I felt about it, etc.” There’s no nuance or subtlety here — everything is told bluntly. Which might work in a different book, but this is meant to be cozy and atmospheric. It’s meant to immerse you into this world and it doesn’t. 

The only parts of Lovelight Farms I actually liked were the town and its people. It’s very cute and cozy, everyone is nice and supportive, they’re all like a big family. I just wish there was a better story set in this place and with these people. 

Highlights

• The town was charming 
• I liked the side characters (all the townies)
• The romance was underwhelming 
• The prose was too basic
• The main character was annoying

Here are a few more things you should know about Lovelight Farms before you read it: 

• It’s written in first person POV from Stella’s perspective
• It’s set in a fictional town of Inglewild which is meant to be close to Delaware and 3 hours away from New York
• Despite the cartoonish cover, this book is not appropriate for readers under 18
• Trigger warnings for alcohol consumption, death of a parent, bullying, and depression

Books Like Lovelight Farms

Other Books by B. K. Borison

If you liked Lovelight Farms and are craving more, this author has three more books in the series. They’re all connected so you’ll also get a chance to see characters from this book and go back to its setting. You’ll get similar plots and dynamics, with the same writing style. 

Funny Feelings by Tarah Dewitt

This one is not very Christmassy, but it is a best friends to lovers romance with fake dating where the two best friends are already very in love and attracted to each other. In this book, a comedienne needs to fake date her manager for a tour. 

I didn’t really like this one, for similar reasons to Lovelight Farms, though I liked it much better. The writing is better and the hero and heroine have genuine reasons to not get together (as far as those go; there’s a child whose feelings could get hurt). 

The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

This is another friends to lovers romance with fake dating. A ballerina and her best friend, the hockey player, need to fake date for publicity reasons. The only problem is that they’re already in love and neither one of them knows it. The MMC, Nathan, gathers a group of his friends to form a plan to woo the FMC (which is the best part of this book). 

I liked about 60% of The Cheat Sheet, but once they started to confess their feelings, I got bored. It’s a charming book at times, with plenty of tension, but be aware that the FMC starts off the book by being very much not like the other girls. From what I’ve seen when I tried to read the most recent one in the series (yes, it’s a series), she still hasn’t recovered from that condition. In The Cheat Sheet, though, she does calm down almost as soon as they start fake dating. 

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh 

There’s no fake dating in this one (yay!), but there are two friends who fall in love as they struggle to find a way home to Ireland from America — during Christmas. It’s funny and whimsy and very Christmassy indeed. Highly recommend!

And a few honorable mentions: 

• Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle for the great Christmas vibes and humor. 
• Funny Story by Emily Henry for the jilted friends who fall in love (see my review here). 

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