The new must-hear fake dating, friends to lovers romantic comedy of summer 2026 from a bestselling Australian author

A sassy fake-dating-with-a-twist, friends-to-lovers, laugh-out-loud romance for fans of Rachael Johns, Beth O'Leary and Marian Keyes.

When Finn and Sweeney return to their hometown to surprise their mothers at Ronnie and Connie's joint sixtieth birthday party, they expect to be the biggest bombshell of the evening. And they are—just not in the way they'd assumed. Because they're ... engaged?

Apparently?

Sick of hearing everyone else's exciting news of weddings and grandbabies, Ronnie and Connie spontaneously fabricated their own fairytale. Their absent children are engaged ... to each other.

Finn and Sweeney will absolutely not pretend to be engaged. Just coming home is giving them both plenty of emotional baggage to unpack. But they have vastly underestimated their mothers and soon find themselves reluctantly agreeing to the fake engagement so their pillars-of-the-community mums aren't exposed as big fat lying liars.

However, when their new relationship goes viral—not just in their small town of busybodies, but internationally—Finn and Sweeney realise that the lie is completely out of control. Will they ever be able to untangle themselves from its clutches?

And what if the biggest lie they've been telling is to themselves?