How to Spot a Fake
by Rachelle Paige Campbell

When the wrong John Smith appears on Lovelyn Pettigrew’s doorstep, is he too good to be true? Or could he be exactly who she needs?

Lovelyn Pettigrew wants to transform the mansion and collection of fine art inherited from her grandmother into a world-class museum. She has one week to submit a proposal to her family foundation. Her parents prefer the museum to operate downtown with a staff they’ve already hired. Her success depends on authenticating the works their curator dismissed. She finds the receipt for the egg rumored to be one of the missing Imperial Faberge works. When she calls the gallery in London, she is given an email address to send proof of the artifact.

Her email reaches the wrong John Smith.

Finishing his degree in art conservation, John is passionate about art. One of many side hustles to afford life in Chicago, he runs a website dedicated to tracking down tips about some of the most famous missing works of art. When he checks his inbox, he is floored by the contents of the email. With weeks until he graduates from university as a mature, thirty-year-old student, he is looking for a full-time position and the correspondence could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Working side-by-side, John and Lovelyn grow close and their mutual respect deepens into something more. When the mistaken identity is revealed, shocking them both, they must choose between the future or each other. He might not be who she expected, but could he be exactly who she needs?

4 out of 5 fairies

Overall, this was a cute, sweet romance. I only have two real complaints, and I’ll get them out of the way first, as they happened at the start of the book – a practically ancient telephone number that is somehow still in use and connects to the right place, and a supposedly prestigious company using a generic email account, making it easy for the email to go to the wrong person. It’s pretty cheap to get an email tied to your website address, so this made no sense at all (to me). Now that that’s out of the way, the things I loved – Lovelyn is a great MC, she’s smart, strong, and trying to be independent while fighting against an overbearing family. John is a great character, and I loved him from the moment we first meet him. The story itself moves along pretty smoothly, and other than that hiccup in the first chapter, things felt like they unfolded fairly organically. The plot moves along smoothly at a good pace, but not so fast that it feels rushed.

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