The joy of a romantic comedy isn't the ending; you know where you're headed from the start. What makes it fun is the twists and turns the story takes to get to happily ever after. One of my favorite rom-com tropes is the fake relationship - when two people have to pretend, for whatever reason, that they're madly in love. Here are two recent favorites featuring celebrities who need an image boost, and the romances, real and manufactured, that result.
In Act Like It (also available as an eBook) London actor Richard Troy's known for his classic good looks, his incredible stage presence, and his increasingly nasty behavior in public. When his bad reputation threatens to tank ticket sales for the play he's starring in, the theater's manager insists that he rehab his public image by faking a relationship with co-star Lainie Graham (okay, she's not exactly a co-star - but she is in the play!) Lainie needs the play to keep running, so she agrees, even though it means spending her rare free time with snobbish, moody Richard.
Public Relations (also available as an eBook) has a great twist on the fake relationship. The heroine of the story is a publicist; setting up a fake relationship between British singer-songwriter Archie Fox and upcoming musician Raya is part of her job. She plans dates, alerts the paparazzi, and carefully orchestrates their joint appearances. But that means spending a lot of time with Archie, who's exactly as charming as you'd expect a rock star to be.
