Codename Charming

4/5

That was so cute, I liked it! I loved the first book better, but this one was great too. Not as funny, but just as warm.

I love a fake dating scenario and I enjoyed it here. I love how much they loved each other and protective Matthias was over Pet.

And I liked the subplot of Pet looking for the mysterious woman and finding her father, though I would have preferred if it didn't happen on the last pages of the book. I would have preferred this to be more fleshed out. But I'm glad that she found more family!

I wish we saw Dominic and Sylvie's wedding, though I'd prefer for them to still be dating in this book. They were together, what, 6 months? Maybe? 7? I hate when in the books the couple marries that quickly lmao. But I loved them and I was glad we saw them here.

I was hoping for more Dominic and Pet interactions though so I was disappointed. But I loved her friendship with Benjy and Rosie.

Jonny was annoying most of the time. I liked him but seriously, how can someone be that clumsy?? Anyway, this book was fun.

I regretted not refreshing my memory for book one before reading; I think that would have helped with some of the initial understanding of Pet & Matthias’ history. I appreciated the intentional plot maneuver to have them enter into a fauxmance, and I was cheering for them from the start. The woodland scene with the bakery members from book one was also fun. <spoiler>I was so relieved her dads wanted to be in her life and thought their enthusiasm was so sweet.</spoiler>

Another excellent romance from Lucy Parker. Her books never fail to make me smile. She has a way of writing characters and character interactions that feel so real even if the circumstances of the stories sometimes feel farfetched. All of her books are perfect comfort reads for me and Codename Charming is no exception. 

I was very fascinated by Pet as a side character in Battle Royal and am so glad that she got her own book! She is a quirky oddball character but Parker does a great job writing her in such a way that she doesn't feel like a “not like other girls” type or like a manic pixy dream girl. Matthias is a character who is more reserved and quiet, he is still grieving the loss of his best friend but his perspective never feels bleak or boring. I definitely felt the chemistry between the 2 of them and it was fun following along on their fake dating antics.

I also really loved Rosie and Johnny appearing as side characters again, they are a fun couple to follow even when they are background characters.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to all of Lucy Parker's future releases.