Pretend With Me

Sutton Buchanan has her life in Savannah pretty much the way she likes it. She’s got her job, her friends, and her passel of guinea pigs. But when her mother calls to say her father has been injured on the job and will be laid up for a while, Sutton reluctantly heads back home to Beacon Hill. Back to help her parents and face her hateful sister, Sissy. Sissy has come back home after failing to make a splash in the modeling world, and she’s now engaged to marry Sutton’s teenage crush, Macon St. James.

Sutton would just as soon have a root canal with no anesthetic as spend time in the presence of either her sister or Holden St. James, Mason’s brother. As a teenager, she had the opportunity to hear what he and his family thought of her sister, her family, and it wasn’t flattering. When she’s thrown into regular contact with him for pre-wedding events, she finds herself fighting an unexpected attraction to him.

Having grown up in a small Southern town, I understand that there are some families that are like town royalty. They’re held in a certain awe. Even if Sutton’s family was comfortably middle-class or even upper middle-class, I can see how a family like the St. James family would be seen as a cut or two above, and interactions could be uneasy.

And I’ll tell you what, if I was Sutton Buchanan, I don’t know that I’d want to go back home, either. Sissy was a raging heifer who got her way about EVERYTHING. I grew up in a small Southern town. I’ve known people like that. They get what they want, when they want, and they don’t care who they trample in the process. And mom and dad apparently just let Sissy run roughshod over whoever she wants, including her own sister. I know that sometimes parents favor one child, but my heart really hurt for Sutton. Her parents loved her, sure, but a love that won’t protect you from a horrible sibling seems anemic at best.

And nobody seemed willing to rein Sissy in! Not her parents, not her fiance, nobody. The descriptions of wedding dress shopping had me alternately laughing and rolling my eyes. If I’d picked out some of those dresses like Sissy was eyeballing, my mama would have yanked a knot in my head and told me absolutely not.

Maxine was one of my most favorite characters in the book! She is the epitome of ride or die. She wanted to see Sutton happy, and she wasn’t above pulling some outrageous shenanigans to make Sutton’s wedding responsibilities a little less painful. Everybody needs a Maxine in their life.

Holden St. James was also a nice surprise. Sutton had what she thought was a legitimate reason to dislike him and his family (although Macon never seemed to be painted with that same brush, which was a little surprising). Even when Sutton seemed to be going out of her way to hold the past against him, Holden was a gentleman. As the story progressed, it became clear that he cared for her, and I was cheering for Sutton to get over herself and admit her feelings. Neither Holden nor Macon turned out to be what Sutton thought they were!

I’ll admit, as I read, I kept waiting for one of those rom-com twists where there’s a horrible misunderstanding, the newly fledged relationship is derailed, and boy has to fight to win girl back (or vice versa). And I thought I saw it coming. But Emily Mayer twisted the twist, and I was thrilled to see it. Sutton found her own inner Southern steel magnolia and put her foot down. Huzzah!

If you love a small-town Southern setting and a fun enemies-to-lovers romance with a side of dysfunctional family, you’ll enjoy Pretend with Me!