A perfect title to the book where no one is quite who they seem. In stage school, Lily makes friends and frenemies that will last her whole life. The main person to benefit from Lily’s false-ness is Adam Harker. He is a gay man trapped in a beautiful body that demands he pays his attentions to girls. Since leaving stage school, Adam has found his place in the limelight. But to grace it as he intends, he needs a pretty girl on his arm to distract the haters. He asks Lily to be his faux romance, to be in his arm at all the best parties and to share the limelight with him. Of course, Lily agrees. They get on really well. It will be no hardship to accompany Adam at all times and what can be the harm in sharing a limelight that she desperately wants for herself? Conversely, Adam Harker's career is on the ascendancy. Having attended the same stage school as Lily, they had acted together when they were young, but he's like a different person now, having grown into his film-star looks and effortlessly exuding charm. Soon, Lily finds herself in a fake relationship with Adam. Lily wonders if their relationship can ever be real?

I found Let’s Pretend a real eye opener into the world of celebrity dating. How true Vaughan’s got the shenanigans that are orchestrated by agents and PR, who knows but I felt the apple she wrote didn’t fall too far from the tree.

Laura Vaughan writes a compelling and immersive dark, contemporary tale. Glamorous façades conceal abundant sins in this thought-provoking, entertaining mystery. The plot plays host to quite a few egocentric, secretive characters but they are all credible and well depicted. Toxicity is rife and there is a vibe of impending doom giving rise to feelings of uneasiness. For me, a great, well-delivered story. Highly recommended. Lily Thane is a thirty-two-year-old actress best known for her twenty minute appearance in a low-budget British romcom as winsome orphan ‘Little Lucie’ at the age of four, and it’s clear that her star is waning, not that her mother and manager, “the momager”, is willing to give up on a dream that easily. When Lily bumps into an old stage school contemporary in Adam Harker who needs a red-carpet companion to whip up the media ahead of making a push for the big time, it seems like a win-win situation. Despite never particularly having liked Adam, there is something magnetic and dangerously alluring about him and so Lily agrees to the fauxmance and also signs a non-disclosure agreement. But troubled Adam has a penchant for drugs, a predilection for using people and a need to be in control, and things inevitably turn toxic. But as both their lives and careers move on, Lily and Adam are never too far apart and with a ringside seat to Adam’s death and growing suspicions about who wanted him out of the way, Lily turns detective. Applicability of cancellation rights: Legal rights of cancellation under the Distance Selling Regulations available for UK or EU consumers do not apply to certain products and services. Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam's dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic. Lily Thane is a struggling actress so when she meets her old pal from stage school Adam Harker and he suggests she act as his partner in a media fuelled "Faux-Mance" she jumps at the chance for any limelight.

I really liked the latter part of the book as Lily is convinced all is not quite as it seems in terms of Adam’s death. I was intrigued to learn more, just like Lily, and particularly loved the final chapters in this section of the book as there were lots of things that took me by surprise! I would have liked a little more detail as the ending felt a little bit rushed, but I really liked the unexpected turns and thought it was very clever! I also liked how character driven this book was; there were definitely some shady characters along the way! Let’s Pretend is a well-written multifaceted novel comprising exceptionally well-developed characters and a tremendous economy of storytelling weaved woven into a brutal psychological thriller. But the brutality has very little to do with gore of upsetting scenes (there are none), but with the choices that our cast of characters will have to live with. Following a chance meeting there is an undeniable spark, and although Lily is wary of Adam's dark side, they soon decide that a public faux-mantic relationship between them could be good for both of their careers. But when you're surrounded by actors, how do you know what is real? This book really moves at a pace and I found it really compelling (especially the first half). We follow the main character, Lily, a former child actor who has really done nothing of note for some time. When she bumps into an old stage school companion, Adam, she is drawn into his (more successful) world. It starts with Lily Thane who is from an acting family but she is really only known for a film she made as a child.Within the first few chapters (and as detailed in the synopsis) we learn that Lily finds Adam’s lifeless body in a swimming pool, it’s not clear how this came to be. Let's Pretend is a novel about the worlds of acting and fame, as well as the kind of performances it inspires. It sounds like a perfect opportunity when former child actress Lily Thane is approached by her old stage school classmate Adam Harker for a phony relationship to dazzle the red carpet with. Her stuttering acting career appears to be on the mend, but she'll have to put up with their poisonous relationship. When Adam is discovered dead in a swimming pool, Lily suspects foul play and becomes engrossed in the investigation of who supplied the pills that killed him and whether they are still hazardous. Let’s Pretend has been a really eye-opening read showing the darkness that can be lurking behind the outward persona of those in the public eye. It definitely acts as a reminder too that you can never know what truly goes on in a relationship unless you are in it; contrary to what the press would have you believe! This story is told from the perspective of former childstar Lily Thane, now a somewhat struggling actress in her early thirties.

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This book started off slowly and took sometime to get into, there was a lot of stuff at the beginning which didn't particularly add to the story, and quite a lot of characters that I found hard to link up. There is a lot in here about the darker side of acting and the route to fame, and for someone who is not living in this world it is all a bit foreign and hard to relate to. Once the story got going I did enjoy reading it, though, and then as I neared the end it became more gripping as I waited to see who had done the crime.