Fake dating wasn't part of Cagney Adler's plan to earn her PhD before she's thirty. But neither was a rash of blind dates. When fictional characters, Alex Zurich and Blake Teesdale, leap out of the romance novel she's reading into her world, they're determined Mr. Rock Nerd would not only make a great fake boyfriend, but her happily ever after. The only way get them to leave her alone is to accept the offer. But she draws the line at happily ever after. Brad Townsend, geology doctoral student, knows Cagney Adler is the perfect fake girlfriend to help him avoid blind dates. Sure, they have nothing in common, but that's what makes her ideal. There's no way they'll fall in love. As friends and events throw them together in unexpected ways, they reconsider their compatibility.