The Cupid Dilemma

The Cupid Dilemma- April Asher

St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: May 12, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A lover of love and a champion for happily ever after. Those were two of many things people expected from Aphrodite’s daughter. To Adalyn Whitlock, ‘love’ paid the bills, and currently, not well. Business was dropping at Happily Ever Forever, with her latest wedding planning catastrophe ending in a negative social media storm and her sister Maxi’s matchmaking ability on the fritz. To top it off, there’s an ex-boyfriend calling her ‘the Anti-Aphrodite’ and paparazzi pics linking Addie to her new client’s older brother.

Phoenix ‘Nix’ Cross—song writer and drummer of the hot new band, The Stone Talons—was no saint, but he was far from the womanizer the band’s image rep bestowed on him. If anything, he was a romantic, hopeful to find a love like the one in which his parents shared. With the band’s star quickly rising and the record label pressuring him to deliver the band’s next hit, Nix’s writer’s block couldn’t have come at a worse time. But when he opens his door to his irate new next-door neighbor, Nix feels the brief flash of inspiration for the first time in ages. And it just so happens that his new Muse is none other than his little sister’s new wedding planner.

With Addie needing an end to the public relations nightmare and the record label breathing down Nix’s neck, the pair agree to a fauxmance. But what happens when the emotions turned on for the cameras don't turn off?

______________________________________________

Certain things are expected of you when you're one of Aphrodite's daughters. Not believing in love, happily ever afters, and planning a streak of disasterous weddings (the fire department gets called out more than once) aren't anywhere on that list. But that's Adalyn "Addie" Whitlock's life at the moment. She runs a matchmaking and wedding planning agency with her sister and cousin and is watching it go down in flames (literally). They need a big success to pull things back- and a big name would be even better. When they agree to plan the wedding of a rock star in a month, things might get back on track. 

Except fellow band member and brother of the bride is Phoenix "Nix" Cross -aka Addie's new neighbor. He's suffering song writer's block and think's Addie's the Muse to get his songs flowing again. She could use some positive press to help her business. The answer? A fauxmance as they plan his little sister and best friend's wedding. What could go wrong?

I'm always up for a fauxmance (why have we not been using this term forever?). How long will it take them to work out that it's real? Who falls first? Why did they think the fake out was a good plan in the first place? It's always fun. While the why here was pretty typical, how they went about it wasn't: they got to just hang out and be themselves. It led to some very fun dates and watching the chemistry build between Nix and Addie was great.

While Nix was a well-developed character, I did sometimes want more from Addie. Why does she not believe in love? She hasn't had any traumatic relationships- though yes, plenty of decently bad dates. Her parents aren't together but don't fight and Addie seems to get along with them as well as most adult children with their parents might. It was kind of a big miss that it never got explained or developed. But otherwise I enjoyed the flirting, the heat, the getting-to-know-you dates, the quirky humor of the the characters and the book. 

The Cupid Dilemma's world-building and humor grabbed me from the first chapter. Mixing "normal" contemporary with Greek myth descendants and it not being something you hide (her dogs are from Cerebus' latest litter and play in the park with them like any other dogs would) was a great twist. I'm hoping for much more in this world to explore. Demigoddesses, shifters, gargoyles, humans all living together- more please!

Definitely recommend for romance lovers, even if you don't normally go for any kind of paranormal vibes. I'd call this "paranormal lite" but still enough to satifsy everyone. Fake dating trope lovers will enjoy!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review