Review: "Operation Boyfriend" by Zarah Detand

Operation Boyfriend by Zarah Detand
Published May 2026 via Storm Publishing
★★★★

To get his family off his case about dating, Dean needs to produce a semi-serious boyfriend as his date to his sister's wedding—except he's very single and doesn't have the time or inclination for a relationship right now. And Tay could really use a vacation—except he doesn't have the cash to spare. A meddling mutual friend sees an opportunity for both of them...and soon they're plotting a fake relationship for the ages.

This was 1) fluff and 2) adorable. I'm kind of (and by kind of I mean very) over the reduction of romance novels to TikTik-friendly tropes (in this case, mostly #fakedating and #onebed), but I genuinely appreciate the way the fake dating part of things plays out here. To start with, Dean and Tay go into this with clear expectations and a lot of prep work. They're doctors, so they're well versed in studying, and they're determined to do this right; they know that to pull this off they need a level of knowledge about and comfort with each other well before the wedding. And what that means is that by the time the wedding trip rolls around, well into the book, they already know each other pretty well and, better, like each other as people and not just as strangers who are (surprise! except not actually a surprise here) sharing a bed.

The conflict is relatively mild and realistic (no evil villains!); aside from their own hang-ups, Dean and Tay need to consider the fact that they have different seniority levels at the hospital, and gossip could have serious implications for their careers. It's not over-dramatic, which was really nice. Ooh, also, there's very good banter.

Solid beach read; would read more.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.