Almost Real is the latest in the Nicole Snow’s Almost Ever After series, and the first book I’ve read by this author. It’s an okay, if not particularly memorable romance between a vet tech and a rich CEO who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty in the quest for success and love.

Lena Joly loves her work at the Pawsome Hearts clinic, but things have been stressful recently. She knows that her boss, Dr. Ezzie, is under both financial and emotional strain and that it’s becoming a struggle to manage both the clinic and caregiver duties for aging parents. They definitely can’t afford to turn clients away, even ones that arrive after hours with a pup in need. The couple that turns up at the clinic door appears rich and entitled, but it’s also clear that it’s the man who is the reason they are there at all, and that his heart is in the right place, bringing in the bedraggled dog that came across their path while hiking. Even if he’s one of the best-looking men Lena has ever seen, he’s clearly way out of her league and has a snooty girlfriend to boot. But with the clinic full up, Lena knows she’s going to have to see him again as he’s agreed to take the dog for a few nights until the owner can pick up their pet.

Brady knows what it takes to make a start-up successful and has done it several times over. While his parents want him fully involved in his dad’s company, Pruitt Agriculture, they’re not so keen on his interest in spending time in the lab with the food scientists helping to develop an affordable high quality pet food instead of in the boardroom where they think he belongs. They’re also not pleased with what they see as his low-brow lifestyle and want him to marry quickly into another high society family. He’s reluctantly been dating Nancy, a family friend, to get them off his case, but is looking for a way to break it off.

Things get complicated for Lena when she discovers, to her horror and dismay, that a sleazy ex-boyfriend has made an offer to invest in the clinic; she’d rather it close than have her boss accept any money from him. When Brady offers a possible solution, that if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend, he’ll put up the money needed to keep the clinic afloat, she initially refuses. But the paparazzi catch them having coffee together and pictures of them are quickly splashed all over the internet, leaving Lena reluctantly reconsidering. The thought of lying to the world for money made her squeamish, but having her ex take over her workplace would be even worse. And since it already looks like they are something from the press’s side, it won’t be hard to keep that going. So she agrees to the fake relationship on the condition that she can get the money upfront to become a partner in the clinic, which Brady agrees to. As they spend time together, being with Brady is definitely no hardship. But can their fake partnership lead to something real?

In a sea of contemporary romances with billionaire heroes, I’m struggling to find anything really memorable about this one. I liked Lena’s character, the setting, and Brady’s interest in creating affordable dog food – although it’s not really believable that he would be deep in the science of formulation, not being a food scientist himself. Lena’s ex-boyfriend really is a scumbag (the plot gets dark here with a revenge porn situation), and there’s a satisfying scene where Brady does the macho thing and lays him out. The sex scenes are supposed to be spicy but I found them mostly cringeworthy (Brady has a “punishing” dick and Lena is always very wet; at one point her “pussy tingles with evil joy” – eeew), and I found myself skimming most of them. By the end of the story, all problems are resolved and the happy couple gets their dream wedding, ready to live happily ever after. I’m glad for them, and glad for me that I can move on to another book.