Love You, Mean It

With this delightfully tropey rom-com, Gagnon (Scenes of the Crime) introduces Ellie Greco, who returns to her hometown of Milborough, Mass., from New York City to run her family’s decades-old deli after the death of her father. Upon learning that Taylor Property Management is planning to make a deal to entice an upscale Italian grocer to town, Ellie sets out to stop the scheme before it can put the deli out of business. Her meeting with Theo Taylor, son of the property management firm’s CEO, ends in disaster, however, when a freak accident lands Theo in the hospital with a head injury. A panicked Ellie tells the EMTs that she’s his fiancée so she can stay with him—only for Theo to wake up with amnesia and believe her lie. Theo’s memory soon returns, but he proposes they maintain their fake engagement to stop his father from going through with the grocery deal, believing that Ellie will have more sway as Theo’s fiancée. Fake dating gives rise to attraction and intimacy, and Gagnon expertly combines humor and tenderness as this unlikely couple discovers hidden depths in each other. This is a sweet confection. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (Apr.)