Worth Pretending (Saltwood)

By Valentine Foster

The whole town is rooting for a love story. Too bad this one's fake.

Nadia Okafor does not live in Saltwood. She'd like that on the record. She has a sublease she keeps extending in thirty-day increments, an accountant she refuses to give a new address, and a whole career built on selling other people's stories. Everything about Nadia is temporary - it's the only way she knows how to stay anywhere.

Then the state puts Saltwood on a shortlist. One heritage designation could lock the developers off the bluff for good - but only if an inspector believes the town isn't just pretty, but alive. Thriving. Chosen. Nadia knows exactly what that story needs: a face, a headline, a reason to believe. A love story.

What it gets is Beck Shaw - everyone's favorite person and nobody's first choice, the man whose entire skill is saying yes before you've finished asking. Pretending to be wildly, publicly in love with the one woman in town who can't stand him is the easiest yes he's ever given.

The rules are simple. Hold hands in public. Sell the showcase. Feel nothing.

Nobody wrote a rule about what happens when the wall starts to like the sunshine.

How do you fake something that's starting to feel real?

Worth Pretending is an open-door, fake-dating small-town romcom - best friend's brother, opposites attract, slow burn, and on-page spicy scenes for grown-ups. Saltwood, Book Three. A standalone with its own complete happily-ever-after.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H84B3VF8
• ISBN13: 9798186088134
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.0"