Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan

 

Title: Dolly All the Time

Author: Annabel Monaghan

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: May 26, 2026

If they start by pretending, can they end with something real?

Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.

So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself—can she really start now?

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Fake Dating as it's best!

Dolly Brick and her son, Gus, are moving back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her father and her brother, Christopher.

Dolly is a hard worker. She is a kindergarten teacher, an Uber driver, and a call-center representative for a company in Boston. She loves small-town life and knows Gus has been having trouble with friends at school, so she hopes he can make new ones here.

Dolly became an adult at twelve when her mother left the family. Her mother had been in an accident that injured Christopher, and she couldn’t deal with it, so she walked out. Dolly stepped up and took on all the responsibilities. The same thing happened when she got pregnant, and the father wanted nothing to do with being a parent—she became a single mom and handled it on her own.

Her life changes when she helps Stewart Whitfield, the town’s rich golden boy, change a tire. He recently went through a very public breakup after his fiancée was caught cheating with a baseball player. Stewart is trying to become the CEO of the family company and needs to improve his image. He proposes a fake-dating arrangement to help with that. In exchange, Dolly asks him to replace the roof on her father’s house.

Of course, the more time they spend together, the more they realize they enjoy each other’s company—and maybe there’s something real worth pursuing.

I love reading Annabel Monaghan’s books. They’re all great, and Dolly All the Time is no different. I fell in love with Dolly and Gus—they’re wonderful characters. Stewart was nice enough, but he could have been better when Dolly needed him to be there for her.

I listened to the audiobook because Julia Whelan is the narrator, and she is amazing.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by G.P. Putnam's Sons via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.