Review: Just a Little Crush

Just a Little Crush by Carly Phillips
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

📸When celebrity romance goes off-script, can a little crush become the real deal?

❤️ Celeb meets small-town charm in this sweet fake-relationship romance. Warm, smart, and totally binge-able!

Tropes

• Fake Relationship 📸❤️
• Celebrity / Tabloid Spark 🔥
• Small-Town Meet Cute 🏡💫
• Opposites Attract (Hollywood glam vs homegrown charm)
• Slow-burn Realization of Feelings

Just a Little Crush by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde is a charming, entertaining romance built on the delightful premise of a celebrity and a small-town girl crashing into each other’s worlds—even when the whole thing starts as a media stunt gone slightly awry.

The heroine is grounded, witty, and refreshingly real, and the celebrity hero brings just enough charisma and ego to balance out the groundedness without tipping into ridiculous. The chemistry between them warms gradually—first driven by circumstance and necessity, then growing sturdier as secrets unravel and real emotions surface. The fake-relationship angle works well here: it allows the authors to play with public perception, private vulnerabilities, and the tension between what's performative and what’s genuine.

What really won me over was how the story uses the contrast between Hollywood flash and small-town roots not just as a backdrop, but as a lens through which the characters learn what they truly value. There’s enough romantic tension, sweet slow burn, and emotional payoff to keep you invested without rolling your eyes at the drama. If anything, I wanted a touch more complication or external conflict to stretch the emotional stakes further, but overall, this was a feel-good, smartly written escape.

For readers looking for a warm, flirty celebrity romance that doesn’t sacrifice emotional grounding or charm, Just a Little Crush delivers exactly what it promises.

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