Spoiler warning: this review covers Final Play, the sixth and final book in Australian author Eden Finley’s Fake Boyfriend series, including details of how each couple’s story ends. If you haven’t finished Hat Trick, start there first.
This is it. The last one.
When I opened my copy of Final Play, there was a small handwritten message from Eden Finley waiting for me on the title page.
“Immy, It’s too hard to say goodbye to the gay brigade,” she wrote.
READ MORE: ‘Hat Trick’: The Fake Boyfriend book that finally gives Jet Jackson his turn
What is Final Play?
Final Play is book six of the Fake Boyfriend series and, unlike the five books before it, it doesn’t belong to a single couple.
Instead it’s told from the points of view of all 10 main characters, according to Love Bytes Reviews, which makes it read like a set of interlocking short stories rather than one romance.
Its timeline also runs alongside Hat Trick – starting just before it, overlapping with it, and carrying on after – so it’s very much not a standalone.
The premise: one last hurrah
“It’s a vacation none of them will forget,” the book’s blurb reads.
“Before their futures become the present, Noah convinces his friends they need a group vacation – a final play before they’re all tied down by responsibility and unyielding schedules.”
“Everything is changing. Marriage. Kids. Careers. A trip to Fiji is the last hurrah to end all hurrahs.”
And from “disastrous marriage proposals to grand gestures to life-changing confessions”, two weeks on a private island becomes “the beginning of the rest of their lives”.
Meet the Gay Brigade, one last time
For anyone who’s just arrived, the Gay Brigade is the friend group that has built up across the whole series – five couples, 10 men:
Damon King and Maddox O’Shay (Fake Out)
Matt Jackson and Noah Huntington III (Trick Play)
Ollie Strömberg and Lennon Hawkins (Deke)
Shane Miller and Marcus Talon (Blindsided)
Jet Jackson and Caleb “Soren” Sorensen (Hat Trick)
Saying goodbye to all five couples at once was genuinely sad.
A wobbly start – then a reset
I’ll be honest: at first I was thrown.
The early part of the book – mostly Maddox and Damon, and Matt and Noah – is about children, families and babies. It’s sweet, but it’s a very different gear from the banter and chaos (and spice) that made me fall for this series.
Then we get to Lennon and Ollie, and suddenly everything resets back into familiar Fake Boyfriends territory.
That said, the real gift here is structural. Every single couple gets an epilogue, and after six books that feels like the right way to close the door.
The wedding (sorry… spoilers)
Towards the end, we get a description of Miller and Talon’s wedding.
What I didn’t realise until I’d finished the book was that the scene being described is the one on this card: all 10 of them lined up in black suits, pink roses on their lapels.
So which one is my favourite?
This is where it gets impossible.
I loved Ollie and Lennon’s story; at the time of reading I did declare this my favourite. But… I have a soft spot for Soren and Jet. But man, I do love Miller and Talon too.
And then there’s Damon and Maddox, who started it all and of course Noah and Matt.
So no, I can’t rank these books. What I can say is that I’ve loved my journey with the Fake Boyfriend series, from Fake Out all the way to a private island in Fiji.
What’s next?
The good news is that it isn’t quite goodbye to the Sadenverse.
There are crossovers with Finley’s Famous series and her Mike Bravo Ops series, so I guess I know where I’m heading next.
Stay tuned.