Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
Publication Date: June 21, 2022
This was the August (?) pick for my IRL romance book club, but I missed that meeting due to some family commitments that I knew of in advance so I never picked up the book. But, our book club was lucky enough to be gifted copies from The Book Club Cookbook so I had a copy and wanted to read it. My Owned October challenge was the perfect time to give this one a go.
This book follows Jada who just rejected a proposal on a reality TV show and Donovan a football player and cupcake store owner. They are pushed together and end up entering a fake dating scheme for the sake of the cupcake shop.
WHAT I LIKED
- The concept of this book is so fun and you can tell the author just was having a blast with this. I mean football players who own a cupcake shop? We love to see it.
- I loved Donovan’s family and the scene where Jada meets his mom was perfect.
- As a note, his mom is named Sandra Dell and Sandra Dee (song) was stuck in my head for like an entire day after reading that scene.
- The book club was over the top, but in the best way. I had a blast reading that scene.
- The scene where they were talking about dyslexia, which Jada has, and when Donovan’s coaches underestimated his intelligence was great.
- I am a sucker for a reality tv show setting and even though this book does not take place on a reality tv show, the plot is moved by the existence of a reality show.
- The scene where Donovan and his friends watched the show was excellent.
- Fake dating is a trope I really enjoy and it was a fun time here, even if I think the synopsis doesn’t really describe how it goes down.
- I loved that Jada’s grandma owned a football team. Like?? An older Black woman owning an NFL team? Legendary.
- I listened to a big chunk of this one while doing yard work and it kept me entertained which I appreciated.
WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
- I wasn’t the biggest fan of Donovan. He was fine? But not my fave.
- I was annoyed he didn’t understand social media. I got why he was written this way, but football players have plenty of opportunities for brand deals on social media and it just felt weird he didn’t understand the reach.
- This is petty – but Jada’s mom implies that UCLA isn’t a good school when it’s usually ranked one or two in the entire country as the best public university?? Its a very desirable university for scientists too… So it just made her parents seem over the top bad in an inauthentic way.
- The third act break up came out of nowhere and then was resolved super quickly. For context – I don’t dislike third act breakups, but I need them to make sense and the author/characters have to do the work to resolve it.
- I need to see them have a solid resolution to believe in the HEA and that just wasn’t here.
- Literally I was going to give this 3.5 stars and the ending made it a solid 3 star read for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed specific moments of this book, but the book as a whole was just average.
Also, I’ve been mostly reviewing books that I love and I want to go back to sharing my thoughts on books I didn’t love as well. I do this this book has an audience, it just was not me, even though I loved parts of it.
*thanks to the publisher and the Book Club Cook Book for a copy of this one; all thoughts are my own*
xoxo, Tree
Words About Words 