Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Jamie Wesley
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: June 21st, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It.

Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego’s newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell.

When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the struggling bakery and rehabilitate Jada’s image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient.

Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side.

SECOND HALF MELTDOWN.

I thought this book started off pretty strong. I liked the initial banter between characters. There’s a cupcake shop for goodness sake’s and the author threw in fake dating. Who wouldn’t be charmed?! Things were sweet and good and I thought I had a good read on my hands.

And then.

The second half of the book started. What.

There were some sub-plot lines that I wasn’t wholly a fan of, but luckily weren’t drawn out more than necessary. BUT what was truly the last straw was a BREAK UP at 94%. WHY THO. I already hate conflict break-ups in their usual placement, this was obscene. Of course they get back together pages later, I was too soured to care. It made no sense and I’m still sitting here trying to figure it out.

The love scene had some cringy moments too. Some of the commentary had me giving this a hard nope.

Meh, I thought I would say I recommend this, but instead I’m going to tell you to bake your own cupcakes and read a different book.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Romance
• Language: some strong
• Romance: one open door
• Violence: low
• Trigger/Content Warnings: cyber harassment, gambling addiction mentioned

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