Donovan Dell is trying to figure out how to increase sales at his cupcake shop, Sugar Blitz, so he and his San Diego football teammates can hire a full-time shop manager when their summer training starts. Jada Townsend-Matthews wants to lay low after turning down a proposal on a popular reality dating show makes her the villain of the season. Jada finds herself working at Donovan’s cupcake shop on her grandmother’s orders, and soon, a reporter mistakes the two for a couple. The two decide to use this to their advantage and pretend to date to increase foot traffic at the shop and rehabilitate Jada’s image.

I like the idea of NFL teammates going in together to start a bakery, and I hope this will become a trilogy, with each of Donovan’s teammates finding love, too! Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with either Donovan or Jada as a romantic lead. One of my pet peeves in books is when the “bad guys” are one dimensional, with no traits other than just being there to bring the main characters down, and unfortunately, that happened in this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

This is my favorite romance so far for 2022.
I loved Donovan's character and the way he supported Jada.
I enjoyed their bickering and their moments of hatred toward each other, especially when Jada insulted his cupcakes.

Donovan is a famous football player, and baked. He owns Sugar Blitz, a cupcake shop that's currently struggling to make a profit. Jada is a disgraced TV star, having rejected someone in the finale of a dating show. They meet when Jada enters Sugar Blitz and leaves an unsavoury impression on Donovan. Despite this, Jada has run into some trouble and ends up being set up with a job-at Donovan's shop. One day at work, with questions about the TV show swirling, Jada makes a decision that changes everything.

I did like this! It's a very, very cute and sweet story. It's light and not a deep read at all. Despite this, it took me a bit to get through. I liked the characters and the story, I literally went and bought cupcakes while reading this because I couldn't resist! I liked the relationship between Donovan and Jada. I found that it was a bit too fast of a transition from fake dating to love, really fast on the love part. And I did not like the ending. I was planning on rating this higher until the ending-just silly and super unnecessary! We don't need a third act break up-the story was good enough as it was, especially when we knew they would just get back together in a matter of pages. I thought Donovan's Dad story was also thrown in but not addressed, same with Jada's parents, it wasn't addressed or resolved enough. I found the writing good, but the author often threw in these "big" , as in complex words that just weren't necessary or fit with the style of the story. Cute story all in all! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for a copy of Fake It Till You Bake It in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was so sweet (pun intended)! I really enjoyed Jada ad Donovan’s chemistry and it felt like a really natural fake dating grumpy/sunshine romance. I really enjoyed the baking setting and the discussions about toxic masculinity and showcasing of a healthy black relationship.

Overall I had a great time reading this book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a cute and light story.

4 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for a copy of Fake It Till You Bake It in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was really interested in this one from the premise and especially the striking cover. Unfortunately the writing fell flat for me. All the little details and actions were written out in too much blunt detail and I could not get past that. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to a book. I quit reading at about 15%, so I will not share my reviews on any other platform.

Hot pro football players and cupcakes?
YES. PLEASE.

FAKE IT TILL YOU BAKE IT was the grumpy+sunshine romance I needed in my life this month.

Jada is a heretofore spoiled and mostly aimless rich girl with an inheritance on the line and a flair for fun, brutal honesty, and changing careers. Donovan is a grumpy football player who is all about spreadsheets and the bottom line and gas no patience for "bougie attitudes".

The. Sparks. Between. These. Two. 🔥 I was here for it all!

What I really loved about FAKE IT TILL YOU BAKE IT was its realness. This never felt like a crazy inheritance stipulation that was completely unrealistic but made for a good plot point. The set up of Jada's job in the cupcake shop felt plausible.

I also loved that neither of these characters had an instant transformation. They each stay who they are at the beginning of the book while also progressing and changing in necessary ways to find happiness.

FAKE IT TILL YOU BAKE IT had meaningful friendships, complex family relationships, humor, chemistry, and fun! A great light read for a summer vacation.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗟: Rated PG-13 / Only 1 descriptive sex scene, may have harsh language.
𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦: unsupportive parents, gambling addiction
𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦: 2/5 - A bit of drama, but still a pretty light read.

This was such a fun read! It honestly felt like I was watching a movie. I LOVE black rom-coms so this started out as a plus to me. The book follows Jada, a reality star fake dating Donovan, a NFL bakery owing football player.

What I enjoyed?
-The fake dating to real dating was done impeccably well!
-The representation of dyslexic characters.
-The bromance between Donovan and his friends were perfect. Nicholas was hilarious to me and my favorite character to see pop up!
-How easy breezy this read was without being generic and overdone (which is super hard to do in this trope!)

Read if if you like....
-Tessa Bailey
-Jasmine Guillory
-Farrah Rochon

I look forward to reading more of what this author has to offer in the future! I will also be posting this review on my instagram @readwithgen

I thought this was a cute read but I struggled with the romance a bit. Jada wasn't very nice to Donovan in the beginning and I didn't feel like she really apologized to him for her attitude. It felt very insta-lust without the development I want in an adult romance. I felt their chemistry was more on a level of friendship than a romantic one.

I did enjoy the setting at the bakery a lot and I'm glad Jada finds her passion during her time working there. It was a light read which was nice and did full-fill my light and fluffy read for the week.

Read if you like: fake dating trope
-
After Jada turns down a proposal on a reality tv show, she becomes one of the most hated women on the internet and comes home to hide. When she comes home, her grandmother makes her get a job at a cupcake shop owned by Donovan, who is also a NFL player. When a reporter comes to the shop to ask about why Jada turned the proposal down, she lies and says she’s dating Donovan.
-
I love the fake dating trope and the cupcake shop was a cute setting. This was a bit slow paced for me though, but was cute.
-
CW: sexual content, bullying, ableism.

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin’s Press for the eArc of this adorable romance.

Now I have to say this was an absolute adorable contemporary romance that including food which was an automatic win in my book. This followed the fake dating trope which I am a sucker for and it gave the vibe of “friends to lovers”.

We follow Jada who is just trying to find her footing in life especially after dealing with aftermath of being on reality tv when she runs into Donovan who is a pro football player who also happens to run a Cupcake shop with a few of his teammates. Jada & Donovan need each other to help with publicity for the shop & recon from the world’s eye…so they fake a relationship.

I really enjoyed this book. The fact that it was a cute contemporary giving a highlight to healthy black relationships was amazing. I felt understood and heard when it came to the family battles that bother characters had to deal with especially being a black woman myself. The the representation of learning disorders & how to help do small minor things to help with them,

The only reason I give it a 4 star is because I felt like the conflict of the story came WAY too late towards the almost end of the book and the ending felt incredibly rushed. Other than that, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone that loves a cozy funny romance

Who doesn't like a good love story set in a bakery?? This was a fun read! Loved the characters. Donovan was the ultimate grump with a soft spot!

Jada was frustrating at times. I liked her back story with the dating show and whatnot but she was just a little annoying for me. I did love her grandma though and did feel for her when her parents were introduced!

Overall, this was a fun fake dating romance. Enjoyed the characters (mostly Donovan and his football buddies), liked the baking, and it had a cute ending!

Fake It Til You Bake It had me wanting something sweet, and football season to be here! Jada’s storyline was so intriguing to me. Reality TV is such a huge part of our culture now and it’s always interesting to see the side of the so called “villains”. The way Jada is treated by fans of the show is just awful! It really makes you wonder just how much of what we see is real with these shows. I’d guess not much 🥴

Anyway! I really enjoyed this book. I loved that the owners of the bakery were football players and that the owner of the football team they played for was a black woman. Any time a story has characters that break out of the ridiculous “norms” that society has created, it makes me happy!

Donovan and Jada’s relationship was adorable and fun to watch evolve past their rocky first meeting. The enemies to lovers trope will always get me.

I’m really hoping we will get the love stories of Donovan’s co-owners! It seems like the end might have left an opening for that! 😍

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the arc in exchange for my honest review! 💜

It took me a little bit to get into Fake It Till You Bake It but once I did I really did enjoy the ride. From the moment that Jada and Donovan meet, they bring out the fire in each other. Jada insults his cupcakes business and he thinks she is a pretentious bear. Their paths continue to cross as Jada is the grand daughter of the women who owns the football team which Donovan is quarterback of. As an attempt to prove himself to her family, Jada accepts a job to work at the bakery which Donovan is prompted to offer by hee grandmother. Neither one of them is exactly thrilled about this situation but, the more time they spend together the stronger the banter gets.

Donovan and Jada come from completely different backgrounds and have different personalities. Donovan is a sweetheart and always trying to help others. He runs the bakery with his two best friends and teammates and is always looking for a way to improve business. He really doesn't think that hiring Jada is going to be a good idea but he is willing to give her a chance. Jada has a bit of a hard break recently after she appeared on a reality dating show and publicly turned the proposal down at the end. She told people that she had heart set on someone else and when she starts working at the cupcake shop people automatically start thinking it is Donovan.

Starting a pseudo-dating relationship is not anything that Jada and Donovan have planned but, they can't ignore how it is helping business. Plus this scenario leads to several sweet moments; and some steamy ones too. And they banter when getting steamy too! Jamie Wesley does a great job of combining romance and humor is this story. The chemistry shines between Jada and Donovan and both characters experience growth the more time they spend together.

The secondary characters are also easy to root for. There are Donovan's two teammates August and Nicholas. They also help him with Sugar Blitz (the cupcake shop). Each one has an important role in running and keeping the shop open. They tease Donovan and their dynamic really is just like brothers. I just loved their bonding moments especially over reality television. Then there is Mrs. T (Jada's grandmother) who treats her football players like family. She also only wants what is best for Jada unlike her parents. Her parents were so judgmental and made her feel like she could never do anything right especially when it came to her learning disability. They were secondary characters that it was not hard to root against. I so wanted Jada to prove them wrong.

Fake It Till You Bake It is a fun romantic comedy. It takes classic tropes such as pseudo dating, grumpy/sunshine, and enemies/lovers. The main characters had chemistry and their bantering was just so good. Although it took a little while to get into but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down. I'm hoping there will be more from these characters. August and Nicholas need to find their loves too!

This book was a delight. I loved that the enemies part of "enemies to lovers" was short-lived and made the turn to romance believable. I really appreciated how they communicated with each other; none of the tension in the book was predicated upon miscommunication or keeping secrets, and that was so refreshing. In some ways, the characters got in their own way, but they also had each other's backs and were in it together--it was such a refreshing take on what type of connection is meaningful. I liked that they didn't bunker or treat their love or relationship as adversarial--they were really on the same team, and that made it fun to read.

All in all, a super fun, light book, with fun ambiance and likable characters.

This was my first fake dating trope and it did not disappoint. I loved both Jada and Donavan and how realistic and relatable their personalities were. I found the dynamic between the two to be authentic and their banter cute to read. More than just the romance part of it though I really enjoyed the story as a whole and the growth in Jada. I thought that her character was very well developed and I really rooted for her throughout the entire book . As someone who also lives with dyslexia I was really happy to see it represented in a way that showed it as more of a strength to who she was instead of an obstacle that was in her way. Now to the good stuff, the sexual tension and spice in this book was perfect. I didn’t even realize that there was going to be any spice until it came and I was glad for it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a romcom with fake dating, spice, and a little drama!

This book is not my cup of tea. I already don’t really care for romance books as it is, I like very few, and this one just was super cliche and also had severely unlikeable main characters. The writing is not my favorite and it was pretty hard to make it through the book. There is no reason for Jada to have been so nasty and rude. When its a romance boo I fee like I should fall for both of them and their story and romance and that just did not happen, i disliked them both and their “relationship” was super forced. Just not my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hate to say it, but this was just an exceptionally mediocre book. I had issues with the characters, the timeline, the conflict - pretty much everything. I truly didn't care about Jada or Donovan, which made this book a big miss for me. Jada and Donovan met, and then met again the next day, maybe two days later they were fake dating, and then MAYBE, maybe, two weeks later they were in love. That said, somehow the plot also dragged. It really felt like nothing happened for a good portion of the book.

Beyond the flaws in our main characters, the side characters were underwhelmingly flat. I could not tell you a single thing about them besides their names (and I would probably get some wrong). More importantly, the drama was also very flat. None of the struggles or even the villains felt realistic. The 'conflict' also came at about the 90% mark, so as you can imagine, it was resolved within pages.

I hope others enjoy this, but it was not for me.

loved it! an amazing read and something I would definitely reccomend. This was a new author for me and I was floored by this book!

3.5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fake It Till You Bake It follows Jada Townsend-Matthews, the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home, 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. And of course it's only fake, right?

I really liked the idea of this novel because I love fake dating. However, it felt like it took entirely too long for the novel to get to that aspect. I found myself a little bored for the first 20% where nothing really happened, and then once they did start fake dating I felt that the love was a little too instant. However, I did really love the baking atmosphere and if the author writes more books about the supporting cast I would definitely read them!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fast and cute read jam packed with chemistry! Highly recommend.