Read if you like: fake dating trope
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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.
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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.
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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.

Cute book overall. It had potential and I will check out more by this author, but this book just fell a little flat to me. Jada didn't make a great first impression on me, I wanted to know a lot more about Donovan, and I just didn't feel much depth to their relationship. Don't get me wrong, it was an quick, entertaining read despite all of that, I just wanted more.

Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley satisfies your sweet tooth with a reality tv star/ cupcake shop owner relationship that leaves you wanting more. Jada is fresh out of a reality dating show that left her with legions of fans who blame her for rejecting the bachelor’s proposal. She has never found something she wants to do with her life, so when her grandmother offers her a deal to gain control of her inheritance early if she works at one place for six months, she says yes. Even though she recently insulted the owner of the cupcake shop she is set to work at. As a ​​professional football player, Donovan knows he needs his passion for baking to turn into a successful business if he wants to have something to build on when he leaves the field. He is analytical, even-tempered, and risk-averse, but opening Suger Blitz with two fellow teammates and friends is a risk he was willing to make. Donovan has also agreed to hire Jeda as a favor to her grandmother and the owner of his team, but he never expected to find himself in a fake dating scenario with her. Reporters love Jeda a lot more now that she is in a new relationship, and the struggling cupcake shop is finally getting the steady traffic it needs to stay afloat. Adding love to the recipe threatens to change both their lives, but they cannot say no to something so sweet.
Cupcakes, reality tv show dating drama, football players, and fun event planning all come together in a near-perfect culinary romance. I think Suger Blitz is a perfect store. I cared about what flavors they had on their menu, their employees, their regulars, and even the development of the decorations. Sometimes the businesses or shops in romances serve as a functional, but bland backdrop to the romance at the center of the novel. I never felt that way about this cupcake shop and let me tell you I am already invested in who the other owners fall for.
I completely bought into Jamie and Donovan’s whirlwind relationship. They fall for each other the moment she steps in the door. The romance is more animosity-to-lovers than enemies-to-lovers, but I was still here for it. Jamie and Donovan quickly move past the light arguing to mutual respect to a fake dating scenario to real dating. Jamie supports Donovan’s efforts at the shop and is there for him when he explains his struggle to feel financially stable in adulthood after a childhood with a parent who has a gambling addiction. Donovan also works to help Jamie feel confident that her work is enough and she is enough after growing up with parents who saw her dyslexia as a problem. I will always root for a relationship that feels like a partnership and their chemistry was just icing on the cupcake.
Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley fills a lot of different needs so if you are looking for a celebrity romance, a sports romance, a culinary romance, or a black romance this could be the book for you.

I enjoyed this one!! I really didn’t like Jada at first and didn’t know why Donovan was so interested. Her character definitely grew on me throughout the book and I ended up liking her. Donovan was super sweet and I loved his family. And grams? LOVE!

Nicholas and August were also great. I got Bromance Bookclub vibes and I will be waiting for more books about them!

I always love the addition of a book club in a book too! Makes it so fun.

Overall I really enjoyed this one. Some of the ending bothered my a bit but I thought this was super quick and cute and made me want to bake all day!

When Jada Townsend-Matthews turns down a proposal during the finale of a Bachelor style reality TV show, she becomes a social pariah and pulls herself out of the public eye. Until she walks into Sugar Blitz and into the life of Donovan Dell. Although they get off on the wrong foot with Jada insults Donovan’s cupcake shop, they end up reconciling and crafting a plan that benefits both of them. Fake dating brings Donovan’s shop the clientele he needs and gives Jada proof of why she turned down the propose. It’s a recipe for success, right?

I deserve an award for not going and buying my weight in cupcakes while reading this!! The cupcake descriptions were absolutely heavenly and now I need to find a cupcake shop near me!!

I liked Jada and Donovan a lot, given the fact that they’re famous football players and influencers, they really felt like real people and their connection was so sweet (pun intended). The best parts of the book were when they were together just getting to know one another and falling for each other. I loved their backgrounds! The bachelor style show for Jada was so intriguing!! It was interesting to imagine the other side of coming off one of those shows (we can’t all be Hannah Browns!!) I also loved the background we got with some difficult topics like tough families and Jada’s dyslexia.

My only issues were that the pace felt a little off, especially at the end (which felt super super rushed) and some of the dialogue felt a little off. I also wish we got some more of Jada’s friends!! We got a little bit but I love those strong relationships in books.

I’m looking forward to reading more from Jamie Wesley, especially August’s story!! I love the quiet, brooding type!!

It appears I’ve become a big fan of the fake dating trope. I don’t know what’s taken me so long to realize that but here we are. I recently read Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley and I was tickled with the way the main characters were thrown together and had to pretend to be in a romantic relationship. Add in some cupcakes and I was a happy reader!

Here’s the book’s description:
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.
I’ll be honest – this book isn’t exactly what I’d call great BUT I couldn’t stop reading. I was delighted by the chemistry between Jada and Donovan even while I wondered how their romance could ever remotely happen in real life. It’s a far-fetched kind of story so you have to roll with it and accept the ridiculous hijinks and cringeworthy moments. It’s a romance, after all, what did I expect? All that said, I was so pleased to have sweet and sexy moments keeping me entertained throughout the entire novel.

I felt like I got to know Jada far more than I did Donovan, which I don’t think was the author’s intention. She just seemed more…real – even though her penchant for clothes and make-up are the complete opposite of me. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to get behind her as a heroine at the start but, like Donovan, I saw the real person underneath the shiny surface by the end of the novel. It helped that Jada finally saw herself too. She was so lost at the start of the book and so incredibly defeatist. I was honestly super frustrated with her but I can’t know exactly what it would have been like to have scientist parents like hers who always compared me to a book-smart sister while struggling through school because of dyslexia. That has got to damage a girl. I get it. But it was hard to read as she was throwing everything away because of some ridiculous misguided notion that she wasn’t good enough. And she wouldn’t listen to those who really did know her. I’m glad both her grandmother and Donovan got through to her and she realized how much she had to offer the world.

I thought it was too cute that the cupcake shop, Sugar Blitz, was owned by three professional football players. It totally destroys stereotypes and I absolutely loved it. I wasn’t entirely sure of the logistics and I’m not positive the timeline could have worked for the guys being in the off-season. They didn’t seem to ever be even working out or practicing and I don’t think teams get that much time off. That nit-picking aside, seeing a different side of pro athletes was refreshing when it seems like every other day we’re hearing about a dirtbag player doing something atrocious. Even if I didn’t get to know Donovan as much as I’d have liked, I did like him and I definitely hope Wesley has set up a series so we can follow along with his business partners and teammates as they find love, too.

It might not seem like I was super happy with Fake It Till You Bake It but Jamie Wesley’s novel was fun to read. I was really invested and was really satisfied with the Happily Ever After. I’ll for sure check out whatever Wesley writes next.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Jada Townsend-Matthews is the talk of the town after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show so she retreats to San Diego and runs into Donovan Dell, professional football player and owner of Sugar Blitz bakery. She finds herself working in the bakery thanks to her meddling grandmother when a reporter believes the two are a pair. They decide to use this to their advantage to reclaim Jada’s image and help the bakery.

Fake dating is without a doubt one of my favorite romance tropes and hunky football players with a soft side just make it that much better. This gave me vibes similar to Talia Hibbert with great BIPOC representation. Even though they progressed very quickly in their relationship, it was refreshing to see Jada stand up for herself and venture out on her own to discover what her true feelings were. I absolutely loved this!

Love stories centred around food and baking have been super popular lately, and I am eating it up! I have definitely been craving a cupcake since reading this book! Jada and Donovan's romance was certainly sweet, with plenty of depth, spice, and growth mixed in too. It was funny to see how their relationship quickly went from argumentative and heated disputes to deep passion and mutual respect. The more-than-working relationship started as a result of lust, but it was obviously how much they ended up caring for each other.

Both Jada and Donovan had great personal growth. They learned a lot from each other and those around them throughout the story, especially their friends and Mrs. T. I really liked Donovan's friends (and business partners), Nicholas and August, and am definitely looking forward to their love stories that were hinted at throughout this book!

There was plenty of teasing and joking to provide some balance for the more serious topics covered in this story. I particularly loved the vibe of the book club scenes. Jada and Donovan were going through some difficult circumstances and life changes, and it was nice to see how they supported and challenged each other. I enjoyed the overall tone of the book, along with the pacing of events. The ending would feel rushed if I didn't expect this to be a trilogy where we will see more of this couple. This book is definitely worth the read for the enemies to lovers trope, the cupcake descriptions, the great dynamics among this group of characters, and the relevant topics covered for anyone sorting out their life path.

Jada is not your average woman. She is a woman who is accustomed to a certain lifestyle, but is not always taken serious. Her grandmother loves her dearly and is her biggest cheerleader. Jada has not quite found herself yet. Her grandmother challenges her to become the woman she knows she can be by "helping" her secure a job. Jada is not ready for who and what the job entails. Fake It Til You Bake It will have you stoping by your local bakery on the regular for more than the treats. Simple and light read for the summer.