This book was sweet and simple. I really fell in love with Donovan and Jada’s characters. They both have grumpy tendencies and it was refreshing instead of the grumpy/sunshine trope. I will say this book took me a little bit to get into but overall I really enjoyed my time with this one.

This was such a charming romantic comedy. It was humorous, light and entertaining in every way.

First of all, I absolutely love and always enjoy the ‘enemies to lovers’ trope so having this in the book was great! The characters were so likeable and fun to follow along throughout the book.

Overall a fun read that I would totally recommend to any rom-com lover!

Fake It Till You Bake It isn't my normal read. But honestly it made a delightful change as it's a cute and charming tale featuring Jada a reality star, who experiences the down side of social media when she turns down a marriage proposal on a TV dating show, and Donovan an NFL player who likes to bake and whose part owner of a cupcake store called Sugar Blitz, and whose first meeting with Jada isn't exactly a success when she claims the store bland and the cupcakes stale.

But circumstances soon force Jada and Donovan back together and the pair certainly have some chemistry as they end up faking a romance that soon develops into the real thing.

And with a well-written storyline, characters who grow as the story develops and some serious subjects addressed including the impact of social media and addiction. This was an enjoyable and at times fun read. That certainly offered much more than I was expecting.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for a gifted copy of the e-book. I was excited to see a baking romance because I've been on a food competition/restaurant/etc. book kick this year! This is an enemies to lovers (sort of), fake dating, workplace romance.

Jada is public enemy number 1 after turning down Dr. John on a dating show. Donovan Dell is a football player who happens to own a cupcake shop and enjoy baking. Their first meeting is a disaster but of course, circumstances bring the pair back together and chaos ensues.

What I liked:
Jada's grandmother was a wonderful character and I honestly wanted more of her story than the main paring.
Jada's BFF Olivia.
Donovan's friends
The cupcake shop!
The scene with Jada, Donovan and Jada's parents at dinner
Jada's character growth

What I didn't like
Jada and Donovan -- the main couple. I don't know what it is. I get that Jada was trying to protect herself from everything because the world hated her and her parents were rude to her but overall, I just didn't buy the two of them together and Donovan was too much of a cinnamon roll for me. I wanted some more fire I think and the two of them together just didn't work for me. It's really hard for me to rate the book anything higher than 3 stars because I didn't like the main characters.

Your mileage may vary though. Jada's character growth was wonderful and probably the best part of the book but I never quite got there with fully embracing her and especially Donovan.

Fake It Till You Bake It comes out on June 21 and is available for pre-order now

This fake dating romance follows reality star Jada and NFL/cupcake bakery owner Donovan. After turning down the final proposal on her dating reality show, Jada is doing her best to hide out and ride out the onslaught of negative opinions. She starts working at Donovan's bakery and when a nosy journalist starts pushing Jada for the reason she turned down the proposal, Jada says Donovan is the reason. The two agree to a mutually beneficial fake dating ploy to increase sales at the bakery and rehab Jada's public image. Only as the weeks progress, they find this fake dating is starting to feel all too real. I really enjoyed this read and loved Jada and Donovan together. I'm not a fan of reality dating shows so I was pleased that this story took place after Jada's show and we got to see some of the aftermath of reality TV from her perspective. We get a fantastic cast of side characters as well and I'm so glad the ending set up one of these side characters for their own book in the future. What didn't work for me was the 3rd act breakup. It happened around the 90% mark and really felt like it came completely out of left field. I generally like the reason for the break up when it has come up in other books, but in this case I didn't feel like those reasons were introduced previously very much. With this specific issue, I like there to be a gradual build up of tension or for there to be some recurring issue that keeps poking at the characters until they can't ignore it any longer. Then, because the breakup happened so late in the book, there wasn't much time on page to see the characters grow and develop. We're told they're apart for 3 months before getting back together and we're told they've grown as people, but we don't really see that growth on page like I personally prefer.

Thanks NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC. Expected publication date is June 21, 2022

This was a cute contemporary romantic comedy. Nothing really stands out to make it amazing for me, but it's a nice palate cleanser or a book for when you don't want to do alot of thinking and good to pass the time. I did get a little bored because it started off too slow for me. But overall, I liked the characters and would probably continue on with the series. (The ending hinted we would have a book about one of the side characters, August.)

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.

This book was such a sweet read that was well written with wonderfully created characters that had me hooked from the very beginning! I really enjoyed the interaction and chemistry between Jada and Donovan which kept me totally glued to my kindle until the turn of the very last page!

Attraction of Opposites.
I loved this story of two flawed people, shaped by their childhoods finding happiness together. This book has a real feel-good vibe that puts a smile on your face.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fake It Till You Bake it has a fake relationship, a bit of reality tv, hot football players, and cupcakes galore. Don’t miss out on this light, charming romance!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Donovan and Jada’s meet not-so-cute happens when Jada is vocally unimpressed with his cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz. They spar, sparks fly, but neither thinks they will see the other again. But, when football player Donovan’s team owner and mentor asks him to give her granddaughter a job, he’s shocked when the woman is Jada. Jada is recovering after turning down a reality tv marriage proposal and being vilified by the show’s fans. She’s hoping this new job will help her figure out what she wants to do next. What neither of them expect, a few plot twists later, is to pretend to date to improve both Jada’s image and business at Sugar Blitz.

This romance is simply fun. I liked Jada and Donovan, who both have strong personalities and complex family relationships. Jada’s struggle with dyslexia and her family’s reaction to it was frustrating yet realistic. While sometimes it’s tough in romance to create a convincing reason for a fake relationship, publicity and public image work well as justifications in this case. And it helps that I adored Jada and Donovan’s chemistry and banter.

The secondary characters are awesome. Jada’s Grams is fabulous, whether she’s acting as a strong, black woman running a football team, a business mentor or as a doting grandmother. I also got a kick out of Donovan’s bakery partners and football teammates Nicholas and August; fingers crossed they both have their own books ahead!

Fake It Till You Bake It was my introduction to Jamie Wesley, and I can’t wait to read more of her books. If you like great characters, fake dating, and, of course, cupcakes, this is a fun romance to read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Fake It Till You Bake It in exchange for an honest review. ~

Okay, so this was a good month for fake dating books because I also liked how this book handled the trope! That being said though, this wasn’t as great as I was hoping.

I love a good cooking setting romance, but the pacing of this was all over the place and the plot was... weird.

This started off strong, with a meet-ugly between Jada and Donovan. Initially, I really was thinking Donovan would be my preferred POV, but Jada ended up growing on me. She felt very personable and I could certainly relate to her speaking before you think issue as well as her fear of failure and disappointing her loved ones. The message about how women are portrayed in media was well done and the handling of her dyslexia was as well. I think overall, Jada had a strong character arc and was probably the most well-written character in the book. On the other hand, Donovan was charming in the beginning but I felt as though his personality slowly waned as the book progressed. And god, the possessiveness that comes out of nowhere and was so unwarranted! On top of that, his side plot felt very low stakes given that he could lose his company.

The attraction between these two was instant, but I didn’t feel like there was enough chemistry to back it up. They bickered a lot (sometimes sounding more like teenagers than adults) and only had a few serious conversations where I felt that a relationship was actually blossoming. Two chili peppers for the smut scene.

Side characters should have been more built up by the end, especially if there is going to be a sequel, and the last-minute conflict was so unnecessary. It lasted a single chapter. And then, of course, the required couple drama that also lasted a chapter. Why can’t we, as a book community, move past this? Instead of making them break up for a single chapter (that apparently was a three-month period?), the last-minute conflict could have been stretched out and the couple could have worked together to find a solution! In the process, they could see how committed they are and what they truly mean to one another! That would have been much more interesting.

I think this was an easy, quick romance read, but unfortunately, didn’t stand out.

Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
This is a meet cute story with cupcakes on the side. Jada and Donovan's story. It was a fun read and I enjoyed it.
Funny Romantic Easy-to-read Wonderful characters Happily Ever After Entertaining.
Easy-to-read Entertaining Funny Happily Ever After Romantic Wonderful characters

I loved the progression of Jada and Donovan's relationship from only working at his shop because she would lose everything and can't access her trust fund if she could keep a job for six months. I also forgot to mention that social media has blacklisted Jada because she rejected a bachelor on national TV and trying to stay low. Funny enough, she and Donovan meet on the wrong foot when she says the cupcakes are stale. That domino affects a chain of events that puts Jada in the hot spot and drags Donovan in the middle. They make a plan to fake date and of course, they both promise that they won't fall for the other. The amount of baking, the side characters, Donovan's character development and becoming more open with Jada.

You had me at cupcakes.
Donovan is a football player by day and a cupcake baker by night. Donovan is a man with a plan, he knows that football won't last forever, and he needs a fall back plan. He opens up a cupcakery with some of his fellow teammates and the cupcakes are the best in town, but his sales are falling off and he isn't sure why.
When Jada comes into the shop with her friend, she wastes no time making it known how she feels about the shop aesthetic. It's lackluster at best. Too bad the owner of the shop hears her and sparks fly.
Fast forward a few days, Jada needs a job and her grandmother just got her one, in the cupcake shop that she insulted.
The fact that Jada is an ex reality star and basically just broke the internet will come in handy for bringing customers to the cupcake shop. Also, accidentally starting up a fake relationship will bring in even more! I have been all about the fake dating trope lately, and this book delivers! Cupcakes, a diverse set of characters and football make this book a win!
Thank you to Netgalley, Jamie Wesley and St. Martin's for an early copy.

If you like your romance with a pinch of fake dating and smattering of sports and baking, this one is for you! The chemistry between the leads made this a great read!

Thank you to Net Galley and S. Martin Press for allowing me to give my honest review on Fake It Till You Bake It.

This wasn't your typical romance as Donovan was a football player who owned and baked at a bakery. When Jada stopped in with her friend to get a cupcake it all begins and ends there. Jada life wasn't going the way that she thought and meeting Donovan was just what she didn't know she needed.

Donovan was the type to plan every aspect of his life and Jada was a say how she feel and go with the flow type. They worked really well together. Love the fake dating and see how that grew the bakery's business.

Great Book overall!

DNF at 20%

I think the concept of this book is absolutely fantastic, but the actual execution is lacking the flavor that I crave. I'm not really pulled in by either of the characters or the story and I already found a few moments in which the book contradicts itself in presenting certain points. I'm sure that plenty of readers out there will devour this book, but it's just not something I'm currently vibing with.

This was a great story and I truly enjoyed it. It was funny, sweet and romantic. These two characters were fantastic and the chemistry between then could not be denied. I definitely recommend this book for others to read.

In this book we have two MC's, Jada and Donovan. Jada is a woman who is hated by the public due to the fact that she just turned down a man's proposal on reality TV, Donovan is a local celebrity/NFL star, and he owns a cupcake business with his two best friends and teammates. These two meet when Jada walks into his cupcake shop with her bestie and is noisily very unimpressed. Donovan and Jada have chemistry right off the bat.

Due to Jada's history of never holding down a job and her embarrassment of her family, her parents have cut her off. She is set to get access to her trust fund from her grandmother in a year, but her grandmother tells her if she can hold down a job for 6 months, she will give her access to her trust fund. 6 months! Just work for 6 months! Did I mention, her grandmother owns the team that Donovan plays for, and she asks Donovan to give her a job at the cupcake shop? Does this woman have to earn anything on her own?

This story sounded good. Jada and Donovan had good chemistry. I loved Jada's grandmother. Other than that, it fell flat for me. The timeline never seemed clear. She ends up quiting the cucpcake shop before the 6 months and her grandmother STILL gives her access to her trust fund. I didn't get it. I also wanted to know more about the side characters. They were just there. I knew next to nothing about them and wasn't invested in any of them. This story needed more depth and less confusion.

It was only 3 stars for me.

We have Jada and Donovan as the main characters. Jada is resurfacing from her time on a reality TV dating show, where she rejected the proposal. Donovan is an NFL player that runs a cupcakery with two of his best friends/teammates.

What could have been a classic meet cute turns into a thrashing of words. Jada doesn’t like the cupcakes at Sugar Blitz. Donovan tries to get her to literally eat her words by trying one.

I guess you could say her grandmother is the matchmaker. She has Jada work at the bakery and unbeknownst to them a fake dating moment would present itself.

I didn’t like Jada. But I didn’t dislike her. I’ll agree with anyone else that calls her privileged in the economical sense. She doesn’t have a lot of drive to “grow up”. She’s a disappointment to her parents because she didn’t follow in their footsteps. And her dyslexia is apparently an embarrassment to both of her doctor parents. I found that frustrating as a reader and it had my sympathize with Jada. Her biggest champion is her Grams, but that can only go so far. I will say she got inspiration for her life at the very end of the book by giving up a relationship that brought her a lot of joy.

Donovan is very type A. He follows a schedule, a life map…he’s very orderly. His friends and family have been hoping that something of someone would mess it up. And Jada comes to be that person. His orderly ways got to be a bit too much for me. He seemed very stiff and unwilling to have any sort of fun.

This book has the formula to be one’s perfect guilty pleasure. But for some reason I found myself reading a chapter, putting it down, picking up a few days later…and repeating that until I finished it tonight. While this book was good it was a bit too wordy. I am interested to see if the side characters get books because one was teased at the end.


Overall: 3.5 ⭐️
Spice: 0.75 🌶

Thank you St. Martin’s Griffin for my copy! All thoughts are my own.

I’m a sucker for any romance with a football player. Mix in some fake dating, a little reality TV star drama AND a book club in a cupcake shop? A perfectly sweet—with a dash of spice—Rom Com for summer.

Synopsis:

“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.”—NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Tropes—Fake dating and nemesis to lovers is always a winning combo

The Tone—It was fun, light, breezy and perfect for summer.

The Characters—I loved Jada and Donovan. Plus the side characters were so great. I wish we got more involved in the football world but that’s probably just because I love football.

What Didn’t Work:

Stakes Were Low—I just wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be and felt the third act break up was a stretch. It happened so late we didn’t have a lot of time to recover, though I did respect Jada’s reasonings.

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Steam Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 3.75/5

Content Warnings:

blackmail, strained parent-child relationship