this book was so adorable and cute!
there were great characters and the romance was also great
the representation featured here was very authentic too
overall i'd definitely recommend

My rating 3.5/5 Stars

Okay now a book where people are navigating life as a second-generation immigrants are so up my alley as I am a child of parents who immigrated from a different country. I enjoyed this very much.

The fake boyfriend/fake dating trope is not my cup of tea but when it comes to romance aren't really but this one was just so well done and so sweet I could not help but love it. Our main character Samaya is a hard working, driven teen that wants to impress the universities she is applying to. In this book Samaya is unexpectedly dumped by the highschool golden boy has derailed her summer volunteering and now she's starting the year behind in volunteer hours and heartbroken. The story follows the aftermath of that and how Samaya navigates it. And I will leave it at that so I do not spoil it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for this ARC!

My Rating 3.5

Thanks to NetGalley and Skyscape for the free DRC of the book!!

I read this in one-sitting. I knew I had to read a Farah Heron book when I saw one, especially if it was a spin-off of Tahira in Bloom.

I loved Tahira in Bloom last year and I was giddy to read Samaya’s (aka Sam, Tahira’s sister) book.

Don’t let the cover fool you into thinking that it has to do with Sam baking. No, she mostly helps the baker.
There’s something about jocks who can bake and are humble that gets me every time. Daniel was the sunshine to Sam’s semi-grumpy self. Absolutely adored the two.

Side characters were equally written well and were prominently present in the story.

This book was about moving on, learning about what mattered in this social media obsessed world, and also finding love. Highly recommend it if you like you like Fake Dating and Gaming tropes in YA books.

I absolutely adored Samaya and Daniel! From their meet-cute to the very end they were just so amazing together! The banter, and the way he always had a way to make her smile.. SWOON!! I also learned so many random facts, but it was so refreshing for them to just throw them in the conversation!
Overall I think this was a very cute fake dating high school romance! They worked so well together even if Daniel said they were like “chocolate and lemon square” he was wrong! Lol
❤️The Pi pie❤️

This was a great story! I felt like it had so much representation and I really liked that. It was diverse and fun and I really enjoyed it!

3.5/5
This book hit all the right notes in a lot of ways. The main character was likable and her banter with her two closest friends was relatable and fun. I enjoyed the storyline's direction and the view into a competitive academic school 'for nerds.' The game creation portion was super fun and as a fellow gamer girl, I approve! The only stumble in the storyline was honestly how the book description didn't fit the story for the first probably 20%. It just felt disjointed in that way and I had to go back to the synopsis several times to make sure I was reading the correct book. Other than that an enjoyable YA read.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC! I love a good messy romance.

Samaya is a high school senior trying to save face as the new school year starts. She has to deal with frenemies, gossip, misogyny, and of course her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend (who, naturally, is one of the aforementioned frenemies). The solution? A fake boyfriend. Daniel all but falls into her lap at her new volunteer gig and agrees to help her win the breakup.

Throw She’s All That, Never Have I Ever, and a little bit of One Of Us Is Lying together and this is what you get. The gamer-girl academic needs her new pastry chef/hockey player fake-boyfriend to pass as a gamer nerd to try to trick the schools gossip instagram account into believing that their relationship is real.

I liked how neurotic Samaya is. Her worries felt very real in terms of what seventeen year olds go through, especially those who are held to higher standards not only by their parents but by themselves as well. I also liked the friendships in this book, including the frenemies, especially because the frenemies served an actual purpose to the plot and not just to create drama.

This book went deeper than just a fake dating romance. It touched on racism in ways that were effective but not in-your-face or obviously added to check a box. The LGBTQIA+ characters had substance and depth and didn’t serve as just a character trope - Cass is the friend we should all strive to be! And the conversations around homelessness and Samaya’s reflection on what it means to be housed should give readers something to think about.

My only real problem with this book is that even though I know it’s YA and told in first person, the occasional acronym like LOL and IRL bugged me. It would be one thing if they were written in one of the text messages, but they were included in the narrative and I don’t think they belong there.

Overall I enjoyed this book! It was pretty cute, pretty quick, and worth it!

I started this book as a buddy read and I have to say although there was a very slow start this book was actually a good read. I love love love me some Daniel and just the way that he is always ALL smiles. To me we never see that alot when reading because some teens have trauma or something else going on with them. With Samaya I felt like she doubted herself way too much. Especially when she was that chick when it came to math and her gaming. This is another thing that I feel teenagers do alot. Doubt themselves because they aren't told how good they are. Devin I didnt like him because he was just a douche and I feel like he did Samaya wrong with no explanation. Her friends are truly something special and I loved to see that for her. I highly recommend this book when it releases March 21, 2023. When you read it make sure you come back and let me know your thoughts
-Chan

Thank you for my ARC copy of this read

This was such a cute read! I’ll be honest- I totally thought that Daniel and LostAxis were the same person going into the book. This was a really great twist on the online/real life tripe. I couldn’t put the book down! (Literally. I was up until 3:40am.) The characters are great, especially Daniel, Samaya, and Cass. (I’m so happy how Cass’ story ended.) I absolutely adored this book and I can’t wait for release day!

[ Review time! ]

Title: How to Win a Breakup
Author: Farah Heron
Genre: Teens & YA
Release Date: March 21 2023
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Wow! This book was so cute and so amazing!
It was a very well written story by Farah.

It was extremely realistic, which I appreciated A LOT!! And I loved all the different diversities that was being portraited in this book🖤

I also LOVED that the story wasn’t about the stereotypichal popular kids we so often read about, this was the geeky/nerdy/amazing side - which is also my side in life - and that made me relate so much to the characters!
Samaya is such a badass girl and I am so so thankful for Farah to made her like that❤️

A few things I absolutely adored in this book:
- Daniel (my newest book boyfriend)🥹
- Lemon Squares (AND THE RECIPE IS IN THE BOOK!! Only that is a big reason to go read this book)🍋
- Samaya and Cass (I want them both as besties)

Overall it was an amazing book, I highly recommend you to read this one as soon as it comes out on March 21 in 2023🗓️

A big thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for letting me read this ARC for an honest review.
But the biggest thank you to the author, Farah Heron, for writing this adorable book!💖

Argggggghhhhhh, what a sweet confection of a book! I read it in one day and had to reapply chapstick TWICE because I seriously could not stop grinning the whole way through. I was worried at the start because it does start out with the Falling in Love Under False Pretences trope, which makes me tense and unhappy. I was so grateful that it quickly transitions to Fake Dating instead, which, I'll be honest, I don't usually love either, but in this case it was handled so well that maybe I'm a convert?

Full marks for Samaya, a satisfyingly imperfect main character who is nevertheless so relatable and root-for-able.

Full marks again for Daniel, the love interest, who, let's be honest, is a little too perfect for me to believe in him as a teenage boy, but in a way that I'm fully on board with. Every teenager deserves a boyfriend this perfect if they want one, and I hope they all come away from reading this book feeling like that's true.

Fullest possible marks for Heron, a writer who can be funny and fun while also addressing serious subjects. It's a hard line to walk-- you don't want your readers to end up feeling depressed, but you also don't want to treat real-world problems too lightly. I think that Heron struck a balance here that really vibes with me, like, Yes, the world is hard, that's why we have to laugh. If I had one critique on that front, it would be that maybe all the problems get ironed out a little too quickly and easily at the end. That said, it didn't affect the 99% of the book beforehand, which was stellar.

I'd DNF'd Tahira in Bloom because I'm so allergic to the Enemies to Lovers trope that it leaned heavy into right from the start, but I'm thinking I may have to give it another chance now that I've seen how cool Tahira is as an older sister?

This was such a cute read. My parents are immigrants from India so books in which people are navigating life as a second-gen are always of particular interest to me.

Things I loved:
- depiction of gamer culture (even though I'm not a gamer)
- reversal of gender stereotypes with who is a gamer and who is a baker
- non-binary representation
- cis males not winning everything
- diversity
- Daniel all around
- Yasmin! aww

Things I struggled with:
- Devin. in general. mostly because I know so many Indian men like him and so many aunties and uncles like his parents. and just... ugh.

This story was super cute and I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for this ARC!

Absolutely adorable! Fake boyfriends aren't really my romance trope favorite but this one was just perfect! Our MC is Samaya and she's a hard working, driven teen in her last year to wow the universities. But unexpectedly being dumped by the highschool golden boy has derailed her summer volunteering and now she's starting the year behind in volunteer hours and heartbroken.

It was hard to like Samaya at first, as she tried to assert herself in to the breakup game and try to stay on top. She was hard on her friends and Daniel as she demaned nothing short of what she was giving to the game. I liked the additional wonder of who was the player over the summer and who was running the site. It was easy to point fingers at the rough 'friend group' Samaya surrounded herself with.

I loved the volunteer work. I think the shelter and residents were handled with respect and care and I liked how it was gently put in to the story and held as a main theme. I also loved that Cass's gender neutral pronouns were seemlessly put in the story and were not the main focus. Instead it felt natural and easy, exactly as it should be.

And I love that there was a little recipe in the back! How fun, I'll have to try it out! Sweet but with interesting themes, a story that sucked me in and held me to the end. I even loved the injected video game lingo (but it's staves! not staffs!) I'm so glad I gave this one a try, it was so much more than I thought it would be!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Samaya Janmohammad, math genius and gamer-nerd, gets dumped by her boyfriend. Then he sabotages her job and dates her frenemy. Her golden-boy ex is winning the breakup, so Samaya gets into a fake relationship with a guy who met volunteering at a shelter house, Daniel, a hockey jock and a really good baker. As they whip up an imitation romance, resisting each other's very real charms turns impossible. Samaya finds herself on an unexpected journey of secrets, self-discovery, and the true meaning of moving on.
If you are looking for a cute, lighthearted and fast paced book i highly recommend it.
Thanks NetGalley for the e-arc!

This was a very cute story. It had the feel of the Classic YA but I loved that the characters were so diverse and how respect was given to each character's culture and traditions. While I enjoyed the book very much there are some things I wish might have been a little different. I loved Samaya and enjoyed her growth throughout the book. I loved that while she was Academically gifted she still had lessons about life and people and even herself. I very much enjoyed her realizing that there is a world outside of her “bubble” and learning there was more to life than just being a good student.


Dev’s character felt a little incomplete to me so I think that some of his actions were a little confusing to me. I didn't really get a sense of his personality other than him being described as “hot” and “the Golden Boy '' by other characters in the book. Whenever they had conversations it felt like he wasn't really saying anything. Sometimes it felt as if his only purpose was to be the Catalyst for Samaya to meet Daniel and to trigger her emotions to come up with the fake dating plan. Many times it felt like the idea of him was more present than his physical presence which made the reveal at the end a little confusing for me and honestly a little underwhelming. I would have liked more meaning behind the reasons for his actions.

Daniel was a sweetheart. He was caring, funny, and charming. While Dev may have felt a little incomplete to me Daniel felt fully fleshed out and defined as a character and his personality shined through in every interaction with Samaya and even his interactions with other characters. I loved his back story and his connection to the shelter where they meet and work together. I'm also a sucker for a guy that can bake. The chemistry between Daniel and Samaya was present from the first time they met and I loved them together. They seemed to bring out the best in each other. He always supported and encouraged her constantly which was something she seemed to not have with Dev and she helped him learn to stand up for himself and not be ashamed of his past and to appreciate how far he has come.

I also had mixed feelings about Samaya’s friends. While I adored Cass and how supportive but honest they were with Samaya, I was confused by her friend Aimee’s behavior. My first impression of Aimee was that she seemed very smart and confident. She would also refer to herself as one of Samaya’s best friends so I felt confused when it felt like her personality kind of switched and she became a doormat for one of Dev’s horrible friends. She allowed him to bully, sabotage and insult her supposed best friend and never came to her defense. Although Samaya seemed to get to a place where she could be friendly with her again it's clear they were no longer as close as they previously were and that's fine but i do wish we could have gotten a confrontation or a conversation between the two about everything because i felt like Samaya at least deserved an explanation and an apology.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was very cute and funny and reminded me of the Teen Rom Coms from the late 90’s early 2000’s i loved like She's all that and Drive me Crazy. The romance and chemistry was natural and nothing seemed forced. Even though there was romance they was also a funny and smart young female MC who learned to never dim her shine for anyone and also that anyone who makes her feel like she can't be 100% herself is not worth her time .

After her boyfriend Devin breaks up with her at the end of their next-to-last year of high school, Samaya spends her summer moving from heartbreak to getting her life back on track and enjoying her online gaming with her new gaming buddy, LostAxis, Once school starts, though, her parents want Sam to focus on studies, building her leadership resume for college applications, and catching up her volunteer hours. Unfortunately, the school's gossip mill/Whispers Instagram account brings her breakup back to the fore when Devin starts dating a mutual friend, implying he might "win" their breakup.

Sam makes the rash decision to let her friends doctor a photo from LostAxis to imply that Sam has moved on, but when her first day at her volunteer shift at the local family shelter introduces her to her new volunteer buddy Daniel, she realizes that Daniel matches the young man in the photo -- but Daniel doesn't play online games and can't be LostAxis himself. Angry at being catfished by someone she trusted, Sam persuades Daniel to pretend they're dating so she can win the breakup over social media.

I really wasn't sure if this book was for me because the idea of "winning" a breakup seems so petty to me. I get that it's probably a pervasive attitude toward high school relationships, but it still had an ick factor that I didn't think I would get past. However, Heron is skilled at taking situations like this and characters you might want to shake and turning them into well-crafted growth arcs and relatable people who learn from their mistakes. Sam makes a lot of dubious choices in this book, but she has excellent friends (Cass and, later, Daniel) willing to call her out in a loving way and to show her how to see her own worth. (Shoutout to Cass, a nonbinary character with depth and a good growth arc of their own.) Daniel is a delightful foil to Sam's serious, nerdy nature, and I really appreciated how his character had room to express different emotions, reveal difficult parts of his past, and find the strength to move forward.

High school friendships and relationships can be fraught with baggage at the best of times and backstabbing at the worst, and Heron brilliantly creates the tangle of drama here and unravels it slowly for a satisfying happy ending. 4 stars.

Read this if you love: gamer girls, women in STEM, social media drama, thriving after a breakup, fake dating, baking the blues away, pi pie, hockey heroes, being true to yourself

Thank you, Skyscape and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

First of all, I'm so grateful to Farah Heron and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this. It did not disappoint.

Such a sweet and feel-good read with great representation. I love how diverse the story was and how the plot moved along. I didn’t expect the identity reveal and it tied together soo perfectly. Plus who doesn’t love a good pastry-filled romance?

One thing that I loved that Samaya was that she had so many layers to her as a girl. She was a gamer who loved math and lived in a well-off family, while also caring way too much about what others thought of her and how they saw her. I don’t really like that she credits Daniel for the wake up call though when Cass was telling her the same things the whole time…but love I guess 😂

Another thing I enjoyed was the reverse grumpy sunshine trope because we don’t often see the guys as being sunshine. Daniel was such a lovely character because he wasn’t written as the typical guy. He liked hockey but he also liked to bake and was kind to all the people he met. Another MMC you can easily fall in love with.

I actually give it a 4.5 stars

I don’t read YA fiction enough, and ai need to fix that. Thank you for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book. I was so invested in wanting to see Samaya win (because boooo, Devin!).

This book took me back to the simplicity of high school conflict, & how significant it felt to us at that age.

Omg this was such a cutesy story!!

I loved everything about it. The fake dating was adorable.

It’s funny because the MC is ALWAYS self absorbed so my favorite part was when Cass finally had enough of Samayah lol.

This is the perfect story for anyone who considers themselves a gamer or a “nerd”. Or anyone who just loves a feel good YA romance.

thank you Netgalley for the arc of this book!

the story follows Samaya, a high school senior, as she starts a new school year after her ex Devin dumped her at the beginning of summer. Their break-up is then turned into a competition and she is determined to win this. There enters Daniel, who accepts to fake date her in exchange for tutoring.

this book was literally a breath of fresh air, i loved it SO much, i loved the characters, i loved how real the settings felt like, i love all the diversity in it and honestly fake dating is my favorite trope in romance stories so i knew i would like it no matter what. i loved the writing and i'm so interested to check out the author's other books especially the one focusing on Samaya's sister.

one of my favorite books i have read this year i think and one of the best ya contemporary romance i've come across, couldn't recommend it enough and i'm so excited for publishing day!