I’m not normally a fan of instalove but this one was super cute!! I just wish we had gotten to see the MCs relationship develop a little more. The pacing of the book was also a little funky, it felt like everything yet nothing was happening at once. But overall, very cute read and definitely not something you want to start on an empty stomach!

In Fake Dates and Mooncakes aspiring chef Dylan Tang hopes to save his Auntie Jade's Singaporean Chinese takeout, the Wok Warriors, from eviction by entering a mooncake-making contest. The prize is exposure on a famous Malaysian chef's cooking show. While he is preparing for the contest, Dylan meet the wealthy charming Theo Sommers whose friend is rude to Dylan during a food delivery. Theo shows up at Wok Warriors and raves over their xiao long bao and flirts with Dylan. When he finds out about the restaurant's financial woes, he sends $5,000 to Auntie Jade from a fake grant program. Dylan confronts him and Theo says he can repay him by being his fake date to a wedding in the Hamptons. The familiar fake-dating rom/com trope is developed in a delightfully unique setting as Dylan navigates first-love and family issues. Witty dialogue, Chinese cultural references and delicious cuisine make this a sweet read.

When I started Fake Dates and Mooncakes, all I knew was the information one might glean from the title and cover. I've been pretty tired of reading about rich people, so I was disappointed to find that the love interest and his family are very wealthy. But Dylan and Theo's romance and some of the lovely side characters won me over for the most part.

I loved the aspects of the story that focused on Dylan's quest to make winning mooncakes to honor his late mother and gain publicity for his aunt's restaurant. I was less excited about Theo and his rich, obnoxious family. Theo has some moments, especially at the beginning, where I wanted to shake him, but he did grow on me. By the end I was rooting for Dylan and Theo. This wasn't a new favorite, but it was a solid book that I don't regret reading, and I will keep an eye out for future books from Sher Lee!

I received Fake Dates & Mooncakes by Sher Lee on NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much for my advanced copy! I have been so excited to read this since seeing the cover reveal on Instagram and I am so happy to say that the fantastic cover matches a fantastic story!

Romcoms are my absolute favourite, I fall in love with them every single time and I am so happy that this is another romcom added to my favourites! The chemistry between Theo & Dylan was instant and I loved watching their emerging friendship and blossoming romance. I loved that Theo truly liked being around Dylan for who he was and didn’t try to make him change to fit in with the ‘rich crowds’. He just genuinely wanted to be around him all the time. I also loved how Dylan showed Theo more of their shared culture without judgment and though a love of mooncakes which sounded absolutely delicious!

Fake Dates & Mooncakes is such a sweet and heartwarming story with all of the classic romcom hijinks that I adore! This has become an instant favourite that I immediately want to reread!

This book! The freaking book!!!!!!😍💖💗✨🥺🤍

Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Adorable and extremely cinematic!! Warning: don’t read on an empty stomach I was SUFFERING. I loved the story so much and the fake dating at the wedding really took it up a notch. I’d have liked even more of that!! I think the weakest link was the relationship (which still worked since I enjoyed the general plot just as well). I really felt them towards the end, but Dylan was talking about falling in love and stuff so early when I barely even heard them have a long conversation. I also wanted a bit more closure with Adrian because he was such a dick and Theo didn’t do much about it???

2023 LGBTQIA+ Pride Month #5 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am making my way through my YA backlog, and while I meant to read this book for AAPI month, it sort of fell through the cracks, so here we are.

Again, you can read the synopsis for yourself, so I won't bore you with that, but this is a sort of youngish Crazy Rich Asians (the book/movie is actually mentioned), but gay. The boys are super cute, obviously, but I could've done with less of Theo's friend Adrian. And his butler. And his dad. And a lot of his family. Rich people problems, am I right?

Dylan is a precious cinnamon roll that must be protected at all costs. I'm a terrible Asian American in that I've never had a mooncake, but now I want one. LA recs?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

A young boy must cook like never before to save his family business, but can he save his heart in the process?

This story gives Heartstopper vibes, but without the graphic novel illustrations. Meaning, at the end of the story you are left with the warm fuzzy feelings and craving for something sweet.

goodreads wasn’t kidding when they called “fake dates and mooncakes” a crossover of “heartstopper” and “crazy rich asians!” dylan and theo definitely reminded me of charlie and nick in “heartstopper” because their admiration of each other is heart-warming and full of the best intent. i’m also a big fan of novels that incorporate family relationships into the romantic ones. you can see how much dylan cares about his family by the way he works hard to keep the memory of his mother alive when he practices making mooncakes. i also love how involved his aunt and cousins are in the plot - dylan needs their approval of theo and it’s clear that they all approve of him! it’s also easy to see how much theo longs to have a family like dylan … so it made me so happy whenever he’d be invited to dinner. all in all, i thought this novel was a perfect balance of romance, drama, and witty banter … it’s a must-read!

now, we can’t forget theo’s family’s share of appearances and contributions to his relationship! i thought it was so sweet how some of his cousins bonded with dylan’s cousin and how all of them were rooting for the duo! aside from theo’s father and a handful of his aunts, i’d say his family had the right intentions. theo is easily the king of grand gestures and it was really sweet seeing the lengths he’d go to prove his love for dylan! this plot would make the perfect movie and everyone would fall for dylan and theo!

This was such a cute and fun read! If you’re someone who loves books that have food, you’re going to love this one. The focus on the love, care, and memory that goes into making food was done beautifully. This is a romantic comedy with a really cute budding romance, but it’s also a love letter to those who are gone and those who are part of our family by the preparation and sharing of food.

I really enjoyed reading how Dylan let Theo into his life. I love the fake dating trope and Sher Lee did a great job of having some tension build between the two as they worked out how they felt about one another and how their lives could fit together.

I recommend this one for readers who like sweet rom-com books, queer characters falling in love, and readers who want to look up new recipes because the food sounds so delicious!

This was the perfect cute, fun, and quick rom-com that I was looking for. If you're not an insta-love kind of person, this may not be for you, however, if you can get past that, this is the book for you.

I've been part of Sher Lee's street team for this book since the beginning and it has been an absolute blast. Seeing behind the scenes of the publishing industry has been so fascinating and Sher was so upfront and friendly with all of us! I had very high expectations for this book when I finally started reading it and I can happily say that they were met and then some!

FDAM is the story of Dylan, who is an aspiring chef and decides to participate in the Mid-Autumn Festival, both in memory of his Mum and to also bring some publicity to his aunt's struggling take away. Enter Theo Somers, charming, handsome and VERY rich. Oh, and he may need a date to a family wedding...

I'm really struggling with what to write for this review. All I want to put is READ THIS IT'S ADORABLE but I'm not sure that's convincing enough 😂 Dylan and Theo were such a sweet pair, endlessly supportive of one another and always helping each other out. Also a huge shout out to Dylan's family who I want to be adopted by. The warmth and kindness they exuded was just so cute 😩 I loved learning about the culture Dylan grew up in and ALSO the food descriptions. Yum.

This was such a quick and easy read filled with heart, food and adorably sweet boys, if you ever need something to make you smile I highly recommend picking this one up.

My many thanks to the publishers and Sher Lee for gifting me a copy of the book ❤️

This book is just adorable. While I think the pacing of the relationship between Dylan and Theo was a bit off (they could have used more time for it to grow), it still warmed my heart. The book is a super quick read and asks questions about identity, family, and culture. It has tons of drama, which is fun to read.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes was so fun and now I want to try a snow skin mooncake so bad!!

After the loss of his mom, Dylan lives with his cousins and his aunt, who owns a takeout restaurant. They get by, barely. One night Dylan delivers food to two guys, one of which acts super entitled and bratty. The other one comes into the takeout a few days later to make up for it.

His name’s Theo, he’s confident and charming, and he’s LOADED!!! Through a turn of events, Dylan finds himself agreeing to be Theo’s fake date to a wedding.

It’s campy and fun, and the Crazy Rich Asians comparison is spot on. Dylan’s narrative voice is so lively, and his younger cousin is so funny (I was actually laughing out loud when she suggested Dylan and Theo should Netflix and chill, then corrected herself and said they should IMAX and climax omg)

The cultural aspect came through strong as Dylan tried to rebuild mooncakes from a lost family recipe. Theo never had that tie to their culture, so he learns through Dylan and his family. 🥹

For this book to come in at under 300 pages, I’m so happy with how much is fit into it and fit well! A fairly large cast of realized characters, a sweet budding romance, a save-the-small-business scheme that involves a cooking contest, grief & remembrance… it’s just sweet and fun and worth the read if you need a pick me up :)

Good but not my most favourite YA romance. I did very much like both of the main characters, Dylan and Theo. As well, I really loved Dylan's family and would love to read another book just about them. I didn't really like a lot of the road blocks in the romance and a second act break up will always make me mad. The writing could be a little all over the place, at times it was really really great but then it jumped around without context and I didn't know what was going on. I do love fake dating though so that was a big point from me.

This was a highly anticipated book for me and I think it fell slightly short. I loved all the focus on food and flavors, it made me so hungry. I also felt like Dylan and Theo had a very cute relationship. Where the book lacked for me was the relationship struggles. I could not for the life of me figure out why Theo's dad was SO apposed to their relationship. Like he tried to bribe Dylan to stay away from Theo. That part felt so unrealistic to me for a silly high school relationship and it kinda took me out of the book.

This was really sweet and delightful. Basically everything I was looking for in a fluffy contemporary queer romance.

Really enjoyed this one! I thought the main characters had a bit of "insta-love" going on and would have liked to have seen their relationship build a bit more realistically. Nevertheless, it was a cute, rom-com style story that I enjoyed.

3/5 stars! So... I really liked the premise of this story and Theor and Dylan had some really cute moments together. I think it worked as a YA story, but some of the cliques "mean best friend" etc were over the top and kind of turned me off. Definitely wouldn't put it in the same realm as Heartstopper, but a good quick queer YA romcom read.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Really enjoyed this! The cover is super cute and so is the story. It's one of those reads where you need to have a snack nearby as a foodie the food descriptions sounded so good. It was a quick read its cute mostly but also angsty and has its sad moments. I really loved the family aspects and togetherness. Its a light and quick read! Highly Rec!!