Upon initial reading, Jackie Lau’s Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie gave off “Bridget Jones’ Diary” vibes, with the parental matchmaking plot and a male lead also named “Mark.” However, that’s where the similarities end. Still, the romance between Emily and Mark was cute once we got around to it. I liked how the two didn’t dwell on things for too long before they tried dating for real. Furthermore, as someone from an Asian background, I appreciated how the cultural nuances were shown, especially when it came to being an adult and setting boundaries with your family. I particularly loved the surprising reveal of Emily’s mother’s true motivation, as it made her out to be more human and not the usual stereotype of an overbearing Asian mother who is obsessed with marrying off her daughters so they can give her grandchildren. Unfortunately, for a romance, Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie devotes too much time to things outside the relationships, like Emily’s work as a writer, the publishing industry, and even the insane housing situation in Toronto. While these are all nice and realistic additions that give readers more context, I could have done with a lot less monologuing and more interaction between Mark and Emily. However, I do appreciate that we eventually get some chapters from Mark’s perspective, as it was refreshing to get his side of the situation, and it made me root for their romance more. Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie is a satisfying story of family and love with characters well into their 30s, but only if you are patient and willing to shift through a significant amount of rambling to get it.

An absolute delight!

Jackie Lau's latest is a fake relationship--but wait, we need to make our fake relationship look a little more real, so we'll go on some real fake dates...hang on, this isn't feeling fake anymore, maybe it's real?--story.

Emily Hung's complicated relationship with her mother pretty much guarantees that she's going to feel a certain way about Mark Chan--the mother that she feels doesn't respect her chosen profession (novelist) and is constantly comparing her unfavorably to her sisters wants her to date this amazingly perfect guy? Yeah, thanks but no thanks--so their first meeting is an absolute disaster. But then they're manipulated into a date (Mrs. Hung can apparently be quite intimidating ;) ) and Emily comes up with the fake dating scheme. It's pretty out there, but Mark (eventually) agrees to go along with it, and...we all know what's going to happen, right?

EXCEPT...Ms Lau gives us some twisty turns along the way, and I think I was as surprised as Emily to find out what was really going on in her mother's head the whole time. (Plus, I may never recover from Ms Margaret Muffins. She absolutely steals every scene she's in being her own very aloof self and I was here for it) I also may have dreams about that cherry pie milkshake. And I'm not even that big a fan of cherry pie...

Be prepared for some ssslllllooooooow burn here--but yikes, that first kiss is everything (until Emily has a freakout) and once they get going they make up for lost time and then some. Emily's nieces were an absolute delight, and the "quotes" at the beginning of Emily's chapters were so much fun. The first half of the book is single POV--Emily's--which I enjoyed, but by the time I got to the second half I was absolutely dying to hear Mark's (because I was SURE her post-kiss freakout wasn't justified) and I really appreciated the switch to dual. I was pretty sure Emily's impressions of him hadn't been terribly accurate, so I appreciated that he finally got the chance to speak for himself. I mean, the guy consults with his cat for relationship advice, so clearly he's legit romance hero material. Who knows, he may even have me rethinking my stance on guys wearing sweater vests...

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I adore Jackie Lau's books. This one does not disappoint. I love that she gave a nod to Pride and Prejudice while creating a unique story rather than just essentially rewriting P&P with new characters, as so many authors have done.

(Posted on BN but hasn't appeared yet)

This was unfortunately a dnf for me but I might go back and try reading again:/ it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time I received it but thank you for the arc.

I received a copy of this audiobook from netGalley for a honest review.

I loved Emily's point of view and oppression with cherry pie. She really didn't want to like the Mark since her mom picked him out for her but as this is a romance he wins her over. I loved Emily's nieces and the relationship with her mom gets healed in a wonderfully touching way. I will definitely continue to read Jackie Lau books.

Emily and Mark fake their relationship to get Emily’s mom off her back about dating and getting married. When Emily starts developing real feelings for Mark, it surprises her. Emily and Mark are good characters and their chemistry okay, but I found it to be very slow moving and dull in places. It was highly predictable and could have been a better read if the book was slimmed down a bit.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like this book, it’s just… well it was tough to read. The title I feel like is a stretch in a food theme based on what actually happens in the book. The FMC is an author and the Asian daughter of her immigrant parents which provides some unique themes to explore — those I enjoyed. A good title could have been something like You’ve got a Match (unless that’s already been done) or Hung has met her Match, that would have been CUTE. Love, Lies fits, but again… the Cherry Pie is a stretch. The MMC easily goes along with the fake dating trope and I wish there would have been more resistance there. There were also several phrases used that got repetitive. Spicy scenes were good, but the author’s writing style left something to be desired. I wanted to enjoy this book, especially because I received it as an ARC copy and the publishing company put it on my shelf to read, but I couldn’t love it the way I have other popular romance novels lately. If there could have been a bit more polishing on the plot and the over all FMC voice as it was written I would have maybe given it a 3 star rating.

I wouldn’t guffaw if I saw someone reading this, but it doesn’t readily come to mind to recommend.

Emily Hung is happily single, but her mother won't let that stop her from trying to set her up with suitable men, often the sons of various family friends. Since Emily is now the only unmarried daughter, her mother's efforts are intensifying. At her sister's wedding, her mother makes sure Emily is paired with Mark Chan, who is an engineer and seems stuck-up and boring.

To make matters worse - even if they didn't seem to even like each other at Emily's sister's wedding, her mother lies to her to get her to go on a brunch date with Mark. It's at this point that Emily decides to persuade Mark Chen to be her fake boyfriend. If their parents think that they're already dating, they'll stop trying to throw them together.

Unfortunately, Emily's family and friends seem to be everywhere, and every time Emily comes up with a story about what she's been doing with Mark, someone seems to have been nearby and can't remember having seen them there. So what's a struggling writer with two jobs and a fake boyfriend going to have to do? Go on actual fake dates with him, of course, and document them on social media. As she spends more time with Mark, Emily is forced to realise that her first impressions may have been wrong. Could it be that her mother is actually right, and Mark Chen IS the perfect boyfriend for Emily? Surely not!

I've read a lot of Jackie Lau romances over the last few years, and this one is one of my absolute favourites. Fake dating isn't one of my favourite tropes, but it's done well here, and it's quite cute once Emily is forced to realise that perhaps her mother really isn't just desperate to get her coupled up, but has actually put thought and effort into finding a guy who might actually be a good and respectful partner to her child.

Another thing I really liked in this novel is that it starts out in single POV, where we only get Emily's take on things, but in the second half of the book, once Emily has started considering Mark as an actual romantic prospect, we get chapters from his POV as well. I always prefer the more complete picture that a dual POV romance gives, and this narrative touch, where it's introduced later in the story, was really well done.

As always, with Jackie Lau books, there's a lot of food being consumed and described. Do not read while hungry.

<b>Judging a book by its cover:</b> I think this cover is incredibly cute, and looking at it actually helps me remember some of the story (which is certainly not always the case). Obviously, I read a digital copy of this, but if I saw this book in a store, the bright and cheery cover would easily catch my attention.

The main character is insufferable. She’s a complainer, conceited, and annoying. How am I supposed to root for her and her relationship if I can’t stand her? And the leading male has no personality whatsoever. He seems to like her despite her being rude and annoying. And don’t get me started with her family being the most ridiculous meddling bunch of people to ever exist. No wonder this girl turned out this way.

They didn’t seem to have any chemistry. The situations they put themselves in felt forced. Every character was annoying. This wasn’t enjoyable for me at all.

✨ Thank you @atriabooks for my #gifted copy. I’m sorry this one didn’t work out for me.

A fun read of a meddling mothers attempts to find her daughter a husband and the complications that follow. Enjoyed this story and all the relationships.

Another Pride & Prejudice retelling, kind of? We can never have enough! Fake dating improves on the original, and the MC Emily is a believably frustrated and hardworking midlist author. The other MC Mark surprises by not only being a secret sweetheart but becoming a POV character pretty far into the book! The highlight for me was the relationship between Emily and her mother, which got some tears out of me by the end. Sweet and funny!

I'm waiting for the day I read a romance book that is actually 5 stars for me (I've had like one or two in my lifetime, but it's a hard find for me).

Emily isn't the worst FMC I've read, but she is kind of annoying. She complains quite a bit, but that honestly wasn't too off-putting to me because most of the things she complained about made a lot of sense. I'd be annoyed too if my sister acted as though I could drop all of my work to take care of her kids, or if my mom was meddling in my love life, and I already complain about the cost of living so she's totally in the right for that. I think my biggest issue with Emily was her idea that if people found out she and Mark had fake dated before real dating, that would be the worst/most embarrassing thing ever. Which doesn't make sense to me, because if you just went "haha Mark and I actually faked our relationship to get you guys off our backs but now we're actually together and have been for weeks", then everyone would nod and move on.

Mark was also just a pretty boring character. He had a few funny quips, and I appreciated that he liked his cat. But overall, there was nothing remarkable about him, and it seemed like the author tried to make him a gentleman in the streets, and a sexy/domineering man in the sheets but it didn't work out. The spicy scenes were like two sentences long and embarrassing to read if I'm being honest.

Also... why the cherry pie? There was almost no significance to it. If they had gone to the initial baking class and made it, that would make more sense. But otherwise, it's like the author just forced imagery of cherry pie in the story to fit the title.

Not the worst story I've read (I actually really liked Emily's mom), but also not even remotely close to what I consider to be good.

To be fully honest, if this wasn't an ARC, I probably would have DNF'd it. This book is supposedly a romcom, but it misses the mark on both being romantic and funny.

The book is about a young woman whose mother has started trying to heavily matchmake in order for her to find a husband. She is the last sister of five to be unmarried and her nosy mother won't have it. Add to that, her parents' disappointment in her career (an author) and she works to avoid conversations with her family at all costs. And then, her mother tricks her into multiples dates with the one man she's determined for her daughter to be with, Mark Chan.

I had a hard time with this book for multiple reasons. The worst being that the main characters had no chemistry. This book has the fake-dating trope at its center, and it should have a lot of angst and pining and other excellent things for the MCs to endure but instead we plod along towards a romance that comes about for no reason.

Also, Emily (the MC) is 33 years old but acts throughout the entire book as if she's just realized she's hitting older adulthood. Every situation leads to her complaining about how it would have been different just a few years prior as if she's just been hit with these feelings at not 30 or 31 or 32 but the magic age 33!

Along with that, the whole book is so repetitive as to almost be unbearable. The characters experience the same situations and have the same exact conversations and inner monologues over and over and over again.

The ending was sweet, but it really didn't save much for me since I didn't want to get there.

One star is solely for Ms. Margaret Muffins.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

A cute love story about an overbearing mom, a young woman trying to forge her own path, and an unexpected love story.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel!

This fake romance story was great and the friends and family were also good, I wouldn't minda. series

I did really enjoy this book overall. The first half felt like an over explanation of the publishing world, which is not what I am looking for when I pick up a rom-com. However the second half of the story definitely saved it. The family dynamics throughout the story were enjoyable. I wished that Mark’s character developed more overall, but the growth we did see from Mark and Emily was enjoyable.

From the author of Donut Fall in Love, Jackie Lau has written another wonderful, creative love story which is funny, heartwarming, and mouthwatering!

All Emily Hung's mother wants is for her over thirty daughter to settle down and finally get married. Forget that Emily is a writer with one published book under her belt. Yes, it perhaps undersold a bit, but still... she is a writer and is working on her second novel. She's doing great all by herself!

So, when Mrs. Hung plays matchmaker at her sister's wedding no less, Emily decides to make the meeting as unpleasant as possible.

Enter Mark Chan, the unsuspecting, groom-to-be who realizes fairly soon this was not something Emily had agreed to. They say their goodbyes at the end of the night, and both think they will never see each other again. But Mrs. Hung has other plans! She tortures Emily to go on one date with Mark. Emily agrees.

But, once again, Emily is not having it and comes up with an idea. They will fake date (with pictures) so her mother will think they are together, but in reality, they can live peacefully and continue on with their separate lives.

What ends up happening is that the more time they spend together "fake dating", the more they discover there may actually be a spark between them, and they begin to fall in love for real. But without realizing it, Mrs. Hung opened a long-closed can of worms with secrets from years ago and misunderstandings in the Hung family.

Now Emily finds herself having to heal old wounds while trying to make Mark understand what she really wants as she learns the importance of family and the importance of finding the person of your dreams. Can you really have it all?

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie is a delightful, fun story with wonderful characters and terrific messaging. Oh, and there IS Cherry Pie!

Thank you #NetGalley #Atria/EmilyBestlerBooks #JackieLau #Love,Lies,andCherryPie for the advanced copy.

I’m not sure what I expected with this book so I’ll try to write a review that makes sense. This is definitely a typical fake dating story and I enjoyed that the will-they-won’t-they trouble part didn’t last long (don’t play too much with me, it’s a romance - I know there’s the HEA). I also enjoyed that Emily was a writer and we got a little behind the scenes into that world and hello logical, understanding, supporting BF, Mark. Mark and Ms Muffins were my favorite characters. Now the drama with Emily’s family - holy crap. As a non-Asian person maybe it’s that I couldn’t relate so I didn’t connect to that part of the story. The family with the pressure and the condescending sister and Auntie. Oof. I did however love the surprise with mom at the end. Overall it was a cute read, but I didn’t connect with it enough personally to make it one I strongly recommend.

Lau skillfully weaves humor with moments of genuine tenderness, creating a narrative that charms readers from start to finish. The characters are relatable and endearing, each with their quirks and vulnerabilities that make them feel like old friends by the book's end. Emily's journey from skepticism to surprising admiration for Mark is beautifully portrayed, offering readers a satisfying romantic arc that feels both authentic and entertaining.

I greatly enjoyed the generational relationships, multiple perspectives, as well as the inclusion of life with emigrant parents and layered sibling dynamics. It was a cute and satisfying story. 3.5 stars