All author Emily Hung wants is to write in peace and get through one family event without her mother badgering her for marriage with a man from her list of suitable men...but that's too much to ask for. Mamma Hung is on a mission to set Emily up, even if she has to strong-arm Emily into meeting "the great" Mark Chang - a man she claims to know all about despite never having met him (thanks to her mom's 'Mark this' and 'Mark that') and cannot help but despise.

Tired of her mother's antics, Emily colludes with Mark to get her off their backs - by pretending to date. But pulling It off isn't as easy as they thought, so they go on dates. Fake dates. Real fake dates. And when things start to get complicated, real dates. Does mother really know best?

Follow Emily and Mark as they navigate their complicated relationship while dealing with meddlesome relatives and their high expectations.

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie is a slow burn rom-com with some of my favourite tropes - enemies to lovers, fake dating, and forced proximity. Needless to say, I had very high expectation. Unfortunately, much was left to be desired.

What I did like was that the story was somewhat intriguing and had some layers to it, it addressed a lot of Asian stereotypes and was definitely a conversation starter. The emphasis on familial pressure to pursue a "stable career" and marry by a certain age was on point, the exploration of guilt and obligation to family was very well-done and consistent throughout the novel.

The narration was what put me off with this one, the pace is somewhat rapid despite the slow burn romance. There were some unnecessary info dumps that distracted from what was going on. The build up of tension between Emily and Mark was subpar at best, I don't think we got enough time with them and there was no real connection for me. It didn't help that some of the characters were unlikeable. Now, I acknowledge that they have to have flaws for them to be human and to show character development, but Emily was downright unlikeable. She was irritable for most of the novel, didn't even want to listen to anyone, cut Mark off on multiple occasions - so much so that it stuck out as odd. A huge part of her personality was just scrolling through social media, which might be relatable, but made for a rather uninteresting character. Feeling upset? Animal videos. Things go wrong? Animal videos. Can't write? Animal videos. Doesn't want to do anything? You guessed it, animal videos.

I wish I had something to say about Mark, but there just wasn't enough of him despite a whole chunk of the book from his perspective. The most interesting thing about him was his cat. His personality didn't shine because the emphasis wasn't on portraying who he was, but on who he wasn't. While this worked to progress Emily and Mark's relationship because he wasn't really the pretentious man she thought he was, it really did nothing for him.

The progression of events didn't work for me either, maybe it just had a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't taken by the characters and didn't feel the chemistry between them. The only thing that intrigued me about this was the family dynamics and how that played into romantic relationships. Emily's fixation on one event from her childhood to define her relationship with her sisters didn't make sense to me, I felt there wasn't a satisfactory enough resolution.

Overall, this one just fell flat. It wasn't for me. I wouldn't recommend it.