Such a cute fake dating book!

The protagonist of our book is amazing and hardworking, I loved reading about her and her characteristics/characterization.

The love interest of the book was adorable and I loved how the couple's relationship developed.

I appreciate and love the fact that this is a desi book and the representation is visible in the book.

I adored this one! Samaya and Daniel were so great! I also loved all the baking! I liked Samaya's friend Cass and how she always stood by her. I liked seeing her sister Tahira again and seeing how close they are as sisters.
Devin had what he deserved coming for him. I loved that Samaya stood up for herself towards him.
A great, nerdy, baking eccentric book for teens!

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I loved this story and I will now be reading all of the other books Farah Heron has written.

How to Win a Breakup is written in first person POV, following Samaya’s journey as she finds herself again after a bad breakup. Samaya is forced to reevaluate everything- her friends, her values, the way she views herself, etc. I loved seeing her character growth.

This is YA, and there was a lot about social media, texting, and gaming, but I still really enjoyed the story and the characters as an adult. There are many heavy topics, and a big chunk of this story takes place in a women’s shelter. My heart broke a few times, but I was ultimately left with more hope than I came in with. Other recurring themes are privilege, parental pressure, racism, elitism.

This story provides a cute spin on the fake dating to real dating trope, mixed in with some fake identities, delicious baked goods, and even some mysteries to solve.

Some things that stuck out to me were the absence of Samaya’s parents, mainly her father. I kept forgetting she had a father because he was mentioned so little and only really made an appearance at the very end. One other thing that didn’t satisfy was the mystery of who was behind the gossip social media account. That was wrapped up with little motive.

It was quite an interesting and enjoyable read. The main character was very relatable at times. And oftentimes it felt more of coming of age story than a mere YA. I couldn’t seem to put it down until and unless I have finished it. So it’s a 5 stars read for me

“The people who actually care about you don’t care about what everyone else thinks about you.”

I was hooked by the cover and of course because it is a YA book🙈 and after knowing that the main character is Muslim, I can't say no to this book. Plus, it's available as a read now on Netgalley, so go grab it before the archived day!

The storyline was quite interesting. It follows A seventeen years-old Samaya, as a grade 12 student. The last year of high school is the year, everyone tries to seek scholarships to apply for colleafterwardrds.  As a student at the highest rank in her school, putting her as the spotlight for the teenagers at school.  The consequence is everything that Samaya has done always obtains either gossip or compliment from those around her. Mainly, the rumor about the breakup of her relationship with her boyfriend, Devin, who is also a top student and is in the second level after Samaya.

Will Samaya be able to deal with all the jabber and gossip against her?  Whatever decision she makes will have an impact on the game project she is working on and as a team leader who needs this leadership experience to gain the scholarship after graduating from high school.

So many things happened that I can't get bored of it, the way Samaya cares so much about the gossip was incredibly annoying, it just got her exhausted even more. However, I believe that this is how the story goes on and that's what makes it unique. I hate Aimee on halfway through this book, and I sort of adore Cass. The only thing that bothered me about Cass was the fact that Cass is nonbinary, at first it's clear that she's a girl and after half of a book, the thing changed to that way. Even though I admire that Cass is still her best friend, I like the way she is always there for Samaya and how she is able to confront her. Much better than Aimee.
I adore Daniel, don't ask me what. Daniel is perfect for Samaya and I'm so glad they both made it!
I like that I learned a lot about baking stuff and some fun facts about cookies. It did get me hungry during reading😭

Special thanks to Farah Heron, the publisher and netgalley team for this free copy.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

I loved this book! Great pacing and great characters. Heron writes the uncertainties, triumphs and tribulations of Samaya's life with such a true and believable tone that the character really jumps off the page. A feel-good story with tons of emotions and pitch-perfect descriptions of contemporary high school. I finished this and immediately searched for the author's backlist titles! Highly recommend.

I was happy to see that the author gave one of the characters from her awesome book, Tahira in Bloom, a story of her own. High School is so hard on its own but to have your relationships posted on social media without your permission makes that time even harder. For Samaya, even being one of the best academically doesn't shield her from gossip and when her relationship with Devin ends, her relationship winds up on social media for all to follow. Samaya decides that two can play that game and decides to "win" at the breakup game by developing a fake relationship with someone who she thinks is the guy she plays online video games with. What could go wrong? More than you can imagine in this fun story about dealing with a breakup and, instead of winning, you may end up finding something more important along the way. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book but it sounded a bit fun and entertaining, and it was. A charming, cute, readable book but not one I would put on my favourites list.

I think it certainly would appeal to the younger generation more so than myself but I always like to read different genres and and styles. It is diverse and up with todays world which is good.

A fun book to read but not for me I'm afraid!

I am disappointed.

Too much was going on. The author wanted to communicate way too many things and in the end everything felt very forced, not polished and sometimes distasteful.

Reading this felt like torture. At the end I was able to read 2-3 pages and I had to take a break otherwise I would smash my phone. It was so frustrating!

Heron's books are so cute and compulsively readable. I love them all and they are super easy to hand sell.

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!