Mia is having a miserable year. Her mom is still pushing her to date the boy across the street. She hasn't been on a real date in a long time. Maybe fake dating is the answer?

Jake has known Mia his whole life. Their moms are pushing them to be together because its what they want. Why isn't anyone asking their kids what they have in mind? One kiss tears the whole plan apart........

This was such a surprise read! These characters are wonderful and funny. The banter is top notch. I loved the parts where they were so in sync you could tell they knew one another forever. A total slow burn but a thrilling ride.


***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review by its publishers and Netgalley.

This story had the potential to hit every cliché going, given the synopsis.  However, I am happy to tell you that, for the most part, the author avoided the pitfalls and delivered a delightful summer holiday read.

The narrative is light, the pacing good, and the humour pitched just right.  Additionally, these characters are very age appropriate in their responses, something which is often missing from YA characters who often seem far too mature for their years.

Overall, this is a fun read.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.

I love YA books. But sometimes I read YA books and think I am too old to be reading this book. This is how I felt with Fake It Till You Break It. I think actual young adults would probably really enjoy this book but it just fell a little short for me.

I was excited about this book just by the cover alone. It looked like a fun summer read in the same vein of Kasie West. However, it was just average. There was nothing interesting or original about this, at all. I semi enjoyed the story enough to not DNF the book, but I definitely didn't get anything out of reading it. The plot was really cliched and was so rushed. It was so unbelievable that this couple would fall in love with each other so fast after only just days prior they hated each other. 

The writing overall was subpar overall and I probably won't read anything else by this author. This is for a younger reader of YA. 

I was sent an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciated the incorporation of Asian American main characters (daughter and mom) without over explaining cultural references, and I think the alternating first person narrators worked well for that, as well as for revealing Jake and Mia’s thoughts but never in the same chapter. This is a solid high school romantic comedy with popular fake-dating trope as a bonus!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40848323-fake-it-till-you-break-it?from_search=true

I read an uncorrected digital galley of this book, and part of my review has to do with some editing issues. These issues were present in the copy I received for review, and I'm really hoping they'll have been address by the time of publication. They were annoying enough for me to knock an entire star off my rating. Most of this book is told in the past tense first person POV, wither chapters that switch between Mia and Jake's viewpoint. There are several instances where the tense very awkwardly shifts around, into the present tense and then back to past tense again. I don't really care for the first person POV for precisely this reason - it seems like it's a lot harder to do well than the third person limited, and when there are discrepancies like these they REALLY stand out and break the immersive reading experience for me. If these editorial issues weren't present, this would have been a solid 4.5 star book for me.

Fake It Till You Break It is a great YA contemporary romance filled with some of my favorite tropes - neighbors to lovers, enemies to lovers, fake relationship... A little bit childhood sweethearts? The memories and moments of Mia and Jake as kids were probably my favorite part of this book. I wish there had been a little bit more story building around what caused them to go from being best friends to hating each other. Was it just that their moms kept pushing them to be an item romantically? Was it just puberty and the whole boys/girls are icky thing that tends to happen around then? Nguyen does such a great job of building this foundation for their relationship from their childhood, and the charged dynamic between them as high schoolers, and I wish she'd given us more of that transition piece to how their relationship wound up where it is when the book starts.

That being said, she definitely delivers on the development of their relationship throughout the book. The chemistry between them is AMAZING, and there are so many sparks - especially when they're arguing and taking pot-shots at each other while at the same time just unthinkingly supporting and doing kind things for the other. So much squee!!

Cute for fans of To All the Boys and Kasie West books. Overall I would buy for any YA collection. Who knows maybe their will be a Netflix blockbuster.

[3.5 stars]

Let's be honest here, I'm not good at writing reviews to begin with, then I read a book like this which is perfectly fine, but I don't have a lot to say! It's cute, it's fun, it's got the swoons. Perfect summer read in my opinion. If it sounds like something you'd like, go for it my dudes!

This was cute. If you need more like Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before or Maureen Goo’s I Believe in a Thing Called Love, this will fit right in. Mia and Jake have known each other since they were little. Their childhood friendship morphed into disdain as they got older and both their moms pushed them to become more than friends. To finally get the moms off their case, they agree to fake date before staging a bad breakup. Of course, fake dating makes them realize that they know each other so well that falling in love is not such an unlikely next step after all. There is some awkward writing that results from trying to combine first person narrative with descriptions of what the character is doing. But, overall both Mia and Jake have their charm points, and the hate to love transformation unfolds satisfyingly enough with the rival love interest thrown in and some other family relationship drama to add some tension. A cute, fun read. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the ARC.

Will I ever get tired of the fake dating trope? No.
This book was adorable and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed To All the Boys I've Loved Before. <3

Fake It Till You. Break It was funny and sweet. The alternating perspectives (from Jake to Mia) was interesting and kept the reader engaged. I’ll definitely recommend this title to my students!

For the past 15 years, Mia and Jake's mothers have been trying to get these two together. Family vacations, Sunday dim sum, and orchestrated "favors" have put them in proximity with one another for practically their whole lives. When Mia attempted to date other boys, her mother chased them off. Therefore, the pair embarked on a fake-dating mission in an attempt to discourage their mothers' matchmaking.

"We're going to date so we won't have to date. "

I am pretty sure I grinned throughout this book, because it was exactly what I wanted, needed, and thought it would be. The fake-dating trope is always a lot of fun, but throw in a little hate-to-love and people with a tons of history, and I am all in.

Mia and Jake went waaaaay back, and their relationship evolved quite a bit over the years. They had a strong friendship, which may have turned into attraction at one point, but because of their meddling mothers and other factors, it later evolved into a sort of frenemy situation. One of the things I liked about them entering into this fauxmance was that it allowed them to untangle the past and reevaluate their friendship. They each unpacked quite a few memories of each other, and it was terribly sweet. I acknowledge that I am a total sap, but I must confess, that I loved each and every "a-ha" moment they had about each other.

It was also quite beautiful the way they pushed each other out of their comfort zones. They may not have gone about it in the right way, but both Jake and Mia made progress towards some personal goals, because the other was there to nudge them in the right direction. It was wonderful seeing them take those steps, and I liked cheering them on as they did it.

But, can we talk about the moms? First of all, their friendship was so heartwarming. When Jake's mom talked about how Mia's mom took her under her wing, it may have made my eyes a little shiny. I just loved that these two women had each other for support as they navigated life and motherhood. I also liked the way they were with their children. They had a nice rapport with them, and Jake's mom, her whole backstory, got me right in the feels.

Nguyen let us experience so many fun things with Mia and Jake too. Those bits had a great rom-com feel, and I just had a fabulous time.

My list of adjectives for this book: sweet, fun, adorable, amusing, entertaining, and also, touching.

This one took me a while to really get into, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I liked the main characters and the plot was one that drew me in slowly. More of a slow burn read. I loved the ending!

This was a cute take on a fake-dating turned to real feelings story. The characters were like-able and the story is told from both main character’s perspectives Would recommend to younger teens.

Mia and Jake hate hate hate each other. Which would be totally fine, except their moms are best friends and force them to go everywhere—dentist appointments, school, vacations, etc—in the vain hope that one day they'll fall in love. Mia just wants to date whoever she wants, and Jake wants to get out of another cruise. So they decide to pretend to be in love...which is totally just fine, right?

Okay okay okay. So I rated this three stars. It's not bad, it just felt kinda bland and like something I've read a jillion times before...and it felt very similar to How to Game the Walk of Shame but with two childhood frenemies instead of two people who didn't know each other.

And I read this in another review, but this really does pull out all the tropes.

1. Childhood frenemies
2. Dead parents!
3. Fake relationship
4. Enemies-to-loves
5. And a love triangle!

So, it has the tropiest of tropes, and it does pull them off. If I wasn't the most jaded and bitter crust of dried belly-button lint that every existed, I think that I would have enjoyed this book a lot more.

I did like that Jake was musically talented, as he writes and sings and had a YouTube channel with his brother that had 3k subs (is that a good number? I dunno), which meant that he was famous or something. Mia really wanted to be in a musical, but lacked talent—although apparently she was judging herself too hard? This was a plot point that kinda fell by the wayside a little and was only picked up when convenient.

I also wanted more drama and resolution with Finn, Jake's brother who fled two years ago to sing on a cruise ship, because that is a backstory that needs more delving into.

I also liked that this is a story about unconventional families. Mia's mom is single after her dad passed away (or left, I wasn't really paying attention??), and Jake's mom is really his aunt, who took him and his brother in after their parents died in a car crash when Jake was two. And the moms are best friends and did everything together.

So I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I did. Well, I liked it but didn't love it.

To sum up:

It's cute. It's sweet. Mia and Jake really do have an adorable relationship, and act like that cute couple that have been together a gajillion years and subconsciously know all of each other's quirks.

But cute and sweet only go so far.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I loved every page of this book! Perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Morgan Marco, and Jenny Han. Light, sweet, and fun, while still really well-written. Great plot, and lovable characters. I could totally see this as a Netflix series!

A sweet summer rom com read! This book while a little predictable was still sweet and charming! A tad cheesy at times but overall great as a fun quirky read. Jake and Mia are so much fun to root for! Also can we side note that i loved Jake's friend, Rosie! She is so supportive and I loved that there was no jealously there and they are actual friends, end of story. Super charming read!

Pretty generic rom-com type YA with both the fake dating and enemies/friends to romance tropes, though somewhat shallow in writing (the "Mia wants to be a Broadway actress plot," for example, gets pretty much dropped). I will say that the mothers' attitudes toward setting up their children kind of turned me off - forcing them together at all opportunities, only allowing them to date each other, coming up with a ship name, stalking them on their first date - and I almost wanted Mia and Jake NOT to end up together in spite. Not sure that it has the magic of To All the Boys to make it of lasting interest, but it's fun enough for an afternoon.

Cute light romance. I always appreciate POC/#ownvoices stories. A fun read but nothing that blew me out of the water. Great for summer :)

I received my ebook through Netgalley in exchange for my opinion. All views are my own.

Of course, the first thing that drew me to this book was the fake dating; then I found out about the Vietnamese rep (I'd known that the author was of Vietnamese descent already), and it flew to the top of my "I need this NOW" list in the blink of an eye. When I picked up this ARC at a festival, I was actually buzzing because I'd been anticipating it so much, and this didn't disappoint! Fake It Till You Break It is such a lovable book with a plot you'll devour and characters that you'll adore.

This book was honestly just so absolutely adorable. It has the aforementioned fake-dating trope, as well as a touch of hate-to-love and a heap of childhood-friends, albeit very reluctant ones. Fake dating always entails in fun antics, but it was so funny following Mia and Jake as they try to convince their moms that they're dating, despite the fact that they can't stop bickering. Theirs was such a sweet romance too, as they come to realize that they actually like each other and that maybe all of the little things they know about each other actually comes from a mutual caring and not just forced proximity. They know each other so well, but they pretend not to, and it was so cute that I teared up a little.

Jake is a very typical boy-next-door type, and I loved him. He's a singer, but he tries to hide this creative side because singing and songwriting reminds him of his now-estranged brother, the other half of their singing duo. We also get to see a bit of an unconventional family here, in that their mom is actually their aunt, who took them in and adopted them when their parents died in an accident. The book explores this complex relationship a little, and they talk about feelings of burden on both sides.

I loved Mia so much as well! I really related to her, especially her wanting to pursue a career in the arts despite thinking she's not talented enough . . . I feel that so hard honestly. She also reads so much like a real teenager to me, but maybe that's just me projecting. I at least related to how she thinks and what she does.

Hello, can we please talk about the Vietnamese representation in this book!! The normalization of Vietnamese culture actually made me tear up; the names! the food! going to millions of weddings because you have so many family members! By this point, you all know that I crave Vietnamese rep (have you seen my masterlist of Vietnamese books?), and this book really came through for me. I always love books that have casual mentions of the culture throughout the narrative, particularly in contemporaries; being Vietnamese-American, I don't exactly live my life thinking constantly of my culture. This is more realistic to me and again helps normalizes teenagers of color and their lives.

Fake It Till You Break It is definitely a book that I'll be forever grateful for. It's lighthearted and hilarious, but also deals with more serious topics. I definitely recommend this if you like To All the Boys I've Loved Before, especially if you want a cute romance that has fake dating sprinkled in.