I’m not sure why Fake It Till You Bake It has mixed reviews, because I really enjoyed it. Yes, Jada can be recklessly impulsive, and yes, Donovan seems too good to be true. But I felt like this story was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed seeing a romance where the male protagonist was completely supportive and respective to the women in his life without worrying about how it reflected on his masculinity. In all fairness, when you’re a football player that owns a cupcake store with two of his teammates, you’re already a confident person. Jada is a bit of a brat at the beginning of the book. She’s dissing Donovan’s store, and hoping her grandmother will give her early access to her trust fund because she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. But being forced to work at the store gives her the opportunities to see her strengths, ones that her parents never fostered because it didn’t align with their own personal passions. The social media aspect of the story may be a little over the top, and Jada’s “revenge” on the reality show producer that made her public villain number one is a little silly, but social media having a negative effect on people’s lives when things go viral is a thing, and I’m willing to stretch the truth some for two characters that I really enjoyed seeing fall in love with each other. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Fake It Till You Bake It was such a fun and sweet fake-dating romance! Jada, an ex-reality star, and cupcake-baking football star Donovan clash in this enemies to lovers, fake dating romance. After being mistaken as a couple in Donovan’s cupcake store, the two use it to their advantage to both increase sales at the store for Donovan and to help Jada escape the social media hate after her run on a reality dating show. The one part that didn’t click so much to me was Donovan’s football career—it felt disjointed from the story but I have a feeling it was to help set up some future books and it was a fun addition. But outside of that, it was a great and very fun read. Jada is trying to find her footing and I loved her boughie attitude and her spark. She’s never afraid to back down and I loved her reality star background, her relationship with her grandmother, and her journey to finding what she was passionate about. And Donovan was sexy and confident and romantic and a great romantic lead. Their chemistry was wonderful and I just loved their partnership throughout the story. They stood together, even in their fake dating and it was just sweet. And it’s a cupcake shop setting, with a romance book club involved! It has all the ingredients for just a wonderful rom com!

4 stars for a refreshing, sweet, feel-good type of romance~

This was the perfect romance novel to read to get a little escape from reality for a little while.

Jada, freshly known for turning down a suitor on a reality show, is now back at home to sulk for a little while. Meanwhile, she meets Donovan, football star and baker extraordinaire. When worlds collide for these two, they need to come to terms with whether or not the recipe works~

I really enjoyed reading a romance with fresh and fun characters and really loved the dynamic of having two very different worlds come together.

Thanks again to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC!

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I enjoyed the story, Fake it Till You Bake It, was a fast read, with characters you enjoy.

An enemy to lovers, fake relationship, opposites attracts story that follows Jada (turning down a proposal on a reality dating show) and Donovan (an NFL player who also owns a cupcake shop). When they both work together, magic ignites, and so do cupcakes.

First time reading from this author, and I enjoyed it.

What happens when a flighty but bougie miss bumps heads with a stolid mister? Sparks, laughter, some growing up, and love. Of course. This is a book that made me laugh out loud with compelling characters and bad actors galore. An enjoyable romp of a novel. The vitality of the story is reminiscent of the works of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, aka SEP, with its major league football star who contemplates life after sports pitted against a woman struggling to accept her competence and find a place in the world where she feels accepted.

This book ultimately left me with a lot of questions and no answers. The hero of the book, Donovan, is a professional football player who also owns a cupcake bakery. He loves baking cupcakes. The entirety of the book has him either baking, teaching the LI to bake, or doing…something in his office at the bakery. For a second, I thought maybe he was a retired football player but no, because partway through the book, he takes a call from his agent and it’s made clear that the agent is working on his new contract with his team. And yes, it’s the off season but….should he not be doing football player things - working out, practicing, idk. It seems weird that his entire identity is that bakery and yet, he’s a football player.

The heroine, Jada, is a former reality show star and comes from a wealthy family who has always paid her way but has now cut her off because she’s directionless and has no job or purpose. Essentially they want her to grow up. Her grandmother also happens to own the football team that Donovan plays for and talks him into giving Jada a job there. She makes a series of missteps including almost burning down the bakery kitchen but then proves herself indispensable when lying about how she and Donovan are in a relationship proves to be a marketing boon for the bakery.

The concept seemed ok and I get why Donovan needed to be at the bakery or else how else was he and Jada going to get to know each other and spend any time together. But the pacing seemed off and both of these characters kept making choices that left me feeling baffled. It felt a bit rushed and a lot of the writing felt like it was telling me rather than showing me things and ultimately, I couldn’t figure out how Donovan and Jada fell in love so quickly….or why?

The reality show blackmail subplot with the villainous producer and the ex boyfriend seemed way over the top and unnecessarily dramatic and also, the villains were written as caricatures. The only thing I liked about the subplot was that it didn’t drag on endlessly because Jada immediately tells Donovan and they immediately work together to figure out how to deal with the situation. It was a good moment of teamwork and also a good moment for Jada to shine and realize she was more than capable of handling her own problems. But then, she dumps Donovan and honestly, it didn’t seem like the book really needed a third act breakup - it felt hollow and weak and pointless.

Ultimately, the execution just seemed a little weak and there were a lot of plot holes or questions that I had about the plot that seemed to make no sense. I liked the characters ok and I assume this is going to be a trilogy where each of the bakery owners gets their own book (it’s 3 football players who own a bakery and they do all the baking while being professional football players - HOW IS THIS SUSTAINABLE?!?) Sorry, I am really just fixated on this and I need to let it go.

ARC courtesy of publisher, opinions are all mine.

CW: toxic parental relationships, blackmail plot, secondary character has gambling addiction;

I cannot read any more fake relationship romances. I am tired of them. It feels like lately all I am reading is fake relationship which turns to lovers. I thought the premise of the book was good (football star running a cupcake bakery meets a social media "star") but I really didn't like Jada and thought her and Donovan didn't work. I initially was going to try to push through and finish this but just got fed up. I can feel a reading slump coming on and I am trying to work my way through it. But books like this make it hard.

"Fake It Til You Bake It" follows NFL star Donovan Dell. Donovan is struggling to keep his cupcake business afloat. A woman comes in and insults his decor and his cupcakes (without eating one) and then he challenges her to eat one. The woman in question is Jada Townsend-Matthews who is "hiding" out after social media users have turned on her after she turned down a proposal on a reality dating show. A reporter thinks that they are together, yadda yadda yadda, fake relationship. Both realize that if the world thinks they are dating, it can help improve their own situations.

So Jada is hard to like. Full stop. She's rude. And I hate it when authors write Black women like we just run around acting like assholes. There's a difference between being strong and just nasty for no reason. When we first meet her she started getting on my nerves. Who rolls into someone's business talking crap?

Donovan being into cupcakes was cute and honestly if it was just him and his friend trying to get their business going I would have enjoyed it more. He and Jada don't make sense and I got tired of reading about them.

The writing didn't work for me and the flow was off so much. I just thought I was reading a very rough draft of a book and not the finished product at all. Also it didn't help that I didn't like the two leads as a couple at all.

I really tried with this book. But I had to give up after the first three chapters. The story was just odd and I was not into it. Sorry!

This was a "sweet" read and a nice way to break up my genres. I really enjoyed that Jada and Donovan were flawed characters, each carrying baggage from childhood and/or their family. Those flaws made them more relatable and made more than just a reality TV star and NFL player. The storyline felt like a slow build until the 70% mark when things really picked up and the ending felt like it came fast (compared to the rest of the book). I loved that you got some answers to where things were going while still allowing the read some room for imagination. Wesley seemed to set up a possible follow on book (series?) which would be fun.

such a cute solid contemp romance.

it has so many good tropes
-fake dating
-set in a cupcake store
-football player
-forced to recreate romance book covers
-main character get with a learning disability
yes please

i really appreciated that the third act breakup was actually justified and used for character development not just a last ditch plot device

I wanted to love this book, but I ended with it being just okay for me. It took a bit for me to buy into caring about the characters or their relationship’s trajectory. There was trip overload and a breakup at nearly the end of the book that seemed out of left field and nonsensical. I wished that we’d gotten more scenes with Jada’s Gram, her bestie, or Donovan and his friends so that the two of them seemed less one-dimensional. There was a lot of repetition of him being “a stern principal” and her being “impulsive!!111” that could have been cut to make room for us learning more about each of them beyond the literary archetypes they were portraying. I assume that the partners in the cupcake shop will eventually get books of their own, but there wasn’t enough about them on page in this one that makes me look forward to those.

Jada, famous for turning down America’s most eligible bachelor on a reality tv dating show, finds herself working in a struggling cupcake shop owned & operated by Donovan, a pro football player. When a reporter mistakes Jada & Donovan as a couple, they realize this fake relationship may help them both.

This was a very sweet story that was fun to read, but for me personally wasn’t much more than that. That’s not to say it was bad, it just felt like it didn’t have as much substance as some of the other romcoms I’ve been reading lately, so it paled a bit in comparison. This was absolutely an enjoyable book that will sure to please anyone looking for a lighter, fun book.

You can expect a bunch of your classic rom com tropes, such as enemies to lovers, fake dating, grumpy/sunshine, and a bit of instalove. If you like any of these tropes you’ll be pleased by this book.

But, as with any of the romcom tropes, you can see the ending a mile away. The journey to the end was fun (Jada is sassy & I absolutely love her snark and commitment to fashion). I also loved her Grandmother, the owner of the NFL team Donovan plays for and Jada’s biggest support system. But Jada’s mission in the book is to make some kind of job (even just part time at a cupcake shop) work until her birthday when she is of an age to access her trust fund.

Her “struggle” from the onset seemed very first world problems to me. However, Jada grew on me as a hard worker and in the end I was impressed by her character. It was probably intentional by the author for the readers to feel this way, as it really emphasizes how Jada grows, but I wish I could’ve seen more of end-Jada’s grit at the beginning.

There’s definitely some steam here too, so if you’re into some spicer scenes you won’t be disappointed there.

All this to say: if you’re looking for a light, fun, enjoyable romcom, this would be it!

This book has so much potential in the premise: a reality television scandal, a pro-athlete with a heart of gold, a fake-dating trope, and a sassy grandmother. Unfortunately, it fell flat. The characters ending up being really unrelatable, the dialogue was forced and sometimes corny, and the build up between the two love interests was non-existent.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Donovan, along with his two best friends and fellow teammates for the San Diego Knights, own operate a cupcake business called Sugar Blitz.

Jada Townsend-Matthews, is a woman currently hiding from the public eye after the fallout of declining a proposal on television dating show.

After a disastrous first encounter, Jada finds herself working at Sugar Blitz alongside Donovan. After a reporter mistakenly believes that Jada and Donovan are together, they use this misunderstanding to help the struggling bakery and fix Jada's public image.

I really enjoyed this hate to love turned fake dating book. I love the dynamic between the two main characters and their banter was my favorite part. I did find the beginning a little bit slow but it picked up for me when they began fake dating. The side characters in this story were fantastic and I am hoping for a new book in this series in the future.

This was such a great, easy read. It was extremely light-hearted and made me super happy. In a fake relationship, Donovan, an NFL player and cupcake shop owner, and Jada, who is fresh out of a reality dating show, start developing actual chemistry. The book makes this actually adorable! It was full of fluff.
However, it was extremely predictable, but that’s what you get when you read romance like this:)
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my review :)

Synopsis:
Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego's newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell.

When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the struggling bakery and rehabilitate Jada's image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient.

REVIEW:
Fake It Till You Bake It was a sugary sweet romance that had me craving cupcakes the entire time I was reading it 😂 I loved the representation here with both main characters being Black, and the fake dating trope is always one of my favorites to read. However, the book dragged a lot for me especially in the beginning. It wasn’t until the last 30% or so that things started happening more quickly. I also thought the steam was a bit lacking with there only being one scene that I’d consider moderately steamy (i.e. open door). The ending definitely left it open for it to be a series about Donovan’s business partners (also football players). Overall, it was a quick, satisfying read!

This was a super cute idea for a story. I loved both Jada and Donovan and I think they ended up being such a great couple. I do wish we saw a bit more of the build-up to their relationship, I felt like it kind of went from zero to one hundred with their love for each other. I wish there was just a little more insight into their regular days and how they got to know each other and how they really fell for each other. I loved how they both seemed to help each other through hard times and were really both acting like a rock for each other. I would love to read another story with Nicholas or August or Olivia. Both Donovan and Jada have such interesting friends and I think they could have really great love stories.

I really enjoyed the premise for this book, and the fake dating trope is one of my favourites. But I had a hard time loving this book.

I found it often difficult to follow, as it felt quick and didn’t give time to developing the scenes. It would often take me a few paragraphs to realize that the story had jumped again.

Because of this, I couldn’t root for the characters. I didn’t feel that I got to know them as much as I would have liked.

The premise and title are the makings of an excellent rom com, but for me it was just lacking some in the execution.

ARC has been provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this read. First of all, the book gave me a craving for cupcakes in the worst way. Second of all, I thought this was a very sweet love story. It's the classic fake relationship among people who really don't care much for each other and then, naturally they catch feelings f0r each other. I really enjoyed the character of Jada and her determination to not let the haters get to her and she had fantastic chemistry with Donovan. Great read and I would definitely read more by this author.

This was a cute and light hearted book. I have recommended this book so much because it was just perfection.

Our main characters are Jada and Donovan. Jada just came off of a dating reality tv show and she didn't have the best outcome. We have Donovan who is a NFL player and is one of three owners of a cupcake shop. What would make them any better... oh ya they are having a fake relationship. The comedic moments and the cute scenes are too die for. The characters make you feel like you are apart of the story, and believe me once you've read it you would want to too. It was a fun read and you can't simply put the book down.

This is the first in a series which leaves me very excited and I can't wait to see what's next.