Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at St. Martin’s Griffin for an ARC of this adult rom-com in exchange for an honest review. Fake It Till You Bake It is about a socialite and a professional football player/baker. Defensive lineman Donovan Dell knows that football careers don’t last forever so he opens up a cupcake shop with two of his teammates. It had a modicum of success in the beginning, but now their sales are slowing down. But things start picking back up again when he and Jada Townsend-Matthews are trapped in a fake relationship thanks to social media chaos. Will they both get what they want in the end? Or are they just faking it until they bake it? Fake It Till You Bake It is out on June 21st and is available for preorder now.
I’m going to do the thing I hate which is starting my review with the negative. And that’s just to get it off my chest. If you don’t know, my husband and I have done three seasons of a sports and books podcast together so I’ve been learning a lot about the ins and outs of different sports over the past couple of years. When I saw this book I thought it would be good for me because 1. I love to bake, 2. Sports are now a thing for me apparently, and 3. Did I mention the fake dating? But almost immediately I was getting nervous belly about how the sports were going to be represented in this book. At the 11% mark I noted that: An NFL player was saying that he’s one of the lowest paid athletes in sports. I swear to god I almost threw my tablet. The NFL is one of the HIGHEST paid sports in the world. And then at the 15% mark I noted that someone had said that the main male character was one of the best defensive ends in the league. And he’s supposedly one of the worst paid players in professional sports??? A quick google search shows that LA Rams' Defensive Lineman Aaron Donald is the highest paid Defensive Lineman in the NFL and that he makes $22.5 Million. It really is that easy to find out about contracts in the NFL. How is this a major plot point about his struggles to keep his business afloat despite being a professional athlete and yet zero research happened here? Yes, a defensive lineman makes less than a quarterback but that doesn’t mean he gets nothing.

(Wow that was a rant. Sorry.)

Another thing I struggled with in this one was that the writing wasn’t the best. The main thing I can reference is when the main characters are together and getting physical. The narration describes it as him “sipping” on her lips. Which just gives me a lot of weird imagery. I know what the author is trying to say here, but my brain does not like the way it’s being said. Something that I think gets better over time in this one is the characters. I found the socialite, Jada, to be annoying in the first 15% to 20%. I think she does develop and become a better person as the story goes on which we all love to see.

I really enjoyed Jada’s grandmother as a character. I know there are often teams passed down through families and it was fun to see that. She kind of reminded me of the Chicago Bears owner. And I am excited because I think there’s a chance that this will end up being a companion series with romances for the two business partners at the cupcake shop. I thought Nicholas was hilarious and I’m interested in finding out more about August. I hope if the author does continue that she’ll dive more into the football side of their lives. And I will say that this was a quick and fast paced read. I was always ready to see what direction this story was going to go in. The third act conflict was a little rough, but I enjoyed seeing the characters take their lives into their own hands and didn’t just go with what other people wanted for them.
I think, overall, if you aren’t going to be like me and aren’t going to get tied up in the ins and outs of the sports side of the story, this could be a solid romance read for you. It’s fast paced and fun with solid character development.

Adorable. Baking A+, characters A+, romance A+, pacing A+, writing A+. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone. It has fake dating, great character development, a quirky book club, and a funny grandmother. What more could you want?

Ok so I did think I would like this! I just thought the book cover was beautiful and I love seeing colored people on covers as well. I went in blind and didn't know that there was a tv show involved or that it would be a fake dating trope either but I enjoyed it. I thought this was a nice light heart read. Definitely a comfort read and I can't wait to have a physical copy because I will definitely will be rereading this hidden gem.

Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, and Fake It Till You Bake It has it. Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. Coming 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. Fake Dating + Slow Burn + Wicked Banter had me swooning in the best way.

I came into this book very excited to read the play on the typical cupcake shop occupation, though I maintain cupcakes are the most overrated dessert item (especially from shops, because they are always dry af). Unfortunately, this book was just okay. I think the author tried to cram as many tropes as possible into the pages and really missed the mark on giving a satisfying read.
The first several chapters felt a bit formulaic with the descriptions and backstory, like a friend would say something then the author would insert two pieces of backstory, then an MC would reply and the author would insert one more. And yet the only thing we knew about Jada by the end was that she liked clothes, and that Donovan liked to bake (though we see him do it twice all book). It made for a very info-dumpy first act that felt sloowwwww instead of snappy.
I also felt frustrated that Jada had to find her ~passion~ at age 25 and not just… get a job that she doesn’t care much about and pays decently like the rest of us? I worried that Jada wasn’t going to be a sympathetic character—I mean, how bad can you feel for someone who needs to bridge 6 months of work between having her parents pay for everything and a multi-million dollar trust fund? 
By the end, I felt that the dyslexia rep was a nice reason for her to have a bad relationship with her parents, but it didn’t do much for my sympathy levels. Again, she literally needed to just get a job to pay for her groceries and utilities. And that’s it. And she couldn’t manage it. For seven years? I’m glad she decided to “be on her own” to grow at 92%, but it didn’t ring very true with her, you know, living in a free condo?
Things started taking a positive turn around 50%, but the fact that they moved from strangers to fake dating into him loving her in about a week really made it hard for me to believe in the couple. I think the characterization could’ve been stronger, and existed before the halfway point—there could’ve been some really beautiful growth had it not been crammed into tiny morsels like it was. This wasn’t a terrible book—just aggressively mediocre.
Honest review provided in exchange for a free digital ARC.

I loved this book- the banter, the build up, everything. it was witty and fun with an incredible cast of characters that really makes you fall in love with them.

Fake Dating
Baking
Black Love

This is pretty much a perfect combination for an entertaining, satisfying romance story. I loved reading this, it was a quick read and very predictable but the story was very well written, spicy, and just so much fun.

Thank you Netgalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of "Fake It Till You Bake It" by Jamie Wesley. All my opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

Honestly, I thought this book would be full of cliches and just feel very similar to other romance books but it was surprisingly unique. The plot and character traits were really different than books I've read in the past and it felt refreshing. While it did have the classic fake dating trope and some cliche moments, the rest of it was unique. I liked the characters a lot, mainly because they felt authentic to their traits throughout the whole book and didn't just completely change their personalities for each other. The romance was a slight slow burn but it didn't feel like it was pushing it, mainly because the main characters acknowledged their attraction to each other from the very beginning. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, the only reason why I don't give it 5 stars is because it wasn't exceptionally memorable to me. I enjoyed it in the moment and would recommend it to romance lovers, but it wasn't an extremely life changing book for me personally.

I want to say that I love how this is a black character driven book. It’s black love, black dreams just overall everything amazing.

I will say that I feel like it starts off a big sluggish for me, nothing really happens in my opinion. The relationship from the characters in the beginning felt a bit off which then lead to the random uplifting moment between them that got them together.

It does take a moment to get used to the characters but I think in the end you may enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchanged for my honest review.

This book is a really cute romance!! Fake It Till You Bake It follows Jada, who has just returned home after turning down a proposal on a reality show, and Donovan, a professional football player that owns a cupcake bakery. Jada needs to prove to her family that she can keep a job, and coincidentally ends up working for Donovan, who is struggling to make a profit with his shop.

I loved the banter between Jada and Donovan, and there were a lot of cute moments and some *steamy* scenes that were enjoyable. The fallout of the reality show leads to an emergency need for the fake-dating trope, which was set up pretty well! Certain elements of the romance were rushed, but overall it was still sweet. The diversity was great as well, it would be great to see more black main characters in romance novels.

It was definitely difficult to connect with the characters; the problems they faced seemed artificial, and there was definitely some cringey dialogue that I feel would never be said in real life. Also, not only was the end conflict rushed, the way they reacted to it didn't make much sense.

Jada did develop over time, and it was nice to see her personal growth influenced by working in the bakery. Fake It Till You Bake It was a light and fluffy read, and overall I give this book 3 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

Actually painfully boring. I am so sorry to this author, but it took me so long to get into this story and I didn't even end up caring about any of the characters afterwards. Not sure what happened and where we fell flat on this one.

First of all...AWWWW

The book was super cute. Black Love, Black Dreams, Black Characters. I loved the realness even if sometimes it made me laugh at the corniness but I think it added to its adorableness.

The romance turned away from old troupes around a couple fighting at the last second, or the world finding out. I loved the way the main characters took control of their lives especially when they were about to be "exposed".

I think the characters' internal struggles, especially Jada's, were a little too troupish but not enough to detract from the plot of the book which was Jada and Donovon who definitely have some deep chemistry.

Overall it was cute and I'm excited for it to be out in the world. #BlackLoveforthewin

This book was super cute! I really liked Donovan - I’m often ambivalent about male leads, but not this time. I also really enjoyed how they took on the toxicity of reality show fandoms.

#fakeittillyoubakeit by Jamie Wesley is a fun and light hearted fake dating book. This book has athletes, reality stars and baking...what's more to love 📚🤓❤️

Thank you to #NetGallery and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review

For release June 21, 2022

Ended up DNF'ing this one 😕. I was very excited to read this title, the cover is stunning, some of my favorite tropes and showcasing black love... sign me up. But after a couple of chapters I just wasn't feeling the characters, which is pretty important to be able to enjoy a book. There also were not a lot of aspects that stood out to me. Felt like something I have read before. This might have been one of those books that I had to take a break from and come back and enjoy, but as of now I won't be doing that.

I wasn’t sure about this one at first. I found the main characters unlikable and un-relatable. It was very Ritchie rich bougie problems hahaha. Not that everyone can’t have problems, and the book quickly made that clear and I found myself very invested in their HEA!

Grams aka Mrs T is the best character in the books!! Jada the heroine grew on me and I ended up loving her. Donovan was opened up and I totally fell for him. His best friends are excellent and I hope to see books on them in the near future. August definitely should end up with Donovan’s sister and Nicholas should definitely end up with Claudia!!

Thank you netgalley for my advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

I was fortunate enough to be an advanced reader on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I requested the book because the whole cupcake thing seemed cute. Not disappointed.

Hot football player, aspiring actress who just got off a reality tv show, and a fake dating trope are all ingredients in this novel. Oh, I forgot to mention, the meet cute isn’t all that cute. So technically enemies to lovers. Just enough sassy banter to make you love them.

It starts out a little slow, but it is such a lighthearted novel that I didn’t mind it. Overall, it’s a cute, feel good read. I recommend you read, but it’s late because I stayed up to finish so I’m not the best saleswoman.

This book was such a fast read. I couldn't put it down. I found myself connecting with characters. They were written very well. It was a light hearted romance. I laughed at times. I loved Jada's character. Definitely going to be recommending this one.

God bless this book and Jamie Wesley, for my romance novel slump has come to a crashing end!

Yes, after several duds in a row that resulted in my lowest rated books this year, my faith in romance novels always being a good time has been restored! A friend suggested I read my ARC of this next and I am so glad I listened! Immediately, I was sucked into the story and the characters. The writing is so smooth and enjoyable to read that it was truly impossible to put down. Not to mention it was highly amusing and funny. A certain book club scene had me absolutely cackling.

Let's talk about our stars, shall we? Please know that I love them both to death. Their chemistry was incredible and I am obsessed with how their fake dating inevitably rolled into something more.

Jada Townsend-Matthews is as impulsive as they come. She is the complete opposite of her parents, both doctors with their lives revolving around science and research. Imagine how disappointed they are in Jada when she not only doesn't pursue a degree in science, but travels across the world, DJs in Europe, tries out acting in LA, and winds up on a The Bachelor-type show. And now she's had a serious dent to her public image after turning down the final proposal. Enough is enough. In order to prove that she is responsible enough to claim her trust fund, her grandmother sets her up with a job at Donovan Dell's cupcake shop. Too bad she already insulted him and the store days before.

Together with two other fellow San Diego Knights football teammates, Donovan opened a cupcake shop that is now bleeding money. Logical and orderly to a fault, he genuinely doesn't know what to do when Jada comes whirling into his shop and nearly burns the kitchen down with a single batch of cupcakes. She turns his world upside down, but also she has some excellent ideas for how to get more business into the store. And if their fake relationship that developed by mistake can help even more with some publicity, great!

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of the ending. I definitely wish it had been done differently, gone on another trajectory, because what did happen felt a little forced and silly. Not to mention it was barely a blip, since we crossed the span of three months over a chapter break and didn't get to see the development that was meant to happen before the happy ending. And I have thoughts on the epilogue.

But all that aside, I still loved this book! And even better, my suspicion halfway through that this might be a series following each of the cupcake shop owners was proven right! August, baby, can't wait for your book!

Fake It Till You Bake It is the first book I've read by Jamie Wesley, but it will not be the last, that's for sure!

I loved this book ~ Jada was such an awesome character and once she pulled out her confidence and woman power, she definitely rocked this story! Donovan ~ seriously, what can be said for someone who stands with the woman he loves so unflinchingly?

Yes, this book had great cupcakes, which I really wanted to try. Can we make edible words a thing now please? Yes, it had meet cute, but above all it had friendship, loyalty, love, and a strong woman as the MC. Those are all such great attributes that it's no wonder I loved this book.

Definitely do yourself a favor and pick up this book when it's released. You will love it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.