2023 LGBTQIA+ Pride Month #5 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am making my way through my YA backlog, and while I meant to read this book for AAPI month, it sort of fell through the cracks, so here we are.

Again, you can read the synopsis for yourself, so I won't bore you with that, but this is a sort of youngish Crazy Rich Asians (the book/movie is actually mentioned), but gay. The boys are super cute, obviously, but I could've done with less of Theo's friend Adrian. And his butler. And his dad. And a lot of his family. Rich people problems, am I right?

Dylan is a precious cinnamon roll that must be protected at all costs. I'm a terrible Asian American in that I've never had a mooncake, but now I want one. LA recs?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

A young boy must cook like never before to save his family business, but can he save his heart in the process?

This story gives Heartstopper vibes, but without the graphic novel illustrations. Meaning, at the end of the story you are left with the warm fuzzy feelings and craving for something sweet.

goodreads wasn’t kidding when they called “fake dates and mooncakes” a crossover of “heartstopper” and “crazy rich asians!” dylan and theo definitely reminded me of charlie and nick in “heartstopper” because their admiration of each other is heart-warming and full of the best intent. i’m also a big fan of novels that incorporate family relationships into the romantic ones. you can see how much dylan cares about his family by the way he works hard to keep the memory of his mother alive when he practices making mooncakes. i also love how involved his aunt and cousins are in the plot - dylan needs their approval of theo and it’s clear that they all approve of him! it’s also easy to see how much theo longs to have a family like dylan … so it made me so happy whenever he’d be invited to dinner. all in all, i thought this novel was a perfect balance of romance, drama, and witty banter … it’s a must-read!

now, we can’t forget theo’s family’s share of appearances and contributions to his relationship! i thought it was so sweet how some of his cousins bonded with dylan’s cousin and how all of them were rooting for the duo! aside from theo’s father and a handful of his aunts, i’d say his family had the right intentions. theo is easily the king of grand gestures and it was really sweet seeing the lengths he’d go to prove his love for dylan! this plot would make the perfect movie and everyone would fall for dylan and theo!

This was such a cute and fun read! If you’re someone who loves books that have food, you’re going to love this one. The focus on the love, care, and memory that goes into making food was done beautifully. This is a romantic comedy with a really cute budding romance, but it’s also a love letter to those who are gone and those who are part of our family by the preparation and sharing of food.

I really enjoyed reading how Dylan let Theo into his life. I love the fake dating trope and Sher Lee did a great job of having some tension build between the two as they worked out how they felt about one another and how their lives could fit together.

I recommend this one for readers who like sweet rom-com books, queer characters falling in love, and readers who want to look up new recipes because the food sounds so delicious!

This was the perfect cute, fun, and quick rom-com that I was looking for. If you're not an insta-love kind of person, this may not be for you, however, if you can get past that, this is the book for you.

I've been part of Sher Lee's street team for this book since the beginning and it has been an absolute blast. Seeing behind the scenes of the publishing industry has been so fascinating and Sher was so upfront and friendly with all of us! I had very high expectations for this book when I finally started reading it and I can happily say that they were met and then some!

FDAM is the story of Dylan, who is an aspiring chef and decides to participate in the Mid-Autumn Festival, both in memory of his Mum and to also bring some publicity to his aunt's struggling take away. Enter Theo Somers, charming, handsome and VERY rich. Oh, and he may need a date to a family wedding...

I'm really struggling with what to write for this review. All I want to put is READ THIS IT'S ADORABLE but I'm not sure that's convincing enough 😂 Dylan and Theo were such a sweet pair, endlessly supportive of one another and always helping each other out. Also a huge shout out to Dylan's family who I want to be adopted by. The warmth and kindness they exuded was just so cute 😩 I loved learning about the culture Dylan grew up in and ALSO the food descriptions. Yum.

This was such a quick and easy read filled with heart, food and adorably sweet boys, if you ever need something to make you smile I highly recommend picking this one up.

My many thanks to the publishers and Sher Lee for gifting me a copy of the book ❤️

This book is just adorable. While I think the pacing of the relationship between Dylan and Theo was a bit off (they could have used more time for it to grow), it still warmed my heart. The book is a super quick read and asks questions about identity, family, and culture. It has tons of drama, which is fun to read.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes was so fun and now I want to try a snow skin mooncake so bad!!

After the loss of his mom, Dylan lives with his cousins and his aunt, who owns a takeout restaurant. They get by, barely. One night Dylan delivers food to two guys, one of which acts super entitled and bratty. The other one comes into the takeout a few days later to make up for it.

His name’s Theo, he’s confident and charming, and he’s LOADED!!! Through a turn of events, Dylan finds himself agreeing to be Theo’s fake date to a wedding.

It’s campy and fun, and the Crazy Rich Asians comparison is spot on. Dylan’s narrative voice is so lively, and his younger cousin is so funny (I was actually laughing out loud when she suggested Dylan and Theo should Netflix and chill, then corrected herself and said they should IMAX and climax omg)

The cultural aspect came through strong as Dylan tried to rebuild mooncakes from a lost family recipe. Theo never had that tie to their culture, so he learns through Dylan and his family. 🥹

For this book to come in at under 300 pages, I’m so happy with how much is fit into it and fit well! A fairly large cast of realized characters, a sweet budding romance, a save-the-small-business scheme that involves a cooking contest, grief & remembrance… it’s just sweet and fun and worth the read if you need a pick me up :)

Good but not my most favourite YA romance. I did very much like both of the main characters, Dylan and Theo. As well, I really loved Dylan's family and would love to read another book just about them. I didn't really like a lot of the road blocks in the romance and a second act break up will always make me mad. The writing could be a little all over the place, at times it was really really great but then it jumped around without context and I didn't know what was going on. I do love fake dating though so that was a big point from me.

This was a highly anticipated book for me and I think it fell slightly short. I loved all the focus on food and flavors, it made me so hungry. I also felt like Dylan and Theo had a very cute relationship. Where the book lacked for me was the relationship struggles. I could not for the life of me figure out why Theo's dad was SO apposed to their relationship. Like he tried to bribe Dylan to stay away from Theo. That part felt so unrealistic to me for a silly high school relationship and it kinda took me out of the book.

This was really sweet and delightful. Basically everything I was looking for in a fluffy contemporary queer romance.

Really enjoyed this one! I thought the main characters had a bit of "insta-love" going on and would have liked to have seen their relationship build a bit more realistically. Nevertheless, it was a cute, rom-com style story that I enjoyed.

3/5 stars! So... I really liked the premise of this story and Theor and Dylan had some really cute moments together. I think it worked as a YA story, but some of the cliques "mean best friend" etc were over the top and kind of turned me off. Definitely wouldn't put it in the same realm as Heartstopper, but a good quick queer YA romcom read.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Really enjoyed this! The cover is super cute and so is the story. It's one of those reads where you need to have a snack nearby as a foodie the food descriptions sounded so good. It was a quick read its cute mostly but also angsty and has its sad moments. I really loved the family aspects and togetherness. Its a light and quick read! Highly Rec!!

this is a contender for prettiest cover ever - just gorge!

overall this was a fast read with some major highs and some pretty low lows, so i feel like it’s probably a 2.5 (which makes me sad!!!!!! the potential was potential-ing!)

i loved the foodie elements of this one and the family storyline. however, the romance did not work for me entirely :( this was a severe case of insta-love, that turned into immediate oversharing and angst. i’m an insta-love hater because it always brings the chemistry down for me, but if that’s not the case for you, proceed!

there were plenty of cute moments and the characters were mostly likeable, but the pacing just bugged me so much! theo especially deserved more time to develop because everything we got of him i super loved.

would recommend if you’re an insta-love advocate looking for some ya fluff that will make you soooo hungry!

thanks so much to the publisher and netgalley for the early e-arc of this one!

I love a romcom where food is a main character, and this one was super charming and fun. I’m always a fan of fake dating and the family dynamics were delightful.

Really sweet story with great representation. The comparisons to Crazy Rich Asians and Heartstopper are perfect and would highly recommend to fans of those two novels

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee was absolutely adorable, an utter delight of a debut, and I highly recommend it!

I really loved this book and it’s depiction of non-euro American queer romance. The added language and cultural details just really help solidify the book in real life. I enjoyed learning about the customs around moon cakes as much as the overall love story.

The only reason this book isn’t getting five stars is because it does steer into so standard romance tropes such as insta-love that make it feel a little formulaic. That said, I will be looking for more from this author in the future.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee is a contemporary romance. Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons. In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend, but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems. Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

Fake Dates and Mooncakes is a romance that made me very hungry. Before I get to the characters- the food descriptions and information has me craving a whole variety of authentic Chinese food. I loved the exploration of the food and culture of Dylan's family, and how it was made clear how (just like any other culture) personal experiences, regions, dialects, and more have huge impacts on everything involved. I was glad to get a better understanding of one (fictional) family's world and how that fits into the larger whole. I loved Dylan and his family, and would gladly read more about them all. I do have to say that I could not connect as much with Theo Part of it was the family and money, which I could never relate to even though readers do get to see how far from perfect it all is. I think it was more because we rarely got a good look at the real Theo, his actual thoughts and feelings aside from a could big, important moments. I would love to have gotten a chapter or two from his perspective. However, that being said, I really enjoyed the read and look forward to devouring whatever the author cooks up next.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes is a wonderful romance and I look forward to more from the author.