3/5 ⭐️

I loved how this book touched topics that make Chinese Canadians like myself feel represented, but the main issue I found was how… immature some of their actions are.
Firstly there’s the main character, Emily, who just fears communication as a whole. It got a little frustrating at times. But nothing compares to her sister, who just let out all of her anger on others. Although they tried to give an explanation, I felt that it was not enough to justify everything as it just painted her character as even more immature.
The actual plot and romance part of the book is really cute, I’ll say. Who isn’t a sucker for a fake dating trope? Also the talks about how it’s impossible to live up to your parents expectations because they never communicate their proudness… is so real.

Big thank you to Simon & Schuster for an eARC of this novel! A huge opportunity and I am honoured to have been given this!

Love this author, she’s so great at exploring all the relationships, that surround a budding romance and how everyone in a friend group is affected by the change it can bring!!

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I think that there were so much potential to this book, and it just wasn't quite where I wanted it to be. I mean, fake dating to avoid meddling parents? That sounded right up my alley. It just was missing something to really love it.
Frist, I really struggled with the first half of the book. And I think a big part of that was that I was really annoyed with how Emily came across. I feel like she was just complaining the entire time, and it really made it hard for me to really get into the story. In a way, because she spent so much time on the negative, it made things feel really slow, and a little painful by moment. And while I get where it came from, I feel like I was looking for a book to escape and have a fun ride, and all that negativity bummed me out.
The relationship between Mark and Emily was okay. I wasn't fully feeling their chemistry. It was just missing that spark that makes you swoon in a rom-com. I think I would have liked to get Mark's point of view earlier, to get more a feel about him, and see him falling for her more. Maybe that would have help...
Still it was okay. The second half felt stronger, but it just wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I'm still curious to try some of her other books, but we'll see.

this was not for me.

Emily Hung has a problem; her mother is continuously trying to set up her and Mark Chan, and so Emily designed a plan to fake date Mark to get her mother off her back.

i truly had to push myself to finish it, and nearing the end, i was mostly skimming the words. the main issue i had with this book was the writing and characterization. i truly could not stand Emily (Mark was fine, but by the time his pov was introduced, i was already so uninterested in the entire plot), and a significant reason why i could not stand her was the writing of her character. i did not feel like she was a thirty-three-year-old character; i often found her narration immature, childish, and just plain goofy. a pet peeve of mine for books is the excessive use of exclamation points, and this book definitely had that, especially in the context of Emily's dialogue and inner thoughts. Emily's character was unlikable, rude, and self-righteous.

thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this e-arc!!
[1.5 stars]

this was such a cute, easy, fun romance book that had all the makings of a great rom-com! family meddling in personal lives, over-bearing parents, feeling like the ‘odd one out’, and trying to pursue a passion career while also affording the bills. Emily had to navigate it all as a 33-year old woman trying to find some sort of stability in her life, personal or not.

I really liked the family shenanigans that were happening in this book. Emily’s mother was the star of the show in her “match-making” abilities and really tried to set Emily up with Mark as best she can. I found her over-bearing tendencies somewhat charming and very funny. I LOVED mark! sweater vest wearing, cat dad extraordinaire seemed like he had it all, and he did! the whole fake-dating trope at the beginning was so fun, one of my favourite book tropes🤭

I really wanted to love this book but it just fell flat for me. I found Emily to be super immature for a character in her early 30s and some of her actions didn’t make sense to me. The romance didn’t feel like it was fully there, I didn’t sense a whole lot of chemistry between the characters.

Overall a good read, especially if you’re looking for an easy, cute and fun read with fake-dating and lots of family drama!

thank you NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and Jackie Lau for an eARC in exchange for my honest review 🩷

It's a cute read for a contemporary romance; I did enjoy most of the book!

For the first part of the book, I liked the characters, and I enjoyed how they interacted with each other. However, it seems that once the characters got together physically the book went downhill. It felt like reading about how felt wanted to screw versus an actual story. The characters felt flat during the second part of the book.

I personally would have preferred this novel to have been a closed-door romance - I believe I would have rated it higher if it was.

I really was looking forward to this book and overall I feel like I over-hyped it for myself and it didn't meet my expectations.

Love, Lies & Cherry Pie - Jackie Lau ⭐️⭐️⭐️🌶🌶
"A charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother…only to find that maybe mother does know best." I liked the concept of this more than the book itself. The mcs lacked chemistry (I didn't feel like I knew the mmc at all by the end of the book) and the fmc spent the.whole.book being a walking shoulder-chip. Some lovely family moments and a mischievous cat were my favorite parts. Thank you to @simonschusterca for the ARC.

I’m pretty conflicted on my review for this one.
I started off really loving it - I related a lot to Emily (though I’m now married with a child, this happened later in life). The pressure to live up to society’s standards is present in many of our lives.

I enjoyed both MCs separately, but I felt like together they lacked chemistry. When it got to the spicy scenes, I was sort of stunned that it was even happening - I didn’t feel much of a build up to them getting together physically, and it felt awkward to me.

Besides the romance (which is what it was meant to be), I actually really enjoyed the book, which is where my conflict is coming from!
I liked that Emily was a romance author, and some lines in the book were sort of “behind the scenes” of writing.

As a Canadian, I always want to support Canadian authors! I loved that this was set in Toronto, and the little relatable things (even something simple like calling it grade 3 instead of 3rd grade).

tropes:
🥸 fake dating
🙃 opposites attract
🐢 slow burn
🇨🇦 Canadian author + setting (Toronto)
💞 dual 1st person pov

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was so freaking cute and entertaining!! I finished it in like three days and could not put it down. The book also takes place in Toronto (mostly) which was a lot of fun to read because there were so many references that I understood!

Also, I NEVER annotate but I ended up annotating the e-book and that was a lot of fun!

Some things I liked about the book:
🍒Emily was SO relatable sometimes!! Though I'm not sure that’s entirely a good thing because she is 33 while I’m not even 20…

🥧I loved Mark’s character, he was reserved at first but opened up more as he got closer to Emily in a natural way

🍒Emily’s relationship with her family and how she navigates the ups and downs of being in a big Asian family

🥧Ms. Muffins, she was the best part about this book!

🍒How Emily and Mark can be their true selves around each other without having to pretend to be someone else

🥧All the book/writing references and comments

🍒The fact that the book took place in Toronto!! I know I already mentioned this but I haven’t read a lot of books that take place in Toronto so this made me happy!

If you enjoy a light, fake-dating romance then you will definitely enjoy this book! Thank you Simon and Schuster and Jackie Lau for the e-ARC.

While Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie had moments of humour and tackled the realities of being in your 30’s in the present day, there were integral elements of the story that left a lot to be desired, for me. My biggest issue with the novel was that the voice of the protagonist, Emily, was surprisingly immature for a 33 year old–she often reacted dramatically to quite minute and irrelevant happenings, and took a lot of sweeping statements about publishing very personally. Her banal thoughts really wore me down, honestly, and there was no character growth in that regard. I liked how the POV switched mid-way–I thought it was clever and a much needed reset.

I appreciated the representation of someone in their 30s who feels lost, is struggling financially, and feels the guilt that comes with the recognition of not achieving success as a child of immigrants. However, these themes weren’t tackled with much finesse and became repetitive.

The romance didn’t do it for me–I was unable to sense the chemistry between Emily and Mark. I recognize that this book makes reference to Pride & Prejudice, especially with how polarizing they treated one another at the start. Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes but I did not understand why Emily was acting so skittish around Mark when the ruse was her idea in the first place. By the time they got together, I didn’t care as I was not invested in the build up of their relationship.

The positives were all the characters, and this felt like a love letter to Toronto.

Thanks Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

DNF'd @ 38%. This was very hard to get into. I tried several times to push myself to keep reading and this book just wasn't for me. It was choppy and the way the main character just constantly info dumped was outputting. It just felt like I was reading random thoughts that came into the author's head while writing. Unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

i found this book really entertaining, the writing made it easy to fly through and loved that it was dual POV! i also liked that it seemed pretty reasonable why the main characters started fake dating and it didn't just happen out of nowhere which i feel like can happen with this trope. their fake dates were cute, i just think at times i found it hard to connect with the characters. i wanted them to build a bit more chemistry before becoming a couple so i feel like i wasn't as invested in them getting together. the mother daughter relationship definitely had me feeling all the emotions, and unexpectedly became one of my favourite parts of reading this book. overall, this was a quick and fun read!

thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this arc!

3.5/5
[This is an unbiased & voluntary review]. I think this book was fun and really cute! I find that I appreciate the dynamic of Mark & Emily, even if the slow burn got to me realllll good. Small detail of personal preference but I just loved the small influence their friends had by just popping into the story, not realizing they actually pushed their relationship to grow into something more significant. I also loved the fact it is Toronto based since I'm in Toronto, and on top of the fact that we have a lot of mutual cultural references. Overall a nice read for the spring, and big thank you to Simon & Schuster for the copy!

I’m really glad that part 2 introduces Mark's POV, because by that point in the book I was starting to find Emily a bit exhausting. She’s very, very dramatic. This is not a problem, it’s just a lot when there’s no other narrator to temper her manic-ness. This is a book of bad first impressions, multi-generational immigrant families not understanding each other, and finding a way through life that works for you. It’s about learning to understand your family and yourself, and finding your own identity, and learning that love can sometimes come out of nowhere. If you’ve seen Disney’s Red - it gives that vibes, but it Red was an adult romcom about May’s dating life. My favourite scene was when Mark, our introverted MMC was not only willing to but made the offer, to change their date plans at the last minute to accommodate Emily’s writing!! <3 <3 <3 This was a sweet read.

Definitely have some snacks on hand when you crack this book open because it will make you hungry! This book was a delight from start to finish and I did not want to put it down. Sometimes in rom-coms the main characters lean towards the annoyingw but Jackie Lau lets her characters be complex with fears, insecurities, and more than one harebrained idea but in the midst of it all you still care for them. I especially enjoyed the sister dynamics. Lau makes her characters endearing by having them confront their fears to become better versions of themselves.

The quotes at the start of each chapter were wonderful and more than once made me laugh. I want every book I read to have paraphrased quotes at the beginning of each chapter. They are so amusing.

A fun element was having both main characters be readers and aware of the annoying tropes that can be present in rom-com books and *gasps* not doing them. It was so refreshing I wanted to cheer out loud.

Five-star read, it's light, funny, and foodie-approved.

My only gripe, and it's minor, was having the female main character commenting on the food they eat and how many carbs they've eaten that day. I don't think it's needed, especially in a book that is mouth-watering in its description of food.

Emily is in her early thirties and is single. Coming from a family where her four sisters are all married, leads to the family pressure that Emily is running out of time. Enter Mark - he’s single, has a good job, comes from a good family, and is seated ext to Emily at her sister’s wedding. Emily’s mother is determined to find someone for Emily, leading to an interesting fake dating scenario amongst two people who dislike each other.

I really enjoyed this story - it kept me entertained despite being a little slow at the start. There were some very sweet, funny, and meaningful moments in the book. I also loved the Canadian aspects of this book - it’s set in Toronto.

Thank you Simon & Shuster and Netgalley for an ARC of this book. Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie releases May 7.

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me.

I read 40% of this book before I decided to DNF it. I did resonate with the family dynamics and pressures of having to get married but I just didn’t connect with the characters. I couldn’t care less about Emily going out with Mark…. I didn’t care to stick around and see if it got better because it just wasn’t capturing my attention.

DNFed at 25%

I really wanted to connect with this story. I liked the premise a lot, fake dating, yes please, and set in Toronto, Canada. But from the moment Emily was rather rude and a bit caustic to Mark at the wedding, it kind of soured me towards her character. I get that she was beyond annoyed with her mom’s actions, but it wasn’t Mark’s fault. And she kind of took it out on him. And the constant comments about how being in her 30s was old grated on my nerves a bit.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t a likeable enough character for me to go 58% of the book with just her POV. I wonder if my feelings towards the book would have been different if we had been given Mark’s POV from the outset. Knowing we were to get Mark's POV, I moved to the chapter where it happens hoping that it might draw me back into the story enough to have me go back and continue reading, but sadly it did not.

4-⭐⭐⭐⭐

"You can smile, you know."
"No, I can't. I'm highly allergic to smiling."

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie is an adult romcom following author and barista, Emily, who is tired of her mother's meddling. When she becomes fed up of her mother's latest attempt to get her in a relationship, Emily decides to offer her date, Mark, to help get both their parents off their backs with a good old fashioned fake dating situation. Yet as time goes and these fake dates start to feel real on Emily begins to wonder is maybe her mother was right about Mark...

This book a delightful quick and easy romcom to dive into. Emily is a classic millennial that was easy to relate to with her tight budget and success. She felt real to me and I enjoyed exploring her journey. Meanwhile, Mark is a go with the flow kind of guy who has a lot of surprises underneath his argyle sweater that has me grinning the entire time. Also, he has a cat!

This book is about a 1.5 spicy pepper out of 5 spicy pepper. It is definitely a more slow burn romance as Emily wants nothing to do with Mark in the beginning. I loved the build up of the romance as I started to see Mark in a new light as Emily did and it had me smiling and giggling along the journey.

"From this baffling exchange, there are several possible conclusions. First, this man is absolutely gone for me and it has impaired his good judgement..."

The story itself is very light as Emily handles deadlines, stresses of work, publication, and familial expectations. The family drama shook things up but there were these little surprises sprinkled throughout that just added new perspective to the story and drew me in. I will say there is nothing specific that stood out but the ride was smooth and I felt so at ease while reading. The ending is sweet and cherry on top (haha).

Thank you so much Atria books for this arc!

Thank you to Simon Schuster for an #arc in exchange for an honest review.

~ A charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother… only to find that maybe mother does know best. ~

🥧 The book releases on May 7th, make sure to check it out if you're a fan of the fake dating trope, or rom-coms in general.

This was a fun read! I especially loved that it was set in Toronto, and that, no matter where you come from, families and relationships are all the same: "ridiculous and beautiful".