ARC Review: Fake It Till You Bake It

Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
Publication Date: 21 June 2022

Fake It Till You Bake It is the sweet, light-hearted story of Jada, a woman from a wealthy family who has been kind of directionless in trying to figure out what to do with her life. Her parents have cut her off financially to try and force her to get a real job, because the last “job” she held was on a reality dating show in which she turned down the bachelor’s proposal during the final episode, making her the most hated woman in the country. Her grandmother has charge of Jada’s trust fund, and will release it to her she proves that she can be financially responsible. To that end, Grams uses her influence as owner of the local pro football team to get Jada a job at a cupcakery owned by three of her players. Side note: muscled men who bake cupcakes all day? Sign me up!

Donovan is one of the owners of Sugar Blitz, and he’s worried about the recent downturn in the shop’s sales. What he needs is more customers, and what he absolutely doesn’t need is Jada coming in and upsetting his ordered life. Soon after Jada starts working at the cupcakery, there is an incident in which a little white lie she told on national TV catches up with her and forces her into a fake dating situation with Donovan.

While I mostly enjoyed this book, I did have some issues. The first half of the book runs a little slow and takes while to develop. On the other hand, the ending seemed really rushed. I think a happy medium could be found with another round of edits. And this next bit may be slightly spoilery, so stop reading now if you want to go into the book completely blind. The whole breakup thing? I really didn’t understand it. I mean, I get the whole wanting to succeed on your own thing, because doesn’t everybody? But completely cutting Donovan out of her life – like, not even texting each other? That seemed a bit extreme to me. And the way he just tossed aside the three months she completely ignored him and just welcomed her back with open arms? Not realistic. I think I would be very skittish about this behavior repeating in the future and would want to at least have a serious discussion about it. But overall this was a fun read with some likeable characters and, you know, cupcakes.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.