Hey friends! Today I have a review of “Fake It Till You Bake It” by Jamie Wesley–which came out last week!
A digital ARC of “Fake It Till You Bake It” was provided to me by St. Martin’s Griffin/SMP Romance via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Read on to check out the official synopsis of the book, my review, and a bit about the author!
Synopsis
A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It.
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.
Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side.
My Thoughts
Oh me oh my. I can’t even express to you how thoroughly I enjoyed “Fake It Till You Bake It” by Jamie Wesley and how badly I am craving a cupcake.
Jada and Donovan, our enemies to lovers/fake dating couple, are magnetic and one of my favorite romcom couples. They had incredible chemistry and I looked forward to seeing them on page together every single time. I also loved them as individuals who have their own issues and are working on that. I felt a kinship with Jada, who like many in their mid-twenties is just Trying To Figure It Out. I adored Donovan and really appreciated what Jamie Wesley did with his character and his relationship with being financially stable. It was incredibly relatable.
I also love love loved the side characters. From Mrs. T to Olivia to Nicholas and August (who I CANNOT wait to hear more from). I’m thinking we’re getting a sequel or companion novel following August, but I am also very much looking forward to hearing more from Nicholas hopefully. I think I stan? I love a good player turned serious monogamous trope, what can I say.
Something I found super refreshing with “Fake It Till You Bake It” was that we got our classic tropes, but we weren’t burdened by a lack of communication between the love interests. Jada and Donovan were always so honest with each other in moments when most romcoms take a turn and everything falls apart because of miscommunication. Spoiler for the end (if you don’t want to see spoilers, skip the rest of this paragraph): I fully thought when Lila was blackmailing Jada, that Jada would leave Donovan in order to protect him and explain none of the situation–not that she is the type of character who would do that! Her going to him is exactly what she would and did do, but I have romcom trauma. Usually that’s the part where secrets and miscommunication run wild. It was really nice seeing a fully healthy relationship represented on page.
Anyway, I really loved this book and these characters and the representation and I hope to read more from Jamie Wesley soon.
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
About The Author
Jamie Wesley has been reading romance novels since she was about 12 when her mother left a romance novel, which a friend had given her, on the nightstand. Jamie read it instead, and the rest is history.
She started her first manuscript, a contemporary romance, after she graduated from Northwestern University in 2002 and couldn’t find a job. Life got in the way as it often does, i.e. she found a job, and she didn’t finish the story. However, she never forgot about it and finally got serious about completing it in 2009. And then she finished a few more stories. In 2012, her manuscript, TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD, was named a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart competition and was published by Entangled Publishing in 2014.
Jamie holds a master’s degree in sport management (yes, that’s a real thing 🙂 ) from the University of Texas at Austin, so it probably comes as no surprise that she loves sports and spends an inordinate amount of time rooting for her hometown Dallas’s pro sports teams and her alma maters.
She also adores Walt Disney World, shopping, and pop culture. Want to know if your favorite TV show is going to be canceled or what the newest Disney attraction is? Ask Jamie. She’ll probably know the answer.
Selina Falcon 