e-Audio, 10:01:33
Narrated by: Kassiopia DeVora
Release Date: July 13, 2022
Published by: OrangeSky Audio
Read from: June 7-20, 2022 & July 20, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Gambling addiction, Bullying (IRL and via Social Media)
For Readers Interested In: Realistic Fiction, Reality TV, Baking/ Foodie Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Celebrity Romance, Adult, Fake DatingA 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*
Y’all I’m so sad. I was SO SO excited for this book. I mentioned it in my reaction to finding out about it (on Goodreads) that I knew there was an actual set of business partners out there that were baking athletes. I found out about them from one of those baking shows. And because of that, I had built it up in my head that it was going to be just like that. I shouldn’t have done that.
So baking and football are two of my favorite past times other than reading. I thought putting the three together would be (for lack of a better phrase) the icing on the cake. Unfortunately it just didn’t work. The characters were terrible and they had absolutely no chemistry. I was legit upset enough to put the book down until I could get my hands on the audio because at first I was going to DNF it. Donovan wasn’t just grumpy, but he was so bland lol I wanted to see him on the field. Not just sitting there holed up in his office all the time. And then there was Jada. Talk about spoiled. Together, they worked even less for me. It was like they hated each other and then suddenly they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It just didn’t fit with the way the story was going.
When they finally got together, the smexy scene, I could have done without. It was definitely not memorable. Or maybe I just already bored with this by then. And no I don’t mean that it wasn’t good because it wasn’t like high heat, it just wasn’t good. I don’t really remember much about it besides the notes I took saying, “She should’ve just made it fade to black.” Anddddd that was it. I guess because I was already thinking they were boring by then lol
The conflict was another thing that annoyed me. There was this whole book that built up all of this… And when it was resolved it was done so quickly and done way too fast. Like if you did it so fast, why didn’t you take care of this earlier and put us out of our misery lol Idk, it just wasn’t believable. She was so upset the whole time and then it was so easy to tie up and finish.
I don’t want to sound too harsh about this, because there were some things I liked. Like the cupcakes and showing the big football guys actually baking them. And the flavors were enough for me to want to go to a bakery and try whatever they had on hand. (They ended up not having a smores one so I had to make my own. But unfortunately it wasn’t a book I cared a lot about, so I skipped documenting and taking pictures.) So if you stick it out, it will definitely make you hungry, so be sure to have some type of snack near by.
I read the second half of the book via audio. The narrator was good, so that made me like it so much more. I got to speed it up and actually get through it. She did good inflections and I able to tell the difference between the characters. She’s the reason I finished this entirely.
Definitely was disappointed. I think it was my fault tho. I built it up so much in my head and this was no where near what I was expecting. The concept was there, but the execution was not. Hopefully the next one will redeem it. (Because there is a bombshell ending involving another character.)
Overall, I give this
