Fake It Till You Bake It

3/5 stars

Jada Townsend-Matthews is still reeling from her time on the reality dating show, My One and Only. She’s laying low after making it to the final round and turning down the marriage proposal. Unsure what to do, she ends up with a job at a bakery, Sugar Blitz, and working for the no-nonsense and pro footballer owner, Donovan Dell. After a surprise visit by a reporter, Jada realizes the way to get America to stop hating her is to begin a fake relationship with Donovan. The two see the benefits of capitalizing on the power of media and work together to fix Jada’s image and help Sugar Blitz get more customers. 

This started out a bit slow for me. I wasn’t sure if I liked Jada or Donovan as characters. They each had their own flaws that couldn’t get me to relate to them. Perhaps it’s the fact that one is a trust-fund child and the other is a professional football player. While these descriptions fueled the media/virality storyline, it definitely made connections with the book a bit harder for me. 

As the plot moved on and I got to know Jada and Donavan more, I grew to like them. Seeing their interactions with customers and side characters, Nick and August, brought a warm feeling to the book. Though they did not overpower our main characters, the side characters helped push the character and relationship development and paced the story nicely. 

The fake dating trope is one of my favorites and this did a good job. It wasn’t as steamy as I anticipated, but I actually enjoyed that more. It gave depth to the characters as they found confidence and independence. The fake dating trope did make the story a bit predictable, but this wasn’t an issue. 

I was a bit disappointed by the resolution. Everything seemed to be wrapped up very quickly without much conflict. There were some plot holes and overall, the story wasn’t very realistic – two very privileged people having the time to run a bakery alongside their other responsibilities… Despite this, it was a light read that was a nice escape.

 I loved the representation and the fact that characters of color could be themselves without needing every moment to be educational for audiences. Overall, this was a pretty good romance featuring POC. If you get past the first few chapters when our protagonist is still developing, you’ll enjoy a fun read that has you craving cupcakes all day.