Fake It Till You Break It

by Jenn P. Nguyen

Mia and Jake have known each other their whole lives. They've endured summer vacations, Sunday brunches, even dentist visits together. Their mothers, who are best friends, are convinced that Mia and Jake would be the perfect couple, even though they can't stand to be in the same room together.

After Mia's mom turns away yet another cute boy, Mia and Jake decide they've had enough. Together, they hatch a plan to get their moms off their backs. Permanently. All they have to do is pretend to date and then stage the worst breakup of all time - and then they'll be free.

It's the perfect plan - except that it turns out maybe Mia and Jake don't hate each other as much as they once thought . . .

• ISBN10: 1250308011
• ISBN13: 9781250308016
• Publish Date: 1 June 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 23 December 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

>3.5 stars
>Cute. 
>Amazing food. 
>Dual POVs
>Over the unnecessary, ”I eat like a pig, I must exercise” type comments and mentality all the way through. Frustrating as all hell, especially when Mia plays it up when flirting to fish for compliments. Realistic, but it never gets pushed back as a bad thing, which is the exact opposite of helpful to combat this nonsense and torpedoed my enjoyment every time.
>At first they were so good at being at each other’s throat, I had a hard time rooting for them to get together. 
>Then things got all cute and broken and I was won over. 
>Feel like Jake had his moment & his resolution, but we never got to see Mia succeed, besides getting the guy but that’s a hallow victory for me. 
>Moms pushing kids together are creepy, IMHO. Once we got to know them better, as women and not just moms, they were sweet BFFs. I love their character progression and plans at the end. 

[Sam@WLABB]

For the past 15 years, Mia and Jake's mothers have been trying to get these two together. Family vacations, Sunday dim sum, and orchestrated "favors" have put them in proximity with one another for practically their whole lives. When Mia attempted to date other boys, her mother chased them off. Therefore, the pair embarked on a fake-dating mission in an attempt to discourage their mothers' matchmaking.

We're going to date so we won't have to date.

I am pretty sure I grinned throughout this book, because it was exactly what I wanted, needed, and thought it would be. The fake-dating trope is always a lot of fun, but throw in a little hate-to-love and people with a tons of history, and I am all in.

Mia and Jake went waaaaay back, and their relationship evolved quite a bit over the years. They had a strong friendship, which may have turned into attraction at one point, but because of their meddling mothers and other factors, it later evolved into a sort of frenemy situation. One of the things I liked about them entering into this fauxmance was that it allowed them to untangle the past and reevaluate their friendship. They each unpacked quite a few memories of each other, and it was terribly sweet. I acknowledge that I am a total sap, but I must confess, that I loved each and every "a-ha" moment they had about each other.

It was also quite beautiful the way they pushed each other out of their comfort zones. They may not have gone about it in the right way, but both Jake and Mia made progress towards some personal goals, because the other was there to nudge them in the right direction. It was wonderful seeing them take those steps, and I liked cheering them on as they did it.

But, can we talk about the moms? First of all, their friendship was so heartwarming. When Jake's mom talked about how Mia's mom took her under her wing, it may have made my eyes a little shiny. I just loved that these two women had each other for support as they navigated life and motherhood. I also liked the way they were with their children. They had a nice rapport with them, and Jake's mom, her whole backstory, got me right in the feels.

Nguyen let us experience so many fun things with Mia and Jake too. Those bits had a great rom-com feel, and I just had a fabulous time.

My list of adjectives for this book: sweet, fun, adorable, amusing, entertaining, and also, touching.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[ccbookwitch]

With a premise like that that promised so much cuteness, this book was destined to be good, and IT WAS. After I read it, I pitched it to a fellow blogger as “a cupcake disguised as a book” because of its sweetness and adorableness and I think that is definitely the most accurate description of this book. While it had a couple of flaws, this book was still really strong and I ended up loving it so very much. So, let’s get on with the review.

what i didn’t like
Jake & Finn’s relationship. This is one of only two things that kept this book from being 5 stars for me. In the book, Jake has a brother who left to go play music on a cruise ship, and Jake is super pissed at him because…??? It’s unclear throughout the book what really happened and why Jake and his mom were so super upset about Finn leaving. It seems like he left without telling them but even though he sort of explains it later in the book it’s still not really clear why it happened or why it was such a big deal to the point where Jake didn’t want to have any contact? I was just very confused because he was at an age where he probably would’ve started leaving for college or possibly moving out if he got a job, so I was very confused as to what the big deal was and what actually happened.
The inciting incident wasn’t big enough. What I love about FAKE IT TILL YOU BREAK IT is its big heart and larger-than-life style romance, so when I read in the synopsis that Jake and Mia start fake-dating because Mia’s mom turns away another boy, I figured the inciting incident that set off the whole story would be equally dramatic and big, but really, it wasn’t a very big deal at all, and left me skeptical that THAT incident would be enough to make Jake and Mia decide to fake date. I wish the incident with Mia and the cute boy and her mom had been made more of a big deal since that’s what sets off the book’s whole chain of events.


what i liked
Um, literally everything else. Okay, jkjk, let’s have a real review now.
ALL THE TROPES!!!! This book used ALL of my favorite romance tropes and it could’ve been too much but it was all just right?? How did she do that?? Anyway, this book uses: enemies to lovers (aka all time favorite romance trope), childhood friends/crush, and obviously fake dating. And Nguyen does them all perfectly and makes them work so well within the story.
Jake & Mia’s other friendships. Personally, I could’ve used slightly more of Ally, Mia’s best friend, but that’s mostly because Rose and Greg were so important and well-rounded to Jake’s side of the story. Rose & Greg were there for more than just talking about Mia, and showed that they had lives outside of each other, whereas I felt like Ally was there just for Mia to talk about her relationships. So I guess this is a like/dislike half and half thing.
Their moms!!! OMG, both of their moms are so adorable and hilarious. We all know parents in YA are generally…not great, so it was so nice to see involved moms (even though in this case I guess they were a bit too involved with their children’s lives). I thought both protagonists’ relationships with their moms were well written and well rounded in terms of development. Their moms made me have a few good chuckles all throughout the book.
Mia and Jake were both artsy! I LOVED that Mia & Jake were both interested in different aspects of the arts. I was super artsy and creative in high school so their experiences and interests really rang true to me and made them even more likable. I especially loved Mia’s relationship to theater, since she starts out not very confident about it and ends up trying to go for her acting dreams. I just found the arts aspect of this book so great and genuine and it really made me smile.
The build up to Mia & Jake’s romance. Obviously when you read this book you know Mia and Jake are going to fall for each other, but the author doesn’t make it as easy as that. Mia dates someone else during the story, which annoyed me because obviously I didn’t ship it but it added to the tension, while Jake likes her more and faster but doesn’t admit it to himself until later in the book. It was so cute watching everyone else in the story comment on it and figure it out, but the relationship played out really naturally and in a realistic way that was still fun and adorable as heck.
Long story short: this will for sure be the cutest book you read this year and you need to add it to your TBRs when you need a literary pick-me-up. This book had me smiling the whole read through and it stayed with me long after because it just made me so happy. If you’re looking for some marshmallow fluff, definitely pick this book up!