Book Review: “Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie” by Jackie Lau

“Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie” by Jackie Lau (2024)

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

Page Length: 249 pages (electronic review edition)

Synopsis:

Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.

Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.

But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly : convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…

Review:

I was excited to hear Lau had a brand new book out as she’s become one of my favorite Romance writers on my auto-buy list! Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie takes us through the formulaic trope of fake dating that turns into something more.

This novel was entertaining read from beginning to end. From Emily’s friends to her lively and sometimes overbearing (but in a good way) family each character’s colorful personalities brought so much to the table. Because of these characters and misunderstandings due to unexpected circumstances the story has much comic relief and keeps a very lighthearted tone throughout the book.

The romance between Emily and Mark being awkward and then slowly warming up together despite their big differences was cute. The lengths they would go to for their fake dates was heartwarming actually, especially when they start to build up a strong rapport with each other. They made a cute couple and the novel includes a few spicy scenes but as whole felt more like a sweet contemporary romance.

Outside of the romance I liked the aspect of Emily’s journey of adulthood and trying to figure out her career, romance, and feeling stagnant in her own life. I could relate to her character a lot and the discussion of what it truly means to be an adult.

“There’s not only one way to be an adult,” I say. “Just because I don’t have a husband and kids— that doesn’t mean I haven’t grown up.” Sure, sometimes I have trouble believing I’m allowed to call myself an adult, but I won’t admit that to her. “It’s not like it affects you; it’s not like I’m expecting you to give me anything. I still take care of myself.”

My only complaint about the novel is that most of the story took place in Emily’s pov and I wish we got more snippets from Mark as we get so few in the story. It would have gave his character even more depth and it would have been interesting to get some his first thoughts to meeting Emily instead of just reading from her pov.

If you haven’t read Lau’s novels yet, I suggest you give this one a read for its inclusion of a bit of family drama, societal expectations, laugh out loud moment, and an enjoyable romance.

Final Verdict:

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.