Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie

Emily is a published author and part-time barista who at 33-years-old still struggles to make her parents proud. Fed up with her meddling and opinionated mother whose main goal in life is to marry Emily off, Emily decides to pair up with Mark Chan, a bachelor her mother has been pushing on her. Mark and Emily don't like each other but hope their fake dating can benefit them both.  

This was a sweet story featuring the fake dating (yay!) and miscommunication (not so yay) tropes. With Emily's POV, readers get a clear picture of her experiences as an author, daughter of immigrant parents and member of a large extended family and cultural community. But her rambling inner monologue and her constant assuming the worst of Mark was irritating as was Emily's silly (and kinda insulting) complaints about being over-the-hill at age thirty-three. 

Mark seemed like a sweet and patient, if a bit uptight, guy. We get his POV halfway through but all we really learn about him is that he's reserved, has a cat, and has issues with his dad. But I enjoyed his humorous quips that helped balance the negativity coming from Emily.

Where this book shines is in the issues it raises - self-worth, extended family dynamics, first generation immigrant experience, mother-daughter relationships and the idea that marriage isn't the ultimate goal for a happy life. Overall, this was a cute read set in 'Toronno' and the icing on the proverbial cake was the late revelation that added a new perspective and motivation.

Disclaimer: ARC kindly provided by the publisher at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference 2024. All comment are my own.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Jackie Lau

Genre: RomCom, Romance, Canadian, BIPOC author

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from publisher at OLA 2024

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler (S&S)

First Published: May 7, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: Jackie Lau, author of the “full of heart” (Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author) The Stand-Up Groomsman, returns with a charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother…only to find that maybe mother does know best.

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…