Fake dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee | Blog tour

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publisher: Underline (an imprint of Random House Children’s Book)

Publishing Date: May 16th, 2023

Synopsis:

Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.

Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.

Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

My Review:

I loved Fake-dating tropes after reading The Love Hypothesis. Before getting into the review, let me say I love the book cover so much. The colours and the artwork are so gorgeous, and the cover is one of the main reasons I picked this book.

I love Dylan’s family. They were all super supportive towards each other and always stuck together. Dylan is staying with his aunt Jade who runs a takeout restaurant. The bond between his aunt and him was so beautiful. She saw him as her son and cared for him so much.

Megan (Aunt Jade’s daughter) and Dylan’s conversation entertained me throughout the book. Megan was such an extrovert and never stopped teasing Dylan whenever she got time, which was most of the time. Their cousin bonding was so perfect, and I loved it so much.

When Dylan accidentally met Theo, he instantly fell for him. They both were so cute, but I didn’t feel a strong connection between them. Theo’s personality could have been explained better. He was just portrayed as a wealthy and handsome boy. I also felt the fake dating trope wasn’t at its best.

Dylan and Theo are in their senior year, but not once was there a scene when either of them are in school or doing school-related stuff at home. Here and there, the author mentions Dylan juggling between school and work. But it doesn’t seem like that. It’s more like he was a full-time worker in the takeout restaurant.

The plot was making the best Mooncake to win a competition. Dylan wanted to join in honouring his mother. Even though the result was so predictable, it was a beautiful process to see how much hard work he put into winning the competition.

One of the highlights of this book was the abundance of delectable food references throughout its pages. As a person who loves food references in books, I loved these parts the most.

Overall it was a cute one-time read (with excellent food references).

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 / 5

Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours for providing me with the arc of this book.

Click here for Tour schedule to see more reviews.

Book links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Mood Board:

About the author:

Sher Lee writes rom-coms and fantasy novels for teens. She lives in Singapore and has an abiding love for local street food (including an incredible weakness for xiao long bao).

FAKE DATES AND MOONCAKES, pitched as Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians, is her debut YA rom-com coming Summer 2023 from Penguin Random House.