Review: Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie

Title: Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie
Author: Jackie Lau
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Atria Books
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 7, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

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…

Review:

Emily Hung is the only one out of five sisters who is single. She’s a published author who also works as a barista, so she doesn’t have time to date. At her sister’s wedding, her mom tries to set her up with Mark Chan. Her mom is constantly talking about what a great guy Mark is, which automatically turns Emily off him. When her mom sets her up on a date with Mark, Emily decides to have a fake relationship with Mark to get her mom off her back. However, when her family friends start appearing during their fake dates, Emily realizes they have to start going on real dates to prove to her mom that the relationship is real. As Emily starts to enjoy their dates, she starts to realize that the guy her mom picked out for her may be a better match than she thought.

I loved this story! I found Emily to be such a relatable character as a writer. Her comments and references to the publishing world were so accurate and often funny. I loved the relationship between Emily and Mark. Their “third-act-breakup” wasn’t too intense, which made the ending light and fun. It had such a heartwarming ending!

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pies is a fun rom com!

Thank you Atria Books for providing a copy of this book.

Have you read Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie? What did you think of it?