Review: Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen

Title: Fake It Till You Break It

Author: Jenn P. Nguyen
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Published: May 28, 2019
Pages: 304
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: ARC
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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 have 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.

The only problem is, maybe Jake and Mia don’t hate each other as much as they once thought...

Goodreads / Amazon

MY REVIEW

DISCLAIMER: This review MAY contain spoilers. I received an Advance Reader Copy at no cost from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions in my review are my own.

I think that I am in shock right now. There is really no other explanation for how stunned I feel at the moment. Okay, let me explain. Earlier this year I read Jenn P. Nguyen's The Way to Game the Walk of Shame and it blew my mind. It is one of the very best YA contemporary titles that I have EVER read. Like, EVER. The story had everything. A plot that was entertaining and took root inside you, characters that were completely real and grew as the story progressed, and all the feels a fangirl could want. So understandably, when I pick up this highly anticipated book by the same author and get none of those things...well, it kind of feels like getting lost at sea. 

So before I tell you all of the reasons why I ended up adrift in this liferaft, let me just say that this book had a lot of potential. I think that a lot of the issues that I have with this book rest with the execution. I normally love the "childhood friends/neighbors to lovers" trope and I think that the concept of a girl and a boy whose mothers are trying to push them together had so much going for it. I think that with some fine tuning this could have very well been one of those books that wows me.

Unfortunately, the concept wasn't enough to save this one for me. It felt like the concept, a girl and boy whose mothers are pushing them together in hopes that they become a couple, was all that this story was about. Any good story has a lot more going on in the background that just the main trope. There were some things going on with these characters, but they didn't feel real or important. It seemed like the focus was mainly on the fact that their mothers were pushing them together. It felt like Mia's love of theater and Jake's love of music were just filler and had no real purpose. 

Another thing that seemed to stick to the sidelines was Mia and Jake's friends. Mia has ONE other friend in this book, Aly, and Jake has two friends that are siblings, Rose and Greg. Their friends make appearances, but they are sparse throughout the first half of the book. We see a little more of them in the second half of the book, but their absence made the book feel very unrealistic. Teenagers are all about their friends and I found it hard to believe that they weren't attached at the hip. It almost felt like Mia and Jake had no other friends at the beginning of the book. 

The characters had no real depth. I mentioned how their interests felt unimportant and that really made the characters themselves take a huge hit. I just could not connect with these characters in the slightest. I had no real sense of who they were. I mean, this is a book about high school and I couldn't even tell you which high school clique the two main characters would have run with. It was all up in the air. The only high school kids that they remotely interact with are theater kids that Mia works with. And the entire plot point concerning Jake's brother felt forced and unrealistic. Especially with the crappy explanation Finn gives Jake and their mother for abandoning them. I almost felt insulted. Like I had invested all this time reading this book and this is the big reveal? Really? I wanted to like these characters so much but they were so dreadfully dull and fell so flat.

Some of the dialogue in this book was cringe-worthy. I don't know how else to put it, but some of the dialogue was just terribly written. It wasn't natural at all and was almost painful to read. 

While the romance between Mia and Jake wasn't swoon-worthy, it wasn't a lost cause either. There were some cute moments here and there. I did like how thoughtful Jake always was about Mia. Like, he always knew her eating habits and would order her extra food. Adorable. And the way that Mia could tell Jake's mood by the expression on his face. 

Overall, this book just didn't do it for me. I admit that my expectations were pretty high on this one after reading The Way to Game the Walk of Shame. Maybe that was my downfall where this book was concerned? Either way, I will definitely consider picking up another book by this author in the future. I do think that this is a book that many YA contemporary fans will love.

THIS BOOK CONTRIBUTED TO THESE 2018 READING CHALLENGES

- 2019 New Release Challenge
- Contemporary Romance Challenge
- Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge

Check out my 2019 Challenge Page to see my progress!

It isn't often that I am disappointed by a book. I read a lot of books, but I generally have good luck in picking books that I know I will like. I hardly ever give a book less than 3 stars. Like, ever. I was looking forward to this book since I read The Way to Game the Walk of Shame and it became an imprint on my brain. I love that book so much. This book left me wondering if the same author actually wrote both? It's like comparing a five-tier gourmet cake to one of those microwave brownies. Are there any books that shocked you in this way? Did you try another book by the same author after being disappointed the second time? What books have caught your fancy lately?