Book: Faking Your Mate & Other Recipes for Disaster by Emma Eden
Reviewed by Micca
Rating: 5/5
Faking your Mate and Other Recipes for Disaster: A Fated Mates Fantasy Rom Com by Emma Eden is the third book in The Cake Chaos Chronicles. It is an interconnected standalone series, so you can read this book even if you haven’t read the first two, but I can promise it is going to make you want to go back and read those.
In this book, the main characters are a stubborn witch that has a passion for food and a wolf shifter that is pure sunshine. Declan is the wolf shifter that is always happy to help, and Fallon (Declan calls her Honey for reason he explains very well) is the stubborn kitchen witch at her best friend’s castle. Well, that is until things go a bit haywire and Fallon gets banished. Yes, BANISHED! How could her best friend do that to her?! She was already feeling separated from her two best friends after they got married, all while hiding chronic pain and illness from everyone she cares about.
Thrown out in the cold, with nothing but a cloak, Declan gets supplies packed and finds Fallon. He knows just the place to go. Just one little issue, Fallon is going to have to pretend to be his mate. Whatever she needs to do to get her magic under control so she can get back to her life. They are best friends. No big deal, right? Right?! I mean, a few kisses get out of hand, but it is all under control. Totally.
This book had me kicking my feet, laughing, yelling at both of them, and bawling…sobbing!! You see, I deal with chronic illness and pain. Oh, how I felt seen in this book. There are a few lines that got me, but these two hit so true.
“I didn’t want to bore you with my long history of rejection. You tend to stop telling people when you get hit for it.”
and
“Rest isn’t a reward, Fallon. You don’t need to deserve it,” I said.
Metaphorically speaking, not actually being hit, although there are some out there that do suffer physical abuse on top of emotional abuse and rejection due to an illness and pain out of their control. If you push through, you pay. If you don’t, people think you are lazy. People in your life get tired of you being unable to do things, or if you smile through it, when you do crash you must be faking, seeking attention, or just a flake. So, Fallon says nothing. Now, Declan is her best friend and “mate”, so he knows something is going on. It is a battle even when he finds out.
Can they survive being back with his pack and Fallon trying to learn from his mom, who has eyes like a hawk watching them? Will Fallon be able to keep her health from getting worse? Will her best friend welcome her back? Will we get a book list with the book marks from some very educational books??? Will they survive the girthquake? WTF is slut juice? You will have to read to find out all of these answers and so much more!! OMG, I almost forgot to mention the most important character of all. Ned. You will love Ned.
There is indeed spice and very much on page and graphic s*x scenes (they are soooo good), blood and gore, unaliving of people…peoplish beings? and animals, and as I have mentioned, multiple mentions of what it is like living with a chronic illness and chronic pain. Also, the MMC is a virgin.
I am so thankful that Emma reached out to see if I would be interested in being an ARC reader. I absolutely loved this book, and cannot wait to go back to read the other two. This book is special. I think anyone could love it, but those that hide their suffering on a daily basis, this will get ya. Luckily (again), the humor and smexy scenes perk you right back up! So, thank you to Emma, for writing this representation so beautifully.
My review is my own honest opinion, and all thoughts are my own.