Lemons and Lies by Alexis Castellanos: A Review

Valeria Morales is used to being the unexceptional Morales twin. But she didn’t realize that all of her friends were actually Adrian’s friends until he stopped talking to her. She doesn’t regret exposing her brother for trying to steal Ana Maria’s recipes for the family bakery. She just wishes it wasn’t ruining her senior year.

Then Valeria finds out she’s failing math. Eating lunches in the high school bathroom is bad enough, but the prospect of having to repeat senior year while her academically gifted brother and all of her (former) friends graduate is intolerable. After spending so long drifting in Adrian’s shadow, Valeria knows it’s time for drastic action.

Cue Gage Magnussen. Gage is a math whiz and was a lock for valedictorian until a disastrous breakup tanked his grades giving Adrian a chance to get ahead. Gage’s academics are back on track but he isn’t looking for distractions with an extra tutoring assignment. Especially when he also has his parents breathing down his neck to help plan their annual charity auction. With his ex-girlfriend.

Seeing an opportunity, Valeria offers an ideal solution: Gage tutors Valeria and in exchange Valeria will plan the entire auction on her own. While pretending to be his girlfriend so that Gage’s ex will finally leave him alone.

It’s the perfect plan. Except that it raises Valeria’s profile at school and at home much more than she expected. After years of taking up as little space as possible in her family, Valeria isn’t sure how to carve out a larger role in her own life–especially when it comes to admitting that her fake dates with Gage have led to some very scary real feelings in Lemons and Lies (2025) by Alexis Castellanos.

Find it on Bookshop.

Lemons and Lies is a companion novel to Castellano’s previous novel Guava and Grudges (read my review), this time following a new character and set shortly after the events of the first book. The audiobook features Marisa Blake voicing Cuban American Valeria’s first person narration.

While the fake (and perhaps real?) romance takes center stage, both Valeria and Gage also spend the book navigating difficult family dynamics as they both try to break out of the restrictive prescribed roles their parents have created for them. For Valeria this means explaining to her family that she’s much more interested in art than academics and isn’t sure how college fits into that focus. Valeria and Adrian’s feelings about their long-absent mother also come to a head forcing Valeria especially to learn that sometimes chosen families are stronger than any biological ties.

Valeria is a proactive, socially smart protagonist and it’s a pleasure watching her come into her own throughout the novel as she realizes academics aren’t everything. Despite their unlikely start Valeria and Gage quickly find common interests and ways to support each other building a solid friendship between their fake dates.

Lemons and Lies is a fun romance where lies can turn into something much sweeter with a little extra care. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: Hot Dutch Daydream by Kristy Boyce, Read-a-Boyfriend by Gloria Chao, Asking For a Friend by Kara HL Chen, Sanskari Sweetheart by Ananya Devarajan, The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo, The Calculation of You and Me by Serena Kaylor, Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee, Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis, Never Thought I’d End Up Here by Ann Liang, Build a Girlfriend by Elba Luz, Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno, Just Another Meet Cute by Jenn P. Nguyen, ASAP by Axie Oh, The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park, The Quince Project by Jessica Parra, Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad, Class Act by Kelsey Rodkey, Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzalez Rose, What Happens After Midnight by K. L. Walther

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto: A Review

When Sharlot Citra’s mother catches her in a compromising position–and refuses to understand that Sharlot wasn’t even going to do that with the boy in question and was actually ending things with him–she does not take it well. In fact, she takes it so badly that before she can say “anti-feminist double standards” Sharlot finds herself whisked away to Indonesia to spend time with the relatives they haven’t seen since her mother emigrated to LA as a young woman.

Meanwhile in Jakarta George Clooney Tanuwijaya is minding his own business playing a video game when his father and his younger sister Eleanor Roosevelt walk in on what they think is a much more personal activity. Except when George tries to explain what really happened, it just convinces his father that George is a loser and it’s time for him to take matters into his own hands. Whatever that means.

To George’s horror (and Eleanor Roosevelt’s delight) it turns out it means that his father creates a dating profile for George to meet a good girl. Which is apparently a great idea parents have because Sharlot’s mother is doing the same thing. Despite their parents catfishing each other, George and Sharlot unsurprisingly want nothing to do with each other. Except George is a minor celebrity as the only son in the Tanuwijaya business dynasty and a minor celebrity in Jakarta. One who the family matriarch Seventh Aunt definitely does not want to see ridiculed by the press when the relationship is exposed as a farce.

George and Sharlot agree to go along with the fake dating scheme under duress, knowing that there is no way they could ever fall for each other. But as George tours some of Jakarta’s most romantic locations with Sharlot and Sharlot learns more about her family and her culture, both teens realize they might have gotten the wrong first impression of the other.

With so many secrets and lies between them, Sharlot and George will have to cut through all of the extra layers–and outside opinions–to see if their parents’ efforts at a totally fake match might have led to something very real in Well, That Was Unexpected (2022) by Jesse Q. Sutanto.

Find it on Bookshop.

Well, That Was Unexpected alternates between Sharlot and George’s first person narrations which are excellently read by Rise Mei and Yoshi Sudarso respectively. Set entirely in Indonesia the story offers both an introductory view of the country (and its many delicious food and coffee options especially!) through visitor Sharlot and local George’s perspectives. All main characters are Chinese Indonesian. Readers who enjoy this title should also check out Sutanto’s companion novel Didn’t See That Coming (read my review) which follows Sharlot’s cousin Kiki.

Sutanto packs plenty of humor, a winning ensemble cast, and a rich plot into dynamic contemporary romance. The double standards for teen boys and girls to be seen as “good” or “proper” are unpacked particularly well as Sharlot and George are subjected to unwanted press coverage. (Feminist readers will likely guess who is portrayed as the so-called bad one by the media.) Thanks to his family platform, immense wealth, and status as a cisgender male, George carries a lot of privilege which is also checked and unpacked throughout the novel as he gets to know Sharlot and see more of the world outside of the insulated space his family usually inhabits.

It’s rare to be able to call a book truly laugh-out-loud funny but this one really is. Well, That Was Unexpected is a stellar blend of comedy, romance, and feminist themes with a cast of characters you can’t help but adore. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi, Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao, Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot by Preeti Chhibber, Emergency Contact by Mary HK Choi, The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland, This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang, From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon, Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen, The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park, Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura, Frankly in Love by David Yoon