What is this? Annemieke reviewing a romance book? Why yes it is. I've given into one of my biggest trope loves in romance which is fake dating and arranged marriages. And with fake dating, contemporary often comes along. And I am okay with that. Which is why The Dating Plan appealed to me right away.

The Dating Plan is set in the same world as the authors previous book, The Marriage Game. While these characters make appearences in this book, it is not neccesary to have read it. I didn't and I understood everything just fine. I missed nothing from not having read the book and so this is truely a standalone.

There were so many things that I adored in this book. One thing being the families. The Patels and everyone around them are so incredibly pure. They are by no means perfect but they have their hearts in the right places. Granted Daisy's aunties are a little irritating thinking that marriage will make you happy, but then that is just how this works in their culture. It was just great to immerse in this family. On the other side there was Liam's family that has more problems. Even so I could see that there was something there that hadn't been delved into by any of the parties. Liam's little cousin, his sister in law, the Irish part of his family, the reminisence of his grandfather. The only downside was how Liam's mom didn't play a part in this which wasn't quite explained. There could have been phonecalls and the like.

As for the characters, I liked both Liam and Daisy. Daisy with all her plans. Liam with all his charm. Both hiding away the hurt of their childhood that has affected them into adult life. I thought they both worked great together too. They balance each other out.

As much as I liked this book it certainly wasn't perfect. I thought the romance banked too much on a history between Daisy and Liam that we hadn't seen. And after 10 years people do change and you have to get to know each other again. I thought there could have been more done with that. Also Liam being a womanizer for his job 10 months ago but not liking it,was a bit too much painting him in a perfect light for my taste. And there were a few more bits like these.

All in all though I did really enjoy reading this book and flew through it. It was just what I needed.

4.5 ⭐️

Master of plans, lists, and details, Daisy is also a master of protecting herself from heartbreak by not getting too involved in relationships. But deep down, she can’t help but care. After an emotionally traumatic prom night 10 years ago, where her date Liam aka her brother’s best friend aka the boy she’s always had a crush on disappeared without a word, he reappears at a tech conference? In order to save his family’s distillery, Liam must marry before he turns 30, and to get all her meddling aunties off her back, Daisy enters a marriage of convenience with Liam. But, we all know what a fake relationship uncovers, right?

Desai has this way of telling a story where I felt like I was part of it the entire time. Fake dating, marriage of convenience, and a second chance romance? Definitely my jam. But, all the other components of family, friendships, careers, and the supporting characters breathed in so much life to Daisy and Liam’s journey. The theme of reconnection and second chances was evident across the board, and I appreciated it so much. And, the banter, Daisy’s quirks, Liam’s charms made me laugh.

3.75

I thought this book was cute. It just kind of left me wanting more! Daisy is an Indian American software engineer who plans her life in spreadsheets (I can relate 🤣). And Liam is her brother’s childhood best friend who was always around flirting with Daisy when they were young. She didn’t have a date to prom so he offered to take her and then never showed up...10 years later they meet at a conference and they both need a fake bf/fiancé in their lives...cue predictable love story!

Don’t get me wrong I love a predictable love story but it just wasn’t one of my favorites. I wanted more background stories from their young days; the ones that were there I loved.

Things I did enjoy:
💕 Daisy blossomed as the book went on. She became confident and really went for what she wanted.
💕 Liam is the perfect rom com attractive, funny, sexy man candy. I loved how he came into his own and really grew up in the sense that he understood many things in his past from other peoples perspectives. He also just wanted to do any little thing that Daisy would love!
💕 The Marvel moments and steamy parts were too cute!
💕 Max and his pakoras 😂🐶
💕 “We. A small word with so much meaning. It meant forgiveness, love, acceptance. It meant closing old wounds and moving forward. It meant home”

Small things that bugged me that probably wouldn’t the average person:
🏒 While I loved the avid Sharks fandom, intermissions were called halftime in the book. As a big hockey fan and a math person, I tend to get annoyed when people call periods, quarters or halves, and now intermissions being called halftime 😬 Maybe this gets fixed in the non-ARC version 🤞🏼
🇮🇳 While I loved that Liam had come to love some desi chaat and wanted to wear a sherwani to make Daisy happy in their fake wedding ceremony, something was lacking for me on the culture side that I’m not quite sure how to explain. I also really don’t like when Indians assume that Americans can’t handle spicy foods; I’m really getting tired of being told it might be too spicy when I’m around Indians.
End rant!

Overall, a cute rom com that’s a quick and easy read!

So the first line: "Daisy Patel had no issues with besotted lovers hiding away in a toilet cubicle for a little covert tongue gymnastics," honestly started this book off on the right foot for me. Nothing screams ROM-COM like awkwardly being in a public restroom getting pads out one of those machines while people make out in the stall. Classic. And then running into her aunts (with a prospective husband), her childhood crush, and ex-boyfriend while carrying an armful of said pads? It killed me. Sign me up!

Daisy and Liam then fake an engagement to 1) get her nosy aunties to stop playing matchmaker and 2) so Liam can fulfill a weird properly law clause by getting married by his next birthday to inherit his families business (which is honestly so ridiculous but apparently, how Wills work?) So Daisy puts together A SPREADSHEET (bless her) to organize their fake dates leading up to a wedding.

I really liked the family aspect of this book. The overbearing aunties and Daisy's family contrast to Liam's somewhat absent (or at the very least strained) family and how each of them responded and were shaped by their family dynamics. I felt a powerful undercurrent of "family" and what that means throughout the entire book. Daisy and Liam were also pretty cute, if not a little cheesy. An early scene where he tries to act like he can handle "extra hot" Indian food cuz if that isn't the most realistic. Overall, I liked the characters and their development throughout the book.

I read earlier reviews about the eye-roll-inducing engineer-lingo, but I was happily ignorant to all of that. If anything, I was surprised how little was about engineering as I felt that it was marketed so strongly as Daisy's identity. At times, I felt like they were both very stereotyped as "chaotic, cool jock" and "quirky, smart girl" which eventually WE GET IT.

I did notice a few spacing and formatting inconsistencies but hopefully, that was just due to the advance copy.

In the end: I enjoyed it, I was entertained, it had more depth (themes of family, anxiety, trauma) than I had initially expected, I would read more by Sara Desai.

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai was classically cliché, laugh out loud, stereotypical cross cultural romcom. Nothing too special about it other than its attempt to be unique and make the protagonists stand out, but all that really did was create an awkwardness that wasn't really relatable. To be clear, the story is super cute and totally Hallmark worthy but the characters themselves were just okay.

Thanks NetGally and Berkley Pub for a copy of this book for review!

3.5 STARS

Daisy Patel very happily has her life planned out as a software engineer who prefers computers to people. She has kept her emotional distance especially in the love game; however, her desi family of numerous aunts and uncles ambush Daisy at every turn with marriage prospects. They simply cannot fathom her choice to remain unmarried waylaying Daisy at every turn with the latest prospect. In order to get her large and boisterous family to cease and desist, Daisy agrees to a fake engagement that will mean a subsequent brief marriage with her old childhood crush, Liam Murphy, who cruelly stood Daisy up on her prom night some years ago.

Liam Murphy has made his way in the venture capital world despite a rocky beginning and harsh family conditions. He returned to California at the loss of his grandfather shocked to find out that his inheriting the family distillery is contingent upon marrying within the next six weeks. Knowing he did Daisy wrong even though it was for a secret good cause, Liam has quite a task to convince Daisy of his plan. Only when she is pushed to the limits by her family does Daisy decide to go along with, but on her own terms.

Daisy plans out her life and their relationship with military precision scheduling a series of dates for exact purpose to make their engagement look legitimate. Daisy’s family is understandably suspicious as is Liam’s brother who wants to take away his legacy. Liam has a lot of issues with not only his brother, but an early family life of abuse and neglect. Daisy has her own problems with that arena after feeling abandoned when her mother left the family when she was young.

Although this is a rom-com with its attendant scenes of hilarity mostly involving Daisy’s family, Liam’s early abuse at the hands of his terrible father is far from funny. Liam is also a bit of a man-child and a player so that presents him in a less than attractive light. I had trouble warming up to him for much of the book. Daisy’s family meant everything to Liam as an abused youth. The reason for his seemingly unexplained cruelty comes to light eventually since Daisy has to move past that hurt, which is repeatedly mentioned, in order to play out their plan. As a divorced woman in Daisy’s culture, she will be seen as damaged goods and left alone by the matchmaking aunties. Some themes seem a bit drawn out and over the top such as Daisy’s obsession with Marvel superheroes and Liam’s devotion to his motorcycle. This story is a bit of a mixed bag and in some places tries too hard with Daisy’s “geekiness” and Liam’s bad boy ways, but fans of Ms. DeSai’s popular “THE MARRIAGE GAME” will likely enjoy it.

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC.

Childhood friends unexpectedly reunite. They decide to enter a fake engagement arrangement each with their own reasons. What could possibly go wrong.

Daisy and Liam were friends during high school until Liam left without a word breaking Daisy’s heart.

Going their new arrangement, they say they won’t catch feelings (as the kids say) but we all know what happens in romance.

Information about their lives is shared and they come to understand what prompted certain behavior.

I really liked Daisy and Liam. I loved seeing them evolve both together and as couple. I was not surprised by the plot of their love story, but I still liked how things were resolved.

I would recommend.

Daisy Patel loves her family. Really. Truly. Dearly. But if they could get off her back about finding her a man, that'd be great, thanks. Unfortunately, she has been hung up on her first crush, her older brother's best friend, for years. Yes, even after he stood her up for her senior prom and then went completely off the grid. She hasn't seen Liam Murphy in years, and the last place she expects to see him is at the expo her company is presenting at. And she definitely doesn't need one of her well-meaning aunties to see them together. And she really, really, really didn't need to blurt out to her auntie that she can't go out with the nice guy her auntie dragged along because she's with Liam.

Liam really never expected to see Daisy again. He kind of hoped he wouldn't, honestly, given how badly he screwed up all those years ago. But maybe if he could just explain that he's not the man he used to be, explain what happened on that fateful prom night he stood her up, maybe she'd give him a-- Oh, who is he kidding? If he was dying of thirst and she had the only glass of water in the world, she would drink it herself while looking him in the eye. And he knows he'd deserve it. At the reading of his grandfather's will, Liam learns he has the chance to inherit the family's whiskey distillery... if he's married by his next birthday. Which is about a month away. He needs a fake fiance, fast.

Coming to an uneasy alliance, Daisy and Liam team up with a plan: convince their families that they have been together for months, marry in Vegas, and divorce after Liam successfully inherits the distillery. The hard part is convincing their families that they are in love. But not to worry, Daisy has a plan. A Dating Plan. What could possibly go wrong when you have a plan?

The second of Desai's novels, focusing on the wonderful Patel family, "The Dating Plan" is fun and witty, a delightful spin on the fake-dating trope as well as presenting a wonderful second-chance romance story. It's impossible to not love Daisy and Liam, though sometimes you want to throttle both of them and call them idiots because, well, they can be self-sabotaging idiots who think they are unworthy of love or let past emotional hurt take them down a dark path. But, ultimately, that makes the Happily Ever After at the end so satisfying.

4.5 stars

I loved The Marriage Game last year and was very excited to read the next book, The Dating Plan. The Dating Plan has all my favorite tropes: second chance, best friend's sibling romance, and fake relationship. This book didn't disappoint! I enjoyed it as much as The Marriage Game. It was swoony, steamy, and funny! Daisy's big desi family shenanigans made me laugh out loud. And her and Liam's love story gave me all the fuzzies. If you are looking for an entertaining and steamy rom-com, I highly recommend The Dating Plan!

I throughly enjoyed reading this book!

The story has structure, there were background characters that felt tangible, and the aunties were a riot


This was my first Desai read and safe to say I shall be buying anything she writes from now on. I like that Liam ,the love interest, had to work a lil bit for Daisy. I liked that the characters understood that to Daisy - and most teens- the importance of prom and the sense of betrayal she must've felt when Liam was a no show. I loved the sense of self Daisy took on through the book and how her habits were realistic for someone with trauma. Liam was a lost soul not knowing what he was looking for and found his way back home to a family that truly cared for him. I hope Sanjay can have his own spin off and can make it up to Daisy for years of silence. From the writing to the characters to romance this is an adorable book that discusses loss, living with anxiety, and coming home.

A TRULY funny rom-com! THE DATING PLAN has it all - a fake relationship, sizzling chemistry, and meddling aunties.

The Dating Plan was a super fun read.

Daisy and Liam have some history. He was her big brother’s best friend and her teenage crush, but after he ghosts her and her family on prom night they don’t see each other for the next ten years. When they run into each other again, Liam is instantly reminded of the feelings he’s buried. He inherits his grandfather’s distillery on the contingency that he is married by his next birthday and that’s where he comes up with a plan.

Daisy is harboring a grudge towards Liam, but the idea that matchmaking aunties will leave her alone for at least a year and Liam’s promise to help her company convince her into a fake engagement.

Daisy is pretty type-A so she creates what she calls “The Dating Plan,” a way to convince everyone that their relationship is real. And while they both tell others that it’s fake, and themselves that it is fake, it definitely feels real. Their dates and their banter are fun and genuine. The chemistry between them was believable and steamy.

Yes, the plot was predictable and at times, cheesy. Does that take away from how much I enjoyed The Dating Plan? Nope. Daisy was sometimes too quirky and Liam was too broody but overall it was fun and easy to read. Looking forward to more from Sara Desai.

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

And... this is gonna be one heck of an honest review.

Set in the same world of The Marriage Game, The Dating Plan follows Daisy Patel, a software engineer at a failing startup, and Liam Murphy, a venture capitalist. Liam's granfather has just passed, and though everyone expects the family distillery to go to his older brother, his grandfather leaves it to Liam, but only if he can get married by his next birthday (in 2 months) and stay married for an entire year.

Liam was Daisy's first crush, and when they run into each other at a conference, Daisy wants nothing ot do with him. But he has an offer: marriage. Not only owuld it get him the distillery, it would get her family off her back and help the startup she works out.

If done well, marriage of convenience can be really sweet and fun, but everything about this was cringe worthy. I loved everything about The Marriage Game except for Sam, and this one seems no different. What is with these cocky, sleezy men? Am I supposed to find this attractive? Is it supposed to be cute?

What's worse, Liam Murphy is every Irish stereotype stuffed into one man: delinquent, motorcycle, ruggedly handsome, distillery, whiskey, family drama, and getting drunk on whiskey EVERY NIGHT. Not only that, the pub he goes to often plays mostly Jazz and indie music, and we're supposed to think that's the correct ambiance for AN IRISH PUB? Have you never been to an Irish pub? Have you never met an Irish person or even GOOGLED.

This shouldn't be the thing that frustrates me most, but it is. As someone who love Irish culture and has Irish heritage, this was just gross, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. To all of the wonderful people I met on my trip to Ireland, I know this isn't you.

Anyways, I just don't think this author is for me. Unless she decides to write a male character that isn't an asshat, I'm not interested.

The Dating Plan was a fun romcom full of great characters. Daisy and Liam (Limb!) had wonderful chemistry and I was rooting for them the whole way. The two families were both hilarious and frustrating and I was looking forward to their next time on the page. The world of start-up companies was new to me and was a cool backdrop to a well crafted story. I will be recommending this!

Sara Desai never disappoints and she hit it out of the park with this one. This had so many amazing tropes, including fake dating and best friend"s sister. The story was cute and the romance was built up believably.

If, like me, you are constantly looking for something to make you laugh these days, then let me direct your attention to The Dating Plan by Sara Desai.

A standalone follow-up to one of my favorite books of 2020, The Marriage Game, The Dating Plan had me swooning and literally laughing out loud the entire time. (Apologies to my husband, who I may have woken up a few times with my laughter.)

I loved Daisy when we first met her in The Marriage Game, and I loved her even more while reading The Dating Plan. She is unapologetically herself, and will do whatever it takes to live by her own rules -- even if it means agreeing to a modern-day marriage of convenience with her teenage crush turned enemy.

Daisy and Liam's families flesh out this colorful comedy, and the hijinks that ensue while they try to make their fake engagement seem legit make for some of the book's funniest moments. But it's the quieter moments between this pair that really tug at your heart and make you root for their romance to win out at the end.

A pure escapist delight, The Dating Plan is exactly the kind of book we need more of these days. Diverse, sexy, funny, heartfelt all in one perfectly bound package.

This was a fun, fast, and easy read. There was so much to like about this story!

First of all, I love a fake engagement trope, because you know it's going to be chaotic. Daisy Patel has an over involved family who keep pushing suitors at her; Luke Murphy has to get married to gain his inheritance (a trope I am less fond of). They both think they've found the solution to their problems, except for the fact of some awkward past history on Luke's part.

They set up a dating plan to get reacquainted with each other that will allow them to convince each others families that their relationship is real, but along the way, they discover they have a lot more in common.

Other things I loved:
Daisy's character - quirky, smart, outspoken, and geeky (despite still living at home with her dad.)
Her large, loud Desi family - despite the pushiness and boldness, the love they have for each other is such a lovely thing
The Frenemies to Lovers trope: mixed with a whole lack of communication, I was just shouting at them all to set things straight.
Personal growth - both Liam and Daisy have suffered a bit of childhood trauma which has resulted in issues of self-worth. They both see a lot of growth and healing (although one takes a bit longer to get there)

The story also gets a bit steamy, which was fun and unexpected!

Was it a little cheesey at times, and slightly predictable? YES. But did I care? NOPE, not one bit.
This was a fun weekend read and a great escape!

Fake dating is my kryptonite, so I obviously enjoyed many of the tropey shenanigans here, but I wanted to like the book as a whole more than I actually did. Daisy's characterization felt at times a little too ~nerdy and quirky and not like other girls~ and some of the obstacles thrown in her and Liam's way (especially towards the end) were over the top in an unbelievable way rather than in a fun romance way. I did like seeing Daisy's big extended family from The Marriage Game again, and I felt a big soft spot for her friends at work too. I just didn't think all of the plot/pacing stuff worked.

This is going to be a rant review because I read The Marriage Game by Sara Desai and loved it for the South Asian representation, the strong female lead, and the chemistry between the two main characters, but also despised the love interest. I thought because this is Desai’s second novel she might have worked on creating characters who I wanted to root for, but that was unfortunately no the case. As a South Asian reader I really just found this book amusing rather than a romance to put it short. You should see the amount of comments and rants I had with Sagarika on Bookstagram about this book, lol. If you’re curious for my full thoughts, then keep on reading!

Let’s start with characters. I genuinely don’t even remember Daisy from The Marriage Game, but in this book, the author paints her as over the top quirky. I think she was going for the trope of “she’s not like other girls” because it was mentioned how bring overly smart in high school made you weird and no guy would want someone who’s obsessed with the Avengers (which is definitely not true in this day and age haha). I think the author could have been a bit more subtle about this. Other than that, I just didn’t understand Daisy as a character. She was supposed to be this organized, stick to the rules girl, but she never acted out or was “bad” when she was young, so now she’s after the “bad boy.” I wanted to be invested in her love life, but I also just didn’t care. She felt bland to me and wish washy. Now Liam, this man is supposed to be the brooding bad boy type and I think, personally I’ve a) grown out of rooting for the bad boy, I want a cinnamon role Indian man who enjoys witty banter and b) I don’t think he was portrayed in the best light. As with Desai’s previous characters both of these characters were overtly just always talking about physical appearances. The number of times that Daisy mentioned she had a fat ass, like good for you girl, keep that confidence, but I don’t need to hear it over and over lol. In that regard, I just didn’t feel the chemistry between them which was disappointing because I definitely felt it between Layla and Sam in the previous book.

Basically throughout the whole book I was waiting for things to get better and it just kept going downhill haha. The amount of times pork vindaloo was mentioned (I know you know there’s so many other South Asian dishes Desai), or where Daisy’s dad was trying to be quirky about how he proposed to his girlfriend (I laughed so hard because it made absolute no sense), and in other peoples’ reviews I also saw apparently hockey has no half time (it’s supposed to be in thirds). I left this book feeling pretty disappointed. I still want to give Desai’s future works a try, but I’ll definitely be taking a bit of a break for a while.

Characters: 3/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Writing Style: 4/10
Plot: 3/10
Intrigue: 4/10
Logic: 2/10
Enjoyment: 6/10

Rating: 3.7 or 2 stars

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: parental abandonment, childhood observing abusive relationship (emotional and physical), grief, death of a loved one

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f frenemies to lovers
-second chance romance
-fake engagement
-this is just a hookup
-Avengers lingerie

This was a very cute story. I loved how important family was to both Daisy and Liam even though they were from different cultures. I don't have a critique this one just didn't grab me. I was surprised with his background with her brother that storyline wasn't resolved sooner, while I get why for the plot, it also led to a this could have been avoided if we communicated storyline which can get frustrating.

This was a cute read on a Saturday it just didn't pull me in, I didn't feel the banter between the two LIs which was disappointing after i enjoyed Daisy so much in the first book..

This is part of a series of interconnected standalone. YOu do not need to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but Daisy is introduced in the book prior.

Rating: 3.5
Steam: 2 (some more detailed scenes but ultimately fade to black)