Fabulous contemporary womens fiction romance!! The gist of this storyline is not new by any means, but Sara’s special style and voice made it unique for me. I will say this tho, it still baffles me when I read second chance in a descriptor of an upcoming book and find out the first chance was barely even a blip. Honestly, that did put me off at first when I started reading, but I’ve read a ton of books by this author (Sarah Castille) and knew she would somehow bring it all together.

Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop; even thru my second chance eyeroll! Liam and Daisy were great together and I was rooting for them! They had fantastic chemistry in and out of the bedroom. Their story wasn’t merely a romance journey. It was deeper than that. It was emotionally charged, and I truly felt the struggles they were both dealing with from their pasts and even the here and now. Obviously I am not giving you any plot points, but if you know anything about the womens fiction genre, then you know everything I am trying to convey without me having to spell it out.

I am really enjoying this side of Sara (again, I know her as Sarah Castille) and look forward to more in the future.

Daisy Patel, a software engineer, just wants to be successful in her field and not feel the pressure of her family trying to marry her off. Liam Murphy has something to prove, and needs to get married to inherit the family business. He realizes Daisy, his childhood crush (and childhood best friend's sister) is the perfect choice. One small hiccup - Daisy hates his guts.

The Dating Plan is an adorable rom-com with fun characters (ahem enemies to lovers), with lots of back story, chemistry, and relatable moments. Great for fans of fake dating/relationship tropes.

I highly recommend if you are new to the romance genre, or for fans already. The writing style is quick and easy to read, perfect to bust you out of a reading slump, and to make you feel good.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for my gifted e-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fake relationships are one of my favorite romance tropes so when I saw the description for The Dating Plan, I jumped at the chance to read it. Daisy Patel is a software engineer who has a plan for her life and it doesn't include getting married or falling in love, much to the unhappiness of her family. So she comes up with a plan to ask Liam Murphy, her childhood crush, to be her fake fiance. He benefits from the arrangement too because his inheritance is contingent on being married plus he's always wanted to reconnect with Daisy after he broke her heart as teenagers. Soon the fake dates they go on to make their relationship seem real.. start to feel real to them as well. But are they willing to admit that to themselves?

I thought the book had a strong start. As someone who was in the tech start-up world for a long time, a lot of those little details surrounding Daisy's job (and even Liam's to a certain extent) resonated with me. Not to mention, their meet-cute was truly hilarious. The dynamic between them were definitely there and I did find myself pretty amused at a handful of moments. But the book and story just progressively waned and even dragged at some points, which was surprising given that it's a short book. It felt very superficial and never dug too deep with character development. Instead the author chose to emphasize just certain aspects of their personalities like Daisy being a nerd or Liam having a past. It made them caricatures instead of fully-realized characters. And if can't connect to at least one of the protagonists, it makes it difficult to connect to the romance and story overall.

Do I recommend? I think there are better fake relationship books out there if you also enjoy that trope. I ended up giving this 2.5 stars which for me translates to as just "okay" and ultimately forgettable.

"Anytime you are with me you should expect to be ravished. Come prepared. Leave the Avengers at home."


The Dating Plan was rom com that had just enough of an underling meaning.
Daisy has loved Liam for as long as she can remember... until he left her standing alone at prom with no date and no excuse. Now she's dedicated 10 years to hating him.

But Liam may have the perfect proposition for her. Fake an engagement. Yes the ole' fake relationship trope.


TDP was the perfect mix and sweet, salty and a bit of heat 🔥 with its nerdy quips, melt your heart one liners, and HEA.

Read if you love:
-supporting diverse authors that ROCK
-learning a little about what its like to be a part of a large asian family
-avenger jokes
- the nerdy girl gets the hot guy
-the proposal vibes (with less to the wind to the wall)

-feel good romances

What I missed:
- for some reason I just felt unattached to the more serious topics. Idk if it was the timing or maybe I needed more but I craved more of these two being fun and wild together.

Rating:
story-⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
characters-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
trope- fake dating/ enemies to lovers
steam- "alright my friends, this one goes out to all those broken headboards out there!"


🎼Song: Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute 🎼

Sara Desai's The Dating Plan takes on the trope of "fake dating" with fresh perspective. Fierce software engineer Daisy Patel is in need of a way to stop the endless stream of suitors from her well-intentioned, but overbearing aunties. Liam Murphy is in need of an engagement fast if he has any hope of saving his family's distillery. While these two have a history, they both think their personal, pragmatic motives can keep them from getting into too much trouble. But, we know how these things go. Enter chemistry and watch the sparks fly.

What gets in the way is a lot of miscommunication and secrets and lies. Will they be able to overcome these obstacles?

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for sharing a copy of this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

The Dating Plan is the follow-up to last year’s The Marriage Game. This is Daisy’s story, Layla’s quirky super smart cousin. After reading and enjoying The Marriage Game and finding out that this book would feature the fake dating/engagement trope I couldn’t help but ask for a copy for review.

I liked this book. I liked Daisy and her fun personality and loving nature. She works for a start-up company writing code and is surrounded by a great group of secondary characters. She is paired with her brother’s BFF, her childhood crush Liam, who broke her heart when he bailed on their prom date and then stayed away for ten years. He shows up at the exact wrong time and inserts himself into a touchy situation. Daisy lets him know really quickly that he is the very last person she ever wants to see again.

Only he shows back up with a proposition… become his fiancee and then stay married to him for a year. This will help him save his inheritance and she will get her family, who keeps throwing eligible men her way, off her back for good. He will also help by lending a hand to the struggling start-up she works for.

I wasn’t sure if I would like Liam at first, he was a bit of an ass. (I HATED his brother so much). But he and Daisy did have chemistry and a whole history that helped me see them as a couple. Each chapter starts with some fun back and forth texts and I started to look forward to each new date and seeing how they would play out. The ending was nicely done and a great wrap-up to this love story.

My only gripe is that EVERYONE seemed to know that their relationship started out as fake. I wanted fake shenanigans! All in all, The Dating Plan was a quick, easy, enjoyable read and I am looking forward to reading more books in this world.

I was looking forward to The Dating Plan since I first heard about it. This book was incredible. I was in a mild reading rut and it pulled me right out. The Dating Plan has some of the best tropes in the genre (I am a huge fan of older sibling's best friend, enemies to lovers/second chances). It's sweet, and steamy, and hilarious. I also love the way that Desai writes about family.

I can't wait to read more of Desai's writing! Thank you to Berkley, Netgalley & Sara Desai for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Berkley and Netgalley for a copy of The Dating Plan by Sara Desai 🌟🌟🌟
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First off: how beautiful is this cover?!
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This was a cute and steamy fake dating, a little bit of hate to love, second chance romance. I liked Daisy, a software engineer and Liam (who also happens to be her brothers past best friend). I also loved seeing Daisy’s extended family and how much they loved each other, and all the talk of food! There was a lot of humour in this book !
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This one was a little hit and miss for me. I felt like some parts of the story moved almost too fast and other parts dragged and were repeated often. I’m really not a fan of mis communication and there was a lot throughout this novel. I understand why it happened in the past, I just wished that it was addressed earlier during the ‘present day’ timeline. I think we would have gotten to see more authentic relationship building this way which would have made me root for the couple more. I felt kind of like being in a relationship “fixed” a lot of things that I wish were maybe addressed professionally from a mental health stand point. I did like there was quite a bit of character development through out the novel.
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Content: alcoholism, addiction, domestic violence and child abuse - emotional and physical abuse - there are descriptions in forms of memories- one incident where child had to go to the hospital, death of a loved one, sexism, motor cycle accident leading to hospitalization, driving while intoxicated/high (discussed in a memory), infidelity (not main couple)

DNF @ 20%

I’m just bored.

It sucks because I was obviously really looking forward to this one and the reviews of it all over bookstagram were A+! I really wanted to push through but there was just so much talk of work, which would’ve been fine in increments but it really felt like that was all I got in that 20% alone. There’s also constant talk about parental abandonment and I just wish everyone would just stop and unpack. I hate thinking that it’ll again be brought up at the end as some sort of plot device. Not a fan of that.

My hopes were just too high!

I really enjoyed this romcom. This book did have all the predictable tropes but it was still interesting and had great characters and dialogue. Daisy isn’t looking for a husband but her dad and aunties are definitely looking for one for her. Liam, her teenage crush, has re-entered her life after breaking her heart since he abandoned her on her prom night. After his grandfather’s death Liam learns he needs a wife to get his inheritance. Daisy and Liam realize they can both help each other with a fake marriage. I really liked these characters and their banter and the secondary characters were great. If you like romcoms check this one out.

Her nerves ricochet around, banging against every internal organ and threatening to send her into a spontaneous combustion. She has a pitch she needs to get to in a conference room across the building and things are just not going her way. She’s sprinting as best she can in heels not made for an Olympic track meet. The conference room is just around the corner and she has a minute to spare... and then she runs headfirst into a rock hard chest. The worst part? It’s a man she can’t stand. The one man in the world that she loathes. This day can’t get worse... or can it?

The Dating Plan was such a fun read! Daisy was a delight of a character and I love reading about women in the tech world. Liam was also a hunk and you couldn’t help rooting for the two of them. As a rom-com it had its light, funny moments, but it also showcased some tough themes and how to work through feelings of failure and overcoming a difficult past.

If you’re a fan of the fake dating trope and second chance romances then I recommend giving this one a read!

TW: Physical and Emotional Abuse, Abandonment, Death of a Grandparent/Loved One, Motorcycle Accident, Feelings of Failure/Not Being Good Enough.

✨Book Review- The Dating Plan by Sara Desai ✨

Thank you @berkleyromance for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

What I Loved?
🌸 Daisy- I love seeing female characters who work in STEM. She is a bad ass software engineer who works her booty off for the company she believes in. I loved that it was a female hygiene company and that she was eventually named the CEO.
🌸Enemies to lovers/fake engagement. Although this trope is so predictable, it’s one of my favorites! Sara Desai wrote it so well though! I liked that there were two reasons for the fake engagement- Daisy for her family but also Liam for his family.
🌸 Just like I loved with The Marriage Game, I liked that this one was set in San Francisco.

What I Disliked?
🌸 Liam. Yeah, so I just didn’t connect with Liam. He just bugged me. The storyline with his brother just seemed to drag out. If the two brother just had a conversation, they could have figured it all out a whole lot faster.
🌸 The whole motorcycle accident part. I mean, I guess It was a way for Liam to prove his love for Daisy. But it just seemed coincidental that the store owner was talking about crashes and they get in one.

I am all for fake dating and relationships out of convenience, but for some reason The Dating Plan just fell flat for me. I wasn't particularly sold on Daisy and Liam's chemistry. I think this book was also a bit over the top for me, but I think this book will still resonate with a lot of readers.

Trigger warning: Child and spousal abuse

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a run-of-the-mill enemies-to-lovers romance. This one throws an emotional punch and then some. Yes, the set-up is that Liam Murphy broke Daisy Patel’s heart when he stood her up for her senior prom and then left town without a word. He was her brother’s best friend and a part of her family, so the devastation was worse because he not only rejected her, but her father and brother as well. When she accidentally runs into him 10 years later, she soundly rejects his friendly overture; that is, until he proposes a fake engagement. For him, it’s a way to save his family’s distillery and, for her, it means getting her well-meaning matchmaking aunties off her back and finding a way to save the start-up organic feminine products company she’s come to care about. However, as so often happens, the emotions become real and someone’s going to get hurt.

Where this diverges from the normal trope is in the story of their childhood traumas. Desai spares nothing in her descriptions of the damage caused by Liam’s abusive father and Daisy’s casually cruel mother who abandoned her at age 7. They’re both suffering under the mistaken belief that they’re not worthy of love, and it’ll take a near-tragedy and some painful confessions before they can have a chance of absolving themselves and each other.

Ultimately, this is a story of redemption, forgiveness, and the power of love and family to right the wrongs of the past. It’s also a steamy romance between a sexy math nerd who doesn’t see how powerful she can be and a broken man who has achieved professional success, in large part to spite the father who made it his life’s mission to pound any self-worth out of him. The juxtaposition of Daisy’s meddling, but loving Indian-American family against Liam’s emotionally-distant, alcohol-abusing Irish one feeds into negative stereotypes, but it’s integral to the story and not gratuitous or ill-intended. Desai does a commendable job of defining her characters and readers can’t help but root for these damaged souls to find love and contentment with each other. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This book was a super cute and quick read featuring one of my favorite tropes: fake dating. I don't know what it is about fake dating that just pulls me in.

Daisy is super quirky and a huge Marvel fan. Her character was just so different from the typical romance character which made me adore her even more. Both Daisy and Liam have a lot of growing to do and with the help of each other, they're able to make major personal development strides.

If you're looking for a feel good love story with the quirks of fake dating, this book is for you!

Yesterday I finished this fun and adorable book which has some of my favorite tropes in it. I'm a sucker for the fake dating and fake fiance trope. And this book nails it.

It was a fast read with well developed loveable characters and light writing with just the right amount of clever humor. The main characters have depth and the dynamic between them was just perfect. They had a past together that was angsty and it was so fun to follow their journey. I loved how they showed growth both together and as well as individuals that had some struggles to overcome in their own lives.

I'm giving this book 4⭐. I'm not rating it higher its because I found the last part of this book more dramatic than it should've been. And even though it was fun, it's not the kind of book that will stay with me. Overall, this can be a great book when you need something light enough to lift up your mood or when you're slumping to get you back in the reading game.

Absolutely loved the characters that were introduced in this title. It was very smart, funny, and sexy. A perfect romance novel.

Loved the plot and the fake dating trope but I wasn’t a huge fan of Liam (he did grow on me over time). He seemed really immature with some of his jokes and at times Daisy did too. The writing is really good and Daisy’s family dynamics are funny with lots of love and laugh out loud moments.

4.7 stars
This is the first book I have read by the author and it is an interesting mix of a contemporary, second chance romance while introducing the reader to another culture and its traditions. Daisy is a mid-twenties, successful software engineer who is being harassed by her family to find a man and get married. Things have gotten so bad that the level of finding someone has led to having her aunts doing double duty as matchmakers and showing up out of the blue with “acceptable” prospects. Liam is the childhood best friend of Daisy’s brother Sanjay and growing up, Daisy had the biggest crush on him. However, when a milestone in Daisy’s life happened, Liam was nowhere to be found leaving Daisy with feelings of resentment. Fast forward a few years, Daisy and Liam reconnect when they accidentally bump into each other at a conference. Times have changed and each one has his/her own crosses to bear. Will they make the decision to work together to solve both of their problems? Can Daisy get past her feelings towards Liam? Overall, this is one engaging, page turning storyline from beginning to end; not to mention a cute as a button dog. It will have you laughing in spots and there is some steam as well. If you enjoy reading enemies to lovers and fake relationship stories, then this is one to add to your reading list.

This was not my favourite book by this author. I found myelf skipping through, and then putting it aside to read again later.

This is not about the book, but about me.