Is it cheesy? Yep. Is it predictable? Pretty much. Should you read it? Definitely. It is just cute and cozy and a perfect summer read. We meet Tara, a master beer brewer (awesome) at the wedding of her best friend Aubrey. She is the maid of honor, whereas Seth is Landon's best man (and brother). There is an instant attraction simmering, but both Seth and Tara are not into serious relationships. So when Seth dares her on four dates, with no strings attached, Tara agrees. But in time, of course, they fall for each other. However, since Seth is supposed to leave for Paris in a few weeks, there is some trouble underway.
A cute read, three and a half stars from me and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

I really wanted to love this book. The idea of a dating dare sounded adorable and like it would be a fun read. However, I found myself a bit disappointed. While the concept was great, the story itself left me wanting more.

I did like the relationship between Tara and Seth. They had good chemistry and I enjoyed their interactions together but I felt their initial meeting and the setup for the dating dare was a bit rushed. Then once the dare was agreed upon it seemed like the plot pivoted and the focus wasn’t really on the dates themselves but other run-ins between the characters, which was fine but wasn’t what I was expecting. I think many people would enjoy this story but it just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

I’m just going to say that The Dating Dare was not great. It was just not very original; it felt very similar to many other romantic comedies I’ve read.
The characters were fine. I liked them, but again they weren’t super original. Both of them have baggage from previous relationships. Weirdly it’s the exact same baggage, so yes, they understood what the other went through, but it also made it boring and annoying that they didn’t get their crap together sooner.
In many ways, I felt like this book tried to do too much, there were a lot of tropes it seemed to cover, and though there was a lot of internalizing on the parts of both characters, I felt like I only got surface-level information. For example, we barely know anything about their families for two characters who seemed to be so close with their families. So instead, the book focused on tropes and adorable dates. Also, the word “brews” was so overused in this book I wanted to scream. You can say beer!
I wanted to like this one, I really did, but it just wasn't for me.

When a friendly game of Truth or Dare leads to an uncomplicated four-date arrangement between Tara and Seth, life gets interesting for both! Both are dealing with a bunch of relationship baggage and hoping for a little harmless fun. Sparks fly and things get complicated fast…⁣
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⁣This book is super, super, cheesy! But also very feel good and light! I enjoyed Seth and Tara’s creative dates and the wonderful descriptions of food scattering throughout this book. Honestly, it made me hungry! ⁣
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⁣Unfortunately, this one just fell a little short for me. The dialogue was awkward and I just couldn’t get myself interested in the book. Overall, it was just fine. Three stars!⁣
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⁣Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Dating Dare is available now!

3.5 stars

I knew when I read the first book in this series, A Sweet Mess, that I wanted to read about Tara finding her HEA. At that time, I didn’t know this was going to be a series, so I was pleasantly surprised to get an ARC of this story.

Tara didn’t disappoint me. She is quirky and strong and kind. Turns out, she’s also been through a lot in her early love life. This has closed her off from finding love herself, but she celebrates her best friend finding love. In fact, it makes her a bit melancholy to realize that the kind of love Aubrey and Landon have just isn’t in the cards for her. Enter Seth, Landon’s younger brother.

The flirting banter Seth and Tara have is sexy and fun. Add in Tara’s way of expressing herself (more on that in a minute) and the dialogue in this story is a joy to read. Of course, it can’t all be dialogue. The longing looks and quiet tension between the witty conversation are what seal the wonderful chemistry this couple has. There are many times a steamy scene comes to a screeching halt for one reason or another, and I’m just begging these two to give into the temptation already! They are on fire for one another.

With both characters believing their little dating game has a finite end date, they end up holding back when they should be going all in. Even once they start feeling more comfortable expressing forms of affection to each other, they still don’t open up completely.

This story was full of laughter and heat, but for some reason it didn’t hold my attention the way the first book in the series did. To me, it felt as if the flow of the story was a bit off and that threw my reading rhythm off. But I’d still recommend this story to romance readers, and it can definitely be read as a standalone without a problem.

Now, as promised, more on Tara’s fun way of expressing joy, shock, and dismay. Apparently, as wonderful and open-minded as they are, Tara’s parents did not look kindly on her kids taking the Lord’s name in vain. So Tara found her own spin to take on such things to the point that they just flow out of her mouth now. Some of my favorites…

For llama’s sake.

Oh, my Groot!

For the love of elves.

She kept me snickering, for sure.

Tara Park has always been cautious about love. But now, as the maid-of-honor in her best friend’s wedding, 28-year-old Tara wonders if it’s finally time to risk her heart. The last thing she needs right now is a notorious player like Seth Kim (the best man), toying with her. But then again, maybe he’s exactly what she needs. They agree to a dating dare, four harmless dates in a month with no strings, no emotions, and no one else is to know. In a small town like Weldon, what could possibly go wrong? Jayci Lee’s latest novel is a light, breezy, summertime romp that leads to a sweet happily-ever-after.

When Tara and Seth meet they are attracted to each other. But both have been hurt in the past and don't want a serious relationship. Seth will be moving to Paris in a month so they limit themselves to four dates no strings attached.. But fate may have something else in mind. Lovely story.

I enjoyed this romance with moments of hilarity and I hooted with laughter at the explanation of the difference between ogling and gawking! However, there were times when I was unable to connect Tara's painful background with her behavior and found parts of the plot unpalatable. Both Tara and Seth are carrying baggage and with an exciting future ahead of him, Seth is not in the market for a permanent relationship. Having won his four dates with Tara, Seth discovers that he is more invested than he would have anticipated. Although it seems as if the wheels were going to come off when the relationship looked as if it was going to become serious, it does make Tara reach deep inside and break down the barriers holding her back. Ultimately this entertaining romance does come to a good conclusion, a copy of which I received as a gift through NetGalley and this is my voluntary review.

For some reason I just couldn't quite into this book. It was ok just nothing rocked my socks off. The bones is there but something was missing. It was sweet and cute, but no real oomph. Tara and Seth and their communications abilities left a lot to be desired.

A sweet and sexy romance that was an easy breezy audio listen. Not a ton to say but I did enjoy it and found it to be a lot of fun

"The Dating Dare" is a case of not one but two people who have been scarred by college experiences with love (or what they thought was love) and now want nothing to do with it. But Seth and Tara know there's something between them, so they make a dare: four dates without falling in love. The problem being that the two "get" each other. Their sense of humor, love of family, love of food, each compliments the other and makes them discover they are better, and more whole, together. The relationship they develop allows them to see the earlier college relationships for what they were and see their reactions to them as unhealthy and stunting their growth in the now. For Seth, this impacts his art as well as his emotional life. For Tara, her self esteem. Jayci Lee does a nice job of allowing these realizations come over her characters slowly and organically, allowing them to grow at their own pace and deal with their fears. Those fears did get a little repetitive in the beginning as they each work on reminding themselves why they can't fall in love, but overall it worked.

This was a nice, slow build romance with a surprisingly sweet Seth coming up with just the right, thoughtful dates to show Tara how special she is. And the power of friendship in supporting us past those last mental hurdles.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I have never read a story by author Jayci Lee but the description was intriguing so I decided to give it a try. Whilst amusing, I just couldn't get into it. I really tried. I did not read the first book and I don't know if that is important or not. I will give it a go and re-read this story again.

I had wanted to like The Dating Dare but to be honest, right from the start I knew I wasn't going to love it. It started out because the main character, Tara, and the love interest, Seth, didn't seem to have any chemistry and their attraction felt forced. I'm thinking that I felt this was because their attraction was more us being told they were attracted to each other rather then us being shown that they were attracted to each other. At this point I thought it was not going to be great but would be fun, maybe a 3 star read. Then I got to the point that really impacted my reading experience. [At this point I'm going to give CW of possible sexual assault. There isn't an actual sexual assault in the book but the MC does think that she may have been assaulted at one point]. I normally like scenes that involve the love interest taking care of the MC when they're incapacitated. You know, tucking them into bed and keeping an eye on them while they sleep to make sure they're okay. I think that they are cute and endearing. What isn't cute is when the MC wakes up with no memory of the night before in only t-shirt (no bra or underwear) and the love interest is in bed next to them in only their boxers. What also isn't cute is then having the MC think that she may have been sexually assaulted by the love interest for the next 20 pages... like this was not a cute misunderstanding. She thought he might have raped her and then tried to explain it away so many times, one of which was because he cleaned up fucking peanut crumbs and rinsed their glasses before they left the bar... he's a good guy he couldn'thave raped her. The way this scene was handled just didn't sit right with me. We knew that he didn't rape her because we see it in his POV, but we also see her POV where she wakes up basically naked next to a man in only his boxers and doesn't know what happened to her. I don't know how I'm supposed to root for the LI when the misunderstanding they had was he might of sexually assaulted her. Being in her POV for the aftermath and seeing her trying to deny that he might of hurt her really put me in a bad place for the rest of the book. Maybe it made me more critical then I normally would have been, but It really didn't get any better for me.
Another issue that I had was that the characters emotions were always extremes. They were never just a little upset or attracted to someone. They were pissed off to the point they couldn't control it or were so Lusty that they couldn't stand being away for each other and when they were with each other they could barely resist ripping the other person's clothes off. This book was just a real miss for me.
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[Disclaimer: I was given this eARC by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!]

This book annoyed me. After 19% I was done reading it. She makes assumptions about him and he could have have called a family friend to get her address. Honestly to much stereotyping. DNF.

*******************I received an ARC for my honest feedback.*************

This is a fun and sweet read. I liked the idea and the premise of it. But I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Seth and Tara are frustrating characters because they just don't communicate at all. I mean, they both have feelings for and are attracted to each other, ffs.

Their story is light and enjoyable enough, though it's predictable.

every part of this book is so good, i wish the sex scenes weren’t face to black but it’s still so excellent. his speeches got me

I liked this story, it picked up right where A Sweet Mess ended, but I think there was a little bit too much emotional back and forth. It didn't seem like they really tried that hard to resolve their past issues, it just went on and on a little too much. But I'm happy they eventually found their HEA.

Tara’s best friend is marrying Seth’s brother. They meet at the wedding when Seth is caught admiring Tara’s backside. Scandalous. They enter a game of Truth or Dare and ultimately set out on a series of 5 dates with the dare being not to fall in love before Seth relocates across the Atlantic for a job. 😲 Good luck! This was a super sweet story with immense chemistry and sexual tension. And chivalry! Seth was a good guy, despite his initial ogling.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley & St Martin’s Griffin for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tara is the bride’s best friend. Seth is the groom’s brother. When they meet, it’s not exactly love at first sight. But there’s an attraction there, and neither of them is looking for forever. Besides, Seth is moving to Paris in a month for a new job.

So they make a deal: four dates, and a promise not to fall in love. But it turns out, that’s the one promise they can’t keep.

The chemistry between Tara and Seth is irresistible. They’re strongly compatible from the beginning, and a friendship grows quickly between them. They’ve both been burned by love and are in denial about their feelings. So it’s a bit of a slow burn. The book is more sensual than steamy, since the intimate scenes are fade to black.

The couple is absolutely adorable together, and the plot is entertaining. It’s nice to see a romance where the couple has a strong foundation in friendship and just plain enjoy each others’ company.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I have mixed feelings about this story. I had a hard time really feeling involved with either Seth or Tara. This could be totally be my headspace right now. However, I persevered and finally enjoyed the outcome and the HEA. Tara and Seth make a dare after a wedding of Seth’s brother and Tara’s best friend, to have 4 dates and make sure they did not fall in love. Seth is going to move to Paris in 4 weeks, so this should be a no brainer for both of them. However, they had a strong chemistry that makes part of this book feel more lustful than actual love. And that may be why I didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped.