You know, sometimes you need a sweet fake dating Black love story with low stakes and minimal angst…and Farrah DELIVERED. This was a light read that made me smile and given that we’re still in a pandemic, books that make me smile are precious gems.

A fun and witty, steamy romance! The characters were easy to root for and I loved the continuation of the series. This one got a bit long winded for me, I feel like quite a few scenes could have been cut out as they didn’t really add anything to the story and it got too long. I was ready for it to be over, but enjoyed the plot nonetheless. The first book in the series is still my favorite but i can’t wait to continue on with this series! My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review!

Taylor is a fitness instuctor and in need of money. She decides to have Saturday morning park workout to earn some extra cash. Most people there are her typical clients execpt for one, who can keep up with the workout. After the workout Taylor meets Jamar, an ex NFLer who wants to get back in the league (after a knee injury) and in need of a personal trainer. However, he wants to keep it underwraps. They are able to keep it under wraps until they are spotted together, the solution, start fake dating.

The Boyfriend Project was one of my favorite reads last summer, so I was excited to pick up the sequel and follow Taylor's story. Taylor is a fitness trainer who is struggling to make ends meet, until a former NFL star joins her pop-up class and wants to hire her for training.

This is a sports romance with a bit of fake dating and vulnerability, and I enjoyed this story and the characters. Taylor's struggles felt authentic as she navigated her finances, anxiety about going back to school, and her family's expectations. Jamar was facing his own challenges and grief following a sports injury and the loss of his best friend.

I loved the chemistry and banter with Jamar and his bad jokes. They were candid with each other and had great communication and were supportive of one another, even if they had their moments of conflict. I also appreciated the friendship with Samiah and London that carried over from the first book as they push one another to be the best version of themselves.

I enjoyed this one and recommend it! It could be read as a standalone if you haven't read The Boyfriend Project but I loved that one so you should just pick them both up!

The Dating Playbook follows Taylor from the Boyfriend Project. Taylor is optimistic, strong willed, fierce, and determined. Out of the three girls, I was able to relate to Taylor on a personal level. Being a girl in your 20’s without having your life figured out is hard, especially financially. When she meets Jamar, a famous football player who wants to use her as a trainer, she finds hope that his recognition will land her clients. What she doesn’t think she’ll land is a massive crush on her client, which for her is off limits. Although Taylor was relatable, she was also very frustrating. She was stubborn to a fault and Jamar didn’t deserve how much Taylor made him work for her attention, Jamar was pretty much an angel.

I really appreciated how the book touched on the feeling of deep loss of a loved one, especially a loved one who died at such a young age. Additional to that, this book touched on someone who has a learning disorder and Farrah does a wonderful job describing what that’s like for people who may not take learning disabilities seriously. Although the “romance” of this book didn’t necessarily swoon me, I really enjoyed the journey of Jamar and Taylor’s growth. Lastly, Taylor, London and Samiah are the dream team. I’m very much looking forward to everyone getting a glimpse into Taylor’s life when this book comes out on 8/17!

I absolutely loved the Boyfriend Project last summer and it was my introduction to Samiah, Taylor, and London. I absolutely love these fierce ladies and I was so excited to read about Taylor’s story. She’s a fitness trainer who is trying to expand her business, but it’s very expensive and time consuming to be a one woman start up business. She meets former NFL star Jamar Dixon at a pop up fitness class she’s hosting and he hires to be his trainer to help get him back in NFL shape. You can see where this is going, but there’s so much more here. The relationship between TayJar has such hot chemistry; you can’t help but root for them.

One important matter I loved in this book was Taylor’s focus on school and education. She never went to get a college degree and she would love to return to school, but she’s always had difficulty and thinks she may have a learning disability. I also loved her frank conversations with her friends about her money issues and all three of them are so honest with each other. There’s some carry over from the first book, but you could definitely read this as a stand alone.

I’m so looking forward to our discussion with @farrahrochon soon with Love Arctually. This is a great book to get you hyped for football season! Thank you to @readforeverpub for my netgalley copy. The Dating Playbook is on sale 8/17!

I loved this rom-com following a sports trainer and her new client, a recovering NFL player!

The two leads have amazing chemistry, and what's refreshing about this novel is that neither one hide that. They try to remain professional as a trainer-client relationship, but they don't lie to each other or themselves about their feelings.

The love interest in this book was especially likable. He was gallant, hot, and had great depth. He's determined to rejoin the NFL after sustaining a knee injury. As you delve into his story, you'll learn more about the survivors guilt he carries after the passing of his high school best friend.

The audio version of this book was highly enjoyable; I listened to it while reading along with my ebook version and I preferred both methods of reading equally. This book was a quick, cute read, if not very surface level. It didn't leave me with much to think about, however I really enjoyed the ride and the way the author tied everything up.

All the stars for this amazing book!! The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon is somehow even better than book 1 in the series!! This one follows Taylor Powell, the fitness trainer as she meets and agrees to train Jamar Dixon in secret as he prepares to get back into the NFL after a career ending injury his rookie season.

Jamar and Taylor had great chemistry, a fun story, and so much heart. The steam level was just right although be warned you may find yourself blushing more than once!! :)

I LOVED everything about their story and how vulnerable they each had to be in order to find that well deserved happily ever after!! High recommend!!!

Thank You Net Galley for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. I enjoyed this book because it was fun and yet still touched on relevant topics. This is the perfect summer read. I highly recommend and I can't wait for what comes next from the author!

Fake dating? Sports romance? A kick ass female lead and her group of supportive girlfriends? YES PLEASE.

Taylor Powell is a fitness trainer who isn’t sure where her next paycheck will come from. She’s out of options and struggling to find direction. So she holds a pop up bootcamp workout at a local park, and Jamar Dixon shows up. Jamar is a former NFL player looking for the perfect trainer to help him get back in shape for the game. But no one can know he’s training again so when Taylor and Jamar run into a reporter, Taylor inadvertently blurts out that they aren’t training together - they’re dating!

I haven’t read The Boyfriend Project yet - it’s been languishing on my TBR for too long - so this was my first book by Farrah Rochon and I loved it. The characters were so well crafted and believable. It had the perfect blend of enough backstory to make us really care about them and current day plot to keep us interested. The narrative banter is hilarious and the steam moves the story along beautifully.

Content warnings: death of friend in motorcycle accident, quite a bit of diet culture talk (she’s a fitness trainer so maybe it’s par for the course but it could be triggering for some readers), learning and anxiety disorders

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the early copy. All opinions are my own.

A huge thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book! I have been hearing about this one for what feels like ages, and I feel so honored to have been selected to read it before publication. By a stroke of luck, as I was approved for this novel, I was also approved to borrow the first book in the series from my local library. Getting to read both of them back to back was a special treat. Taylor was obviously such a firecracker in The Boyfriend Project, and I'm glad we got to see more of that in The Dating Playbook. More than that, I loved that Rochon really dove into Taylor's backstory and what made her tick. Her struggles felt real, and thus made her achievements even more exciting. Jamar was a fun partner that really held his own against Taylor. There were plenty of moments I wanted to smack him upside the head, but eventually he figured it out.
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I flew through this book while on vacation, and was a little surprised at how fast I was finishing it. So often I would get home exhausted, but found myself needing to pick up my tablet and discover just what was going to happen next. Naturally, this has the cute fluff you expect in any great contemporary romance, but it also includes some dark issues that are dealt with care and intention. Rochon doesn't include things for shock value alone, yet she create three-dimensional characters that leap off the page.

One of my favorite reads of the summer! Rochon is quickly becoming a go-to author for me. I love her writing style and her well-developed characters who feel perfectly flawed. This was a great summer escape and I loved both Taylor and Jamal! This is the second book in a fantastic series and I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great summer escape.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Taylor Powell is an incredibly driven personal trainer. However, without a college degree and with next to no money, she is finding it hard to stay afloat. Her best friends Samiah Brooks (main character in the Boyfriend Project and tech genius) and London Kelly (award winning pediatric surgeon) offer their financial and emotional support, but Taylor wants to do things on her own. When a former NFL star, Jamar Dixon, shows up to one of Taylor’s boot camp style training sessions and asks her to train him, she reluctantly agrees.

I loved the writing style in this book, just as much as in The Boyfriend Project. The conversations between the three women are witty and non-nonsense. It reminds me of my closest friends, the kind who love you no matter what but don’t let you make excuses for yourself. The chemistry between Taylor and Jamar is palpable! I appreciated that the book surprised me in many parts weaving in grief, ASL, pride, ableism, and many more topics that I haven’t read much about in romcom style books. Jamar and Taylor pushed each other to be their best selves, even when it wasn’t comfortable, which is a fantastic quality in a partner. I am so excited to read the third book in the series next year!

The Dating Playbook

Favorite quote: “You help me slay my dragons, and I’ll help you slay yours”

This book is everything.
Between the undeniable attraction these two have from the very beginning and the amount of actual communication they have, this book was *chefs kiss*

I was SOBBING by the end of this book.
So much so that I had to message @readaholic19 about it right away because every time I sob over a romance I automatically have to tell her 😭
This book took so many hard hitting topics and depicted them in such a perfect way.
I felt like I was literally in the book with the main characters and I could personally feel everything they were going thru.
And the steam between these two 🔥🔥
That kitchen scene, my goodness 🥵

Thank you to @readforeverpub for the advanced copy! #partner
I cannot wait for London’s book coming out in 2022!!!

The Dating Playbook offers fake dating, close proximity, and sport romance. If you are doing any bingo reading challenges, read this book as it checks out all these boxes.
What I liked:
• This one is a loss conflict romance. It is a very grounded read.
• Representation for adult learning disorder
• The way how meeting parental expectations was handled. How sometimes children feel they don't live up to parents' expectations
• Jamar: He was pretty down to earth and mature for a 25 yo professional footballer.

What I didn't care for:
• How the fake dating was handled. They weren't really fake dating in front of other people. They spend a big portion of their time together, just the two of them working out, and Taylor told her close friends about her relationship with Jamar pretty early on.
• The characters were infatuated with each other very quickly. The anticipation of will they / won't they didn't last long. And sadly, there were a lot of telling and not enough showing when it comes to them falling in love.

Even though I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would, I will probably
read London's book as I feel invested in her story already.

Thank you so much to Forever at Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Dating Playbook was such an adorable (and honestly very grounded read). Taylor and Jamar’s relationship felt so genuine as they helped each other deal with their individual trauma and it was really beautiful to see!

The Dating Playbook follows the next woman in our trio of best friends who found themselves catfished by the same man in The Boyfriend Project: Taylor Powell, a fitness instructor and personal trainer. As talented as she is in her line of work, her bills are piling up, and Taylor looks for a miracle to pull her out of her dire financial situation fast. When former football player Jamar Dixon approaches her with a request for Taylor to secretly train him and get him back in the NFL, she agrees. However, the two are accidentally outed as a couple and are forced to fake-date to prevent the public from finding out about Jamar’s future return to the NFL, Taylor's game plan is turned completely upside down.

I loved how natural the progression of Taylor and Jamar’s relationship felt. I feel like in a lot of books with fake dating, the couple immediately forgets all rules of their fake dating “contract” and will immediately jump to sleeping with each other or getting together behind the scenes. However, I really liked how Taylor was adamant until the last possible moment that she shouldn’t cross the professional line of her relationship with Jamar. I think my only critique of their fake dating relationship is that they didn’t seem to play too much into the “fake dating in front of other people” part of their relationship. They just declared they were together for the media once at the start of the book and then spent the rest of the book only in the presence of each other and their close family friends, so it didn’t really seem like there was a point to the fake dating anymore. If anything, I think this book plays more into the “forced proximity” trope rather than fake-dating (those scenes were done much better, too, in my opinion).

I loved the various important discussions that Farrah Rochon brought into this book (which she always does really well in her books), such as Black stereotypes in sports, learning disabilities, anxiety attacks, the pros and cons of a higher education, and dealing with grief. I adored how incredibly supportive Jamar was with Taylor’s journey to get a college degree while helping her manage her learning disorder and anxiety attacks. Likewise, Taylor was also so caring when it came to Jamar’s unresolved grief related to Silas’ death. I appreciated how the climax of their relationship didn’t result in them having a toxic break-up or and how they still had a happy, genuine relationship throughout the book. The representation and diversity in this book, as always, was amazing (I was so excited to see that one of Taylor’s cousins was deaf!).

Definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a quick, sweet, genuine romance! The friendship between Samiah, Taylor, and London seemed much more well-developed in this book now that we’ve known them for longer and I’m very excited for London’s book next :)

Oh my stars! Late last week I got a @netgalley email that I'd been approved for an ARC of book two of The Boyfriend Project series, The Dating Playbook and I legit lost my mind with excitement!!

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer and it DID NOT DISSAPAPOINT. @farrahrochon thank you for Bringing Samiah, Taylor and London into our lives and really makeing a #squadgoals series

This fake dating trope features Taylor and Ex pro athlete Jamar. Their paths cross when he pursues her to be his personal trainer and well I'll let you pick up the book to see how the rest goes! Mark this as a must read for when it drops from @grandcentralpub on August 17th!

P.s. Series takes place in my NEW home of Austin, TX!

CW: Death of friend (automobile/motorcycle related, off page but discussed) and related guilt and grief, anxiety, panic attack (on page), learning disability and ADHD, strained family relationships

I really enjoyed The Boyfriend Project last year and was excited to read Taylor’s story next. The Dating Playbook was filled with all the banter and amazing female friendships that I love so much. The squad of Taylor, London, and Samiah truly is the best! I loved how they pushed each other to be their best selves and were always there to lend a hand. The overall pacing of the book was on the slower side for me, but I really liked how (with a little help from friends and loved ones) Jamar and Taylor both made peace with their pasts and moved forward towards brighter futures.

Read The Dating Playbook if you love:
- Fake dating trope
- Supportive and amazing female friendships. Friends that are there for you through all the highs and lows and cheer you on every step of the way.
- Sexy times in the kitchen… and other places ;)
- Playful and wonderful banter. I loved how Jamar and Taylor knew just how to push each other's buttons.
-Characters who overcome their fears/obstacles to achieve their dreams (even if they aren’t the original dreams they pursued)
-Honest and relatable discussions about grief, guilt, the pressures of society and family, and learning disabilities. I thought these topics were balanced really well throughout the book.

I’m looking forward to reading London’s story next!

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon
Pub Date: August 17, 2021

Thanks to @netgalley @readforeverpub and @farrahrochon for the eGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Pre-quarantine, I read The Boyfriend Project, the first in this series, that started with three women befriending each other after finding out the same man was playing them. All three made an agreement to pick something, other than dating, to focus on. That book followed Samiah, as she built a new app. This one follows another of the friend group, Taylor.

Taylor’s focus is her personal training business, Taylor’d Fitness. She’s invested a lot of money and made some bad choices and needs something to go right. After a pop-up class, a man approaches her asking her to personal train him, and then she learns he is Jamar Dixon. After being injured during his first season in the NFL, he wants to make a comeback, but he wants to keep it quiet until he is ready. Unfortunately, they are spotted together and to take the heat off Jamar being suspected of trying to go back to the NFL, they pretend to be a couple. But when two attractive people fake date, we know how that is going to turn out, right?!?

I enjoyed this book and getting to know Taylor and her backstory better. It’s so much more than a love story. Jamar and Taylor both have personal histories they are trying to work through and cope with. There was not as much focus on the friendships as I recall in The Boyfriend Project, but still a great read. I can’t wait to read London’s story next!
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This is a great continuation of the trio that was burned in the first book! I can't wait to read the third book!