I truly enjoyed the story—it’s a fun spin on a romance with a great plot and plenty of tension that keeps things interesting.

That said, the FMC was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I think the author was going for a witty, sharp personality, but it often came across as more insufferable and whiny than charming.

Another thing that threw me off was the political commentary. While I’m all for a bit of depth in a story, the political undertones felt out of place here. If it’s not directly relevant to the plot or character development, it might be best left out. The focus should have stayed on the relationship, and the political mentions took away from that and felt like the author just wanted to take a dig.

Despite these issues, the plot and the tension kept me going. The romance still shines through, and despite my frustrations with the protagonist, I couldn’t stop reading to see how it all played out.

Definitely would have been a 4-star read based on plot if the FMC was a little more… pleasant.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for offering this
ARC for review via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

Save the Date by Allison Raskin tells the story of Emma, a woman determined to salvage her wedding after her fiancé unexpectedly leaves just months before the big day. In a desperate bid to keep her wedding on track, she embarks on Operation: Save the Date. Enter two charming men: one who desires to be with her but refuses commitment, and another, recently divorced, who wants it all—but perhaps not with her.

This story is cute, funny, and offers a refreshing take on romance. Emma's background as a therapist makes her a relatable and grounded protagonist. She appears to know exactly what she wants, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that what she thinks she wants may not align with her true desires. This internal conflict adds an interesting layer to her character, making her more complex than a typical romance lead.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the quick read, I did feel that the story was a bit rushed. I would have loved to see more development in Emma's relationships with both men—how they challenged her beliefs about love and complemented her personality. These moments could have added more depth to the narrative.

Overall, Save the Date is a fun, light-hearted romance that I would recommend to anyone looking for a quick, feel-good read.


Thank you to Allison Raskin, NetGally, Canary Street Press, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing the opportunity to read and review, this ARC.

Save the Date is a story of Emma, a relationship therapist and rising youtuber. She has built her career and youtube platform around her successful relationships and has even procured a book deal out of it. However, she has recently undergone a surprising breakup from her fiance. With her wedding date six months away and staying on her calendar. Emma has concieved a plan to meet a new man and marry him to "save face." Hence, operation "Save the Date", is born.

The story is written in the third person, in the perspective of Emma, which was a bit odd for me. I think if it had been written in the first person I would have been pulled into the story a bit more.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and the author for an ARC of this book in which I had the pleasure of reading.

I made it through about 70% of this book before finally giving up. It was slow moving, boring, and full of predictable cliches. Well it has an interesting premise, I did not feel it was well executed

Absolutely adorable novel. Emma was one of my favorite main characters I’ve read in quite a while. The family and dating dynamics were fleshed out and entertaining without feeling forced. Really enjoyed this one!

I was expecting this to be cheesy based on the premise BUT it was not, it was excellent, funny, well-written, and the exact writing style I like (funny internal monologue, quick dialogue)

I found the premise of this story to be both intriguing and full of potential, mixing worry with a sense of hope. Emma felt so relatable, and I really enjoyed her character on the page. Will was a breath of fresh air—funny and charming, and I loved seeing his growth throughout the narrative. The concept of the podcast was captivating, and it was fascinating to watch how Emma and Will navigated their contrasting opinions.

As for Matt, while he certainly brought the Hollywood looks, he unfortunately fell flat on personality. On the other hand, Emma’s family was a delight! They brought a blend of humor and realism that often had me nodding along. Sure, there were a few moments that didn’t quite hit the mark, but overall, they felt relatable and entertaining.

Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying this story much more than I had anticipated! I highly recommend giving it a read—it's definitely worth your time!

📚ARC Review 📚

“One person falling out of love with you doesn’t make you unloveable, it makes you human.”

Save the date follows the story of Emma, a licensed marriage therapist, who has been broken up with by her fiancé. Her goal is to try and find a new husband in time for her already scheduled wedding.

Her story reveals three potential suitors: someone from her past, someone from an app and someone who works with her brother in law. As Emma goes on dates to figure out who is Mr. Right, she’s cataloguing all the updates on her YouTube channel. When the world starts to have opinions on her ideas, it’s hard to keep her plan a secret from potential partners. In the end, will she be able to save her date? Or will she have to reveal to the world that her plan didn’t work?

Honestly this book would make a great movie. It was an intriguing story, nothing like what I have read before. It was interesting, well written and moved at a good pace. I felt it to be a title predictable but enjoyed the read!

This book had so much promise but it never fully got there. I was so intrigued by the premise, and even more so when I found out it was based on what happened to the author in real life, this was an easy ask for an ARC. I also really love the cover!

I don’t think your main character needs to be likable in every book, but if it’s in the romance genre, you need to at least be able to root for them, and I definitely wasn’t here. That being said, Emma ended up with exactly the person she should have, but he was the only one out of all her potentials that had any depth so you knew that’s where the story was going. I also felt like at times I had missed dialogue explaining something but it wasn’t there, so it was frustrating to read sometimes.

Overall the book was fine, and I definitely think the second half was better than the first!

Thoroughly enjoyed this! It was the palette cleanser I needed from my usual fantasy novels. I will recommend it to many of my friends and family members

Book: Save the Date
Author: Allison Raskin
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Canary Street Press, for providing me with an ARC. I did enjoy this one a lot. It was fun and, for the most part, light hearted. I enjoyed getting to follow Emma’s journey to finding love again and finding herself.

In this one, we follow Emma, who has just hit what she thinks is rock bottom. When relationship expert Emma Moskowitz is dumped by her fiancé just six months before their wedding, her carefully curated life unravels. Her thriving therapy practice, social media presence, and book deal all depend on her image as a love guru. But Emma refuses to let heartbreak derail her plans. Determined to salvage her big day, she embarks on "Operation: Save My Date"—a public quest to find a new groom before her wedding date arrives. As her journey unfolds online, she finds herself torn between two potential suitors: Will, a charming podcast producer who wants nothing to do with a marriage of convenience, and Matt, a kindhearted recent divorcee eager to commit. With her career, family, and the internet watching, Emma must decide whether she's truly searching for love—or just trying to prove she has it all figured out.

Emma is a highly successful young woman. She has her career, a very popular Youtube channel, and a great support system. She has a book deal and everything is going right for her. That is until she is dumped. She now has to start over. She decides to keep her wedding date and just find a new groom and to make it public. From here, her life goes in directions that she never thought. She meets new guys and finds more things out about herself. It’s a fun journey. Now, I will say that there were times that Emma did get on my nerves. Despite how much she does have going for her, she does come across, at times, as very immature. She is supposed to be thirty-two and there were many times that I had to remind myself of that. She also seemed out of touch at times. While she is very successful in her own right and life, she does come from a wealthy family. Therefore, she really does not know what is it truly like to suffer in life. These are just little things, but there were times that this felt like it was another classic “rich girl” story who didn’t get her way. Now, I do have to give Emma credit. When things got bad, she didn’t fall apart and took matters into her own hands.

I did enjoy Emma’s family. They are not perfect, which is why I think I enjoyed them so much. They are close and will go anything for each other. They have their rough patches. Despite all of this, they are still there for each other. I liked getting to see the more rougher side of things, because it makes them human and makes them relatable. I love it whenever books have this family side in them.

The romance part was enjoyable. I enjoyed getting to follow Emma on her on her quest for love. It’s fun. We can see how she is also kind of forcing herself into this. She is anxious and a lot of it stems from trying to keep up with all of this. She wants to keep the wedding date. She wants to find love. She has put this timeline on herself and it is putting so much pressure on her. We can see it bearing on her. Once again, this is something I enjoyed. It allows us to see the human side of her. There are times that it did not always come across the best (the human side) and I think giving this to Emma does make her more relatable.

Now, one thing, I did get tired of was the political jabs that were woven in throughout the book. Normally, I don’t mind having politics in books, but it just wasn’t needed here. I know we are trying to show Emma as a modern woman, but I thought it didn’t add to the book. Instead, the jabs, which there were not backing for or reason for, added to her immaturity. Now, if the author had decided to educate people that would have been fine and would have added to Emma’s character. For the record, I am not a Trumper, but I cannot stand just jabbing people like this book did.

Overall, I did enjoy this one a lot. It just wasn’t quite a five-star read for me.

This book comes out on April 8, 2025.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/lSQ2EY9aOhg

Before the book starts, Raskin shares that something similar happened to her- her ex-fiancé left her 'because something was missing' and kinda left her without closure. She'd also been giving out relationship advice on the internet and a podcast, and had a book coming out.
Enter the MC with similar circumstances but with a plan for keeping her wedding date.

As soon as I started reading, I immediately fell in love with Raskin's voice and humor. I'm grateful that she got to share a piece of her story.

Save the Date follows Emma as she tries to find a replacement guy for her wedding through exes, dating apps, and friends. She meets Will who she instantly connects with but who isn't willing to get married that quickly. Then she's introduced to Matt, a soon-to-be divorcé, who is seemingly great on paper and easy on the eyes, but something is off.
Emma works with Will on his podcast about Operation: Save My Date, and I absolutely love their banter and connection. Love, love, love.

During the Operation, Emma works as a relationship therapist, attempts to finish her book deal, uploads videos to YouTube, and witnesses her parents' marriage start to go sideways. (btw- loved the mom and dad navigating retired life with each other, it was very relatable.) Emma is also an observer of her sister's marriage, which Emma finds odd. (Yay, multiple examples for Emma.)
Some traits I appreciated about Emma- she has sensory sensitivities, anxiety, and thinks she's unlovable/too much.

**Semi-Spoilers**
Something that kinda threw me off is that I thought she liked Matt's kisses? But later said the chemistry wasn't there? Which in comparison to Will I totally get, but it just didn't match up.
And I don't know how I feel about Will changing his mind at the end...I would've been okay if he hadn't or had taken longer because that was more in character for him...this choice seemed abrupt, but kudos to him I guess.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend it. I look forward to reading more from Raskin.

Emma is a relationship therapist and I think this is secretly a self-help book written as a romance novel, and I mean that in the best way because while it was entertaining, I also learned a lot…

When you boil down the plot of the book, it’s really just putting relationships and weddings under a microscope. It questions how much of the process is dictated by society and its expectations — what’s the proper timeline? who’s the ideal partner? what makes a perfect relationship? And then ultimately, what does it take to keep it?

Yes, Emma’s journey to her second chance will have you cringing, cheering and laughing out loud. Her family (particularly her relationships with her sister and mom) will make you wish you could spend more time with your family (at least it did for me). And her friendship with Will will make you swooooooon.

But I think the best thing about this book are the tips and advice she gives couples for how to work through conflict and how to stay level-headed and maintain neutrality when things get sticky. Honestly, there are a host of learnings I’m taking away from this book, and I kind of wish we had transcripts from the podcast interspersed throughout the book to capture more of that wisdom (but also because I just needed more Will and Emma banter).

Emma’s journey (and her podcast with Will) introduces the reader to different types of romantic relationships and how / why they work… or don’t work — college sweethearts, soul-mates, instant love, slow love, an anti-marriage POV, life-long partnership, etc. But the bottom line is that all relationships require effort: “Romantic love was about compatibility on some level, but it was mostly about dedication and commitment.”
1. We learn that compromises come in all shapes and sizes.
2. We’re reminded not to judge relationship dynamics that we aren’t privy to — what might not work for us can work for someone else!
3. We’re encouraged to think of love and partnership from different perspectives, especially your partner’s to understand what they need and why.

All this is to say, that you’ll get so much out of this romance beyond Emma’s Operation Save My Date. But hopefully, you’ll also enjoy the banter between Emma and Will as well as the camaraderie and friendship she builds among her suitors (at least a couple of them). And if you need it, maybe you’ll be inspired to go find the love you deserve!

This was such a cute and light read!

Emma is a family and relationships therapist who seems to have it all, but when her fiancé unexpectedly calls off the wedding, everything else begins to unravel. Determined not to let her plans fall apart, Emma decides to keep the wedding date—and find a new groom to meet her at the altar.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC

This was a great read, i love second chance romance, the characters were perfectly written. I didn’t think it was so slow it did have a kinda of fast pace which is good because I

Emma Moskowitz thought she had finally found the one, the guy who could accept all her anxieties and love her for who she is. Unfortunately, 6 months before the wedding, Ryan decided to call it quits with no explanation. Emma, being a successful family therapist and relationship expert, was at a loss and didn't want the ending of that relationship to derail her wedding date. Instead of waiting to move on, she decides to keep the wedding date and find a new Groom that is ready to join this new phase.

Emma decided to go through a dating app to find a guy willing to go along with this insane idea of getting married within 6 months. After a few dates and finally finding a man that wants to go through with the wedding, she gets engaged!

"'I actually don't believe in The One.' Part of why I wanted to do this was to prove that we are all compatible with a bunch of different people. We don't need to get hung up on our exes or unrequited loves when it's more productive and fulfilling to focus on finding a connection with someone else--some-
one new."

Is it worth moving on with someone if you don't quite feel the 'love'? Is it worth waiting to find that connection with someone that you can't wait to start that journey with? Personally, I'm glad I found my husband and had that instant connection. It's how I knew he was the one from the very beginning!

Allison Raskin had gone through a personal breakup and created this story as a way to move on from the heartbreak. The similarities of what happened and what could have been if she did keep her wedding date as her father suggested and found a replacement groom is completely out of the norm, but that's what makes for an exciting story. I'm happy that she found her happy ending!

If you're interested in following Emma's journey in finding a new Groom in less than 6 months before the wedding, then get the book!

Overall, this is a really unique love story. When Emma has left by her fiancé, she is faced with the grief and hurt of losing a life that she had envisioned for herself. She takes to an unconventional way of finding herself a new groom.

I enjoyed the banter in this book, but really struggled with Emma as a character not thinking she is good enough without being married. There are heavy themes of mental health and anxiety represented in this book which I can appreciate sometimes it felt more educational than naturally put in to a conversation, but all in all I really liked the theme.

This book both did and didn’t play out as I expected. In this novel, Emma is unexpectedly dumped by her fiancé, and instead of wallowing in grief, she decides to try to thwart Western relationship expectations by keeping her wedding date (and those deposits) and—instead of canceling—finding a new groom.

Because the character’s YouTube presence was mentioned prominently in the book blurb, I was falsely under the impression that the #SaveMyDate journey Emma takes would involve an online, reality show dating aspect, but that was not accurate. She just dates until she runs into a guy ok with the fast marriage idea. (There is much more to the story than that.) So, the process was less silly fun than I expected.

However, that aside, this story was indeed still fun. There were quite a few of literal laugh out loud moments. The banter between Emma and her (obvious) love interest is sweet and sassy, and there are minor characters that stand out and delight. Is this predictable by about half way through? Yes. Am I bothered by that from a romcom? Not at all. There is also an absolutely delicious ex confrontation that left me cheering and clapping.

Because the main character is a therapist, there is a heavy influence of mental health discussion that may be tedious to some people but positive to others.

All in all, this is an easy and positive read. The close door romance gives just enough butterflies without being off putting for those who don’t like spice. While this isn’t a favorite, I would have mainly positive things to say for anyone interested—especially someone who values mental health awareness and a witty FMC.

Thank you to Harlequin Publishing and NetGalley for this advance copy.

3 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The author’s note makes this one a bit difficult to talk about because this book is an attempt by the author to use her pain to make art and that’s something so personal that it makes me feel mean to criticize anything about it. Which I don’t intend to be; that being said, I do write honest reviews. And this is my honest opinion of the book and my own experience with it.

This premise of the book sounded strange to me and instantly drew me in to see how the author would use it. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed in the ending. I felt like the majority of this book was cringey and I got a lot of second-hand embarrassment. It might have been partially due to my inability to relate to or understand our MC at all. She’s just so sure she can’t enjoy her life until she’s married or in a relationship and it bothered me so much that she had that mindset and was a therapist.

What I did like, was how the author drew me into the story where I just had to know how everything turned out and if the MC matured, if the side characters worked out their relationships, etc. I needed all the tea.

I think while this one might not have been a hit for me, personally, rom-com fans might want to try it out. I recommend it particularly to readers who can easily suspend their disbelief and those who enjoy messy characters and drama. Save the Date releases April 8th!

I couldn’t be happier for reading this book! Looking for true love in the midst of heartbreak is nothing small to deal with. Allison gave us this light, fun, family loving, chaotic love search read and it didn’t disappoint. A quick read that we can all relate to somehow.