User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
We need more feel good, laugh out loud, warming your heart books like this! We need thousands of them! Because dear Sara Desai knows how to create amazing, quirky, adorable, smart, sassy and sexy characters, and absolutely knows how to write pant melting, steamy, hot as hell love scenes!
She has great sense of humor! Your stomach hurts after laughing too much! You fall in love with those crowded, loyal, deeply connected, genuine Indian relatives!
I loved Marriage Game a lot but I have to confess both Liam and Daisy are more adorable characters than Layla and Sam. I loved them more. I enjoyed their short term high school romance. Their extra inflammable chemistry which can easily put the chapters on fire!
Yes, Liam was Daisy’s first real crush, who was her brother Sanjay’s best friend, an inseparable part of their family till he became her prom date and stood her up! At the same day, he ghosted entire family. She doesn’t hear from him for 10 years till she bumps into him at the tech convention: very same day she holds a few feminine products in her hands to display them at her speech, running away from her ex boyfriend and her ex-boss who were making out at the restroom. Did I mention also one of her aunties follow her with a groom candidate at the same conference?
The couple’s encounter ends with a sweet kiss. Liam never gets over Daisy. We have every right to kick his ass because of dumping Daisy at her very special night at high school. But don’t worry! He has a real good explanation. So instead of getting angry at the guy, you want to hug him tightly.
Liam and Daisy agree for fake engagement because Liam should get married till his birthday and stay married at least one year to inherit his grandpa’s distillery and Daisy wants to get rid of her aunties’ and her own father’s pressure who push her so hard to get marry with an ideal candidate.
Both of them know at the beginning, there is a great risk to cross the lines because starting a fake relationship could be threatening to break both of their hearts when they still have deep feelings for each other.
I found Liam and Daisy’s story more emotional, genuine, intense. They really deal with burdens, dysfunctional family issues, abuse, insecurities. Both of them learn their mistakes and changed themselves. Only thing didn’t change is the pure love they feel for each other which makes this book one of my favorite readings!
I was going back and forth between four and five stars but I decided these lovely characters didn’t deserve one star less from the first book! So I’m giving five desi wedding, heartbreak hotel, best Elvis Presley impersonator, quirky, ultra smart heroine vs sexy, bad boy, rebellious hero stars!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.
Rating: really liked it
This was super cute and it was the perfect way to kick off the new year. This book has a lot to love: fake fiancé’s, fake marriage, and our main character Daisy is a software engineer (we all love to read about women with badass jobs am I right?😍)
These characters are adorable, they have great chemistry, they have very well-fleshed out families and pasts, and I loved how much fun the fake fiancé thing was. I love that Daisy is really good at math and numbers and she’s obsessed with the Avengers. Her character is so adorable and quirky. Liam irked me a lot in the beginning but after I learned more about him I grew to love his character too.
My only critique is that it got slightly annoying how much Daisy held a grudge against him for standing her up at the prom in high school. I totally get that that’s a really shitty thing to do, but she’d constantly still bring it up and tell everyone she knows about it and it’s been over ten years..? I just don’t understand why she’d hold a grudge that long. And the ending got just a little predictable/dramatic for my personal taste... but despite those few things I really enjoyed this, and I appreciate this book so much for helping me get out of this weird reading funk I’ve been in lately. It’s been a while since I’ve finished a book so quickly!
But this was super adorable and I know it might be too early to say but
I can see this being one of my favorite romances of the year!!
Rating: really liked it
this was really fun!
i've tried a few romances with similar premises to this, but none have worked for me. idk what it is about start up culture/coding romances but they nearly never have developed character relationships. this was certainly an exception.
i thought this perfectly balanced culture, family, career, and romance. it was so fun seeing daisy and liam get their second chance and i actually (for once in my damn life) appreciated the quirkiness (and at times cringiness) of the characters. i also liked how both daisy & liam had their own individual struggles to work through before they could truly come together and make a successful relationship. i guess despite the expectations i had going in to this, it really did feel like a realistic romance and at the end of the day that's really all i'm looking for.
Rating: really liked it
Warning- this is about as harsh of a book review as I give.
I picked this book for my Book of the Month because it seemed right up my alley. I tend to love a romance where the characters have a backstory, and I like a non traditional female main character. However, I did not like this. It was entirely too cheesy. The main character, Daisy, was far too quirky. Like over the top-constantly wears Marvel underwear- quirky. And there was not enough relationship development between Liam and Daisy because there were too many other things going on. I especially thought the side characters’ storylines were over the top and distracting- both Liam and Daisy’s relatives were written in ways that made me say “huh?” Maybe I’m just a fun hater 🤷♀️. Anyways, I won’t go on and on; I just think there are many better versions of this kind of book out there.
Rating: really liked it
1.5 Stars
I picked this as my BOTM as I am a sucker for the fake relationship trope. I also loved that the two main characters were supposed to have a history.
Sadly, Daisy was a literal self-proclaimed Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl of epic proportions and…well, I am a fan of the MPDG pretty much never. Also, the level of rom-com here was just a little too com-heavy for my liking. The attempts at making the characters seem effortlessly quirky felt very slap-stick, overly cheesy, and sometimes forced.
In addition, the story felt very tedious. A lot of repetition and a lot of telling vs. showing.
Anyway, this was just a miss for me. Oh well, next.
Rating: really liked it
There are no halftimes in hockey.
Rating: really liked it
1.5. Seriously.
I just.... there was truly almost nothing that I liked about this book. I started skimming it about 40 pages in, determined to finish. Decided my time was too valuable, put it down, then convinced myself it
had to get better so I choked through until the last 3/4... and just gave up.
So - what was so bad? I mean, I love romance novels. Rom-com, the fake relationship trope - guys, I'm pretty forgiving at the end of the day when it comes to my favorite genre. But this... I think it was just trying too hard. It made everything flop.
A few main irks:
- Daisy supposedly hates - HATES - this guy because he ditched her for prom 10 years ago. Prom. It's repeated, over and over again, how huge of a betrayal this is.
PROM. If this was a YA book and the incident happened, say, 2 months ago, then sure. This is a grown-ass woman who still gives a shit about prom. I'm out.
- Daisy makes no sense. She's hyper intelligent, coder, supposedly introverted but... also "quirky" and "cool" and has all these "hook-ups" - and randomly really flirty. People like that exist, yes, but Daisy is not one of them. Her character just didn't work. At times her intelligence level was savant-esque (I was having The Kiss Quotient flashbacks) but other times she was just totally clueless.
- Liam, likewise, didn't work. He was super badass but really wasn't at all. Riding a motorcycle and wearing leather all the time doesn't automatically make you a rebel. Also not sure how someone could, apparently, spend three yeas as an outlaw in a motorcycle gang and then because a millionaire/billionaire venture capitalist. But okay.
- There are SO MANY CHARACTERS that mean nothing. There are literally like... 6 different co-workers named and her work situation barely matters. We know at least 10 of her Aunties! We meet a TON of his family. What the hell?
- The family dynamic felt SO hokey and stereotypical. The obsessive Aunties (literally stalking? Breaking down doors? Calling people on wilderness retreats in Belize?) that are way over the top and then, ooooof course, the Irish family that drinks and fist-fights and is super abusive. Instead of being tongue-in-cheek and feeling like comedy it all just felt really insensitive.
- Unless I missed it, there are random quirks (like her obsession with Marvel, and how much she cares about her dog) that actually have nothing to do with the story. Quirks are fun IF they can be tied to the story. Otherwise Hulk and Iron Man bras are just weird, okay?
Okay - I'll stop. The point is that this book just came off as absurdly annoying to me. No, thank you.
Rating: really liked it
Check out this review (and more) over on my blog!
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Quick Stats:
Overall: 4/5 Stars
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Plot and Themes: 3/5
Awesomeness Factor: 4/5
Review in a Nutshell: The Dating Plan is a cute and fun read, that’s perfect if you’re in a slump.
// Content Warning: Child Abuse (Mention), Abusive Relationship (Mention), Mature Content //Release Date: 3/16/2021
Publisher: Berkley
Page Count: 352
Premise:The Dating Plan follows Daisy, a software engineer desperate to stop her matchmaking relatives, and Liam, whose inheritance depends on him getting married. As a solution to both of their problems, they agree to a marriage of convenience, but as they spend more time together, they start to fall for each other.
- Plot -This book is classic fake dating (or fake engagement, I should say) at it’s finest. Plus some extra angst from their past, of course. It’s addictive, with plenty of dramatic and adorable moments. There’s definitely a lot of cheesy stuff here, but that’s what makes it so fun (even if there were some parts where I struggled to suspend my disbelief).
- Writing - Not only does the plot make this easy to read, but the writing as well. It’s lighthearted and has some humor, allowing for you to easily get into the book. Not to mention- this book has some great banter.
- Characters - I really enjoyed the dynamic between our main characters. Daisy and Liam are both interesting, complex characters with history together and their own issues to overcome. I loved watching them develop, and their interactions were always entertaining. We also have a great cast of side characters, one couple you might be familiar with if you’ve read Sara Desai’s other book,
The Marriage Game. I actually haven’t read that book yet but after finishing this one, I really want to pick it up!
- Conclusion -Pros- Addictive, interesting characters, fun
Cons- Not that memorable
Overall- 4/5 stars.
The Dating Plan was just what I needed: a cute, lighthearted romance with fun characters.Follow Me Here: Blog ||Tumblr || Bookstagram || Twitter|| Reviews
Rating: really liked it
PLEASE DEAR GOD, can we stop making girls ‘quirky’ just because they don’t wear the latest fashion? I have never met anyone that wears ‘patterned tights, colored sunglasses, and a hat’ but okay. It just screams ‘I’m nOt liKe OtHer GiRlz” and I’ve over it. Let a character have a unique sense of style and be nerdy without making it an overly done cliché. Okay now that I have that off my chest, this was a cute, modern romance. I really appreciated the authenticity surrounding Daisy’s ethnicity. I nominate Aidan Turner to play Liam in the movie adaptation.
Rating: really liked it
3.75*After a bit of a slow start, waiting for the characters to grab me, I was getting worried. I wasn’t feeling the chemistry…. then suddenly everything changed. And the heat was on!🔥
Daisy Patel is doing her best to avoid all her Aunties. They keep ambushing her everywhere she goes with eligible young men in tow. What drastic measures will she need to take in order to stop the loving (yet meddling) aunties.
Liam Murphy is an old family friend. He was best friends with Daisy’s brother growing up. And Daisy always had the biggest crush on him. When he offered to escort he to her prom she was over the moon. That is until he stood her up, and was never heard from again.
Liam needs to find a wife. His grandfather’s will states that he can inherit the family distillery if he is married before his next birthday and remains married for one year. Only problem is Liam doesn’t even have a girlfriend at the moment, and his birthday is only months away.
When Daisy and Liam collide at a work event. Maybe they can help each-other out with an “arrangement”.The sparks between the two are still there. But can Daisy forgive Liam for leaving her on her prom night? Can they keep this as a business arrangement?
It was definitely worth the wait to see the chemistry build between these characters! I loved Daisy’s family and her well meaning yet obtrusive Aunties.
Looking Forward to reading more from this author.
Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...
Thank you to Berkley Publishing via NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
Rating: really liked it
This is a Fake Dating Romance/Chick-Lit, and this book is the second book in the Marriage Game series. This book pulled me in for the beginning. This book was sweet cute and funny. I love the two main character, and Liam was so funny and a great fake boyfriend. Daisy family is the best, and they made this book worth reading. This book is beautifully written.
This is my January 2021 Book of the Month pick.
https://www.mybotm.com/zr12wnytgc8?sh...
Rating: really liked it
2 stars The Dating Plan is a fake dating, friends/enemies/friends to lovers romance story between Daisy Patel and Liam Murphy. Growing up, Liam was best friends with Daisy’s brother and over at their house all the time. Daisy was entirely in love with him, until he stood her up for her prom and disappeared for eight years. When Liam bumps into Daisy all these years later, he realizes she might be the perfect girl to help him get his inheritance. The only catch? They need to get married.
There is so much about this book that bugged me and yet I finished it? Maybe I should have quit but by the time I started realizing I didn’t like this book I was too far gone. The number one thing I was annoyed by was the heroine constantly being referred to as “weirdly smart” and then we didn’t get any examples of how smart she was except for frequent (and I mean FREQUENT) references to how much she loved Marvel. WE GET IT. SHE LIKES MARVEL. ENOUGH! And aside from that she had major “pick me” girl energy. “I’m not like other girls I like Marvel and love doing computer stuff”.
A lot of the most interesting plot points of the book were completely glossed over: Liam’s relationship with his brother, Daisy’s relationships with her father and brother. I just felt there were so many things that were started in the plot but not finished, or maybe it was me. For a fake dating trope the plot was all over the place.
And one tiny thing that bugged me more than it should have. Hockey games have three periods, between which are period breaks. There is no half time break in hockey, you’d think something like that would be caught before publication but maybe I’m being too picky.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars
At the start of this book, I was really enjoying the romance. I will say, I did question why Daisy never questions Liam about why he stood her up for prom and broke her heart. You'd think after not seeing each other for 10 years after that night, she'd at least ask him what happened...instead, we don't have that until over 60% into the book. I thought the romance was cute, though, and I enjoyed how Liam and Daisy had to fake date. They have a history because Liam was Daisy's brother's best friend and it was fun watching them get to know each other again and grow to like each other as they went on fake date. I did, though, start to lose interest a bit during the last 30%. Liam didn't really grovel at all and the third act break up was annoying because it didn't really have a reason. If the couple just talked to each other, the last 30% could have been avoided. While it was a fun enough read, I was left wanting more at the end.
Rating: really liked it
I can’t seem to get enough of these sweet, sexy, emotional rom-coms! Add Sara Desai's new book,
The Dating Plan to the list!
Ten years ago, Liam broke Daisy’s heart when he stood her up at the senior prom. He was her older brother’s best friend and a total rebel; she was the science geek with a major crush on him. She was ready to show him that she was more than just a lovestruck teenager, but when he didn’t show up for prom he disappeared from all of their lives.
Needless to say she’s utterly unprepared to see him again—and he’s even more handsome—in the midst of embarrassing chaos at a venture capital convention. Yet as she encounters matchmaking aunties and her ex-boyfriend, Liam comes to the rescue and they wind up telling everyone they’re engaged.
Of course, after the smoke clears, Daisy will be fine if she never sees Liam again, but news of her “engagement” quickly spreads among her family. Then it turns out Liam is in need of a wife as well if he’s going to get his inheritance and be able to save a distillery that’s been in his family for generations.
So, they do what any couple would do: fake their relationship, plan a wedding, set out to accomplish their objectives, and divorce. Seems easy, right? As Daisy outlines their plan of dates to give credence to their relationship and let Liam meet her family, she’s nothing but business. And this plan does not include sex of any kind. (Yeah, okay.)
But is Daisy setting herself up for Liam to break her heart a second time? Why did he stand her up for prom anyway? And could Liam, who is known for a new woman every five minutes, actually be falling for Daisy?
Fake-dating rom-coms are such fun, and Daisy and Liam are terrific characters with fantastic chemistry. Throw in some workplace drama, dysfunctional Irish and Indian families, and some sexy steam, and you get a great book.
The Dating Plan publishes 3/16/2021.
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2020 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2020.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the last decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Rating: really liked it
This was...disappointing. The premise is one that I was excited for but sadly I felt myself wishing for SOME kind of conflict to drive the story. It was literally what the title of the book is. A series of dates with a set of characters who already like each other but refuse to really do anything about it over small and insignificant reasons (and utterly fail at keeping their fake engagement a secret, almost everyone knew it was fake because they TOLD THEM).
The main pair were already into each other from the second they ran into each other (SO many instances of them admiring each other’s bodies, a lot of ass talk) leaving no room for the kind of relationship growth I wanted to see.
There was hardly a plot to keep me engaged. Things just “happened” as if random ideas were thrown in to try and create drama. I was constantly waiting for the story to start even by the time the book reached its conclusion.
It was a very frustrating read.
