Book Review: The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

Main characters Daisy and Liam have a lot of history. When they were teenagers, Liam did the unthinkable, breaking Daisy’s heart and leaving her in the wreckage. She’s moved on, of course, but she’s never quite forgotten what it felt like. Now she’s a smart and savvy software engineer that knows her work better than men in general. But her family are on her back about marriage, and when she runs into grown Liam randomly at the beginning of the book, the cards sort of fall into place for him to take the spot of her faux fiancé, in a bid to get her family to leave the quest for marriage on the backburner. Liam has issues of his own, though. His inheritance, coincidentally, is depending on him being married.

So when the two of them come up with a plan—a marriage of convenience—to get their families off their backs and get what they’re wanting, it seems plain sailing. But her teenage heartbreak has never quite left Daisy. And though Liam shows he’s not the same person he was when they were young, it takes Daisy seeing how dedicated he is to new values to let down her guard. As she does, though, it’s clear they still have that firework-worthy spark, despite the relationship being fake. Soon, their fake romance turns very real, and that’s when their lives—and their hearts—get thrown into mayhem. 

Overall, The Dating Plan was mostly what I expected it to be. I’m a huge fan of Berkley romances, and it definitely had that rom-com feel. There were certain things I loved—the characters, the world-building—and things I found issues with—the pacing and lack of relationship building between Daisy and Liam—so this was definitely more of a likeable read than loveable, for me. I think that it would be more suited to readers that didn’t mind those things. That being said, there were certainly things I enjoyed about it and it was an overall funny, yet cheesy novel with smart characters, and a fierce romance full of the stuff great rom-coms are made of.