The Dating Plan

By: Sara Desai

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

A Marie Claire Book Club Pick!

Even with a step-by-step plan, these fake fiancés might accidentally fall for each other in this hilarious, heartfelt romantic comedy from the author of The Marriage Game.

Daisy Patel is a software engineer who understands lists and logic better than bosses and boyfriends. With her life all planned out, and no interest in love, the one thing she can't give her family is the marriage they expect. Left with few options, she asks her childhood crush to be her decoy fiancé.

Liam Murphy is a venture capitalist with something to prove. When he learns that his inheritance is contingent on being married, he realizes his best friend's little sister has the perfect solution to his problem. A marriage of convenience will get Daisy's matchmaking relatives off her back and fulfill the terms of his late grandfather's will. If only he hadn't broken her tender teenage heart nine years ago....

Sparks fly when Daisy and Liam go on a series of dates to legitimize their fake relationship. Too late, they realize that very little is convenient about their arrangement. History and chemistry aren't about to follow the rules of this engagement.

©2021 Sara Desai (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A LibraryReads pick!

One of:

Buzzfeed's Best Romances of 2021

SheReads’ Most Anticipated Romance Books of 2021

GoodReads’ Hottest 2021 Romances

Marie Claire’s Best New Romance Novels of 2021 (So Far)

PopSugar’s Best New Romance Books of March 2021

HelloGiggles’ Best New Books to Read in March

"Outrageously funny, meltingly hot and tender, and wrapped up in heartwarming community, this book will warm you in the best ways. Daisy and Liam are just the kind of sexy joyful magic we need in the world right now." (Sonali Dev, author of Recipe for Persuasion)

"Geek-chic Daisy makes an endearing heroine, and the dysfunctional Murphy family provides believable tension. Desai’s fans will be thrilled to reconnect with the eccentric Patels and new readers will be hooked. This is a gem." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"A smart, sexy read. If you haven't done so already, prepare to mark Sara Desai as your new fave author!" (Sajni Patel, author of The Trouble with Hating You)

Meh

It was cute but a bit drawn out and lacked connection. It lacked something and was just ok.

sweet and predictable

this is a very sweet story and was a great listen. if you're looking for a happy-go-lucky easy read this is definitely that. it was easy to get attached to the characters and to follow the plot line and predict the plot line. even with that being said I very much enjoyed the book!

Fun Listen!

This was my first book by this author and I wasn't sure what to expect but ended up really enjoying this story. It was a bit slow to start for me but once I got into I found it funny and interesting. The side characters were great (loved the Aunties) and made the story even better. I would definitely read more from this author!

Can’t wait for the next book!

Another artfully written book by Sara Desai!
If you haven’t already done so, start with The Marriage Game. Both are very well written and beautifully narrated.
I couldn’t put them down!

All the Stars

Daisy & Liam’s story was a perfect depiction of girl-hates-boy to girl-loves-boy, with a clueless boy (cuz men usually are pretty clueless), with appropriate cultural references, fun, quirk & plenty of spice to keep you wanting more. I am so happy to see an Indian family accurately portrayed, as well as a bit of an Irish family. I would love to see how the families interact (if ever) because that would make for some pretty great situations, I’m sure! (Another book?)

Aside from calling the intermission between periods during a hockey game “halftime,” the story was perfection. Anyone who doesn’t know hockey wouldn’t know the difference.

As for the narrator - she was great. The reading was a bit slow & lazy in some parts, but the voices, inflections & accents were pretty accurate. And with so many characters in the story, I’m impressed with how she was able to pull them all off.

Overall… this is definitely worth the purchase/credit!

This series is so good and narrator is amazing!

Love it - just as good as the first book in the series, and love that the original characters still make appearances! Sara Desai has a fantastic writing style and is such an awesome storyteller. Absolutely love her! I really can't wait for book 3 later this year!

The fake relationship trope is my favourite, and she did it so well here - he needed a wife to save the family business (due to his grandfather's will requirements), and she was willing to take on the role in order to get her match-making Auntie's off her back, because she didn't want to get married anytime soon. Liam was Daisy's childhood crush back in school - her brother's best friend, so what could it hurt? He'd only broken her heart by disappearing and standing her up on her Prom night, and had just now come back, 10 years later. The trials they have to go through to get to the HEA are a great rollercoaster ride!

Soneela Nankani has narrated quite a few books I've listened to recently, and I'm really loving her!

It’s a fictional romance book…

Exactly what the title says. It’s a fictional romance book. If you’re looking for some deep, well thought out think piece of a book; this isn’t for you.

The story is clichés as all get out. Former nerdy girl shut off from love because some bad boy she pined over as a teen stood her up a decade ago. *eyeroll*

The “bad boy” is some emotionally unintelligent womaniser “martyr” and instead of communicating with the “woman of his dreams” he just leaves. *eyeroll harder*

They cross paths again, she hates him, he still loves her(?) and the story ensues…

Idk where the “soft core porn” comments are coming from. There are sex scenes and I definitely wasn’t expecting that, but they’re not as horrific as other reviewers were making them out to be — but they were predictable asf.

The only character that didn’t irritate me was Max the dog.

It was a good listen, the narrator did a good job of reading it out loud and it was hard for me to stop listening. But I wasn’t crazy about the plot line at all.

Fabulously fun!

I just love a feel good rom-com and this was spectacularly fun! The banter hit all the marks. It’s quirky, sassy, and truly laugh-out-loud hilarious all the way through. It was all of the best kinds of melting mush and giggles.

I loved Daisy so, so much! We fully support a brilliant, badass, Type A, take-no-shit woman. And the style? Unmatched. She’s such a relatable character from her struggles with her mother to finding her empowering confidence. It’s so refreshing seeing character traits such as her organization, determination, and dedication getting the admiration they deserve. Daisy is what you want to be when you grow up. I also really appreciated what I got to learn about desi culture and community from Daisy and her family.

I was living for the accurate mental health journey in this book. There were very real representations of dysfunctional family issues, mental and physical abuse, and the after effects of what that kind of trauma does to a person. Seeing Daisy and Liam both struggle through baggage and growth was very genuine and I appreciated it so much.

This book brings an entire set of characters to fall in love with beyond our protagonists. Rainey was a personal favorite for me. It would’ve been a quick read if I hadn’t been busy with finals. This was such a well rounded story, it was all-around fantastic, and definitely recommend!

Sweet, Silly, and Sassy

I loved it, start to finish. were there moments I wanted to throttle the main characters, of course, that just means I was invested in the outcome. It was a good balance of believable and ridiculous.

Cute but a little predictable

I enjoyed the story to an extent but as I said above it is a little predictable. It is a cute rom/com.
As I’ve aged I find I’m not very appreciative of explicit sex scenes that go on and on AND ON. I find no need for prolonged
and graphic sex scenes. Let’s go with “they kissed, they did it” done. They both really enjoyed it!