The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon

e-Audio, 09:04:00
Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
Release Date: August 17, 2021
Published by: Hachette Book Group
Read from: August 31- September 3, 2021
The Boyfriend Project, #2
Source: Overdrive Audio
TW: Grief, Friend Loss, Parental (figure) in hospital (not on page, Anxiety, Learning Disability
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, Spice Level= 3, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Fake Dating, Adult

     When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window in this delightful romantic comedy from the USA Today bestselling author of The Boyfriend Project!

     When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle.

     And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former footballer wants back into the NFL, and he wants Taylor to train him. There’s just one catch — no one can know what they’re doing. But when they’re accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor’s game plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win . . . or is he playing for keeps?

BETWEEN THE COVERS!
*This book is part of the new adult contemporary romance genre! It is more mature than YA. I have featured it in Between the Covers as a way to feature the few Adult and New Adult titles I am beginning to read!”

*MY THOUGHTS*

The first in this series was just ok for me. And because of that, I wasn’t expecting to like this one much either. This one was different. It was better, but still has room for improvement.

Taylor is an excellent trainer. But try asking her to put that same energy towards saving money. She can’t. Between the student loans and everything else she owes, her money situation is dire. And then out of nowhere comes Jamar Dixon, former football player who wants another shot at the NFL but needs help doing it. Can Taylor help him get where he wants to be? Well they’re going to try anyway. Even after Taylor let it slip that they’re dating…… Even when they aren’t? Wait, what?

Ok, so as I said, this one was different from the first, but still had room for improvement. I meant the romance. Like I loved their flirting and Lawd as an athlete Jamar was already hot in my eyes, but the romance, them finally getting together didn’t feel natural to me. It went from, “we really shouldn’t” to “its not realistic in the span of a second. It was such a weird transition to me. I’m thinking it was because they made the decision to not do something and stuck heavily to it for a long time. And then just out of nowhere it was unrealistic? Idk. But maybe that’s just me. The spice itself was a 3 on my meter. It mentions the hardware by name, but the sex is described, but nothing is graphically described.

I think the characters are part of the reason I didn’t care for the romance. Like I liked them together, but not apart. I think they both needed to work on themselves some more before they got together. But when it finally happened, for some reason I thought they were so cute. Maybe it was the fake dating troupe, but I ended up liking them more once they had found each other.

The random things I liked were things like the setting and the fact that Taylor likes Disney. Shout-out to Texas! Even though I’m embarrassed af to live here right now, I love when Texas is the setting and there’s places in it that I recognize. And this one was full of them. The Katy reference, the Katy stadium, the Houston, and many more! It was cool to see those places in books. There’s only ever a few books a year set in Texas so its easy to get excited about those that are. The Disney thing I thought was cute. It definitely reminded me of me and my book obsession. People normally think it’s weird so I always have to give a disclaimer before people come to my house and see it. And she watches Princess and the Frog every Saturday, and here I am with a whole book blog. But I definitely get where she was coming from.

The com in this rom com was a lot better than the last too. I actually laughed out loud with this one. The first one was a smile here or there, but never a real laugh. This one was so much better. I liked Taylor’s sassy mouth and her friends. Them together was always a good time too. And in a contemporary book, the friends group is always just as important as the others. Sometimes more depending on how large their part in a story is.

This was different than the other, but still made me excited to see what is coming up in London’s book. This series has been all over the place, but I’m still excited to see what’s coming. Hopefully we see more of the hot athletes in the future!

Overall, I give this