The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

5*


Trigger warning: Child and spousal abuse

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a run-of-the-mill enemies-to-lovers romance. This one throws an emotional punch and then some. Yes, the set-up is that Liam Murphy broke Daisy Patel’s heart when he stood her up for her senior prom and then left town without a word. He was her brother’s best friend and a part of her family, so the devastation was worse because he not only rejected her, but her father and brother as well. When she accidentally runs into him 10 years later, she soundly rejects his friendly overture; that is, until he proposes a fake engagement. For him, it’s a way to save his family’s distillery and, for her, it means getting her well-meaning matchmaking aunties off her back and finding a way to save the start-up organic feminine products company she’s come to care about. However, as so often happens, the emotions become real and someone’s going to get hurt.

Where this diverges from the normal trope is in the story of their childhood traumas. Desai spares nothing in her descriptions of the damage caused by Liam’s abusive father and Daisy’s casually cruel mother who abandoned her at age 7. They’re both suffering under the mistaken belief that they’re not worthy of love, and it’ll take a near-tragedy and some painful confessions before they can have a chance of absolving themselves and each other.

Ultimately, this is a story of redemption, forgiveness, and the power of love and family to right the wrongs of the past. It’s also a steamy romance between a sexy math nerd who doesn’t see how powerful she can be and a broken man who has achieved professional success, in large part to spite the father who made it his life’s mission to pound any self-worth out of him. The juxtaposition of Daisy’s meddling, but loving Indian-American family against Liam’s emotionally-distant, alcohol-abusing Irish one feeds into negative stereotypes, but it’s integral to the story and not gratuitous or ill-intended. Desai does a commendable job of defining her characters and readers can’t help but root for these damaged souls to find love and contentment with each other. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.