“Take your chance. Live a life of no regrets. And don’t blame yourself if it goes wrong. People have their own journey, and it has nothing to do with you.”

The idea was simple: Daisy Patel needed a fiancé so her family would stop trying to set her up with eligible bachelors and Liam Murphy needed a wife in order to save his family’s generations-old distillery from the bulldozer. Neither had any actual, viable marriage partner options. So a plan was borne. When the pair bump into each other at a conference (after 10 years of very loud radio silence) it made perfect sense. They’ll be fake-engaged and then fake-married until their individual family dramas have been resolved, and then they’ll go their own merry little ways. Except Daisy has had the hots for Liam, who was her big brother’s high school BFF, for as long as she can remember. Actually, until he stood her up for her senior prom, and her one-sided love crumbled into a fiery hatred. But even her inner rage understood the brilliance of this fake romance, so she went along with it. Except she knew that her family would smell a fake from a mile away, so she devises a series of very well-documented dates for the pair to build up the optics of their “relationship.” As time goes on, though, Daisy and Liam realize that even 10 years of silence and confusion and distaste can evaporate in the presence of chemistry. And chemistry they have. Which makes their fake relationship go a little awry. And the rest is history.

I’ll admit that I enjoyed The Dating Plan. Every once in a while, I have to branch out from my usual murder mystery for the sake of my marriage (my husband is convinced I’m taking murdery notes), and this was a fun little break. It was as cheesy and silly as you’d expect, with just enough moderately twisty turns to keep you intrigued until the very end. Daisy is every girl, trying to navigate adulthood and independence with the voice of your family chirping away in your ear and Liam is the sensitive bad boy that every girl who is trying to navigate adulthood and independence dreams of. I mean… a man in leather? Yes, please. Was there too much Marvel underpants talk? Was Daisy’s *quirkiness* a little too contrived? Was there a shit ton of relatively unnecessary characters? Perhaps. But to each their own.

My Favorite Scene: On one of their first dates, Daisy takes Liam to an Indian restaurant, where he orders an “extra-hot” curry because “that’s how your dad used to make it for me and I loved it.” Liam refuses to listen to Daisy when she tells him that her dad lied to him to support his teenaged male ego and the curries he used to eat were actually extra mild. Lo and behold… Liam’s adult male ego still refuses to admit defeat when he learns that Daisy is telling the truth and even though his entire body is burning from the inside out. Men………

Grade: ★★★☆☆