When the first thing that the heroine says to the hero of a a rom-com is, "You need to stop staring at my ass," You know you're going to be in for a fun bookish ride!

The Dating Dare is indeed a fun ride with snappy, sexy banter, heart warming family bonding and two protagonists who desire each other even more than the Comfort Food Bakery desserts they constantly crave.

Seth Kim has been looking at the... assets of Tara Park in that form fitting bride's maid dress since the wedding of his brother began and wondering just what lies beneath.When Tara calls him out on it, a string of sexy banter ensues between them that leads to a game of truth or dare. Seth wins the game and Tara has to go out on 4 dates with him. They both agree it will be a no falling in love fling. After all Seth is moving to Paris in a few weeks. Unfortunately, their hearts have other plans...

I really enjoyed this fun and mildly spicy (closed door 🍆🍊 😪) rom-com. You can't help but love sweet and gorgeous, Seth. Watching him fall for the relationship phobic Tara and unwittingly capture her heart gives you all of the wonderful feels you come to expect from a rom-com. Their dates are fun, sexy and swoon worthy. You cheer them on even as they deny their feelings. You also feel empathy for both of them as they confess the wounds of their past relationships that have left scars on their hearts.

If you enjoy light, sweet and fun rom-coms I dare you to read or listen to this sexy and heartwarming book.

Thanks @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my ALC.

The Dating Dare follows two people just looking for a short fling before they part ways in a month. Tara isn't looking for love, and Seth, a playboy, initially see's that as a challenge. Seth dares her to go on four dates with him without falling for him. But of course, nothing will go according to plan for Tara OR Seth, who find themselves falling for each other.

100 pages could EASILY be cut out of this book without changing anything, whatsoever. The plot is extremely repetitive, and while character development is evident, gradually throughout the pages, this development comes at the expense of my entertainment. When I read trope-filled romantic comedies, I'm not looking for a drawn out repetitive plot that shows a slow progression of character development ultimately ending in the happily-ever-after-resolution, and that is what this book gave.

While I didn't enjoy the slow pacing of the story, I did like the main character, Tara, who was really the saving grace of this story. I didn't like Seth, who was much too possessive for me, and was constantly described with animalistic terms? Which was weird.

The language throughout felt very stilted and out of touch to how humans actually interact with each other, which was difficult to read through. I cringed through many of the interactions between the two leads, even when the scenes weren't hypothetically cringe-worthy. This stilted dialogue was exasperated by the audiobook narration, which was equally stilted and distant.

Overall I didn't love this story, and wouldn't recommend it. If you're looking for a rom-com, there are many better than this one!

I unfortunately don't have a lot to say about this book other than it was OK. It was a sweet romance with some good banter and a cute ending, but I really struggled to connect with our main characters, Seth and Tara. Also, I haven't read the first book in this series and I think that hurt my enjoyment. This is a standalone, so you don't necessarily have to, but I think having some more backstory would have helped me cared a bit more about the characters and understand their personal struggles. I wasn't completely sold on the conflict and would have like a little more character development.

Rating: 3 stars

Super cute, super fun romance with two people learning to love after toxic relationships. Both characters have really interesting careers so I kind of wanted more on that as well as their families but I’m a character driven reader. The prom date was everything. I’ll have to go back and read the first book now.