The Dating Playbook

I loved The Boyfriend Project, so I was extremely excited to read the next book in the series. The Dating Playbook focuses on Taylor's love story. I would say it can be read as a standalone/out of order, because we only see Samiah from book 1 on their girls' nights.

Rebecca Lee is the perfect narrator for this series. I loved when the narrator's voice perfectly matches my mental image of the characters! The production quality of this audiobook was smooth and well-edited, and the narrator spoke clearly enough for me to speed it up. Thanks to Hachette Audio for allowing me to access this advanced listener's copy on Netgalley.

Taylor is such a good MC. She's an amazing personal trainer and is determined to get her business off the ground, but keeps hitting roadblocks. Namely, her lack of a college degree. Until a famous runningback shows up to one of her pop-up classes and hires her as his full-time trainer.

The fake dating trope is one of my favorites, although it didn't take long for Taylor and Jamar to realize they weren't faking it. They made the perfect couple. Can you think of a more perfect match than a personal trainer and a football player? Their banter was top-notch (including Jamar's corny jokes), and I enjoyed how competitive they both were in their workouts.

I loved the learning disability representation and how Taylor overcame the stigma to get the accommodations she needed to be able to go back to school. The message here is that you can still be successful even if you don't excel at school, and that everyone's path to success looks different.

As always, I'm already looking forward to the next book. Can't wait for London's story in book two!

I read the book a while ago on Netgalley but this audiobook??? PERFECTION! My chief complaint of audiobooks is when books have two Black characters who use AAVE and slang, they pick a narrator who is NOT even versed or "for the culture". It shows. This is not the case with Rebecca Lee. She had me laughing, crying and hollering. Her inflection on things was PEREFECT!

I think this was my first audibook performed by Rebecca Lee and her narration was fantastic! I would definitely listen to her again and I hope she does the audio for the next book in this series! I really think she'd bring London's story to life perfectly!

A huge thank you to Forever Pub for an ARC of The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon! This is the second book in The Boyfriend Project series. I enjoyed last year’s The Boyfriend Project, and I ended up loving The Dating Playbook even more!

Read this one if you enjoy:
-Fake dating tropes
-Sports romance
-Strong female friendships
-Empowered women

I loved the sports romance piece! The male lead is Jamar, who has a lot of emotional depth, and he’s a former NFL player who hires Taylor to be his personal trainer. He’s trying to make a football comeback, and Taylor hopes to expand and publicize her company, Taylor’d Conditioning!

More importantly, Taylor is 1/3 of the fierce friend group with Samiah and London! They all bonded after being catfished by the same man and developed a strong sisterhood. They push each other to become the best versions of themselves and aren’t afraid to give the tough love.

I can’t wait for the next book to hear London’s story and see how Taylor’d Conditioning has taken off!