The Dating Playbook

Farrah Rochon follows up The Boyfriend Project with The Dating Playbook, returning to the same friend group with Taylor at the center this time. Taylor is a personal trainer trying to keep her business going. Jamar is a former NFL player rehabbing an injury who needs her help, and a fake-dating arrangement gets folded in along the way.

The fake dating trope is well worked here. Rochon doesn’t lean on it lazily. The actual reasons each of them needs the arrangement to look real make sense, and the tension between performance and the real thing builds steadily.

The friendship trio from the first book gets enough page time to please returning readers without losing focus.

This can be read on its own, but readers who liked the first will get more out of it. Talia Hibbert fans will find a related warmth.