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A review by solaceinprose
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon
4.0
First, thank you to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC for an honest review.
We are back with our lovely trio of #squadgoals, Samiah, London, and Taylor. Taylor takes center stage in this book as she struggles to get herself out of a financial crisis and get her brand of personal training/meal planning/fitness regime running. While running a boot camp style exercise camp to help pay off a meal with her friends the night before, enter Jamar Dixon, a former football player for the Chicago Bears. He knows her style of no-nonsense, kick ass training is what he needs to get back into the NFL after an injury put his very newly NFL career to a halt. Sprinkle in some fake dating, not so fake dating, misunderstandings, grief, guilt, and self-esteem issues, and you have The Dating Playbook.
I really enjoyed Taylor. I liked her a lot in the first book, and I'm glad we got her story for the 2nd. Not that Samiah didn't feel real, but Taylor felt more relatable to me. As someone who has struggled to make ends meet, who had to decide if my car payment was getting paid versus keeping my electric on, I understood Taylor's struggles significantly. I rooted for her since Samiah's book, and it was no different in this one. I also understood how frustrating it can be to know that you can only get so far without the education behind it. Taylor was just as capable as those with degrees, but in a world that requires people with advance degrees (that are usually useless anyway), she was stuck.
That was a slight gripe I had with this book. The very big focus on education. Yes, an education is very important, but there were definitely other avenues that Taylor could have taken to get certified that didn't require an expensive degree. Taylor was already in financial debt, but that was never a reason for her to not want to go to school. I'm sorry, but if you're $20K in debt, maybe school wasn't going to be an option. I did appreciate that Taylor decided to make the decision on her own (after a kickboxing incident that felt...unrealistic and put there to force Taylor to see the "error of her ways" in not getting a degree), but I would have liked this better if Taylor could have succeeded without feeling as if she needed to put herself into more of a financial hole. There was no talks of grants or scholarships, so I left the book wondering, "How is she going to pay for this?"
As far as Jamar goes, I liked him far better than Daniel. Granted, he wasn't hiding a huge ass secret. His grief for his late best friend and the guilt he carried felt so incredibly real, and there were times where I wanted to hug him while also smacking him on the back of the head. His ending felt a bit contrived, this forced notion of "you can't have your cake and eat it, too." It kind of made the rest of the book seem...pointless? Obviously there needed to be a reason to put him and Taylor together, but to have no reward for the work he put in? Honestly, if he had told Taylor about his knee beforehand, this could have been something they could have addressed, so in the end, he dug his own NFL grave.
There were a lot of things I liked about this book, the brutally honest friendship between our three ladies, the communication between Taylor and Jamar, the talks of grief, guilt, family issues with feeling inadequate. There were a lot of things I didn't like which I've mentioned above as well as the luke warm love scenes. The love scenes could have been fade to black, and I don't think they'd have taken away anything from the book. Farrah's writing has a lot of strengths, but sex scenes were not it.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm looking forward to London's book although I have a feeling that her book, especially going through the buy out with her hospital is going to test me as a reader. Not with regards to London, but what she's about to go through. I look forward to more friendship bonding between our three Badass ladies.
We are back with our lovely trio of #squadgoals, Samiah, London, and Taylor. Taylor takes center stage in this book as she struggles to get herself out of a financial crisis and get her brand of personal training/meal planning/fitness regime running. While running a boot camp style exercise camp to help pay off a meal with her friends the night before, enter Jamar Dixon, a former football player for the Chicago Bears. He knows her style of no-nonsense, kick ass training is what he needs to get back into the NFL after an injury put his very newly NFL career to a halt. Sprinkle in some fake dating, not so fake dating, misunderstandings, grief, guilt, and self-esteem issues, and you have The Dating Playbook.
I really enjoyed Taylor. I liked her a lot in the first book, and I'm glad we got her story for the 2nd. Not that Samiah didn't feel real, but Taylor felt more relatable to me. As someone who has struggled to make ends meet, who had to decide if my car payment was getting paid versus keeping my electric on, I understood Taylor's struggles significantly. I rooted for her since Samiah's book, and it was no different in this one. I also understood how frustrating it can be to know that you can only get so far without the education behind it. Taylor was just as capable as those with degrees, but in a world that requires people with advance degrees (that are usually useless anyway), she was stuck.
That was a slight gripe I had with this book. The very big focus on education. Yes, an education is very important, but there were definitely other avenues that Taylor could have taken to get certified that didn't require an expensive degree. Taylor was already in financial debt, but that was never a reason for her to not want to go to school. I'm sorry, but if you're $20K in debt, maybe school wasn't going to be an option. I did appreciate that Taylor decided to make the decision on her own (after a kickboxing incident that felt...unrealistic and put there to force Taylor to see the "error of her ways" in not getting a degree), but I would have liked this better if Taylor could have succeeded without feeling as if she needed to put herself into more of a financial hole. There was no talks of grants or scholarships, so I left the book wondering, "How is she going to pay for this?"
As far as Jamar goes, I liked him far better than Daniel. Granted, he wasn't hiding a huge ass secret. His grief for his late best friend and the guilt he carried felt so incredibly real, and there were times where I wanted to hug him while also smacking him on the back of the head. His ending felt a bit contrived, this forced notion of "you can't have your cake and eat it, too." It kind of made the rest of the book seem...pointless? Obviously there needed to be a reason to put him and Taylor together, but to have no reward for the work he put in? Honestly, if he had told Taylor about his knee beforehand, this could have been something they could have addressed, so in the end, he dug his own NFL grave.
There were a lot of things I liked about this book, the brutally honest friendship between our three ladies, the communication between Taylor and Jamar, the talks of grief, guilt, family issues with feeling inadequate. There were a lot of things I didn't like which I've mentioned above as well as the luke warm love scenes. The love scenes could have been fade to black, and I don't think they'd have taken away anything from the book. Farrah's writing has a lot of strengths, but sex scenes were not it.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm looking forward to London's book although I have a feeling that her book, especially going through the buy out with her hospital is going to test me as a reader. Not with regards to London, but what she's about to go through. I look forward to more friendship bonding between our three Badass ladies.