Pretty good book. Not a favorite but a solid friendship turns to love story.

I thought the pacing was mostly good, but a number of parts could have been fleshed out more. I also thought they should have spent more time on the friendship itself early on, so we get a better sense of what 'normal' is for their friendship before things change. It would have been nice had they fleshed out more of the side characters as well. Given how important the club is, it would have been nice to get to know the club members better. As you can see, my broad complaint is that it just isnt super fleshed out.

Now to what i liked. I really enjoyed the dialogue and the flow the story had. It was a page turner for sure, which is why i finished the book in one sitting. I liked the main characters and their chemistry. Its probably the biggest thing the story has going for it, Katie and Sarah have a pretty awesome dynamic. The scenes with Katies family were great and the way the coming out happened was in good taste. The confession scene was fantastically done, and the ending really hit the sweet spot for me.

Its a fun read for sure, and while not as good or in depth as other lesfic romance, it is a solid story. Worth reading for sure ( )

This was a fun and light read which I really enjoyed! I found the writing style to be simple and straight forward. It's a book you'll pick up if you're looking to just dip your toes into something uncomplicated to relax for the day for sure. I don't agree with some of Sarah's decision but it wasn't all bad because she redeemed herself throughout the book? There's not much I can say about this but I liked it and you should try reading it yourself too! Came here from Colorblind and I think I prefer this but that is just my personal preference, of course. ( )

I usually skip YA books, but with over a thousand reviews, I gave Maley's book a go. To my surprise, Dating Sarah Cooper was a terrific read. This romantic tale touches on just about every common issue from friends to lovers, coming out, homophobia, friendship, safe sex, etc. You name it, it's there. Katie and Sarah's friendship felt real, which made their journey as a fake couple a bit angsty but entertaining. Their journey would not have been as interesting without the supporting characters. Through them, I sympathized more with Sarah than I did with Katie. Katie had an innocence about her that made her more genuinely approachable. Plus, she had people she could confide in, which was not the case for Sarah.

This book satisfied my addiction, it's a quick read, and I recommend it. ( )

A fluffy fun romcom, this one. Friends-turned-lovers, coming-of-age and fake relationships: this book straddles many tropes with élan. Though it truly stretches suspension-of-disbelief with the basic reason for the two MCs to fake being a couple, it is just so cutely done that you flow with the whole thing.

Read the full review @https://www.bestlesficreviews.com/2019/01/dating-sarah-cooper-by-siera-maley.html ( )

I didn't read this book for years, though I'd seen it around, because I was wary of the Coming Out and After School Special qualities of the book. I haven't been in the mood to read that kind of thing for years now - but then last weekend I realized that this is a fake dating story, one of my favorite plot themes, and if I complain so much about not seeing much of it, I should read it when I do see it.

To my great delight, Dating Sarah Cooper absolutely revels in its clichés and hits every single customary plot point of a fake dating story, at least according to the romance novels and fanfic I've consumed over the years. I hope that it's not a spoiler to say that we get the classics: a nonsensical reason to pretend to date; the embarrassment and/or confusion about Real Feelings; poor communication which leads to acting out by kissing someone else (or further) just to pretend not to be emotionally invested in the fake relationship; a fight when it gets Too Real and the fake dating almost falls apart; at least one person getting suspicious and not believing the fake dating story; and my favorite - when fighting and pretending not to have real feelings, the MCs still drop everything to take care of each other and eventually admit the fake dating isn't fake anymore. ("Probably hasn't been fake for a long time" is the sort of phrase you usually see around that point in the story.)

Beyond the completely predictable and not surprising plot, I can't say the book itself is particularly good or noteworthy.

The technical skill of the writing is honestly kind of terrible. I'm not sure if Maley ever spoke any of the lines out loud, but the book is full of sentences that are completely unlike how people actually talk, and she constantly uses "Sarah and I" where just about any other pronoun would be more natural. I really wanted to drag the ebook into Calibre and do a global change command on the possessive version, if nothing else.

There is a lot of infodumping about queer resources and homophobia that gave the book an extreme After School Special feel, but could have been woven in more delicately by a more experienced writer or thoughtful editor. I was less than thrilled by the call-outs to specific lesbian pop culture, but I never like that kind of thing because of how it dates books, and an ongoing thread about the tragedy of girl/girl romances in pop culture was more nicely done and appreciated.

And yet, I was irritated by clunky writing and awkward pop culture, and still found myself completely invested in the story and staying up far, far past my bedtime to read the entire thing, instead of the single chapter I had planned. I don't think it was just the plot theme, as much as I adore it and will read just about anything using it. I think Maley captured something in the characters that made me really care about them, even if I didn't give a fig about anyone else.

If I weren't in the mood to indulge in a completely predictable fake dating story, would I have liked this book so much? Probably not. But I admire writers who go all out when writing something so well worn (please note my adoration of Audrey Coulthurst's Of Fire and Stars and L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack series), and Dating Sarah Cooper was exactly what I wanted to read this weekend. ( )