ARC Review – The Proposal Project by Donna Marchetti
Rating: 4/5 stars

The Proposal Project is such a cozy, feel-good fake dating romance with just the right amount of charm and chemistry!

Priscilla, an event planner trying to launch her business (despite her parents’ doubts), is tasked with planning her best friend’s perfect proposal. But when the groom-to-be might beat her to it, she’s forced to team up with his best friend — Oliver. Priscilla can’t stand him due to a past miscommunication, but Oliver is kind, patient, and always seems to be in the right place at the right time.

Their fake dating setup is hilarious and sweet, and the tension between them feels real. What I loved most? There’s no third act breakup — just a quick misunderstanding that’s solved in the same chapter. No unnecessary drama!

This is the second book I’ve read from this author, and once again, she doesn’t disappoint. The spice is minimal and skippable if needed, and the romance is genuinely heartwarming. A solid 4-star read that left me smiling!

such a cute premise of a book- I loved it!

Oliver and Priscilla have to fake date to convince their best friends who they are planning a secretly massive joint proposal for! it was so cute and the moments between them were just perfection! obviously had a one bed moment and a lot of “pretend” kisses that were 🔥 and obviously not to pretend. Oliver the band teacher… swoon! loved him and the fact that he’s been in love with her but convinced she turned him down?! so sad. That was my only complaint- they could’ve had a single conversation and wouldn’t have even hated each other one bit but then there wouldn’t be a book so 🤷🏼‍♀️

This was such a fun premise that I believe Donna did a fantastic job bringing to life. All the characters were entertaining not only the main ones.
Honestly I don't want to give any spoilers. I think if you go in with an open mind you'll be sure to love it. If you don't want spicy scenes all you've gotta do is flip past a few pages. I'm sure once you read and get to know Priscilla, Oliver, Tina and Ryan story you'll end up re-reading it again.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to read The Proposal Project by Donna Marchetti publishing on Jun 27 2025 with HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter. Also, a big thanks NetGalley.

Cute story that sucked me in. Finished very quickly. I don’t normally love the miscommunication trope but I enjoyed this one and really liked the couple together! Definitely would recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, for the chance to read the advanced copy of this funny and entertaining book.
It is an enemies-to-lovers and fake romance. The story centers on event planner Priscilla, who is in charge of planning her best friend's proposal to her boyfriend. Priscilla discovers that the soon to he groom is also planning to propose to her best friend. Desperate to not ruin her friend's plans, she makes a deal with the boyfriend's best friend Oliver. Priscilla and Oliver have had a prickly relationship, so hijinks, including them, pretending to be a couple to keep the plans a secret from their best friends. As they spend more time together, the pretend relationship lines start to blur.
This was a really fun book to read! The plot was silly but not too ridiculous. I enjoyed Priscilla and Oliver's witty banter. Priscilla's best friend Tina was hilarious. A fake relationship is always one of my favorite tropes, so I loved that.
It was a fast and easy read. I flew through it. I enjoyed the romance. There's also lots of spice, too. I highly recommend it and can't wait to read more by this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and one more chapter for the arc.
I really liked the idea for this book, Priscilla is an event planner who has been tasked to plan her best friend Tina’s proposal to her boyfriend. the problem? Tina’s boyfriend Ryan is also planning to propose to Tina. She must team up with Ryan’s best friend Oliver (who she hates) to try and stop this happening before Tinas proposal. I definitely enjoyed the last 30% of the book the most, in the beginning the characters conversation felt very staged and didn’t have a lot of flow but this definitely improved as the story went on. I really enjoyed the enemies to lovers aspect but I am not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope and there was A LOT of it in this book. I really liked Oliver’s character and I actually wanted more of the storyline with Malcom to continue… what happened when Priscilla stood him up? Was he actually not the reason that Priscilla lost her job? What about the job offer? There was no reference to it after Priscilla blocked him and he felt like someone that would take it very personally. Malcom felt like a great story villain but he disappeared from the story before it became even juicier. I felt like the story ended too quickly and more could have happened especially with the Malcom storyline. It was a nice easy read and if you’re a romance reader that likes a nice hint of spice then I would recommend.

Rating 4.5 Stars
Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️


ACR from One More Chapter and Net Gallery.
This book was fantastic, I read it in 12 hours, I just couldn’t put it down! The banter was great, it kept me engaged and I throughly enjoyed the character development. The tropes of forced proximity and fake dating were written really well! Donna Marchetti knocked it out the park again!

Priscilla is the queen of planning, but love? Not on the schedule. Enter Oliver: irritatingly attractive, frustratingly charming, and her unexpected co-conspirator in Operation: Dual Proposal. Their banter crackles, their chemistry sizzles, and yes, maybe their fake partnership starts feeling a little too real.

This book is like a bouquet of tropes I love, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, secret schemes, and Marchetti ties it all up with a bow of emotional payoff. It loses a star for a slightly rushed ending (I wanted more swoon!), but overall? My heart is happy, my cheeks hurt from smiling, and I now want to plan a fake proposal with someone cute.

Thank you Donna Marchetti & NetGalley for this ARC. I read Hate Mail a few months ago and I was so excited to read this book when I found out about it on NetGalley and social media. I loved Hate Mail and gave it 5 stars and that was not an ARC read. I was so excited when I saw the email for my ARC request being approved. For me, I don't like a lot of spice or like closed door completely. The spice was good in this book and it was not the whole plot and you can skip it if you do not feel comfortable reading it. I absolutely love Oliver and Priscilla. Both are such relatable characters and I just enjoyed seeing their love story play out. I feel like there was a good amount of tropes and the pacing in this book was really good. I am still curious though as to what is in the journal lol. If you love enemies to lovers, banter, relatable characters, funny friends, and forced proximity proposal project fun, you will love this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Priscilla is tasked with planning a surprise proposal for her best friend and fiancé, Ryan. Enter Oliver (MMC), the fiancé's annoying best friend. I really enjoyed the witty banter between the two, and I wish they had ended up together earlier in the book, but it does demonstrate that life happens and gets in the way. This book felt so easy to get lost in, mindlessly. There were so many times I was laughing out loud. I loved Oliver so much; I only wish we got his POV to see how down bad he was.

P.S. The miscommunication trope is in here, which was frustrating, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book.


Read if you like:
- Forced Proximity
- Only one bed
- Enemies to lovers

I really enjoyed the proposal project. It was so cute and it was so fun seeing both sides come together to plan the perfect proposal for their best friends and significant others. I highly enjoyed the fun antics between the two. It was such a fun caper of a story and I enjoyed everything. I enjoyed the banter and the growing chemistry between our two enganebt planners. Such a great read! One More Chapter always delivers on their promise to deliver great books and I’m looking forward to much more from their imprint in the future.

I couldn't get past chapter one with this one, unfortunately. The plot was too ridiculous and unrealistic, setting up a proposal for money. Everything made me cringe. Yikes.

3.75 stars! <3

This is the first book I've read by this author: even though I've had Hate mail on my TBR since forever, I haven't read it yet (shame on me!); but when I saw this new title on Netgalley I couldn't resist and requested it. How can you say no to a good rom-com? Especially when fake dating is involved...

It was a very cute read, just the right amount of funny and effervescent, perfect for this summer! Although I might have preferred dual POV, but that's just my personal opinion. I honestly can't wait to see what Donna Marchetti has in store for us in the future!

4.25 stars ⭐️ This is a true rom-com!! I fell in love with both couples and laughed the entire time. This was a quick and fun read!

What to expect:
- fake dating
- forced proximity
- miscommunication (not extreme!!)

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cute summer read! Did the MCs fall in love quite fast? Yes. Did I still enjoy reading it? Also yes. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this one. I loved the author's first book and was hoping I would love this one too. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me at all. I didn't like the setup of the whole proposal project. It was odd. Didn't particularly connect with the characters and just couldn't push my way through it. I would read a chapter here and there but just couldn't pull me in enough to keep reading. I'm definitely in the minority but this didn't work for me.

The Proposal Project by Donna Marchetti is an enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, constant miscommunication trope romance that I could not put down!

After losing her regular job, Priscilla agrees to let her best friend Tina help her start up her event planning business by planning an epic proposal to her boyfriend Ryan! Unfortunately, she quickly discovers that Ryan has already purchased a ring and confided in his best friend and Priscilla’s archnemesis, Oliver, to help with his proposal. To pull off what is turning out to be an extravagant double proposal, fake dating ensues. The banter, sexual tension, and evolution of the relationship between these two is beyond adorable and I could not get enough. I had a smile on my face from start to finish and would highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'd like to say a big thank you for the publisher making this book available to read on NetGalley.

This is a definite 4 star read for me, the book was really enjoyable and I loved the character but there was a few small issues which stopped the book from being my absolute favourite.

This is a great quick read with such a sweet story, something different to what I am used to. I don't really want to be putting anyone off from reading this book with some of the things I didn't like.

To go over this quickly, the writing is really good and I really enjoyed the author's writing style. I do think that perhaps there was less editing put in to the end of the book (felt like the story was missing something) some scenes were lacking near the end of the book. Hopefully this is maybe fixed before the book is published.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves romance and a quick read between big books.

Contemporary romance is GIVING. This was a delightful enemies to fake daters to lovers!

I loved the premise and execution. The writing felt effortless and the romantic tension built in the most glorious way.

Definitely a top read of the year.

This was such a delight. Such a sweet, fluffy, and light read. From the first page, I fell in love with the characters and the TENSION. MY GAUD. And it finished with such a great ending.
4