After reading quite a few psychological thrillers and action books I chose to read this book because I wanted a feel-good story that would make me smile. Something lighthearted and romantic. Sadly The Perfect Date is none of those things.

Angel is a woman who will do anything and everything to protect and take care of her son. She is strong willed and determined to be the best mom while still going for her nursing degree.

Duke is a baseball player with very few qualities that would make a woman swoon.

I kept hoping that I would find a redeemable quality in Duke the further I got into the book, but sadly he was very unlikable.

The writing of this book was pretty good for a literary fiction book claiming to be a rom-com. I enjoyed the beginning of the story when Angel gets a paper cut on her hand from her medical text book page describing the parts of the male penis. That, however, was the first and last humorous part of the story.

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Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in return for my honest and unbiased review.

I was provided an ARC of "The Perfect Date" by Evelyn Lozada, Holly Lorincz, and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the blurb, I went into this expecting a more fluffy, romantic read. I was WRONG. Don't get me wrong. I like my share of drama in books, maybe even more than the next reader, but this was too much for my taste. It distracted from the love story for me. I know life isn't all rainbows and sunshine and individuals have faults and characteristics that aren't flattering, but I didn't feel that the main characters were particularly likeable.

well then. i gotta admit, i judged this book by the cover and it bit me in the bum, as that tends to do. i thought i was getting a cute contemporary romance. i was wrong. i requested this before a lot of the reviews started popping up, but when i started reading it and realised i was struggling, i looked at reviews and saw i was not alone. i didn't particularly like either main character and the drama was just a bit much for me. also, i cannot stand the whole 'not like other women' shit, whether it's a guy or a girl thinking it. i'm really bummed because based on the cover and synopsis, i really expected to like this, but the inside didn't match the outside for me.

A quick fun read written about a POC. A single mom finds herself trying to help out Duke a famous baseball player for the yankees. Duke can't have anyone know that he is hurt and when he meets Angel at the doctors office he asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend. Yet is more trouble than he might be worth. He acts like a jerk at times but will he realize the errors of his way and try to change his life for the better. Will Angel be able to get her nursing degree to provide a better life for her and her son.

If you like romance and drama give this book a try.

I TRIED, y'all! But this book was just not for me. I got about 20% through and I just wasn't entertained. I didn't like the characters and I wasn't interested in the plot at all. This was just really disappointing because I just didn't like it. I've never DNF'd a book that I've accessed through NetGalley, but I guess there's a first time for everything. If you like sportsy romances with a focus on family, this might be for you, but I just wasn't a fan of the plot or the characters.

No rating for me, but I have to put a star rating on NetGalley. I'm putting one, but that is up to the discretion of people who complete this book.

A single mom from the Bronx putting herself through nursing school while bartending meets an injured pitcher for the Yankees with an image problem...and sparks fly. Angel works so hard to make a better life for her son, Jose, and life just keeps getting in the way. Sexist bosses, uncaring landlords, money issues: she just can't seem to get a break. But when she meets Duke, he offers her the chance to be Cinderella for a while and leave her problems behind. Can she risk her heart on a guy from an entirely different world?

Oh, I really wanted to like this book. It seemed like the perfect set-up for a Jennifer Lopez movie...in fact, at first, it reminded me a lot of Maid in Manhattan. Her adorable relationship with her son, her goal to be more than "just" a bartender, her gaggle of girlfriends helping dress her up for the big date with a makeover montage, It was headed in the right direction until it became clear that Duke was a giant jerk. Everyone he knows is a giant jerk. It was almost impossible to care about him or his problems because he treated Angel terribly. This was no swoony knight in shining armor. Aside from liking the way she looked, he barely seemed to care about her at all. What kind of hero is that?

**Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.**

I really enjoyed Angel and Duke's story. Jose and Angel were the best team, and I loved how hard she worked to go to school and provide for her family despite overwhelming odds.

Duke is...well he's a mess. Still reeling from the murder of his best friend and an injury that is trying to end his career he doesn't know what he wants. My biggest hope for Angel and Duke was for them to realize their problems together and move forward to talking them through as a unit, but by they seemed determined to push each other apart and reach for the worst possible conclusion every time.

Overall, I liked their story and the family they had built around them, and I'm glad they each made the right professional calls, so they could be free and actually move forward.

I liked the premise of the story but I found the execution a bit choppy especially with the switching of the POV from his to hers. The story would be in one POV, then with no more than a new paragraph, it would change into another POV. It always takes me a sentence or two to catch on which I find interrupts the flow of the reading. Angel is trying to make her way in 2 misogynistic worlds (a bar and a hospital) so she is a hardass. I can certainly empathize with her, but I found her a difficult character to like. Caleb is a professional baseball player suffering from a medical issue which threatens his position on the team. With all the high drama that ensues, it has a feel of a soap opera. My favorite characters were actually Gabriela and Latisha.

I wanted to love this book. The premise sounded so cute. I just had a really hard time connecting to the story line and the characters.

I had a lot of issues with this book.

One such issue came from the fact that both of the main characters, Duke and Angel are total a**holes through most of the novel. They are mean and unnecessarily rude to people. It’s obvious that the author meant for us to find it endearing or to show how tough and independent they are, or whatever, but it comes across as the characters being complete a**holes. Which they are. Especially Duke.

As a part of their a**holery, both characters are such woman haters and I couldn’t stand it! For all that Angel talks about being a single mother and working hard as a woman and all that, she is constantly putting other women down with this holier-than-thou vibe she has going on.

And because Angel is oh so special, and is not like other girls™ Duke is also putting down other women when he’s in her presence. All other women are fake or sluts or are trying way too hard. All but Angel, of course, because as her name implies, she’s a perfect heaven send and is absolutely without fault and can obviously do no wrong.

And the drama! This wasn’t so much a rom-com as it was a pure, overly dramatic drama. And yes, I said ‘dramatic drama’, deal with it.

The point is, there was so much shallow drama that I couldn’t bring myself to actually care about. There was so much going on for such a short book and I didn’t care for any of it!

I don't recommend this one at all. Sorry.


**Links will be added to this after my reviews are posted, closer to the release date**

As much as I wanted to love this because Evelyn Lozada wrote it, I couldn’t bring myself to. The characters and the unnecessary drama was too much. There wasn’t a single character that I liked or was willing to root for. Well everyone except for Jose.

The relationship between Angel and Duke was toxic and would never actually work. He was such a rude and condescending person that I don’t know what Angel saw in him. Angel was quick-tempered and easily riled up. Along with these two not being good characters, they had no chemistry! Can’t have a romance with no chemistry.

I also had an issue with the writing. It was choppy and hard to follow. All in all, this didn’t work out for me.

This book follows Angel Gomez, an aspiring nurse and Caleb "The Duke" Lewis an MLB pitching star. Angel is a single mother trying to survive by going to nursing school and working at a bar after her school days are over in order to support her son. The Duke on the other hand is trying to keep his pitching spot with the Yankees after a traumatic ankle injury might possibly ruin his career. Through a couple of unexpected run ins with each other and then having to be a couple for the tabloids a relationship starts to spark between the two of them.

I only somewhat liked the book and I normally really enjoy sports romances. I did not like Duke as a male lead at all. He was whiny and would not take responsibility for his actions in all of the worst ways. It's okay to make mistakes, but it was not okay the way he would act.

I enjoyed Angel's story, but I wish we got more of her back story. We got one glimpse at abuse that she went through when she was in a relationship, but we didn't get anything else. It was just a mention with no substance.

When I read romance I like when the character's point of views are easily distinguishable by putting their name first and then starting the point of view. Either by doing it as individual chapters or within chapters and there was none of that, so you would just have to figure out who was talking to determine the point of view. Overall it was good and I liked the ending, but getting to that point left some to be desired and the plot twist seemed a little forced.

I have to admit I am shocked by the number of negative reviews for this book. This book is raw and this book is real. If you are looking for a fluffy romance novel, look away. If you are wanting an engaging read with real characters, many unlikable at times and some who make huge mistakes, read and enjoy. This book was an extremely quick read for me. I cheered for Angel. I loved how strong she was and how she always stood by exactly what she believed in. She is a true heroine and "The Duke" is lucky she saw the integrity and kindness in him and let him win her heart.

Good lord. I have never read a book in recent memory that was pretty much panned by all of the readers who posted reviews for it. I wish I had looked at Goodreads before applying for this book via NetGalley. I wanted some romance reads and I was thrilled that this book was a romance read with two POC as the romantic leads. I also really loved the cover too.

So pro, this is short, around 280 pages. So I was able to finish this pretty quickly between my screaming at the character of Angel and feeling appalled and repulsed by the character of Duke.

Con, everything else. Let's get to it shall we?

So "The Perfect Date" should not even be in the same sentence with other romance reads like "The Wedding Date" and "The Kiss Quotient." Those books were fantastic, and this book just reads as a how many ways can a woman's life be terrible.

Angel Gomez is going through nursing school while bartending trying to provide for her son, Jose. Caleb "The Duke" Lewis, known as Duke throughout this story plays for the Yankees (he's a pitcher) who is still recovering from being shot in the ankle that left one of his team members dead and him dealing with a lot of angst and anger over the incident. These two have a "messed up cute" when Angel is at the clinic dealing with her son who is suffering from an asthma attack and Duke is there trying to keep it hidden that he is seeing a doctor about his ankle. There's some long winded explanations about why Duke doesn't want anyone to know that his ankle is still not doing that great.

Angel and Duke meet again when she's bartending and he asks if she's a stripper and can he see her [redacted]. I maybe full body shuddered. Angel throws a drink, gets fired, and poor Duke feels bad. Though his agent and friend think she was asking for it due to how she was dressed.

Can I also bring up that before all that mess with Angel and Duke meeting again, that Angel walks in on her boss having sex with the hostess and it's graphically explained what is happening and I could feel my insides trying to climb into one another?

There's no development to these characters by the way. The whole way we get to the "romance" portion of the evening made my head hurt. Angel is of course just attracted to Duke though he propositioned her and thought she was a stripper.

I felt sorry for Angel, sorry for her son, and despised Duke and his terrible father. Duke at several points in this romance puts his hands on Angel and I started wishing that the book ended with his death.

Duke's father and that whole plot point just made me sighed. Along with Duke and the plot point with his ex Regina.

I really wish that this could have just been a more rags to riches romance with a woman learning about being thrust into the celebrity sphere and maybe focusing on the lack of privacy, money, etc. This whole book read very soap operaish at times and not in the good way either.

The writing was not great.

"He was staring at her.

So, she stammered. You are the Duke.

And you are the nurse. Not a stripper.

Ha ha. Very funny."

"The music suddenly changed, became louder. His mood lightened.

He was ready to dance, let off some steam and watch Angel move those hips and shake that ass.

Looking at her glistening skin and alert eyes, he suddenly had a strong urge to unpin her hair and run his fingers through it, let her long curls fly around free.

She finer than every woman in here."


"A couple of the women squeezed his popped muscles, oohing and aahing, but Angel simply hoisted her glass at him.

Impressive, she said, her eyebrow arched.

Oh duke, you must be so excited. It's almost time for you to start playing again, isn't it? one of the younger women asked--the girlfriend of a rookie who was already at spring training.

He turned up the charm. I'm a playa all the time, am I right?

She giggled. I guess. For an old guy.

Ooh, ouch. Kicked me right in the nuts with that one.

Well, a hot old guy...Does that make you feel better?

Almost as good as if you had that hot little ass pressed against me.

It was like out of a cartoon, the silence that followed.

He could swear a needle screeched across a vinyl record and a circle of faces whipped from Duke to Angel and back."

The flow was not great either. I am assuming that when the final book is published we are going to have some page breaks or paragraph breaks between dialogue. A few times I realized that we had switched over to Duke and we were still not following Angel's POV. That said, the book doesn't move forward much at all. Took to more than the half way point for things to get revealed.


I feel so dirty right now. I should have put up a gif of a thumbs down and been done with this review.

The Perfect Date. Well what can I say? Not a perfect book. I have read a lot of chick lit over the years and this one falls short. Very predictable book and the characters lack depth. I knew exactly how this story was going to go. Very little surprise in this plot. I wish I could say this is a must read, but if you want something that you can read with very little thought, this books is for you. Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the free ARC.

Let’s start the story with a tired single mom who juggling between her work and her work practice. Enter a professional athlete, having trouble with his physical and mental condition. They met in a series of events, one of which they have to pretend to be a new couple. From there, we could read conflict after conflict before reaching a happily ever after ending. So what’s new? The characters are portrayed as PoC. With current US political climate, this might be a premise that will attract many readers

However, for me It is a so-so book. If you are into modern cinderella story, so this book is for you. The pace is enjoyable eventhough the plot is rather predictable.

thank you netgalley for providing the arc.

This story will make you smile. The characters are fun and engaging. You won’t Want to put this book down until you finish it!

Pub Date: July 11, 2019

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review:

I am always on the lookout for a cute chick-lit story, and this seemed like the perfect fit!

Synopsis: Angel, a single mother, finds herself in the spotlight as the Yankees star pitcher, the Duke's fake girlfriend.

I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars.

I would consider myself an avid romance and chick-lit reader and this book just did not hit the mark for me. I gave this book two stars simply because I liked the idea for the plot and Angel as a strong heroine, but my praise ends there.

There was absolutely zero chemistry between the main protagonists, Angel and Duke. Has this author never heard of building tension? Because there was none of that. The few romantic encounters were abrupt and awkward.

Duke was just plain rude and unlikable. He treated Angel very poorly and yet she continued to pursue him because he was nice to her son. For such a strong woman in every other aspect of her life, she had poor judgement when it came to Duke. 

Overall, I found the story to be choppy and rushed. The author didn't take the time to develop the characters or any relationships. 

As I am giving an honest review, I cannot say that I would recommend this book.

Did not finish. I had to put this book down at 30%. I'm disappointed in myself but sadly this book just wasn't for me. While it has the potential to be an amazing romance story and have a more fulfilling plot the book overall just fell flat.

I hope to one day pick up another one of this author's works, perhaps give them another chance and hopefully enjoy their next more than I did with this one.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy. I appreciate it more than you can know. I apologize that this ARC didn't go to someone who may have enjoyed it more.

I never connected with these characters during the book, especially not with Duke. He was rude from the beginning and only concerned with himself. I didn't like him as a leading man or find him swoon worthy. I sympathized with Angel being a single mom and trying to become a nurse but these wasn't more complexity to her character like I expected. There is too much fighting in the first half and when the sex comes in felt more rushed than real feelings building up. Not my kind of romance book because I just didn't ever feel the chemistry between the characters, or care enough about them as individuals.