First Date is another great thriller by Sue Watson. It would have been a half star more if I had liked the lead character Hannah but she was just a little too blind at times.
Hannah has gone on a date she has organised on an internet dating site and has met Alex. Alex appears to be perfect, wanting the same things as her even down to holidaying in Devon. Hannah is on cloud nine but love has obviously blinded her as she what she sees as caring is as her best friend has worked out is controlling. With an ex in the background causing trouble on both sides this gives Alex the perfect excuse to control Hannahs whole life.
This was a decent thriller and was one I was looking forward to reading. The big twist was a good one and one I sort of saw coming but not the complete picture.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book is enough to put me off dating for life! Hannah is believable in the naive way she believes Alex. The reader can see a lot more than the characters can as they have an overview of the whole story and this kept me reading on as I wanted to see how the story would unfold. Recommended.

To be honest I struggled to finish this one. After having such high hopes, I found myself hating the main character and not enjoying this book overall. I wanted more elements of a good thriller but this fell flat for me. Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and Author for a copy of this ARC to read and review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture, and the Author Sue Watson for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book kept me reading vigorously to find out if what I was sure would happen did, and did it???
Well all I'll say is that this book was a definite keep you on your toes read.
Had the protagonist, Hannah who annoyingly didn't heed the warnings of her friends or even follow her gut the outcome could have been different.
This was my first read from this Author and won't be my last.

Your first date is everything you dreamed it would be...your likes are his likes, your desires are his...everything is literally perfect...but is it too perfect? As Hannah comes to find out, that just might be the case when she meets Alex through an online dating site. He quickly becomes demanding, jealous, and manipulative, and Hannah thinks she may have moved too quickly.

As I read, I really felt for Hannah, wanting to be in a perfect relationship but realizing it's not all it's cracked up to be. I could not stand Alex, and had to put the book aside several times because of his behavior. I'm glad I finished the book though--I did not see the ending coming. Talk about a twist!

The book had some slow moments, but in general moved along nicely. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

First Date blew me away. It starts off well and quite ‘nice’, realistic characters, possible cute-meet romance. You could be fooled into thinking you’re about to embark of a love story or something similar. The menace is very subtle and woven throughout the story. Alex is perfect. Who wouldn’t fall in love with such a kind, charming and considerate person? The fact he is so nice and sweet should have set off red flags for Hannah, nobody is that ‘nice’. Her friends are concerned for her but she’s too starry eyed to see the truth in their words. Alex is a bit too much, obsessive, domineering, fixated on her, doesn’t like her to leave his sight and freaks out because she wants to go on a night out with her friends. You see where this is going? The fact his unable ex-wife is stalking Hannah is the least of her worries. It takes a while for the penny to drop with Hannah. This is a compulsive, addictive read.

Man, I really liked First Date all the way up until the end. Then it sort of fell apart. I have a hard time with stories like these where the woman (or man) ignore very obvious signs of toxicity, and then ignore others when they tell the main character to snap out of it. I guess it's a lot like joining a cult. No one sets out to be a victim and then, BAM, they are.



Anyway, the main guy character, the sneaky bastard, I hated, as I was supposed to. And even though the story was mostly riveting and there's lots of things going on, I was able to look past the bastardry and focus on a good story. Maybe one of the reasons these types of stories work, is because they are so real, and people every where are falling for it.



4/5 Stars

This is a good psychological thriller! To be honest, I hated the protagonist, Hannah. There were dozens and dozens of red flags from Alex and yet she was so naive and kept dating him. I wanted to scream at her!! But the book would have obviously been a lot different if Hannah wasn’t so naive.

The book started off really strong and was super interesting but the middle started to get a bit boring. However, the ending was so good and the last chapter blew my mind 🤯

OMG, what a story!
Absolutely loved everything about First Date! From the cover, the well developed character's, the pacing, dialogue and tension. Everything was spot on. What sets this book aside for me is that it kind of reads like a chick flick and then there are these sinister things happening which just made my spine tingle. More the once I had the urge to just cry out to the main character in frustration and warn her off!
Then there came a point I just didn't know who to trust anymore and I love it when that happens! The final twist at the end will take your breath away for sure!

Hannah cannot believe her luck when she meets handsome and enigmatic Alex through an online dating app. Funny enough, they share all the same (detailed) dreams for the future. Having so much in common, Hannah is instantly infatuated. In fact, she thinks this could actually be the man she's been looking for. Alex has fallen for Helen as well and treats her like a right princess, giving her all she ever wanted. It al seems too good to be true. The thing is, when things seem to good to be true they usually are. And when looking through rose colored glasses one might miss some very red flags!

This was a quick read but Hannah's decisions with Alex infuriated me and I nearly DNF! I worked out the twists too but I still enjoyed the majority and it was a fast paced thriller.

Well that wasn’t the ending I was expecting.
Hannah is a social worker who is looking for love. Her boss/friend Jas persuades her to try online dating where she meets Alex, a solicitor. They love the same things, and places - he is the perfect man for her.
Or is he?
They spend all their spare time together and yet she only finds out later that he has been married. She stops seeing her friends regularly and when she does Alex turns up - maybe he isn’t so perfect after all.
Hannah is so desperate to be loved she ignores a lot of the warning signs which inevitably leads to trouble. She is a complex character and not instantly likeable but she is devoted to her job and her clients.
The last 10% of the book is a real twist and eye opener and I loved it.

Hannah broke it off with her boyfriend Tom. Her co-worker Jas suggested she look for a guy to date online. She meets Alex a lawyer whose looking for the same things as her. It’s refreshing for Hannah to know that a guy wants the same things as her and that she might actually have a chance at having something good in her life.
Her childhood and relationship with her mother wasn’t very good, so she wants to prove to herself that she can be better. As a social worker Hannah helps kids and strives to keep them safe. Having lived in a foster home herself she is familiar working with damaged children.
Ever since her first date with Alex weird things happen to her. She knew meeting Alex from an online dating app had its potential dangers. She feels like that foster child looking for her forever home, and she really thought she found it in Alex. They were compatible with shared beliefs. The doubts start to creep in when he becomes overly protective of her.
Jas and Hannah have different interpretations of Alex’s behavior which leads Hannah to grow paranoid.

Overall:
This story had me playing detective. With every character interaction I started dissecting each word looking for clues. I liked that the story was limited to six characters with a few other minor characters. Sue played up the different interpretations well throwing curveball after curveball leading the reader down different paths. I was torn from one direction to the other with Alex’s behavior and explanation and Jas’s reasoning.
I’m not sure why this book was compared with
I don’t like when books are compared with The Wife Between Us this read nothing like that book. The writing style is entirely different in this book. Not to mention the plot lines are completely different.
This was a slow progressing story with a few suspicious twists. The dialogue was tedious at some points between Alex and Hannah. At times this book wasn’t working for me.
I wanted to like this book because this was my first read by Sue and I really hoped that she could win me over with her psychological thriller. I was disappointed in Hannah’s character relying so much on Jas’s input. I enjoyed her best when she stood up for herself against Alex. Overall, she was too easily manipulated. Hannah read like a hot mess. Her perspective of others is put into question numerous times. This book has the reader questioning not only her character, but all the other characters as well. Sue aroused suspicion on a few characters creating quite the distraction of some questionable actions.
Famous last words from Hannah...it never occurred to me.
My definition and expectation for a psychological thriller was entirely different from Sue’s. This was not the gripping book that it promised to be. It was more subtle in the way it tweaked the storyline to pull off the twisted scenes at the end. The big reveal didn’t procure that shock value I come to expect from a psychological thriller.

This was a very weird book. But in a good way! Just as soon as you think you have the plot figured out, you get hit from the left side with a plot twist. This was a thrilling read, and I can't wait to read some more by this very talented author! Highly recommended.
TB

First Date was a gripping story but it was like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You see the red flags but Hannah doesn’t. This isn’t my usual kind of book, but fellow NetGalley readers kept raving about it so I was happy that I got a chance to read it.

The author makes you wonder why Hannah doesn’t see through Alex, but she also lets you see Hannah’s thoughts and you understand how someone can be taken in like she is. I kept shaking my head at Hannah; she was so easily manipulated. As a social worker, she should have been a bit more sophisticated about the world but perhaps her broken upbringing made her the way she is. She uses her background to help her in her work as a social worker with troubled teens.

The end has a whopper of a twist, one that I definitely didn’t see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I've been a fan of Sue Watson for quite a while now and always been excited to read her new novels. Whether it be women's fiction or thriller. They are just so good. But with First Date, I struggled so hard on the first 50% of the book. I can't seem to like the main character, or any of the characters for that matter. I find the pacing kinda slow, or maybe the characters just frustrate me to no end. It took a really long time to build up and if you're not patient, you just might give up. But since I have faith in the author, I carry on reading and was glad I did. The last 20% of the story was full of twist and turns. Although, not as explosive as I hoped. Still, it is worth the effort to finish until the end.

I was drawn to this book by the cover, which has so much symbolism and intrigue, I just had to know what happened! I have also heard a lot about Sue Watson, but never read her books, and I cannot believe it’s taken me THIS long to discover this queen of psychological thriller.

Hannah is on the hunt for love. So is Alex. Their relationship seems too perfect. They are too similar. They are both career driven, ambitious, clever, and if the author’s descriptions are anything to go by – well matched in the looks department too. Are they a match made in heaven or is it all too good to be true?

Sue Watson creates a good mix of characters here, there are those who are presented as “normal” and those who appear creepy, crazy, maybe even dangerous…

I have loved following the narrative of this one and seeing the author’s complete skill and control over the plot, as she slowly but surely reveals the darker sides to the story.

The dialogue and drama keep this one fast paced, though you do feel like the details cannot be revealed quick enough as you’re hooked into Hannah’s story from the beginning!

I also feel like the ending could be used in the novel writing encyclopedia, under the heading: killer twists! I’ve read a lot of psychological fiction in my time and don’t think I’ve ever come across such a good twist at the end. Plus a cliffhanger! Oooh!

This is definitely a five star read and one of my top reads in this genre this year. I am definitely going to add more books by this author to my wishlist!

When the main character goes on a first date, met through a dating app, she thinks she has met the perfect man. He likes the same everything as her and has the same outlook on life. Gradually she realises he has another side and the reader realised he is gaslighting her. His behaviour is never really explained and then there is a tag on chapter explaining all the little details that happen throughout the book. It was a good premise for a book and overall I did think the book was good, but the behaviours and therefore chapters, were repetitive and it didn’t quite do it for me.

For the first 1/3 of this book I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it but I was wrong it’s really good! The way the story gathers momentum and I loved the ending.

Hannah is a caring, dedicated social worker. She has her own complicated past that grants her empathy and insight. Her co-workers are her major support system. She’s always yearned to belong to a real family so she gives online dating a shot. Hannah has her hopes pinned on a new man she met online, Alex. He seems to want exactly what Hannah wants. He appears to be the thoughtful, successful, single man of her dreams.

But is he who he appears to be? Aww, the perils of wading through the muck that is online dating. Alex does seems to be perfect match for Hannah, but something isn’t quite right and when red flags start waving in all directions who can she really trust? Her co-workers, Alex, or herself? 🚩🚩🚩

When a series of unnerving things start happening around Hannah, she isn’t sure of anything. There are a handful of likely suspects, but she’s so close to most of them. The eery things happening to Hannah, are they exactly what they look like? Or is it something or someone less obvious that is trying to manipulate her? Trusting new personal relationships and being geneerous with faults in others is slippery slope. Hannah’s own complex background and compassion make easier to understand how people find themselves in the worst situations.

Every character has layers and ambiguity and the plot has a nice pace. You know it’s a solid psychological thriller when you catch yourself biting your nails throughout.

I received a complimentary advanced review copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I can easily recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller. I’m definitely adding Sue Watson’s The Sister In Law to my to be read list.

Books like this make me thankful for my husband. I met some creepy guys when i dated online, but thankful i never met anyone like Alex. There were times though this storyline that I was yelling at Hannah for being so stupid and not listening to Jas. I had almost given up on this book and given it 3 stars for a predictable storyline until the last 2 chapters. Definitely pushed it up to 4.5⭐ for me! Thank you to Bookoutre and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.