So this one was an ARC that I got. I saw the description and cover and it tought it will be a cute story and it was but the beginning of it was a little confusing for me. I clicked with the fact of been forever single and expected to have a whole romance story but beside that It took me more pages to understand the whole concept of the book. It was so cute in the end but I still think something was missing or maybe to rushed in the end.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of a honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book!

I enjoyed reading the book. Even though during the first half it was slightly difficult to catch up, the cute light-hearted romance will keep you going. The book and the writing were extremely fresh and new kind compared to my regular reads. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fresh read.

First I wanted to thank HQ for providing an ARC in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When scrolling through NetGalley I saw this cover and title and I HAD to learn more. I read the description and I was super intrigued my the story and when I was accepted I was excited to dig in.

Overall this was a cute book about growth and looking within for acceptance.

The Last First Date
Release Date 5/20
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
What I liked:
- Elle, Helen has two best friends and Elle is the one I connected with. She doesn’t sugarcoat her thoughts/feelings and will do anything for her friends even if she doesn’t WANT to
- Nanna G, Helen’s grandmother plays a big role in her growth and she always have great one liners which all senior characters should
- Ish, a non-traditional knight in shining armor who is a great friend from the moment Helen meets him and he is quite attractive 😉
- Food blogger, I liked having an unique career for Helen since it gave her more time to work on her quest and allow her to spend more time with her family

This book did drag in parts and there were sections which I just didn’t like Helen. I’m glad I stuck with it cause she was able to redeem herself but it did take her a while and some super questionable choices.

Overall I am glad I read this book, I do believe the good outweighed some of the parts I didn’t like and I would suggest this to friends. If you like a light romance with a lot of self reflection/growth, and great side characters I think you should check this book out!

The book follows Helen, a single woman in her early 30s who is desperate for a boyfriend after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, Jonathan. Seeing Jonathan engaged to his new girlfriend really made Helen uneasy. Helen finally decided to create a profile on a dating app, and boom! He meets a man named Brody who is looking for his 'last-first date'. They both managed to meet each other irl and Helen felt like she had finally met him.

Long story short, after their 'getting-too-fast-to-attached' first date, Helen and Brody can't connect to each other because the dating app crashed. Helen desperately looking for Brody, since she doesn't have ANY contact with him outside the dating app, and failed miserably.

But of course Helen doesn't want to give up and one day she found Brody on somebody's Instagram and she stalked him ever since. When she found out that Brody's friend (the one who post Brody's picture on IG) is going to a festival, Helen decides to go there too with her friend, Elle.

The good side is, she finds Brody. The bad side is, she FINDS Brody. Like, she finally see the real Brody, the man who she chase this whole time.

Okay, so, as someone who rarely reads romance book i have to say that i don't find this book a typical 'give you a butterfly in your stomach' romance book. I don't get the chemistry between Helen and Brody, and I don't understand WHY Helen get so crazy over him, because for me he's already a red flag since their first date.

But, I like how the author wrote about Helen's feelings. Like, her anxiety about getting left out and not having someone as her spouse while her friends already getting married etc etc. I can't say I relate to her, no, but I think it's just so real and honest. Some scene are heart-warming (all of them include Nanny G in it) and some scene are pretty funny.

I think this book has so much potential to be a great rom-com. Thank you NetGalley and HQ Digital for providing this e-ARC!

This book had so much potential! SO MUCH!!
The premise and how they lost connection was just on point, but how this all was written left room for improvement.
For me, the guy was just a story she was telling her friends, I could imagine her nana better than the guy we spent all this time looking for.
I'm looking forward to check more books by this author. Because even though this one wasn't for me I know I'll like her upcoming ones!

After learning that an ex-boyfriend is now engaged, Helen reluctantly signs up for an online dating app due to encouragement from her grandmother. She has a seemingly wonderful date with Brody only to discover the next morning that the dating app server has crashed, and all their data has been lost. She begins a quest to find him and claim the relationship that she believes will ensue.

There were a few surprising things that I enjoyed about this contemporary British romance. In particular, I loved the relationship that Helen had with her grandmother. In that vein, I was pleasantly surprised with the plot twists connected with Nanny G's memories and the subsequent walk down memory lane. I also really appreciated the semi-realistic representation of online dating and the mind games that come along with it. I also enjoyed the unexpected revelation of certain characters' true colors that gave the story a touch of realism.

Unfortunately, there were more aspects I did not enjoy than those that I did. For the most part, I found Helen's character unrealistic and irritating. While we are told she makes a living through a "promising yet unrealized" food blog, she seems to do very little work other than complain about how she is losing followers. (I am unclear how she actually pays for her flat?) Her efforts to find Brody border on stalker-level actions rather than endearing ones, and they sometimes even seem to endanger her personal safety.

While the story ends happily (which for this type of book, I do not consider a spoiler), I am a fan of romance, but with this book, everything seemed to wrap up in too-neat of a bow without much character development between the characters which would have made a romance believable. I hated the all-too convenient personal revelation that Helen "discovers" at the conclusion - "Oh, my single life could have been wonderful if I would have made a point to be positive and enjoy it without worrying about finding a man!" It seems a bit patronizing to admonish the readers that a relationship is not necessary to live a fulfilling life while at the same time talking about how much better the protagonist's life is now that she is in love with someone who loves her back and fulfills her in every way possible.

Ultimately, I would not recommend this book.

Thank you @netgalley and @hayleyquinnx for the book!
A very cute and heartwarming book I loved it and I love Helen. She’s a very real character, with flaws and insecurities and the best friends ever and the cutest granny and is just a touch crazy but in a very good way. Her best friends play a very big part in her life, and they are so different in personalities, but the kind of friends all of us really need.

This book got me laughing so often and I think the pace was great. The only gripe I had with this was the progress with Ish - he seems like a great guy but I just couldn’t feel their chemistry it felt like a forced friends-to-lovers trope but not really too since they only knew each other for such a short time but they both did admit they didn’t feel anything when they first met. That said, it still is very cute to see them banter with each other and Ish coming to her rescue every time.

Fun, breezy and modern, this will appeal to fans of British contemporary romances. A recommended additional purchase for collections where the genre is popular.

** spoiler alert ** SUMMARY
The Last First Date follows Helen, who is 31, on her hunt for love. Her ex, Jonathon, has recently got engaged to someone else, so her Nanny G persuaded her to go on a dating app, Connex, where she connects with the first person she likes, Brody, and a date is set up for the next day. After their date, Connex crashes, and she loses Brody’s details. Unable to connect with him, Helen hunts for him in London, where they both live, and Cornwall, where they’re both from.

OPINION
I’m afraid I haven’t got much good to say, so if you don’t want to hear negativity I suggest you stop here.

This book made me feel strongly. Unfortunately those feelings were anger and derision.

For clarity, I love romance, I love cheesiness, I love unlikely connections. I love the easiness of romance novels and how I can sink into them like a hot bath at the end of a long day.

This should have been good for me.

Helen, the MC, is bland and dislikable. We’re told she’s a baking influencer for a living. We’ve not a sausage if she actually enjoys this, especially since she moans about it all the time, not enough money, not enough followers, seems to dislike the fact she has an online persona.

When Helen’s physical appearance is described, we’re told she ‘doesn’t look like anyone’. Then we’re told basic details (hair colour, eye colour, stature) but there is literally NO imagery put forward. So at this point, we don’t know what she looks like, and we don’t know what she likes.

A few times I found myself wanting to punch Helen in her fictional hazy nondescript face. At one point, she hears something that upsets her (I’m not sure why it was upsetting) and turns round and drinks the messengers margarita. Now, in London, where drinks are ridiculously expensive, that’s no small thing. Another point she finds the place where Brody’s profile picture is taken and all she can think about is ”what does it meeean?!”. The need to reach for a deeper meaning in everything is exhausting. Especially in matters so trivial and insignificant.

But, that’s not it! Helen’s hunt for Brody crosses so many boundaries. Her neediness and desperation is off putting. Her stalking is problematic. If I was Jonathon I’d have gotten engaged to someone else too. The whole character needs chucking in the bin.

Additionally, the writing is incredibly juvenile. So many exclamation marks, ellipsis’, Helen’s inability to talk about sex and drugs (SHE’S 31!). To be blunt, it’s unenjoyable. This is coming from a reviewer who cringes away from harshness.

The last 20% of the book is bearable. Helen has a slight redemption arc but this comes out of being saved by a man who likes her. Not unusual in romance novels, I realise, but also doesn’t allow Helen to fully redeem her toxic qualities, insecurities, and self-involvement.

RECOMMENDATION
I simply don’t recommend this. I apologise to the author. But I will always be honest and I hope any issues that resound with the author that I’ve picked up on can be edited out to publish a sweet, modern romance, as intended.

The Last First Date by Hayley Quinn was wonderful and so relatable! While this was a hard book to get into at the beginning, I related to the main character so much! Being 30, having to date, learning how to date, getting on a dating app, and everything that comes with it is exactly what I wanted to read and relate to. While the main character put herself down a lot, I feel this happens when starting to date again and learning who you are after coming out of a serious relationship. I really enjoyed this book!!

Single Helen feels her clock ticking to find love. She meets Brody on a dating app and has one date. To Helen, it was the date to end all dates and she awaits another one. But the dating service goes down and loses all her contacts. She does not have any contact information or even his last name. Her idealized date launches her on a search to find him. Her memory of Brody parallels her Granny G’s memory of a one time only date who she never saw again. In the meantime, she meets Ish and her memory of Brody blinds her to Ish’s interest. Helen has a lot to learn about life and true love, reality and dreams.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Haley Quinn's The Last First Date is is a light-hearted read about a single woman, Helen Pines, as she searches for the man she had the perfect last first date with. After the dating app she met Brody on crashes and loses their data, Helen goes on a search for him while learning a bit more about herself and her "ideal man" in the process.

It is difficult to review this book without giving too much away, but what can be said is that it is decently entertaining and has good elements of a good group of friends and family and some romance as well. I would say the main focus of the story is Helen's search for what she really wants in life as opposed to what she has told herself she wants. Helen seems to end up in a different and better place than we met her at in the beginning, but it almost feels as if we didn't get there with her. Like some things just fell into place and weren't earned emotionally. Hard to say, but that could be because this is meant to be more of a light read and not a heavy, emotional journey. There is also definitely a lot going on in the story plot wise, a bit too much at times as some of it doesn't feel entirely necessary, but it all works in the end.

Overall, it was a good book, but I probably wouldn't read it again. I recommend this book to fans of Lindsey Kelk or Sophie Kinsella and romance.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story was not my favorite but still cute. I felt like the lead character was very immature and I was frustrated with a lot of her choices and thoughts. Its really hard to get into a story when you don’t like the main character. I would give this book a 2.5 rounded up to a 3.

Things I liked:
Helen, Elle, and Sophie’s friendship
Helen’s relationship with her family
The scenery/location of the book
The text threads
The ending!!! Made reading the story worth it

Things I didn’t like:
Helen’s self deprecation… I wanted to just give her a hug Brody. Brody. Brody. 😡
Choppy writing style

Rating: 3.5 stars
There were a few things that I liked about this book and a few that I did not. I thought that this story was cute, following Helen’s journey trying to find a man that she felt a connection with from a dating app. I found it a bit hard to get into it but I pushed through the beginning and generally enjoyed the read. I thought that it was represented well that sometimes the perfect image that we create of a person in our heads is not reality, and Helen found that out the hard the way. There is one quote as well that really stuck out to me that I think that enraptures the importance of being sufficient and happy on your own before finding a partner:
“Everything she’d done whilst she was alone felt necessary to bring her to the place and time when she wasn’t”.

I did however find myself wondering if a 30 year old woman would really be obsessing and chasing after a man she does not even truly know and behaving in such a way I found to be a bit immature. While I did enjoy seeing her find love in the end, I wish that it were sometimes represented that a man and a woman can be just friends without the expectation of there being a romantic element.
Overall, I did enjoy this book and loved the author’s writing style.

I'm sorry to give such a low rating, this really wasn't my cup of tea and I must admit I began skimming at 50% through.

The Last First Date follows Helen who's just entered her 30's. She's single and her ex-boyfriend is just engaged, and she's beginning to feel that time is running out. Persuaded by her Grandmother to start an online-dating profile she quickly finds the perfect man and goes on her 'last first date'.

But then disaster strikes, and her dating app glitches, losing her all of her contacts. Without any other way of contacting him, she embarks on a journey, determined to find him. But begins to doubt that one date can really lead to true love.

This is a cute concept and I loved the setting of Cornwall and some of the phone conversations Helen had with her friends were fun (we all need a support system like that).

Honestly, the book lost my interest when Brody was introduced. The idea that you feel like you've met the one and then promptly have no way of contacting him should be gut-wrenching for the reader, but I felt no chemistry between Helen and Brody. If there had been a spark, and dynamic, a bit of spice, I would have been desperate to read on and find out if they find each other again. But I didn't care.

Helen's voice also irked me. She didn't really have a personality and she seemed a lot younger than she actually was.

This just wasn't the romance for me, because there isn't enough romance.

This book was kinda hard to get into in the beginning but I do relate to her a lot ! Being 30 and still having to date. And after being in a serious relationship. I didn’t like how she constantly puts herself down I’ve read books by HQ ! And I’m never disappointed. Thank you for this arc

The Last First Date was a lighthearted, fun read that I enjoyed very much. I had never read anything from Hayley Quinn, but will look for books by her now. The book centers around 31 year old Helen Pines, whose last boyfriend broke up with her a year ago, and is now engaged. Helen thought he was the one even though none of her friends and family ever thought so.

On a trip home to visit her parents and her nan, Helen signs up for an online dating app. Her Nan G, quite the character, has convinced her that she needs to do this. Helen meets Brody in the app and agrees to meet him for lunch the next day. They have a wonderful first date and he says he'll be in touch to plan their second date. In Brody's profile on the dating app he said he was looking for his last first date.

Helen is confused as she never hears back from Brody. It turns out the dating app crashed and all contacts and info was lost. The app started up again, but nothing was left from before the crash. Helen and Brody had never swapped contact info as they communicated through the app. Now Helen had no way to contact Brody and vice versa. Helen fantasizes about Brody and their date and truly believes he is the one. She is convinced she must find him and with help from her friends sets out to do just that.

This book has a lot of scenes that will make you laugh out loud as the search for Brody goes on and it also has some poignant moments about love, dating, and who the right one is for each of us. I can't say much more without giving the story away, but do yourself a favor and get this book as soon as it's available!

I would like to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of the book.

A+ title for sure, that’s what drew me in from the start! This book follows Helen on her journey of finding the man she lost after her perfect first date and more poignantly, finding herself. There was so much character growth throughout this book and it never felt forced. The timing of getting with her perfect person wasn’t rushed and that made the ending even better. By the time she was with him, she appreciated him more than she would have before. I loved this one, I’d read again for sure. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled to get into this book. It was mostly due to the writing style, and not the characters or actual plot of the story. To me, it felt very jumpy. The inner monologues were somewhat exhausting to read through, and I felt very disconnected from the main character throughout the entire novel. I liked how light hearted this book was, and think the concept has a lot of potential, just the writing falls flat at times.

This was a quick, light read. Although fairly predictable with a familiar plot, the book was an entertaining read. Recommended for fans of modern British romance novels.