B O O K. R E V I E W
The Last First Date
Hayley Quinn


Helen is 31 and thought she would be married to the love of her life by now. Sadly, the man she thought was “the one” felt that someone else was “the one”. After being encouraged to do so, she joins a dating app, where she matched with Brody. One first date later, and Helen is sure that he’s it for her. But when the app crashes and loses all it’s data, she has no one to connect with Brody again. Going off little bits of their only face to face conversation, Helen puts herself in situations where she may just “run into” Brody. But when she does, is he really the one she thought he was?

I really liked the thought behind this story. It really shows that people aren’t always who you think they are after first impressions. And while first impressions are important, they’re not always factual. And sometimes, who we are looking for is standing right in front of you. I will say that I found Helen to be completely unconfident and spent the majority of the book putting herself down even when everyone around her was trying to build her up. While I think her self doubting it probably pretty normal, it was throughout the entire book, which was….a lot. I am not sure that she even realized how amazing she was by the end of the book.

dnf ed this book at 35%, I just couldn't continue. I was not interested/invested in the story or the characters at all.

I thought The Last First Date would be right up my alley, I liked the premise of the story but it fell flat. I couldn't engage or even like most of the characters, and the pacing had me a bit bored.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read!

I found this really hard to get into at the beginning. I think it may have been the way it was written? Then all of a sudden, after I read about Brody disappearing, it started to get so much better! I really did think this was going to be a classic romance, but it took a brilliant turn.

One thing I will say is though, I wasn't so keen on how desperate the main character was portrayed as she was single and searching for her perfect match. I liked her best friend more, who was single and thriving!

It was a good read, but I think there were some issues for me, particularly with the chase of Brody etc.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review and a thank you to HQ for allowing me to read this.

The Last First Date comes out 20th May 2022!

This book centres around the character, Helen who is looking for a long-term relationship in which she has had no luck. She is persuaded to join a dating site where she meets who she thinks could be her last first date.

I enjoyed reading this book I really wasn’t sure where it was going to go in the middle half (which I liked) and found the story to be light hearted. Loved the character of Ish and, also the relationship between Helen and Nanny G was good fun to read! I do wish the romance had been fleshed out a bit more and that we got to see more character development from the main characters as we didn’t see much.

I really enjoyed this story, at first I wasn’t sure where the book was going and therefore not too predictable which I liked. There was no absolute gripping moment in the book and no huge event. However, it was easy to read, light hearted and I enjoyed the style of writing and how the story unfolded.

I loved the characters in this book, Ish, Nanny G and Elle were my favourites! Everyone needs a girl friend like Elle, the voice of reason to your mad thoughts and feelings who is determined to make you appreciate your self worth 😍. It was good to get an insight into the characters and I could really visualise what they would be like.

Helen, an anxious, cake blogging, single women looking for her last first date. Meets Brody through an online dating platform Connex, gorgeous, funny and also looking for his last first date.

Helen’s two best friends Elle and Sophie are like chalk and cheese and both have different approaches when it comes to finding love.

Ish, a knight in shining armour rescues Helen from a potentially tricky situation and they strike up an friendship that could help pull Helen out of her business slump. Ish is around to help Helen more times then she can count and often when she least expects him too!

I loved seeing a friendship between Ish and Helen develop throughout.

I thought it was cleverly written and was not predictable, I like seeing different elements of the story unfold and felt invested in the characters.

3.5/5 stars
I was excited to read this book as the main character, Helen, is 31 years old and far from where she thought she would be in her love life. The idea of meeting someone on a dating app was intriguing to me.

This was a new author for me. To be honest, the book was very up and down for me. There were some parts I absolutely loved and laughed out loud and there were some parts I found myself skimming because I was bored. There was a lot of inner monologue that I found boring and made it hard for me to connect to Helen. I also found it difficult to "feel" the chemistry with Brody.

I also had a hard time connecting with Helen's best friends, Sophie and Elle. They were either not being supportive or totally supportive....it was just a weird dynamic.

All in all, I enjoyed the book...there were just a lot of things that I did not connect with.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a nice read.

The book, The Last First Date by Hayley Quinn focuses on a character who is looking for a long-lasting relationship, but lately, she hasn't had any luck. She goes on a dating platform and meets someone who's looking for his "last first date". They meet and connect, but soon after the platform has a mishap and they lost contact, with close to no way of meeting again. But our main character doesn't feel like giving up yet, so she searches for him, but soon things get tangled with a lot of other mishaps and plot twists.

This book was light and entertaining. It's definitely a page-turner, and its chapters definitely help with that. One of the things I liked the most about this book is the characters. They're characters you can relate to, and connect with.

I feel like anyone who wants a quick rom-com read should definitely consider this book. Or anyone who's looking for their Last First Date.

Helen Pines thinks she's finally found the one for her when she matches and has one date with Brody but then the dating app explodes and she can't find him. So after Pining for a bit, she's off. THIs was a rare miss for me in this genre, in part because I kept wondering why he wasn't looking for her. No spoilers. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A bit too frantic.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this arc.

Unfortunately, this was just not the book for me. The writing was very jumpy at times, and I just generally did not connect or enjoy the portrayal of most characters. I feel like with a couple more drafts, this could be more polished, but as it currently stands, it really just wasn't for me.

2 stars

This was a story of a girl who was dependent on others. She was a mediocre food blogger who rarely baked. She was constantly doing things that she didn’t want to do to be liked others and to feel accepted in their lives. There were a lot of twists in this book which I enjoyed.

31 year old Helen feels her life is falling apart. Her ex just got engaged, her blog is under-trafficked, and she has no love prospects. On a trip home from London to visit her family, she downloads a dating app and goes on a whirlwind first date with Brody, the man who seems to have everything who is looking for his last first date. When the dating app’s servers crash the next day, erasing all of the match information, Helen is left not knowing how to find her magical man.

I loved the idea of what this book was trying to achieve, but unfortunately it completely missed the mark for me. I found myself anxious as Helen vocalized every single dating anxiety I’ve ever experienced, and frustrated with her poorly developed friends and how they were responding to these anxieties. The friends also held terrible stereotypes in an attempt to add diversity to the book.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

The Last First Date drew in with the cute cover and fun synopsis - but that’s where the “swipe right” status ended for me. The actual book made me very uncomfortable as it is riddled with stereotypes and cultural appropriation. The language used (especially the narration) made me feel like I was reading about a early high school student rather than a 31 year old woman.

*Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

This was such a great book! The beginning really draws you in and makes you so invested in the characters and plot! I love how it’s written and the story behind each character! I did find the middle of the book to be a little slow but then it really picks up! It did feel choppy at some points and I lost a connection to the plot a little bit! Overall a fun read!

Thank you for the ARC -

The story had a lot of potential. I enjoyed the premise and the underlying story of a woman finding herself in life through love...romantically, with friendships, and family relationships. Helen's relationship with her grandmother was endearing. I loved the idea of a strong group of female friends supporting each other and helping build each other up. I loved where Helen ended up with someone who was a friend and genuinely cared for and supported her in her own endeavors.

There are some things that didn't work that brought my rating down. First, the formatting (hopefully is fixed for the final) was all over the place. It was hard to tell where chapters ended and began as they all ran into each other. The text conversations were difficult to read running into each other without line breaks and that was where a lot of the friendship element happened. Second, there were a lot of culturally insensitive pieces. Mentioning ethnicity repeatedly without it adding anything to the story other than to point it out. Cultural appropriation and stereotypes throughout. These are just things that shouldn't be brought in unless it adds to a story in a meaningful way. And finally, the transition from Brody to Ish didn't quite work. Most of the book was spent focused on Brody and that piece could have been resolved earlier to give more time for the relationship with Ish to develop rather than just all of a sudden be how it's going to wrap up in a neat bow.

So overall, good premise - with a few things that detracted from the book. Appreciate the opportunity to read and review!

This was an ARC read from NetGallery for me. The author was new to me as well. The story synopsis drew me in.

Helen is a 30 year old baking blogger who is having a tough time in general. Romance, life status, career and all just don't seem to add up to the status quo she feels she should be at by now. After being hung up on an old flame, and learning of his recent engagement - something has to change.

Enter Helen's nan. She decides to share with Helen a tale of her younger years, and the importance of making memories while she has time to do so still. Nan encourages Helen to enter the world of online dating, and get over her old flame.

Helen does, and matches with Brody - a 37 year old successful businessman who seems to check all the boxes. They agree to go on a date, and it goes extremely well. Just as things are looking up for Helen - the dating site server completely goes down, causing Helen to lose her contact with Brody.

Now she has to find him. With nothing but his name and job description to go off of - she sets off to find her Mr. Perfect.

This was honestly super difficult for me to get into. I usually read at a quicker pace, and read a lot of slow burn romances. However, this was a bit too slow for my tastes - I had a hard time connecting with Helen as a character. Her inner monologue droned on and on it felt with repetitive natures. Maybe this is because I am 30 myself and don't agree with her feelings about herself. I found myself putting this down multiple times and attempting later on hoping it was just a mood issue of my own. There were a variety of other things that I did not like about this book, but I am not about bashing authors here. Personally, this wasn't something I would have been happy purchasing. However, we all have different tastes, and if you love the synopsis I definitely think it is worth giving this author a chance for yourself.

This book was a light easy read.
But I must admit I don’t believe this book is a rom-com but definitely more of chick-lit or woman's fiction.

I found the main character Helen, very hard to connect with.
My favourite character was Nan, who I do think could’ve had more influence in the story.

Without giving too much away, I liked the context that the “dream man” she envisaged turned out not to be who she thought.
But unfortunately this happens 70% of the way through the book, leaving the rest of the book feeling quite rushed.

While I love a bit of cheese, this book has LOADS of it.
Maybe an uncomfortable amount, for me anyway.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Helen Pines' dating life is in a shambles. Her ex has just gotten engaged, and she can't stop stalking his Instagram account, or walling in misery and anxiety. When she decides to try out online dating, and strikes gold with the handsome and charming Brody, things seem like they are finally looking up. But then the dating website crashes and loses everyone's data. Now Helen has no way to find Brody to have a second date just as magical as the first. But is Brody all he seems to be? And is he actually the one?

First off, this book should never have been categorised or marketed as a romance. Not only does Helen not spend any significant time with a love interest on the page, there is almost zero actual relationship development until after about 70% into the book. This would be much better categorised as women's fiction. It is a coming of age story (even though the antagonist is a 31 year old woman), who is overcoming anxiety and insecurity after an emotionally abusive relationship, and trying to navigate what dating and relationships mean to her. The romance was almost superfluous to the plot.

Helen spends most of the novel in her head, filled with anxiety and double-guessing herself at every turn. There are some nice moments with her grandmother and her story, and a few cute moments with the person she ends up with at the end, but she spends maybe less than 1% of the book actually in his presence doing something with him, and that mostly happens in the last 15% of the book. This does not fulfil the requirements of a romance novel.

The book was also categorised by choppy and undeveloped writing. It felt like a draft for a TV episode instead of writing for a book. I could imagine this making a better screenplay (with some work) than a novel. The friends and even the final significant other were also token "ethnic" stereotypes and their ethnicity seemed an afterthought and more of a ploy to be more "diverse". Ishan was even just described as a British Asian with brown skin, and then nothing else. An editor with sensitivity reading background would have been helpful in this regard. There were also two instances where characters wore Native-American headdresses for festivals, which is blatant cultural appropriation as neither character were Native American. This was not seen critically, but rather as normal and acceptable. These are instances were the author needed an editor to highlight how this could be problematic. Her friend Elle was also just a stereotype. She kept on referring to herself as Latin and seemed to be from Spain, and traditionally someone from Latin America would only use the term. It did not seem that the author had much background with people from other countries or ethnicities.

In conclusion, this book needs some re=working and recategorising. Thank you to NetGalley and HQ (Harper Collins UK) for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a gifted ARC from NetGalley!

This was my first book by Hayley Quinn and it was really easy, lighthearted romance! It definitely felt like a book for a summer holiday so I’d recommend this to anyone going on a beach holiday looking for a nice read.

The story followed Helen as she navigates singleness, online dating and friends being in different situations to herself. In lots of ways, it felt very real as there wasn’t much in the book that I wouldn’t imagine happening in real life with girl friends of mine. The reason I only gave this a 3 star rating was because sadly I just didn’t love Helen as a character which made the book harder to connect with!

I’ll definitely be giving other books by Hayley Quinn a go after this one.

This book was a cute, fun read! I wish there would have been a little more depth and description to the characters and sometimes it felt a little choppy in the timeline. I also wish the first date as a bit longer so I could understand why Helen was so attracted to Brody. I could have understood the sleuthing more if I understood their initial dynamic. But overall I enjoyed this read, especially the friendship dynamic between the women (reminded me so much of the texts between my girlfriends, which I loved) and Helen really coming into her own acceptance! The hunt for Brody also very much resonated with me as the group FBI agent amongst my friends, and I was so entertained reading about tracking Brody down!!