The Date was an outstanding psychology thriller that had me hooked, I loved every minute of it, I highly recommend this one.

This was my first Louise Jenson book and I honestly can't believe I have waited until now! She is super talented!! I would give more than 5 stars if I could!!

Still not over the separation from her husband Ali reluctantly agrees to go on a blind date with a man she meets online. The next day she awakes with no recollection of the date or any events that took place all night. All she knows is something terrible happened. But, what?

The Date is absolutely incredible! I was hooked from the very first page. Every chapter had me on the edge of my seat and just when I thought I had it figured out Louise threw another twist in the mix! The amount of thought and research that must have gone into this book is amazing. It's suspenseful, thrilling, fast paced and emotional. It is hard for a book to make me cry but this one had me in tears!

I absolutely LOVED it and would highly recommend it!! I can't wait to read her other books now!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

I have really enjoyed all of the author's previous books and this was no exception. The main characters suffers with a terrifying condition - the inability to recognise and remember faces. That aspect made this a rather unsettling and creepy book. The book has certain chapters where the attacker tells his side of the story and this was really interesting to read. I loved how everything came together at the end and there were a few unbelievable twists.

This was a book that really kept me up and I could not put it down. I highly recommend it.

What a page turner of a book this is. Just when I thought I had worked it out ....... bam........ another brilliant twist, again and again. This is definitely an edge of your seat story that you won't be able to put down. Amazing.

Wow, I would give this a 10 out of 5 stars if I could!

The amount of emotions I felt whilst reading this book are still with me and I think this story will stay with me for a long time to come. An absolutely fantastic, heart-pumping, twisted, thrill-seeking read that I could not put down and I thoroughly recommend!

It is obvious Louise Jensen has thoroughly researched the conditions within this story. The Date gripped me from the very first page as the main character, Ali, comes to the realisation that she is suffering from Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness. This was something I was only vaguely aware of but Louise Jensen explained the condition in so much emotional detail and the story just flowed beautifully. I felt like I was with Ali as she experienced the utter fear that she cannot recognise anyone she loves, or even herself. Followed then by the complete horror when Ali tries to find comfort in watching a TV programme, as I often do for escapism, to find that she can't even recognise any of the characters on the screen. The sheer magnitude of this illness is horrifying and yet I can't help but be fascinated.

I am trying so hard not to give anything away. I knew this story was centred on Ali suffering from Face Blindness, but discovering a disease that is very personal to me had me in a complete mess. Louise Jensen incorporated this very cleverly and described the affects of this debilitating disease in a way that had me in tears. It is hard not to identify with Ali and I found myself on a heartbreaking emotional rollercoaster.

Throughout the whole book I was left guessing. I was downright shocked to find out the identity of Ali's tormentor. I have to say I was thinking along the same lines as the main character and then Louise Jensen decides to add another couple of twists!

The Sister was brilliant, but the Date completely knocked my socks off! This is absolutely my favourite Jensen book so far. I will most definitely be pre-ordering my hard copy! I hope Louise Jensen has another book out soon for me to devour in a matter of hours!

If you are a fan of this genre, don't miss out! BUY THE DATE NOW!!!!

What should have been a good night out turns into a nightmare for Ali. I have to admit I have never come across the condition that Ali ends up finding herself with after a blow to the head. She is unable to recognise people's faces. I couldn't begin to imagine how hard it must be to try and carry on as normal living with it. Not recognising a husband, a friend. Was certainly very intriguing learning about it.

Not only can poor Ali not recognise people, she can't remember what happened on her night out. The story flicks between Ali and an unknown character that obviously means her harm. We have no idea who this person is and boy was it fun trying to work out who it was. I was so sure I had worked it out and was feeling so smug waiting for it to be confirmed only to be well and truly wrong and pretty gobsmacked to say the least.

This is such a tense read. You can feel it building throughout the story and I was racing through the pages to see how it was going to turn out. I found Ali's past as intriguing as what was going on in the present and readers certainly won't be disappointed.

The Date is a heart stopping read! The author took me on an extremely twisted journey so I had no clue whether I was coming or going. This book ticks everything I want and would expect from this genre. Loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this book. Ali wakes up in the morning after a blind date. She has been hurt and has no memory of the night before. She is also left with a condition where she no longer recognises people. Even her husband, family and friends. Her life starts to spiral out of control in the scariest ways possible!!. I had this book read in twenty four hours. It was brilliant. Get reading folks!! I'd highly recommended it.

The premise of this book is very clever. Having gone on a blind date, Alison wakes up the next morning knowing she's been hurt but with no memory of how or why. A blow to the head has resulted in amnesia and prosopagnosia (face blindness) which leaves her unable to recognise the faces of people she's met before, including her closest friends and family and even her own face. As a result, she finds it difficult to trust people and impossible to know who it is that seems intent on ruining her life.

I found Alison to be an engaging and real protagonist whose fears and struggles with the prosopagnosia and amnesia she is suffering were well crafted and believable. Jensen had obviously done a significant amount of research on the topic and the difficulties faced by people who have prosopagnosia were explored sensitively. This novel will help to raise awareness of the condition for people who previously had little or no knowledge of what it is and also help readers to understand what sufferers might be going through.

Enough doubt was cast over the people in Alison's life to make it possible to believe that almost any of them could be responsible for what she is going through and, as you'd expect from a Jensen novel, there are twists and turns galore. My first instinct about who Ali's tormentor might be turned out to be correct, but Jensen had led me in so many different directions between that first instinct and the denouement that it still came as a bit of a surprise. There were also a couple of smaller twists which I saw coming, but that didn't detract from the story.

My one disappointment is that there were a couple of loose ends which were not tied up. One particular lie told to Alison was never addressed and I know it will bug me that I don't know the motivation behind telling that lie or whether Alison ever confronted the person who told it.

Overall I found this to be an enjoyable and engaging read and I'd definitely recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

As only Louise Jensen can do, she hits it out of the park again with her latest, The Date. Immediately pulled into the book by the sympathetic lead female, Ali, this is a fast paced, edge of your seat book that keeps the reader guessing until the last few pages. Not only is Ali a sympathetic character, she is troubled with a troubled past. She is estranged from her husband Matt. She thinks going on a date will be kinda fun, even against her better judgement. What happens could never have been foreseen, and as she tries to put the pieces of the mystery together, the plot gets crazier and crazier. I loved this book, read it in a few long lounge sessions on the sofa, and went back and shook my head to clear my perception of the plot. Highly recommend.

After separating from her husband, Ali is finally ready to give romance another try. She’s got a date Saturday night and she hopes for a new beginning. But when she wakes up Sunday morning in her own bed, she knows she’s been assaulted, even though she has no memory of the assault. She’s covered in bruises and the man she met has long since disappeared. When she tries to recall what happened, she draws a blank, as a matter of fact, she draws a blank on everything, her friends, her family, even her own reflection in the mirror. This thriller will have you second guessing dating someone you don’t really know

This is my first Louise Jensen book, and wow, I was not disappointed! The Date grabbed hold of me and refused to let you, and I devoured it in under 24 hours.

The Date is a fast-paced thriller based around Ali, who wakes up one morning with no memory of the night before. As women, how many of us have heard about the dangers of meeting men online, those cautionary tales that women are so used to hearing and equating to friendly advice, but that is actually teetering on the edge of victim blaming. Ali goes through so many emotions that morning, battered and bruised as she is, desperate to remember what happened. And then she doesn't recognise herself in the mirror.

You can count me as part of the group that had never heard of prosopagnosia, or facial blindness. What a fascinating, horrifying concept. I truly believe it is our responsibility as authors to represent whatever we can in the best way we can, and Jensen has done this here. She mentions several issues, and deals with each one with care, while still gripping the reader until the very last page. Whether Jensen is a favourite author of yours, or if this is your first experience of her, I think you'll enjoy this one.

The Queen of Domestic Noir smashes it yet again!!

OMG WOW just where do I start! I’ve been looking forward to reading this book so much the anticipation has made me feel like a child in the run up to Christmas! With all three previous novels by this author taking pride of place on my ‘All-time Favourites Shelf’, The Date by Louise Jensen had a hard act to follow. Was writing yet another book of such high acclaim even possible?

I’ve a lot to say about this book so won’t go into detail and repeat the synopsis. Suffice to say the level of research the author has gone to for this unique premise really is quite staggering.

As well as being rich in original analogy, what makes this compelling narrative so utterly creepy and intensely real is the way Louise Jensen combines succinct language with dual first-person narration. From the outset the reader is thrust into Ali’s world: ‘Something isn’t right.’ […] ‘There’s a sour smell in the room’ […] ‘Goosebumps spring up on my arms.’ This stripped back narrative allows the reader to make up their own mind and use their imagination, allowing them to become part of the story. Combined with the first-person narration from Ali’s perspective, this brings the reader in so close it makes them feel they actually are Ali. Then just as you start to think the way Ali does, willing her to take a course of action – BANG: the deranged antagonist takes over; throwing everything you thought was going on out of the window.

This is all done whilst keeping secret both the antagonist’s identity, as well as the protagonist’s past demons. We know the protagonist is hiding something from her past, but with backstory being drip-fed throughout the narrative strands, alongside shocking twists, and red herrings, you won’t be able to turn those pages fast enough.

But the final twist will absolutely knock you out. If the final word isn’t enough, it’s the absolute final piece of punctuation. Who knew one little punctuation mark could have such an effect?

Louise Jensen stands out as a canonical icon in twenty-first century literature. With psychological thrillers flooding the market, Louise manages to combine original and complex plotlines, alongside a well-written narrative, and in a way that appeals to readers from all walks of life. Louise Jensen has been compared to Paula Hawkins (Girl on the Train) and S J Watson (Before I go To Sleep); but to be honest this author is in a class all of her own. Domestic noir is so much more than an ordinary psychological thriller and Louise Jensen absolutely smashes this.

Under Literature Love’s rating scheme this book has been awarded 5 out of 5 stars.
(If I could, I would give it 6 out of 5 stars!)

I absolutely loved this book and couldn’t put it down. I recommend you stop what you’re doing and go and buy this book now!
As well as having all the elements of a four-star review, this book transcends its genre. The language is original and compelling; characters jumped off the page; and twists in the plot left me gasping. This rare and exceptional book will be put forward for Literature Love’s top 10 books of the year.