*thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this free copy in exchange for an honest review*

Angel is a young mother who is trying to finish college to make a better life for herself and her son. She goes to school and works as a bartender at a club to try and make ends meet. Cue Duke: pitcher for the NY Yankees with a serious axe to grind against the world. The two meet and eventually have to decide if they want to start “a thing” or let the chance pass by.

I have been loving cutesy romances lately and this one stepped up to the plate and delivered!

From the publisher: “When a single mom ends up playing an unwilling fake girlfriend to a charming playboy baseball player, love suddenly turns everything upside down in this fun, heartwarming multicultural romance.”

This was a cute multicultural romance that has vivid characters and settings. I rooted for Angel, our hardworking single mom, and for Duke, our baseball pitcher hero struggling with an injury after a traumatic event. I had more difficulty rooting for them as a couple, as they didn’t seem to have much chemistry and their relationship didn’t seem as well-drawn.

I had never heard of Evelyn Lozado prior to this and didn’t know that she was a celebrity realty TV star, nor that she was only the coauthor. Clearly I’m not part of her fan base and I do think her loyal fans will have fun with this one.

Big thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Griffin for the free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Releases June 11, 2019.

I really really liked this book. It was less quick fun romcom and more adult romance drama. And it’s about POC written by a Poc woman!

I love the premise of baseball player needing a fake girlfriend to hide his injury. Angel is a badass Latina mom who will do anything for her child. Which I understand greatly. She works two jobs with some shitty bosses but handles her situations as best as she can. It shows how men in powers of position do deplorable things to women.
Everything about this book just seems so real. Even Angels friends are just so loving and wonderful.

Duke. Ah man. He has so many issues that he has to work on and I loved that Angel didn’t take any shit from him. Duke has a problem he has to fix and people in his life that do bad things. It’s the life of a celebrity shown very well.

It shows problems about race and women dealing with sexist men and more. They’re just so many real issues in this book. I couldn’t wait to finish it.

My only tiny problem is that she calls him by his baseball name instead of his real name which I guess might just be a sports thing I don’t get lol but overall i really liked this book!

A quick read, some heart, some angst, and some laughs! The author avoided a huge deal breaker for me, which is a poorly written kid, But Jose was darling, his relationship with Angel and Caleb (Duke) was genuine and believable.

What a great book! This fast paced story gives the reader a glimpse into the world of a hard working single mother. She works to support her son and complete her education and along the way meets someone who can change her life...while changing his own. This smart, endearing story is a must read, for sure! Thank you, Netgalley, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed The Perfect Date. It follows a young student nurse, Angel, her son Jose, and a famous baseball player named Duke. This would be a great story if you're a fan of Bravo and the real housewives series because both major characters have a lot of drama in their lives. I admired Angel's hardworking nature and her desire to do what was right and instill it in others. It was a little slow for me, but overall I enjoyed it. i liked the ending, but it felt like it was wrapped up a little quickly. You can view my review on my blog at https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7593588899510502084#editor/target=post;postID=100988577085539661;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname

I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A full in depth review of my rating will be written. I need to get my thoughts in order and draft the review. Essentially, The Perfect Date is everything I didn’t want in a book, with a love interest who was troublingly sexist and never improved. We should not condone this behavior, let alone dismiss it and then present the person as a love interest.

Angel is trying her best to make a good life for her son, through school, nursing, and bar-tending. There isn't a lot of time left over for herself. Caleb is worried about the past and his future in baseball. These two collide with a drink to the face. Their relationship is interesting, but it lacks some depth. Angel was more likable to me than Caleb was, based on her choices through the book and her interactions with others. The secondary characters added a lot to this book and it was fun to see how everyone interacted.

I was super excited to read The Perfect Date by Evelyn Lozada. I mean look at that cover! Super cute :).

Unfortunately, this wasn't the best romantic read. I feel like this book was more of a drama than a rom-com?

I also wasn't a fan of Duke or Angel. Angel has a serious temper and blows up over everything. Duke was also annoying to me. He is recovering from a shooting and is a baseball player... he ignores everything the doctor's tell him and plays on his ankle. I just was more annoyed with the characters then rooting for his love story? Ugh...

Additionally, I think it may have been due to the advanced arc but the transitions into the different characters POV was confusing. There wasn't any chapter breaks/etc to break up the changes.

In my opinion, this wasn't a very memorable story and was super disappointed.

It was lacking emotion, depth, and overall characters that you can connect with!

Not sure if I was the right audience for this book but just fell extremely flat for me :(.

2.5 stars for The Perfect Date

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 6/11/19
Published to Goodreads: 2/24/19

The Perfect Date by Evelyn Lozada is the story of a hard-working single mother who is used to challenges. As a pregnant teen who was abandoned by her son’s father and losing her mother soon after, Angel has learned to deal with everything with a small support system. Angel Gomez’s goal in life was to finish nursing school and provide for her 7-year-old son. Love is not in her plans. Caleb “The Duke” Lewis is a star pitcher for the Bronx Bolts whose escapades made him a common topic in gossip columns. As he is trying to get back into the game and keep a low profile socially that Angel doesn’t recognize him when they met twice in the same day. When Angel fails to fall for his usual charm, he decides she’s perfect. She is the perfect woman for his plot to fool the tabloids into thinking he has changed his ways. But as the charade begins, it soon becomes apparent that something else could be there. Will they be able to play their part? Or will love find a way in?
The Perfect Date started strong for me. I loved Angel’s Puerto Rican sassiness and her commitment to her son and her school. Unfortunately, the book fell with each chapter. I found myself not caring about Duke and his issues. I found some of the language to be very harsh and abrasive at times. I kept telling myself that it was how some people talked but it irritated me. I don’t allow people to talk like that around me in real life so why am I reading it. I really wanted to love The Perfect Date as I love romance novels, but I didn’t even like it. I do not recommend The Perfect Date.

The Perfect Date
will be available in paperback and eBook
on June 11, 2019

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

This book left me a little confused, my brain not up to speed with what I just read. I can partly blame it on the fact that I was expecting to dive into a romantic comedy about a pro baseball player that falls for a young, single mother and tries to romance his way into her life and heart. SPOILER ALERT: This is not that story.

“The Duke” Caleb Lewis is the star pitcher of the New York Yankees, A.K.A. one of baseball’s bad boys who drags Angel Gomez into his problems, whether she wants to be dragged there or not.

Lewis isn’t charming, in fact, I found him quite the opposite. By the end of the book, I wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to be feeling. I was almost disappointed that Gomez ended up with him in the end. But I guess this story was supposed to be his journey from bad boy to good boy. So happily ever after?

My biggest issue with this book (and I’m not sure if it’s an ARC thing or not) but the editing in this book IS. NOT. GOOD. This book is told through dual POVs (which I absolutely love) but the transitions between these POVs is lacking in clarity from start to finish.

I found myself re-reading previous paragraphs just to figure out when the POV / setting changed. I wish in the ARC there had at least been some spacing or paragraph breaks. **I’m putting these thoughts out there in the hope that when it’s published, this won’t be an issue.**

Overall, I just didn’t feel the depth or romance that I wanted to feel with this read. Between the fake-dating / real-dating / doctor drama / baseball drama, it was all too much thrown out to you at once. I needed there to be more build-up, more connection, and something to keep me racing to the finish. This is a great quick read if you’re lounging out by the beach or pool, but it doesn’t make it into my top reads.

The perfect date is the total opposite of a perfect date. The drama level in the story is off the charts. I actually gasped out loud while reading this one. The whole thing felt like a telenovela with the outrageous twist and turns.
Duke is a guy under a lot of pressure due to situations in his life that he makes the worst by not doing the right thing. Don't get me started on his friends and the bad behaviours. Angel is a do-gooder nurse who attached herself to the sinking ship that is a duke. I personally wasn't a fan of the way each character spoke. The language was off and didn't feel authentic. The constant need for a dramatic twist and turn took away from the characters love story. This book based on the description had so much potential and unfortunately, it fells flat for me

Evelyn Lozada was a cast member in a reality series “Basketball Wives” as well as a participant in other reality television shows. She now works as a model, marketer, and media personality. She has also been listed as lead author on other co-written books about wives of sports stars, similar to the theme in this story.

The main character in “The Perfect Date” is Angel Gomez, 22, a single mom who is studying for her nursing exam as well as working nights as a bartender. She needs extra money to help care for her seven-year-old boy Jose’s asthma condition. But both work environments are extremely stressful; she has to put up with bosses who would like more from her than her work skills.

Angel’s narration is alternated with that of Caleb “The Duke” Lewis, a pitcher for the Yankees who suffered an injury to his ankle in a shooting at a bar the year before. The Duke lost his best friend that night, and he still had nightmares about it, as well as the tendency to drink too much to forget it. But the ankle is of more import: if he can’t stand steadily on the mound the Yankees will replace him, and baseball is his whole life, not to mention - his only source of income.

Thus he went to a clinic in the middle of the Bronx instead of the Yankee’s medical facility to get something to help the pain for his ankle; it was critical no one found out. This was of course the clinic in which Angel worked for the sleazy Dr. Collins, who was willing to treat Duke for a lot of cash.

Duke was immediately attracted to Angel. He was surprised to find, later on, while drowning his sorrows in a nearby bar, that she worked there as well. Their encounter wasn’t so friendly, but when he had to go back to the clinic and the press followed him, he asked Angel to pretend to be his girlfriend, giving him an excuse to be there other than his ankle. She capitulated, and later agreed to go to a fancy party with him as his “date.”

This party was full of ball players and their wives and girlfriends, not only throwing around a lot of money, but acting very badly: taking drugs, having hook-ups in back rooms with people other than their partners, and being nasty to Angel, because she clearly didn’t have their “status.” But Angel and Duke got along, and she spent the night with him after the party.

Thereafter, the problems in Duke’s and Angel’s lives accelerate. Both of them face ultimatums, and find their moral compasses heavily challenged. And the “fake” relationship - is it real, or are they fooling themselves? When Jose’s life is in danger, each of them has an epiphany about what is actually important.

Discussion: Character development is skimpy in this book, and the “bad” guys are total caricatures. There are a lot of stereotypes that get too much of a workout in this story, and the writing is decidedly prosaic. But the worst part is the totally off-the-wall unrealistic ending. I can’t imagine it would even pass muster for a television show.

Evaluation: I suspect Evelyn Lozada has a lot of stories from which to draw for an interesting book. Perhaps a better co-writer would help.

It was a quick read, pretty standard chick-lit. If it had been much longer I don’t think I could have finished it. I didn’t really care about the characters and it seemed very soap opera-ish. I love a good love story, but this just seemed like it was reaching. I don’t think it was bad, a good quick read that isn’t too heavy.

This is just not my month. Almost every ARC I've reviewed has been two-stars??????? It's been rough. But you know what, at the very least I can see this book being adored by other people. It just wasn't for me. The romance felt forced and lacked chemistry; and the male love interest was a jerk. I liked the relationship between the female protagonist and her son!!! But other than that, this wasn't the book for me.

Full review to come on my blog closer to publication date.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

After reading the description I was super excited to read this book. Unfortunately I was not a huge fan of the book itself. One thing I did like is the general storyline of the single mom and the star athlete. I love sports romances and this was a pretty fresh plotline in that genre. However, I did not like the main character (Angel). I respected her working hard for her son but she was a bit too dramatic for me. You could chalk it up to her being 23, but if that's the case should she really be looking for a permanent HEA? I also found some of Caleb's (The Duke) actions super unbelievable for a star professional athlete. I think there is a lot of potential for this story but it just did not do it for me.

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for an an honest review.

Angel is a mother, student, friend, bartender and all around caregiver. She takes care of everyone around her and does not do much for herself. She is just about to finish nursing school when she meets The Duke who comes into the clinic she is working at to get his ankle checked out. Turns out the Duke is a professional baseball player and can not leave the clinic without the press getting ahold of the information and letting the world know he is injured. Angel gets trapped into helping him and pretending he is just there to see her, his new girlfriend. The story takes you through many ups and downs. Overall I did not enjoy this story as much as I had hoped. The story had too many stories within one story and at times it was confusing to follow. I was also disappointed because I thought Angel was going to be a strong independent female character and yet Duke does many things wrong countless times and she always takes him back no questions asked. The ending was also a VERY far stretch and somewhat odd.

I loved, loved, loved this book! For one thing, I love books that have New York City as its background. Since I am a bord and bred New Yorker. But this story right here took me to another level. Caleb and Angel both have their own baggage along with people who are trying to use them. Filled with drama and of course love. It was one roller coaster ride and I was sad to see the book and get off the ride. Let me say this one more time..I loved this book! I would love to read more from this author. I voluntarily read this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

2 stars
This book has "maid in Manhattan" vibes, single mother working very hard to provide for her only son. Along comes a handsome rich man that sweeps her off her feet. It has the struggling single mother.
There is drama, romance and tension, however it's uncomfortable. The storyline didn't flow at all.
Thank you to netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.