After long term boyfriend Robbie goes off to find himself, Rosie sets out online dating only when she gets stood up by Gabe, she meets handsome, witty, charmer Noah.



Rosie and Noah have a connection all through the book but thanks to Rosie's player dad she won't let herself fall for Noah thinking he'll turn out like her dad and hurt her too.



Her dad, is a cheat plain and simple and her mum is fabulous at the end of the book as is Noah and his friends as Gabe turns up in a random shocking way! Noah also had a hidden depth behind getting close to Rosie after past losses from loving someone alike his best friend Jed and was really moving bringing them closer together.



I rooted for Rosie and Noah a fabulous couple from the start I was hooked on this book!



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕖

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

“ He’s watching, his gaze challenging. I stare back unwilling to back down and break the contact first (what can I say, I’m a bod loesr), and I slowly it dawns on me. I could actually use this to my advantage. Just this one, talking to a man like this could be useful. Purely for research reasons of course. To find out why I am having the problems I am. He’s landed, quite literally, in my lap - so why not take advantage of the situation”.

After breaking up with her childhood sweetheart, clueless dater Rosie has found herself in a boyfriend-drought. So when she finally swipes right on a guy who seems interested, she can’t wait to meet up IRL. Until she’s left standing alone. In a bar. Ghosted. Enter Noah. Confident, funny... and a serial first dater. Offering to give Rosie a crash course in seduction, this could be just what she needs. Until her matchmaker turns out to be the best date she’s ever had.

I liked this book but I unfortunately didn’t love it. I feel like I connected personally with the main character Rosie on some level and also really liked Noah - his charm and mystery was developed well. I did however find it so frustrating that Rosie kept going on about her father all the time. I get that it was a secondary story but sometimes it was just too much and I wanted to yell at my kindle and I wish that is possibly could have ended more confrontationally. The ending was also super predictable. Anyway would recommend if you’re looking for a romantic comedy that you can fly through that is a little bit of fun.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the E-ARC. Although this was given to me that does not in any way influence my opinions.

Authors - Zara Stoneley
Publisher - HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter

Three and a half stars.

Rosie is that staple of romantic comedies, the frumpy woman who works in a bookshop. She and her long-term boyfriend have split up and she is trying to dip her toes in the dating pool but is totally clueless. When she gets stood up by her Tinder date she gets talking to an irritating guy at the bar, an obvious player, and he offers a crash-course in seduction to give her the confidence to chat up guys.

Noah is a charming architect, he loves first dates but second and third not so much. He thinks he would be perfect as a seduction guru: encouraging Rosie to buy clothes that make her feel good, rather than just for comfort and convenience; giving her tips about they way men think; teaching her to feel fear and do it anyway.

I enjoyed this but I found it dragged on a bit and I thought Noah's advice was mildly demeaning, pretty underwear makes you feel pretty, let men order you a drink because it makes them feel good etc. Overall, if you are looking for a makeover romance this is a fun read but it didn't feel different enough to catch my imagination.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I read about 4 chapters before I stopped. What I did read was predictable and boring. I guess I'm not much of a chick lit fan.

Stoneley has done it again. She’s dragged me straight into an escapism read and all thought of my empty cupboards and hungry kids faded under the weight of her words.

Rosie, dumped by her ex and 8 months in the wilderness of the dating desert, she’s also let down by her first Tinder. In walks Noah. Noah, who has his own troubles, offers to teach her some lessons on how to nab her dream man. Fun, frolics and lots of laughs later… well read the book.

Light. Funny. Well written. And just what was needed today. Now what am I going to feed the kids for tea!

Look, I thought this was going to be an easy read, you know light and fun. What I encountered was a main character that lacked confidence, I cannot stress how annoying she was, what she needed was a psychologist, not a boyfriend.

Rosie has some big daddy issues that scarred her for life, and now she has to learn how to go on dates and eventually meet THE guy.

After she gets stood up by a tinder date, she meets Noah, a player. He offers to train her in the arts of dating. The guy is what she is not, confident, easygoing, likeable.

It’s obvious there’s some attraction, the banter was great and the dates they went to were enjoyable. But I found the author was overexplaining things. We know she has a very bad relationship with her dad, we don’t need full pages of text to make that point. It was just too repetitive for me.

And that is what ultimately killed it, I was skipping paragraphs by the end. I just couldn’t handle her whining all the time.
To make matters worse, the book ended how i anticipated, which is totally fine, but the MC never really confronted her dad. there was no enlightenment, or confrontation that would set a difference.
it was all very anti-climatic.

3.5 stars
This was such a fun read overall. From the first chapter I had a smile on my face and it carried out through almost all the book.
I enjoyed the characters and how the author has brought to life nowadays expectations in dating life and how everyone is behaving regarding the topic.
What I didn’t liked was the constant comparison of the male character with her parental figure, that was fun at the beginning but it felt a bit too much by the end.
All in all , many people will enjoy it for a fun read.

When I read the blurb about this book I was hoping it was going to be as good as it sounded.
I was wrong.... It was better! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, it had me laughing out loud and heart racing at times.
Rosie and Noah are the main characters. They have a chance meeting after a tinder date goes wrong for Rosie. They click and they get on great. They both have hidden pasts which both are scared to share... Rosie has father issues and Noah has mother issues.
Through the twist of the story they have ups and downs and I would definitely recommend this book
Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for my early release copy for my honest review

1.5/2 stars

The premise for this had so much potential to be 4 stars maybe even 5.

The good:
The first few chapters were funny and lighthearted. You learn Rosie got out of a bad relationship and feels down on her luck in the dating world. Also she has an overbearing, protective father. One night at a bar she meets someone named Noah and they kind of click and he offers to help get her confidence back. Noah is a stud.

The bad:
IMO Rosie is a very unlikable character. She is whiny and complains too much. Once she meets Noah and it becomes a relationship, she is still very whiny and self-deprecating. Very annoying.

The ugly:
This book had so much potential to be more but Rosie just can't seem to be grateful for her luck changing for the better when she meets Noah. She complains incessantly throughout the entire book about her father and it became very irritating. It was honestly almost a DNF and the plot became predictable, never good. I had high hopes for this nut was disappointed.

Again the above is just my opinion. Maybe I will feel differently if I read this again next year, but not likely.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an ARIC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Wow, this is Zara Stoneley on top form. I really loved both Rosie and Noah, both characters have a lot of warmth but also a lot of depth. The concept of Noah teaching Rosie how to date is unusual but works and Zara has created lots of believable chemistry between them. This is a very relaxing read and a great book to absorb yourself in to escape from the troubles of the real world right now.

I dont know why but I just did not connect with this book in any way. I really wanted to like it. The premise sounded fun and flirty but in reality I was just bored. DNF at 23%

This was a wonderful book of a change meeting between Rosie and Noah.
Rosie is stood up at the bar, ultimately meeting Noah who shows Rosie how to date. Is it possible they are better together?

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Rosie and Noah meet at a bar one night when her Tinder date has ghosted her. They’re immediately attracted to each other and strike up a friendship. Noah is a charming, good-looking buy, but he doesn’t want any serious relationship. He doesn’t want to be beyond a first date. But he can’t help enjoying Rosie’s company. He volunteers to help her get her dating mojo back by giving her pointers about how to be confident on a date. I like the message that being confident is inherently sexy.

Of course, they soon start having feelings for each other, but they sublimate those emotions to build up their friendship. This becomes a great friends-to-lovers romance.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Heat Factor: super slow burn and closed door
Character Chemistry: Their witty banter worked
Plot: Woman is waaaaaaaay too fixated on the possibility of dating her dad (type man)
Overall: It’s fun but not full-blown “out of the park”

If you’re looking for a light romantic comedy, this fake relationship with a cinnamon roll hero will scratch that itch. The First Date is fun, and by the time I got to the real meat of the relationship, all of the indicators that Noah was jealous and interested in Rosie (it’s written from Rosie’s 1st person POV) were pushing all my slow burn buttons. Rosie’s voice is light and fun in a not-quite-but-almost-manic-pixie-dream-girl way. She’s quirky.

Rosie has recently gotten out of a long-term relationship--actually her only relationship--and it was a mutual decision that they’d grown in different directions, but it’s also been months and she’s only just starting to think about dating. The problem is, she’s never really had to date, and she freezes up when she thinks about it. She’s actually being stood up by her first date prospect when Noah approaches and chats her up. He’s charming and smooth and everything she is trying to avoid. Because she has, like, the absolute worst daddy issues in the whole world. Seriously, her obsession with thinking about men in the context of her terrible father is waaaaaaay too much of a focus of her thoughts. So it takes up probably a little too much space in the book as well. And of course Noah is a charming, nice guy, so he gets painted all over with the daddy “do not cross” brush.

Anyway, one thing leads to another and Noah offers Rosie first dating lessons because he’s a serial first dater. At first I wondered how he was going to teach her how to do first dates when they would effectively be having multiple dates, but it does work because he focuses mostly on helping her focus on herself and her own wants and also on how to chat up men to get the prospect of a first date. There were times when this felt trite, but it worked in the context of the trope we’re dealing with. This is why I felt this book was fun but not gush-worthy. It scratches an itch but doesn’t always feel altogether fresh.

Of course, as in all fake relationship stories, things get real and HOW DOES ONE EVEN DEAL WITH THAT?! Even though things happened rather suddenly in the meet cute for Noah and Rosie, their chemistry was good. Believable. Maybe because it’s easy to believe that Noah’s a genuinely nice guy, so why does he need a reason to be nice to a quirky woman he thinks is fun? Stoneley really shines in the repartee where this relationship is concerned.

A note to the prospective reader: I had an advance copy of this book, and it was formatted in the way that many ARCs are formatted, which is to say it has weird paragraph alignments. I mention this because I felt at numerous points that I had missed something or that the text was hard to follow, and I’m not totally sure it was wholly down to the formatting (which I typically ignore in review because it’s for ARCs only). When characters are conversing and the book is formatted this way, it can be difficult to follow. But there was one point that I thought I’d skipped pages because it seemed like there had been a big jump in the conversation. At another point, Rosie says she’s pulling out her phone to read a text she’d received, but the first text that’s printed immediately below that sentence is a text from Rosie.

I feel that reading this type of book should not be difficult. There are books that I’d say part of the reading experience is having your mind bent by the prose. Romance is not that. Romance is about having your emotions bent. So I wasn’t totally clear about why, using the example above, the choice was to frame it as it was instead of adding a brief recap (“As she pulled out her phone to read her new text, her eyes skimmed the last one she’d sent.”) if having that text from Rosie was so necessary in the context of her conversation with Noah.

There are many things this book does well (banter, relationship development, slow burn), so I would say it’s a good choice if you’re looking for a light, fun, fake-relationship romance. Is it the best ever in this category? I wouldn’t go that far.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

I liked what I read - got about 35% thru and it kept crashing my Kindle. Very frustrating. I removed and redownloaded and still same thing.

#thefirstdate by author @zarastoneley
Was a funny story about online dating/apps for meeting people and what can really happen. Rosie meets Noah after being stood up by her online date. Noah, a ladies man offers to help "teach" Rosie how to date. The relationship between Noah and Rosie and their thoughts on love/relationships and "getting out of your comfort zone" helped make this story great! MUST READ!

This was a fun, quick read. It drew me in fairly quickly and I really enjoyed reading it. However, it didn’t strike me as anything new, if that makes sense. It’s a story line that I feel like I’ve read a time or two before, even though I enjoyed it each time. I only gave 3 out of 5 stars for that reason. I’m pretty stingy with giving out 5 stars but didn’t feel like it quite deserved 4 stars from me. It a cute rom-com with the basic “mr. wrong turns out to be mr. right” story and I feel certain that rom-com fans will enjoy it. It’s just not the first if it’s kind so is pretty predictable.

I received a free digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.

[Thanks Netgalley for the ebook. This review is my honest opinion but just another opinion, you should read this book and judge it by yourself]
The premise is great but the development isn't. Although I think Noah is great, sadly he is a secondary character and I couldn't stand Rosie the whole reading. And I think if you can't stand the MC of a book the reading isn't going to be a good one. It's supposed to be funny and charming but Rosie has a lot of daddy issues and they were constantly annoying me. She's always comparing Noah with her dad! It really bothered me and made me roll my eyes constantly. The first half of the book is lighter and funnier, but the second half mixes a lot of things and too boring.
I'm so sorry but this book is a NO for me.
------------------------------------------------
No es que sea lo peor que he leído pero tiene tantas cosas malas que no sé ni por dónde empezar. El planteamiento tiene buena pinta y el maromo, más, pero yo creo que ahí se acaba lo bueno. O, mejor dicho, yo no he sido capaz de ver más cosas buenas porque no he podido soportar a la protagonista. Puede que no esté para mandarla en el cohete al Sol en los siguientes Premios Aquelarre pero no está muy lejos. Vaya muchacha más indecisa, insegura y, por momentos, tontainas. Y tiene una obsesión con su padre que no es ni medio normal! Entiendo que le haya marcado tener un padre tan malo y que lo compare con Noah (el protagonista -que es más bien un personaje secundario-), pero no hace falta que lo digas en cada párrafo!! Que más que una chick-lit parecía esto un relato psicológico sobre traumas infantiles! Vamos, que cuando no conectas para nada con la protagonista de un libro, ya sabes que es complicado que el libro te guste.
Además, he tenido ciertos problemas con la narración y la estructura, pero entiendo que siendo una copia de Netgalley no definitiva, puede ser distinta al publicarse. También os digo que la mala lectura es por lo poco que me ha gustado la historia, no por su extrañeza formal.

The First Date, by Zara Stoneley, is an upcoming rom-com about a woman named Rosie who has no clue how to get a date, flirt with a guy, and so on. She sets up a date on Tinder and the guy is a no-show, however, this is also where she meets the sweet, handsome, and charming Noah. As suggested in the blurb, after these two start hanging out so Noah can give Rosie tips on dating, it becomes unclear if they are really into one another or if it is just all pretending in order to help Rosie gain confidence in the dating world.

I really liked the premise of this book and it seemed to be a perfect, light-hearted read for sitting around in the house all day, for days, with nothing to do. My overall feelings about this book are sort of segmented. I really enjoyed the first 20-25% and I really enjoyed the last 10-15%. Why not the middle and the majority of the book? Rosie’s non-stop obsessing and whining and inner dialogue about her asshole Dad! She had the sleaziest and most selfish father of all time and this grown woman allowed him to control her mind, heart, and soul. If not for this, I think the book would have been fabulous. But everything from dating, to clothes, to hair, career, and everything else all somehow managed to circle back around to her Daddy issues. It was just too much.

The greatest part of the novel was Noah. Yes, he also had some issues but they were small and did not impact every other paragraph of the novel. He was handsome, funny, assertive, and at times – very sexy. Basically, he was the reason I kept reading and didn’t stop when the book would go pages and pages at a time of Rosie recalling moments of her father’s absence, infidelity, or whatever.

Although I didn’t love The First Date, this is definitely an author that I will read again. Reviews of several of her other novels are fantastic, I think this one just went off track a bit too much.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

The First Date is a sweet and entertaining story with a great plot and witty banter. Rosie decides to sign up for a dating app after being dumped by her first and long term boyfriend when she's stood up on her very first date, she's not interested in the stranger sitting next to her in the bar, she just wants to wallow alone for a minute. Enter Noah, he's everything she thinks she doesn't want, charming, too handsome, and too flirty, but she just can't seem to resist him.

I really liked this story. I will confess that I was a little confused during the first chapter, it felt like it jumped around some, or was maybe missing a paragraph or two, but after that, it flowed well. I love this trope (there really aren't many that I don't like), Zara Stoneley did a great job with the slow development of the character's feelings for each other. Rosie did have a lot of issues surrounding her dad, but I don't think it was overplayed. Anyone who's ever had similar situations can tell you it really can affect you on a soul-deep level. I loved Noah and his charm, we only get to see him through Rosies' pov which I feel really adds to the feelings of the book. My favorite part of the whole story was Rosies' mom confronting her dad, it was so amazing to see her stand up for herself after all those years. Overall this is a great light read.