Thank you to victory HQ Digital & Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

As romances go, this one is pretty standard. I enjoyed the themes presented (the importance of friends/family & a boyfriend not the “be-all & end-all”, especially once you reach a certain age), however I really struggled with the writing style/internal dialogue & I couldn’t connect with Helen, so a bit of a miss for me unfortunately!

I really wanted to like this book but I was unable. I couldn't get behind our main character and the writing was a little choppy to me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an eARC copy of this book

Really wanted to like this book because they concept seems interesting. But, unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. Helen just seemed immature and stuck on her ex.

Once again, I am struck down by the appearance of a cute, pastel-filled book cover! The warmer weather always triggers my romance craving and what else could I possibly have expected from this adorable book?

Helen’s ex has just got engaged but her life is nowhere near that stage. She splits her time between her family home in Cornwall and a London apartment, where she spends her days as a baking blogger. With the encouragement of her best friends and beloved Nanny G, Helen enters the world of online dating. That’s where she meets Brody, who is looking for his last first date. After a wonderful date, the app goes down but when it returns, Brody is gone. Helen is determined to track him down but will it really be love at first like?

Helen feels that she is falling behind in life and I think a lot of 30-somethings feel that way about at least one area of their lives. The casual nature of modern dating makes it a lot harder to find someone who wants to be serious and that’s especially hard for women who want families. Helen is definitely a very likeable, believable heroine and I wanted good things for her.

Nanny G was one of my favourite characters. She has a brilliant sense of humour but also manages to maintain her status as a sage old lady, full of excellent advice. I think I’d happily read a spin-off novel from Nanny G’s point of view, as she recounts all the adventures of her life.

Helen meets a lovely guy called Ish, while walking home alone one night. He is a history nerd, who uses social media to make history fun and relatable. I loved when he and Helen decided to collaborate and they make an excellent team. He is such a loyal, unassuming character but he has a certain charm too, which makes him a lot of fun to be around. What a cutie!

I admired Helen’s optimism throughout the book and I don’t know whether many people would have maintained her level of hope after certain events of the book. However, her positivity reassured me that there was a happy ending waiting for her and I was able to hold on to the idea that true love really does always win.

The Last First Date is a cute, uplifting romance with an accurate portrayal of the frustrations of modern dating and a very relatable heroine. It has all the ingredients of a good chick flick as well as some darker scenes that prompt reflection. A light-hearted, sweet treat for the summer!

Although I truly wanted to enjoy this book, I was unable to. The idea behind the story—to lose touch with a valuable initial connection and then try to track them down—seemed to me to be really intriguing. Her friends were two characters that readers enjoyed reading about, yet not much time was spent on them. But I thought the other characters were too corny, and I thought the scenarios were very predictable. Instead then discussing Helen's baking business and then doing nothing with it, I wish there had been more time spent on it.

I really liked the Last First Date by Hayley Quinn! I can so relate to Helen who just wants to find a special someone. She goes on a great first date from an app but then the app crashes looses her match. She goes on a wild search to find him again. I especially loved the friends and family she had in this book.

I really wanted to like this book, the description sounded so interesting to me. Unfortunately I couldn't get through it and this story wasn't for me.

Helen has a lot going for her but she’s just not great at seeing it. Especially after seeing her ex just got engaged. She’s got great friends. A persistent, saucy grandmother but she’s not happy.

Wallowing and hiding out at her parents house, her grandmother mentions wanting to start online dating and this pushes Helen to take a chance.

Overall I liked the supportive friendships that help her in her self- discovery journey and pursuit of love.

- Solid friendships
- Sweet, friend to more relationship
- Complex family dynamics

If you are looking for a sweet romantic read (without spice) be sure to check this one out.

Thank you Hayley Quinn, HQ Digital, and Netgalley for the gifted e-book.

Helen Pines is 31 years old and isn't exactly where she expected to be in life. She just found out that her ex-boyfriend is engaged while she was spending the last year hoping he would get back together with her.

So now Helen is giving online dating a try. She ends up going on a date with Brody who ends up being the perfect man for her. Then when she opens the dating app all of her contacts have been deleted.

Helen is determined to find Brody. Using only his name and job location she starts searching for him. Is Brody truly her last first date or will she find another love on her search for Brody?

This is marketed as a romantic comedy novel, but to me it read more as a women's fiction novel. The first part of the novel felt very stalkerish. That sounds horrible to say, but Helen spends the entire first 2/3 of the novel basically obsessing over a guy she met once and running all over London and Cornwall trying to find him again. Her friends tell her it's not healthy, but try to help her find him anyway. She's so afraid of being single because of society standards, she doesn't think rationally. Her character is very unlikable and makes choices that a mature 30 year old really shouldn't be making. I just didn't like her character at all in the beginning. Thankfully, Helen does make personal growth during this book. By the end of the book Helen is much more likeable and the tone of the book is competely different. I think the messy, unhinged Helen at the beginning of the novel paired with the personal growth she made makes this an entertaining and fulfilling read.

3 1/2 stars. A sweet book with a good story and good character development with some of the characters. Others I felt were lacking - Ish in particular. Main character Helen's whiny negative self-talk also was grating at times. I just wanted to grab her my the shoulders and shake her. But that was generally in the minority. I'll definitely give the author another try!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the eARC through NetGalley.

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What distinguishes this book for me was how light-hearted the book was as well as the small comedic moments. It was a great balance and made the romance feel less nauseating. The author's writing style is the best one I've seen in the romance genre in a long time as the author didn't make the romance between characters drown out the plot. Overall I'd give it four stars I do think that some things could be changed but overall I loved the story.

i really wanted to like this one!! i found that the writing style of this author just wasn't for me! the concept was realy solid though but couldn't bing myself to finish this one sorry!

DNF
I just really couldn't get in to it and I just wasn't a fan of the characters.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

i really enjoyed this book!! it was so much fun to read, especially in the summertime!! thank you so much to netgalley for letting me read this one early!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of the book.

A fun read that was quick yet was missing something, I didn’t feel connected to the characters which kind of took away from my experience :/

One date. One missed chance. One mission to find love.

At 31-years-old, Helen Pines is far from where she thought she would be. Whilst her ex-boyfriend is now engaged, Helen’s still eating ready meals for one, wistfully dreaming of her last first date.

Determined to give online dating a go, she matches with drop-dead-gorgeous Brody, and they hit it off immediately.

One date later, Helen’s heart is still singing. Brody’s everything she’s looking for in a man – sexy, charismatic, and the perfect gentleman. But then she receives an error message on the app… all her contacts have been deleted.

With nothing but Brody’s name and job title to go on, Helen is determined to track him down.

But despite the initial chemistry, Helen realises she knows surprisingly little about her mystery man… Was it really love-at-first like, or will she find a new love along the way?

An utterly hilarious laugh-out-loud romance that will have you grinning from ear to ear from the first page to the last! Fans of Our Stop and Mhairi McFarlane will love this book.


It took me awhile to get into this book. The writing was a little weird for me but once I got into it more it got better. This ended up being a cute book. There were a few parts that I didn't like esp the Latina friend. I also didn't like her putting herself down constantly.


Thank you Netgalley & HarperCollins for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of the book.

This was a fun, quick read. My favorite part was that it was not truly predictable from the beginning. Don't get me wrong, even those books are fun to read, but this one was even more interesting because of that.

Regretfully this became a DNF at 21%.

The title and cover sucked me straight in - I couldn't wait to read this one. The concept was promising and I got the impression I would be reading story about a woman who almost experiences insta-love with a man, or even to be able to feel the connection between the characters and enjoy their banter.

I couldn't get past the writing style to actually enjoy any of the plot points. The Last First Date didn't read very well - details I wanted were skimmed over completely and the writing was chopping and the scenes jumpy.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't work out for me. I thought the concept of the story was very intriguing, to lose contact with a good first connection and then try to find them. Some of the characters were fun to read about, such as Ish and Elle, but not too much time was spent on them. However, I found the other characters to be too cheesy and the scenes too predictable in a bad way. I wish there was more time spent on Helen's baking career instead of mentioning it and then nothing happening with it. It was a quick read overall

Helen, who was just dumped, uses a dating app to look for her next partner. She sets out to find her date, "The One," after the app crashes following a wonderful evening and all contact information is lost. Life continues to go on despite her insane search for Brody, and she makes new acquaintances along the way.
I adored Nanny G and her wild personality! Although I might have predicted the outcome, it was still a pleasant, uplifting tale.

I appreciate this arc from HarperCollins UK and NetGalley.