This one was rough for me! I really did not like the narrator's attempts to do the male voices. Truly pulled me out of the story every single time.

As for the book itself, it is a bit more regressive than you expect in 2023. It never really subverts that "I'm not whole without a man" /shopping for a husband viewpoint, which I found unsettling.

Also... where were all the "dates"!? This was just two relationships and then getting with a friend?

Friends to lovers is, admittedly, not my favorite trope... but Tate was almost comedically perfect. Like what? Why would you even go on a date?

Again, this one just didn't resonate for me personally.

Reina Mystique narrates Amber D. Samuel’s The Many Dates of Indigo about a successful Houston luxury shoe and accessory boutique owner who, on the verge of her 30th birthday, actively searches for her perfect fit. At her sister’s baby shower, Indigo wonders why she hasn’t experienced a healthy, long-term relationship. Indigo sparkles at hooking her clients up with the perfect shoe. But, sadly, she can’t find a partner who fits her perfectly.

Tired of her lackluster dating life and longing for someone to share her life with, she plans to find the perfect man for her. Approaching it like a challenge, she actively seeks social opportunities and adds potential suitors to her social calendar to begin dating again. The perfect man for her must:

oGet along with her enormous, boisterous family
oBe able to deal with her busy life,
oFit in with her tight-knit friends, especially Nate—her childhood BFF.

Unfortunately, neither of her two potential suitors is Mr. Right. She has lovely chemistry with one, but something about him/his life doesn’t feel right. The other is great on paper, but in reality, not so much! Meanwhile, Indigo struggles with juggling her work, family, friends, and dreams and finding her perfect fit. And she’s gotten so caught up in searching that she’s losing sight of her life, what and who is most important to her. What if Indigo’s unrealistic expectations and inability to face/let go of her fears and forgive keep her from seeing that her perfect man has been in front of her the whole time? Can she let go of those expectations, face her fears, and learn to forgive to open her heart and life to her perfect fit?

Mystique’s lively and expressive narration complements Samuels’ funny and emotional narrative style bringing the story and characters brilliantly to life and drawing readers into Indigo’s journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and second chances. Her voices for Indigo, Nate, and her family and friends fit the characters perfectly. The narration for Indigo’s suitors is good also, except for moments where their voices sound off. Mystique delivers distinct narration for the characters that differentiate between them using pacing, tone, intonation, accents, dialects, speech patterns, language, and emotion, revealing their personalities, feelings, quirks, and states of mind.

Samuel’s lively dialogue, vivid descriptions, fascinating and flawed characters, and humorous and entertaining character interactions keep the story flowing with excellent pacing. I love Indigo and Nate’s relationship. Indigo and Nate are life-long childhood best friends whose relationship deepened into love. However, they had an emotional breakup in college that almost ruined their friendship. Indigo and Tate never talk about their romantic relationship and its ending. None of their family or friends know why they broke up. It’s a devastating secret that only the two share and never mention to keep their friendship intact. And I was unprepared for the intensity of emotion unleashed when we ultimately learn why they broke up and didn’t talk about that time in their lives—talk about complicated. Though I like to be prepared for things like this, I won’t reveal this without spoiler tags because I think the author’s intent for the characters and story is for readers to experience the surprising revelation for themselves.

Samuel nicely develops their characters and relationship through humorous, sweet, and surprising moments of heat and chemistry. But there are also moments filled with suppressed emotion, pain, and fear. Stubborn, goal-oriented, free-spirited, determined, and independent, Indigo walks her own path. She’s comfortable in her own skin and at peace with her life, except for romance. In that area, she can’t get it right. Because of past mistakes, she lets pressure from her family and fear incapacitate her, keeping her from going after the love life she wants. After a lifetime of allowing fear and worry about what people think about her to run her life and influence her decisions, Indigo finally decides to face her fears and forget them. It’s a frustrating journey for the reader and, likely, Nate, who is Indigo’s ride-or-die no matter what. Lucky for her. Tate is reliable, supportive, long-suffering, and a wonderful friend to Indigo. And unfortunately for him, he appears to be crazy about her—still.

It seems counterintuitive to hold this against a book literally about Indigo’s many dates. Still, I didn’t like that Indigo experienced varying degrees of unspecified intimacy with her dates—who aren’t the hero—on the page. But that’s my issue. Readers who don’t only want their hero and heroine to be with each other within the story won’t be affected in their enjoyment of the novel.

The Many Dates of Indigo is an entertaining, funny, sweet, sexy, angsty read exploring themes of friendship, first love, self-discovery, second chances, regret, making peace with the past, family, following your passion, searching for love, and forgiveness.

Advanced listening copy provided by Dreamscape Audio via Netgalley for review.

This book had so much promise. I was very excited at the blurb, but the book grossly missed the mark. Too much was going on in this audiobook. The narrator on this one nailed the female characters, but she struggled with the male voices. They were very odd. This book felt like it was rambling in many places. This could have been cut by at least 150 pages because there was not a strong plot. For the length, I wanted to see that crackling sexual tension between Indigo and Tate. The miscommunication in this book was also on the level of it being annoying. So many problems could have been solved with a simple chat. There also wasn't a lick of spice or chemistry between any of these characters. Overall my level of frustration with this book was too high for me to recommend it in good faith to others.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

At almost 30, Indigo's family and friends are pressuring her to find a man. Indigo is more focused on her thriving career but sets out to experiment in her dating life just to get them off her back.

Indigo learns so much about herself and what SHE really wants in life as she starts dating men with very different lifestyles. Seeing Indigo struggle with each relationship for different reasons made her character relatable.

Overall, the book was just ok. I didn't enjoy all the brand name dropping throughout the story. I realize that Indigo owned a luxury shoe store but all the name dropping was unnecessary and made her seem petty. There was a lot going on so I didn’t feel like I really got to know any of the characters well. Also, I listened to the audiobook and the narration of the male voices were not well done.

Although this book wasn’t for me, I know that many other people may love it.

I begrudgingly finished The Many Dates of Indigo. I think I would've enjoyed it much more had I been reading with my eyes, rather than my ears: I really didn't enjoy the narration when speaking as the male characters. It was also extremely predictable with no shocking twists. There are redeeming qualities to the story: you can date many men to figure out who ticks all your boxes without being exclusive (the title implies it is a LOT but really it is only 2(..ish) different men) and you can go against the life your parents expect of you. Clean friends-to-lovers romance, interesting story line.. but in hindsight I would've preferred to read it.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this ALC!

DNF at 33% 🥴

I’m sorry I just can’t with the extra extra descriptive (unnecessary) details about every single aspect of the scenes. It’s like listening to something I would’ve written in middle school.
Plus I absolutely don’t care about the main character and her supposed “many dates” (of which she’s been on two). The premise of the book just did not start off well and I’d rather spend my time on books that actually get me interested this far in… I really wanted to like this one but it just falls flat in every way for me.

This is my first book from Amber D. Samuel. It is the story of Indigo, a young woman approaching 30 who battles with well-wishers concerned with her dating status and uterus.

Indigo has stepped away from the life her parents wanted for her, and pursued her vision of entrepreneurship.

I don't want to say too much and spoil her journey, but Indigo's story is one to be embraced by women. A few messages from the book:

It's okay to DATE men, and not get exclusive immediately

It's okay to have a best friend of the opposite sex.

I won't say more.

If you love books with relatable African American characters and happy endings, this is the book for you. I listened to the audiobook and found myself verbally advising Indigo during her journey.

Thank you, NetGalley/Amber Samuels/Wattpad Books. I received an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

This is an adorable clean romance audiobook. Indigo finds her way in love and life was she least expected it.

the cover: cute and tells you that there's going to be multiple love interests
the FMC: Indigo- a business owner who knows what she wants out of life, but is afraid of looking for her Mr Right since she's been unlucky in love. we follow Indigo through her journey of deciding to find a date who is worth of her love, her life, and being the date to her 30th birthday bash her mother is throwing. will anyone be able to measure up?
the MMC: there are several interests in this book and at different times in the book it seemed like each was going to be Mr Right for Indigo so i won't put any spoilers here! her Mr Right needs to tick all her boxes though: love her dog, mesh well with her BFF (who happens to be a guy),
POV: 3rd person single perspective
HEA: yes
spice: the most mildly form of spice that it's basically not even black pepper. there are several kisses throughout and a couple suggestive scenes but no open-door and no fade-to-black scenes
TWs: addiction, alcoholism, abortion,
standalone?: yes!

read this book if you love
💋 clean romance
🔺 love triangles.. squares? OW/OM drama LOL

I enjoyed this story. Indigo a successful woman on her own, like many women approaching their 30th birthday, found herself at a crossroad. She became obsessed with the things she didn't have and felt it important to pour all her energy into getting a husband. Her obsession put her in a position of compromising on things that were once considered deal breakers. This story was true to life in many areas and I would recommend it to other readers. I listened to the audiobook and truly enjoyed the narrator as well.

I just reviewed The Many Dates of Indigo by Amber D. Samuel. #TheManyDatesofIndigo #NetGalley

As Indigo Clark approaches 30, she is tired of people asking her about her love life and when she will settle down. She has not been interested in dating, but now she decides to look for a man she can plan a future with. She vibes with her friends’ cousin Nathan, but he is hiding a serious secret. Hotshot lawyer Diego has recently started at Indigo’s mom’s law firm, and he wins Indigo over, but her mom cautions her against Diego. Tate is Indigo’s best friend, but they don’t ever talk about the relationship they had at 18 before reverting to best friend status. How will Indigo decide which man is the best for her in the long run?

This story is a solid 3.5 stars for me, your classic romcom where the outcome is predictable from the start. I loved the close relationship Indigo has with her family in this book. Reyna Mistique did a good job with narrating the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Multiple love interests and a cool main character? Sign me up! This book is about our main character Indigo and her adventures in love trying to find the right man for her.

The one thing I will say is that we did not get enough time to fall in love with the man she actually chooses. I know it is one of those misdirections type of books where they want you to focus on one things while another is slowly happening but since his interest wasn't that clear early on I wasn't as invested. That being said it was still super sweet I just felt like she chose him after her other interests were not available or clearly wrong for her. I don't want him to feel like a second choice!

Overall, I still recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a charming friends to lovers situation. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story!

I thought this was ok. I kind of figured who would be the one in the end for Indigo. There were some characters that I didn't really like. I think the communication could have been better too.

This book is just not great. There's way too much going on and a lot of the things should have been fixed before getting published. The main character makes odd choices About halfway in I figured out what the backstory was for her and the ex-boyfriend/best friend and it doesn't make any sense given the lives that the two of them are currently living. It feels more like a soap opera than it does a romance novel. I am sure that there is an audience for this book, but it is not me. The idea of reading the sequel drains me of energy.

This book overall was not for me.
I felt that the pacing was off and that events in the MC's life needed more explanation for the reader.
At times this was a cute book. I still am glad that I read it.

2.5 stars out of 5.
Thank you to Wattpad Webtoon Book Group for the audiobook arc.

This book was such a fun one. Because I met my husband in college, reading books about dating in your late 20’s always intrigues me!

Figuring out if people are serious about wanting to be in a relationship or if they’re still wanting to date multiple people with no end in sight. Indigo has always been a free spirit. Making decisions that are right with her and I relate to that!

So when she happens to meet two men (Nathan and Diego) she could possibly see a future with things get hectic. Not to mention her best friend Tate who everyone thinks she should be with anyone even if she just sees his as a friend.

We see Indigo struggle with what is best for her or if she’s just rushing everything. In the end, as I said earlier, Indigo always knows what’s best for her.

This book was light hearted for the most part. Just a woman trying to find love and we get to tag along on her adventures. I recommend always, but it’s perfect for this romantic month of love.

Thank you Net Galley for this copy!

I have mixed feelings about this romantic contemporary. This is my first from Amber D. Samuel and I really enjoyed her writing style. She brought the characters to life and made me care about each of the budding romances by developing the characters well and relationships naturally. However, I knew the outcome of this book about 3% into the book - that's how obvious it was. It made it hard to care about the other dates knowing the old "secretly in love with the best friend" trope was the focus of this. I did like that the author threw in some real life shit for them to deal with though and made the reason for their breakup VERY real and hit home for me. There was a lot of rawness to this that I really appreciated. I just wish it wasn't so predictable. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story reads like a cute, lighthearted, predictable, netflix rom com. The story overall is nice for a palette cleanser between hefty book series- however the writing style makes reading/listening to dialogue difficult to decipher. There are times when you can’t quite tell who said what- and the audible narrator didn’t help matters when the voice of the supporting female characters (except the mother) all sounded the same. Referring to the mother and father by their first name one sentence and then mom and dad the next was confusing for awhile as well.

Speaking of voices though- the narrator’s voices for the men were totally off and honestly annoying to listen to.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5323544045

This book was spectacular on audiobook. Instantly it was easy connect to Indigo. The family dynamics, her past experiences with love and heartbreak, and her quick wit made Indigo likable. And her perseverance and thoughtfulness draws the reader in. The outlook and attitude about love is not a new idea, but Indigo's strong boss babe attitude leads this story with originality. The most enjoyable part was watching Indigo transform into her true self through her path to love. I highly recommend this story. There are some real life issues that are addressed that I feel many novels shy away from. And I loved how the strong bonds of friendship kept coming back and in the end full circle.

I loved this audiobook! The story itself has the perfect mix of steamy and sweet, which kept my attention. Indigo is such a strong female leading character which also increases the appeal of the novel. Also noteworthy — this narrator was phenomenal. Loved every bit of this!