‘The Last First Date’ – Hayley Quinn
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?
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I experienced a proper sense of deja-vu with this book: the story did not feel original and the characters were bland and uninteresting. I like a good romance story and always enjoy them when they make me laugh. Instead, this book from Quinn bored me close to tears and it felt like a copy of so many other books I have read recently.
Single Helen is the typical lonely woman, having returned home to live with her parents, mourning her previous relationship. Her ex, Jonathan, sounds like he was leading her on and it isn’t too surprising that this relationship never went anywhere. Except Helen cannot see this and wallows in Cornwall with her blogging and Instagram page stalling for lack of creativity. Finally turning to dating apps to move on from Jonathan, Helen has a magical first date with handsome Brody. But losing his details on the app encourages Helen to return to London and try and find this dream man. Sound familiar?
What follows is Helen stalking Instagram and anywhere she can remember that Brody might be. It is supposed to be funny but I found it tedious because it felt so reminiscent of similar stories. Although some of the character developments were surprising, it still wasn’t enough to keep me entertained and invested in the story. Despite loving Brody’s plea for a final first date in a hope to settle down, I don’t think the plot delivered that cutesy romance that is also implied by the cover. There was a lot of chat and not much else happening, when I think I would have preferred Brody to be less of an enigma and maybe even switching to his narrative perspective to add more depth to the story.
I also felt confused by Helen’s supposed career. Whilst Quinn describes how Helen writes articles for a living, alongside her Instagram page, I was bemused by how this would provide an actual income to live off, especially considering she rents in London. Coupled with her friend, Ish, who also is an Instagrammer, I could not understand how they could make a living whilst apparently not doing very much. It felt very unrealistic; I wish I could have the same magic money pot these characters appear to have!
To be honest, this was just about ok for a romance read but it was not very interesting. I thought so much more could have been done with the plot to make it entertaining. I enjoyed the different direction that Quinn eventually took the plot but, in my opinion, this was far too late coming and made for a slow and predictable narrative.
With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Mrs Brown's books 