28 Dates (Crazy Love: Book 3) by Stacey Lynn

3 Stars

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Loveswept, Loveswept

Date of publication: June 11th, 2019

Genre: Romance

Series: Crazy Love

Fake Wife-–Book 1 (review here)

Knocked Up—Book 2 (review here)

28 Dates—Book 3

Where you can find 28 Dates: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | BookBub

Book synopsis:

In the age of apps and social media, how many dates does it take to find “the one”? The author of Knocked Up and Fake Wife swipes right on love with a captivating friends-to-lovers tale.

Caitlin Pappas is a lifelong commitment-phobe. The closest thing she’s had to a relationship in the last few years was a friends-with-benefits thing that fizzled out because the guy wanted more. So when she and her best friend design a new app that promises to find “the one” in 28 Dates, Caitlin is the perfect guinea pig. Little does she know that she may have already met her match. . . .

Jonas Reeves has tried his best to move on after Caitlin didn’t want take things to the next level. Now they really are just friends . . . without benefits. Caitlin’s even a regular at his bar, The Dirty Martini. But when he learns that Caitlin plans to beta-test a new dating app on his home turf, Jonas senses a golden opportunity to win her heart. Even if he has to slide into her DMs to do it. . . .

The steamy standalone novels in Stacey Lynn’s Crazy Love series can be read together or separately:
FAKE WIFE • KNOCKED UP • 28 DATES

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My Review:

I started 28 Dates being excited about it. I had read the previous two books and liked them. So, my expectations for this book were high. I figured that a book about friends with benefits relationship turning into more would be a good read. Instead, I got a book that had me so disinterested in the characters that I almost skipped over the epilogue.

The plot for 28 Dates was interesting. Caitlin is a commitment-phobe. She refuses to do relationships. Her long term friends with benefits ended because Jonas developed feelings for her, and it scared Caitlin. So, she was surprised when her best friend asked her to beta test a dating app that he developed. All she had to do was go on 28 dates. She reluctantly agrees. The same time that she becomes the beta tester, she discovers that her feelings for Jonas haven’t disappeared over the last six months. How is she going to deal with her feelings and date at the same time? Will Caitlin finally realize that she is worth a relationship?

28 Dates started strong. I was enjoying Caitlin’s forays into Dirty’s. I was enjoying watching her friendship with Jonas deepen. Then she started beta testing that app. That is when the book began to go downhill.

The author did do a great job of showing what kind of nutcases there are when online dating. The foot fetish guy had me in tears laughing. That was genuinely funny.

I thought that Caitlin setting up her dates in Jonas’s bar was weird. I know that she felt safe there but couldn’t she pick up on the jealousy vibes from him? He wasn’t subtle about how he felt.

I did like Caitlin. She was sweet. She didn’t take any crap from any of the people she met from the app. She was a pro at putting Jonas in his place. I also liked her outlook on life.

Jonas skeeved me out. He couldn’t get over Caitlin. He acted like a toddler when she started bringing dates into his bar. Instead of coming clean about his feelings, he did something that made me go “Ewww.” I got stalker like vibes from him the entire book. What he did only reinforced my feelings on that.

The romance angle wasn’t there, even at the end of the book. Because I didn’t feel the romance, the sex scenes didn’t do it for me. Yes, they were hot, but I couldn’t get into them.

The end of the book was alright. I liked that everything was wrapped up, but it didn’t feel right to me. And the epilogue. Usually, I would be beyond happy for news like that. But this time, I was like, “eh.”

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I would give 28 Dates an Adult rating. There is sex. There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I an on the fence if I would reread 28 dates I am on the fence if I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**