Personally this book was not my cup of tea! That doesn’t mean that it won’t be yours though so I definitely encourage you to read it ! The plot was just a little too slow to get in to for me.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Perfect Date' by Julia Crouch.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Julia Crouch, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 6th October 2023.


This is the third book I have read by this author. I have also read 'The New Mother' and 'The Daughters' which I would also highly recommend!


This novel consists of 42 chapters. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!


What an absolutely fantastically written book with vivid descriptions that make your heart raise and keeps you on the edge of your seat!!! The cover, synopsis and title suit the book perfectly!!

This book has a very realistic storyline and one which I was completely invested in. Once I picked it up I could not put it down so if you are about to read this then make sure you clear your schedules. If your not going to read it then a) why the heck not?!?! And b) definitely your loss!!! . It is absolutely filled with family, drama, crime, deception, love, tension, lies, suspense and a few shocks and twists thrown in!!! It was a complete minefield of twists and turns and I just had no idea who to believe. I was definitely not expecting the twists or the ending so a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Julia. I have read thousands of thrillers so it is getting harder and harder to shock me but you managed to completely blow my mind! The fact that Julia has done her research shines through. There is not much worse than a book filled with errors that have could easily have been avoided through research. I loved the addition of Caz's dog Joe who had a personality of his own. I'm a massive animal lover and even run my own cat rescue (Golden Oldies Cat Rescue And Hospice) so any storylines with animals playing large parts are always a huge bonus for me and Joe was definitely a big part in this fab read! I absolutely loved the mind-blowing twist at the end which I would have never seen coming!!! As always Julia's fantastic evocative writing skills had me completely invested and absorbed from the very first to the very last word!!

This is one of the few books that I have listened to 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but this time I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Sarah Durham who did an amazing job bringing this story and the characters to life with both male and female characters. I have previously listened to Liz Lawler's 'The Nurse's Secret', 'The Doctors Wife', 'The Doctors Widow's and 'The Family On Smith Street' that were all also narrated by Sarah Durham and I would highly recommend listening to or reading them all as they are other fantastic page turners from other great authors!! I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity. I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Julia but also to listening to more books narrated by Sarah!

I was completely invested in the characters, especially the gorgeous Joe!!! My heart went out to Caz who had been betrayed by her childhood friend, her mum had been left disabled and now her dates keep turning up dead!!! What I love about her is that she still stays strong when everything around her is tumbling and is determined to find out what is going on. I adored her relationship with her mum Ruth and both had me smiling and laughing on several occasions which helped to lift the dark and twisty atmosphere. I won't say anything else as this is the type of book that leaves you questioning many of the characters and I don't want to risk giving anything away. Regardless of how you feel about any of them though they each played their part is this gripping storyline perfectly!! Julia's evocative writing skills and Sarah's fantastic narration brings each and every one of them to life!!! Congratulations both!!


Congratulations Julia on one heck of a page turning psychological read!!! I absolutely loved reading this book and have already added all your previous books to my wish list. I look forward to reading more of your previous and future books. I would absolutely LOVE to see this turned into a movie which I can guarantee will be a sell out!! This is why you are in my favourite authour club!!! Here's to your next success 🥂

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the first chapter of Julia's 'The Daughters' which is actually one I have already read and if you enjoyed this book then I can guarantee you will love that one too. I would highly recommend reading it!!!

Overall an absolutely page turning, intense, heart racing psychological thriller that will get you addicted!!!


332 pages/ 9 hours 24 minutes


This book is just 99p to purchase, free with kindle unlimited, £8.99 on paperback and £16 for the audiobook via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!


Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

Feel free to add me on Goodreads or follow me on my website or Facebook for more reviews

#ThePerfectDate #SarahDurham #JuliaCrouch #Bookouture #BookoutureAnonymous #HachetteUK #Hachette #NetGalley #BookReview #BlogTour #BooksOnTour #Goodreads #NetGalley #Amazon #AmazonKindle #Bookstagram #Bookblogger #KindleUnlimited #BookoutureAudio #Audible #Audiobook


@ThePerfectDate @SarahDurham @JuliaCrouch @Bookouture @BookoutureAnonymous @HachetteUK @Hachette @Bookworm1986 @bookworm86 @Goodreads @Netgalley @Amazon @AmazonKindle @Bookstagram @BookBlogger @KindleUnlimited @BookoutureAudio @Audible @Audiobook



https://kcmw86.wixsite.com/bookworm86



https://m.facebook.com/Bookworm1986/?ref=bookmarks




https://m.facebook.com/Bookwork86/?__tn__=%2As-R



https://www.instagram.com/bookwormwhitlock86/



https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/34299953-kirsty-bookworm86




https://mobile.twitter.com/kcmw86



https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFZ2XZBSFHIHXBXGZLBQ666XVK4A?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_mb_l_prf

🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you Bookouture for inviting me to be part of the Books on Tour for “The Perfect Date” by Julia Crouch. I devoured the book in just a few hours. Wow! Crouch has done it again, this book was absolutely fantastic!
Caz just moved home to live with her mother. She is a dog walker and discovers a dead body on her walk. But it’s not just any dead body, it’s her current flame. And the same happened a few months ago to her!
I couldn’t put this down because I had to see how this story played out.Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Happy Reading!

#ThePerfectDate #JuliaCrouch #NetGalley #Bookouture #BooksOnTour #BookLove #Mystery #Bookstagram #NewBook #ILoveBooks

Another absolutely stunning read from the very talented Julia Crouch!! Wholly deserved 5 stars!

Caz has moved back home to Brighton to look after her mother Ruth after Ruth has had an accident. Caz is more than happy to return home after experiencing a traumatic event in London where she used to work as a Secondary School Maths teacher. She has set up a very successful dog walking business in Brighton since returning and very much enjoys what she does now. When her old friend Marcy has to suddenly go away Marcy asks Caz if she will dog sit, and house sit for her and despite their friendship ending badly years back the pair have reconnected, and Caz agrees to help Marcy out. Once again, she experiences another traumatic event and decides that moving into Marcy’s house for a bit might help her heal from that with different surroundings. However, as soon as Caz moves into Marcey’s house strange things start happening, the neighbours seem weird, Marcey isn’t answering any of Caz’s texts about when she is coming back and then she starts to get letters threatening her loved ones. Caz doesn’t know who to trust and then when she discovers a huge secret that Ruth has been hiding from her, she realises that she is in extreme danger and so are her loved ones. People she knows start to go missing and Caz needs to put the pieces together but can she do it in time to save them and ultimately herself?!

Wow, wow and WOW!! Julia Crouch has done it again with an excellent hard to put down page turner!! I was hooked very early on in the book and the tension just built and built! I wasn’t sure what to make of Caz to start with and I did find myself screaming in my head about some of the life choices she was making, but ultimately, I did like her. I was definitely led down the wrong path over who the baddie was which was excellent as I love being surprised when reading a book and this one did just that.

Overall, another great offering from the talented Julia Crouch, twisty and satisfying. I would highly recommend this to any psychological thriller fans, and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next. Completely deserved 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, Julia Crouch and Bookouture my advanced reading copy. Out now.

I know dating can be rough, but wow what poor Caz goes through in this one. She finds a guy dead that she met and dated from a dating app. If that isn’t traumatizing enough, she’s housesitting for a while as a break from life and that owner/friend appears to be missing. Eek! I’m glad I am not friends with her. Due to a mysterious event in her past, she is not wanting to contact the police with all the weirdness in her life. And there are either really weird things happening or many coincidences.

Because of the tone of the writing, I wasn’t feeling very sympathetic for Caz, but I was terribly interested in finding out if my guess of what was happening was correct. I jumped right onto something that felt off for me and while I had the correct suspect, I was so far off in my reason why. But isn’t that what makes a good thriller?

At times I was reading and other times I was listening to this one and really liked Sarah Durham’s narration of the story. She kept me engaged and still focused on the story.

It’s a little bit of a cat and mouse game as the villain sends her notes and has her surveilled. There are multiple men in her life that are advising her and I couldn’t decide who was helping her and who was in it for themselves. It really was a enjoyable read to see if Caz would find the man of her dreams or maybe end up six feet under.

Crouch is a new author to me, so I wasn't sure what to expect from her, but after reading The Perfect Date, I look forward to reading more from her as I really enjoyed the book and inhaled it in one sitting.

Creepy or coincidence? You meet the perfect man - the following day you're out walking the dogs for your clients and you find a body - it's him!

Flipping 'eck, the author certainly knows how to grab your attention doesn't she? What a storyline, twisted, full of suspense and guaranteed to get your pulse rate racing.

Caroline was a little frustrating, but I quickly became emotionally invested in her character.

Brilliant story, definitely worth the read!

What a gripping psychological thriller
With her last two dates both fatally meeting a killer.
She has no idea if the killings are linked in another way
But wonders if it's her fault some way.

With Joe, her dog, to help her through
She's unsure who to trust or what to do.
A riveting read full of twists and surprises galore
With secrets and lies as well as clues she's looking for.

This is one of those stories where the least said the best
As I don't want to preempt you discovering the rest.
Enough to say this is a page-turner read
Which keeps you guessing but gives the clues that you need.

For my complementary copy of this book, I say thank you -
Such an intriguing read - as I share my honest review.

Well this one had some fun twists in it. I couldn’t stop reading to this one. I needed to know who the killer was. And once I had it figured out I had to know who else was going to die and how things were going to wrap up. I liked Julia’s writing style. It was easy to connect with Caroline and Ruth. I understood Caroline’s distrust in the police and so many of the men she came in contact with.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC of this book.

This book was the perfect way to introduce me to this author. Crouch writes a book that is full of suspense and mystery. It is fast paced, with short chapters and it will keep you guessing until the very end. While it did start out a little slow for me, it quickly picked up and I couldn’t stop reading. There are a lot of twists and turns that you’ll never see coming!

All of the characters in this book were very distinct and each one had a part to play. It’s hard to know who to trust because it seems anyone can have a motive to kill. The plot is well thought out and the ending is cleaned up nicely, not leaving any questions about what happened. This is the type of ending I prefer!

Any thriller lover will enjoy this book, therefore I highly recommend it!

Gripping , exciting, full of suspense… lots of twists and turns along the way…
Thanks netgalley for share this book

What a great well written psychological thriller. I really just did not want to put it down. The twists snd turns had you second guessing all the way through. I loved the way the author captured the characteristics of the dogs so well and had Joey interacting with Caz and their surroundings all the time. As in many books like this it all got wrapped up a bit quick at the end but I can forgive that as all the loose ends were dealt with satisfactorily.

I wasn't sure what to expect after I read the description to The Perfect Date but once I started reading I was pleasantly surprised. I was hooked immediately and could not put it down. It had plenty of twists and turns which I loved and quite a surprising and satisfying ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

I really enjoyed this thriller, my wheels were turning the entire time but I can honestly say the plot twist did surprise me! If you like thrillers, definitely give this one a try!

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book exceeded my expectation as I thought it would be a quick formulaic thriller from the description, but the story was fascinating. The mother- daughter relationship, her deep bond with her dog, the complicated female friendship all made a very compelling story. The characters were complex and three- dimensional.

Five stars!

I didn’t know what to expect but I am glad I gave this book a shot. I really enjoyed this book and I already recommended it to a few book friends.

Am I the only one who thought this book was misnamed? I mean,. in hindsight, I guess…

The thing is, the book was fairly frun of the mill and the main character was annoying. I mean, the main character seemed to have main character syndrome. That made it incredibly hard to believe that she didn’t see what was happening sooner. I just found the whole thing unbelievable and ridiculous. Everfy single part. From someone going from a teacher to (an apparently certified) dog walker to every man in the entire book trying to sleep with this basket case. The ending was just beyond belief.

I tried reading this but switched over to the audiobooks version just to get through it.

After Cassie finds the dead body of the guy she has been seeing she moves back home to leads to be with her disabled mother it really freaked her out but when she ran across the new guy she’s been dating and he’s also dead, she not only swears off dating but also lies to the police so unlike last time she won’t be arrested. So when her childhood friend Marcy who she had a falling out with recently reunited with calls to ask if she can housesit while she goes to take care of her mom who broke her hip caS feels like this may be the break she needs a week in a lavish home, rent free and she’ll be paid well. Plus where Marcie lives all the dog she trains and walks lives close around there so it is a win-win. The day she moves and she meets the neighbor who insist she go to the dinner the next day to introduce her new live-in boyfriend John to her friends in the neighborhood this is where she meets Peter who Cass find to be a very nice man but sergeant Collins shows up at Marcie’s to ask did she know the dead guy she found in the park Cass kind of comes clean but just wants him to leave. When strange things starts happening however she will hope Sergeant Collins comes back. There is so much I did not put in my review and it it’s a lot and it’s so good and so twisty and a book I definitely highly recommend. I love the books by this author in this one had me guessing until the big reveal and OMG I was not expecting it I do want to say when Cass lost Joey at the end that made my heart start palpitating so the finale really had my blood going this was an awesome god and when I thoroughly enjoyed. I want to thank Bookoucher and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I was definitely hoping for bad dates dates gone wrong or serial stalker vibes on this book! The premise of this storyline was unexpected and honestly makes you not want to try dating anyone. 😂 But what started off as a plot following the book title, eventually went a different direction and I felt like they no longer pertained to each other. Yes, there was still the bad vibes Caz (FMC) was getting from all the men she came into contact with, but I was hoping for another actual date to go wrong.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and that it was a single POV with great details and wonderful dialogue. I kept hoping that Marcy was actually the one messing with Caz as another way to mess with her life. But then it seemed way more likely that another person was stalking her from the dating app. I especially enjoyed that the author threw several different people in the mix as a way to throw you off your guess of who the killer/stalker actually is.

I definitely didn't even suspect who the real killer was until Caz’s mom, Ruth, talks about her past. They knew who they were looking for after that moment, but didn’t know when he’d strike. So when the twist happened, I actually was so disturbed by which character the killer actually was and his motive, but I really enjoyed it still! Definitely would recommend this book to others who want a quick read!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and author Julia Crouch for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!

‘She thought she’d found the one… But then she found him dead…’ - cover tag line.

My thanks to Bookouture for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Perfect Date’ by Julia Crouch. I was also invited to take part in the publication week blog tour.

Well, my attention was certainly snagged by that tag line! Caroline (Caz) Sessions has recently returned to Brighton to look after her ailing mother, Ruth. However, there was another reason to leave London. The last man that she dated had been murdered and for a short time she had been the prime suspect! Recently she tried using the dating app again and met Harry with whom she had shared two successful dates. She has a good feeling about him.

Caz has started a dog walking business that keeps her busy. When out walking some of her charges, she lets Joey, her own dog, off his leash. He runs off, comes back and seems very agitated. Then she sees that he’s found a dead body! As Caz draws closer, she realises that it’s Harry. She faints …

What an opening! When the police interview Caz she doesn’t mention that she knew the victim. After all dog walkers are always coming across dead bodies! Plus, surely it’s just a coincidence that another man she was dating met a sticky end.

Then Marcy, one of Caz’s clients, sends her a message offering her a lucrative week long job as pet sitter for Bridget Jones, her pampered Maltipoo. Caz moves into Marcy’s luxurious home and fantasises that it could have been hers. We learn that years before Marcy and Caz had been best friends until Mark, Caz’s boyfriend, had dumped her for Marcy. Ouch! Since they are now divorced, Caz is trying her best to reconnect with her old friend. Yet she feels that something isn’t quite right at the house. No further details to avoid spoilers.

There’s a lot going on in ‘The Perfect Date’. At times I was concerned that it was too much though Crouch clearly knows her craft and brought together its various threads in what I found a satisfying conclusion. It was a very twisty journey.

I found myself quite invested in the narrative, even though Caz’s behaviour was sometimes frustrating. In addition, any thriller that contains animals, especially much loved pets, always provides an extra degree of tension.

Overall, I found ‘The Perfect Date’ a gripping psychological thriller, that was almost impossible to put down. While it was the first novel I have read by Julia Crouch, it certainly won’t be my last.

The book throws you into action right from the first chapter and the pace is never slow down.

Caz is a dog walker 🐶 So this is a morning walk, Caz working but thinking about the guy from the dating app, Harry. Even thinks he may be The One!

And then her dog Joe helps discover a body! And guess who is it? Exactly poor Harry 😨

But for Caz, it’s not the first time her date was murdered. She doesn’t think it’s linked tho, based on how differently they were killed. So Caz decides not to tell the police anything, even the fact she knows who the body is.

Right after that, her client/ex-friend Marcy suggests Caz move into her house for a week. And then the weird things start to happen…

I like the fast pace, the plot, and all the twists!
First half of the book couldn’t even guess what was going on, there were no clues! And the second half is a wild ride when everyone is suspected.

The writing is smooth and catchy. Love it!

But Caz herself didn’t make me sympathize with her a lot. I questioned some of her denials, reactions, and behavior. But it didn’t disturb me at all!
My favorite character is 100% Joe. Smart and protective, a dream dog!

Highly recommend “The Perfect Date” if you like fast-paced whodunit thrillers. And dogs 🐕

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.