Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. all opinions are solely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5

Caz has moved back in with her mother, Ruth in Brighton following the Incident. Once a school teach in London, caz has established herself as a dog walker/trainer for well to do clientele.

Reestablishing her connections with old friends: Damian the friend to all, Marcy the best friend who betrayed her and Mark the one who got away, may not be the homecoming anticipated.

On a house/dog sitting job Marcy has entreated caz to agree to, disturbing things begin to occur. Stumbling across a murdered man Caz met through a dating app stirs up the Incident yet again. There are mysterious and cryptic neighbors, a creepy detective and mysterious packages being delivered but who can Caz trust to confide in?

Marketed as a psychological thriller told in 1st person from Caz’s POV there are several unreliable characters, except for Joe who can always be relied upon. Adequate character development, good pacing. There are some twists, sadly I surmised the biggest twist early on. Maybe the characters actions and reactions would have seemed more believable to me if they were younger. Being in one’s 30’s with extremely lucrative and successful careers I’d expect a few of them to be more savvy. However, I’d still recommend to my reading groups and friends.

Grabs your attention and forces you to continue reading! Very fun and interesting, with a great premise! A perfect summer read for a day at the beach!

I had the amazing opportunity to read this as an ARC from Bookoture and it did not disappoint.

The first half was a bit slow to get into but it was because the author was setting up the storyline to unfold in the last half of the book. Boy did it ever! I found myself constantly asking myself “who is it?” as I was trying to figure it out with our main character.

The ending was a surprise to me - I definitely had my suspicions leading up to the big reveal but at that point everyone in the book was a suspect in my eyes.

If you enjoy books that lead you into thinking that the suspect could be one of many characters then this read is up your alley!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookoture for giving me the opportunity to read this book before it’s release date.

Julia Crouch is an author I expect great things from, and The Perfect Date did not disappoint. The plot is intriguing, the characters enjoyable, and the ending had me surprised. I cannot say enough good things about The Perfect Date!

Wow what an amazing book , great characters and totally unexpected ending . I loved all the twists and turns and it kept me up long into the night . I highly recommend this book . I look forward to reading more from this author. 5 stars from me .

I love the beginning of this one! I did feel like I was missing some context. Our protagonist is a dog walker. She is a dog training expert as well. Her personal dog is good at finding corpses for some reason and one on a walk with a bunch of dogs he finds a body, again, and again it is someone Caz was dating. In fact he literally just messaged her. She does the right thing and calls the cops immediately and then leaves to take the dogs home and check on her mom.
The same day or the next day her ex friend asks her to house sit at her mansion. Homegirl stole Caz's boyfriend in college, so I don't know why they are friends now. Small town probably. I have a few friends who "stole" mens from me. So whatever, but still.
Anyway, the whole communication is through text so she gets there and finds the house a little messy and then finds her friends handbag and she's like "wtf" and her friend isn't texting her back.
So it's all weird and she is straight up not having a good time and she looks like a murderer. Ooof.
She's cool though because she is a little bit slutty and you know what - that's fine. Get it girl. Just don't get it with murder victims who are married.
I guess based on reading all the books set in the UK that dog walkers find all the bodies there. So it is interesting to read about that from the dog walkers perspective. There is a lot of talking though and I am not a fan of that.

Thank you to NetGalley, Julia Crouch, and Bookouture, for an ARC copy of "The Perfect Date".

The story introduces us to the Caz, whose life takes a chilling turn when she stumbles upon the body of Harry, a man she had been dating. This shocking discovery is not the first time she has encountered such a horrifying situation. Just six months earlier, she found another man, Ash, whom she had also been seeing, dead under mysterious circumstances. The trauma from that experience nearly shattered her life, leading her to relocate and start anew.

"The Perfect Date" is a gripping and engrossing thriller that will have you questioning every character's motives and secrets. It is a testament to Julia Crouch's storytelling prowess, delivering a story that is both psychologically intricate and emotionally charged. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers that keep you guessing until the very end, "The Perfect Date" is a must-read that will leave you breathless and eager to uncover the truth behind the chilling events in the book.

A perfect thriller, plenty of suspects and plot twists along the way, I will definitely be looking out for more books by Julia Crouch in the future

This thriller took a while to get to get into - perfect if you like a slow paced book. Author done a great job of describing characters and capturing their thoughts and feelings.

I was absolutely hooked on his book from the very first page. I LOVEEDDD the main characters POV & her personality. She was a deep character who was easy to relate to in the way that she thought & the reactions she had.

This is a great thriller for going into spooky season! I finished in 2 days.

The premise for this book was interesting, and I was hooked until about the 60% mark when things started to pick up and I immediately knew where things were heading. I really enjoyed the chaos and the fact that so many of our characters were unreliable in the beginning and I wasn't sure who to trust.

Once I knew who was responsible for what was going on (i was 99% sure quite early on), I was hoping there was going to be a twist or some separate reveal to explain things, but I honestly wasn't a huge fan of how things ended and feel like there were some gaps.

If you enjoy a classic who dunnit, I think you’ll like this…but I would call this more mystery than thriller.

Thank you Bookouture for the ARC for my honest review. This domestic thriller fell a bit flat for me. The premise was interesting. Our protagonist, Carolina, is a dog walker and stumbles upon a dead body during one of her shifts. And the dead body is a guy she went on a couple dates with. And this isn't the first time she's stumbled upon a dead body on a job.

When questioned by the police she doesn't divulge the information that she knew him, since she was suspect number one the first time this happened. She also gets asked to house/dog sit for a one time friend but now client (who also stole her boyfriend i college, married boyfriend, and now is getting divorced). She agrees, but the neighborhood is filled with shady characters where anyone is a suspect. This book is filled with twists and turns, but they fell flat for me.

This can’t be happening again, Caz thinks as she stumbles upon a dead body. It’s not just any dead body though, it’s a man named Harry who she’s supposed to be going on a second date with tonight. She left her old town and job behind 8 months ago after this happened last time. They can’t be connected though, can they? Ash was married and as far as Caz knows, Harry isn’t. Does Caz have secrets of her own? Who would do this to her? Are they trying to frame her for murder? Has everyone in her life been keeping secrets from her? Is she safe or is she next? There are so many terrible and questionable things happening to Caz, can she find out who did it?

This is my first Julia Crouch book and I have to say I am impressed! It was a little slow to start but I think that was mainly because I thought I had it figured out and I didn’t. Once I realized I was wrong, I couldn’t stop reading to figure out what the actual HECK was going on. Caz was a little annoying at times but I also think it added to the suspense because it left you guessing. Overall I’d say a 4 star read! Definitely worth checking out when it releases in October!

Everyone enjoys a perfect date but imagine if you found out your dates kept dying. This is a classic thriller and an enjoyable read.

It took me awhile to get into this book, and it was hard for me to keep going, but I'm glad I did. The ending ended up being pretty good, and had an interesting twist. Although it wasn't as gripping of a story as I had hoped, I did enjoy it!

This book was really good. Full of twists and turns that kept me hooked till the very end. I really felt for the main character having the same thing happen to her over and over again.

Intriguing and exciting. I was kept guessing until the very end as to where everything was headed. Great read with a !mystery that will pull you in.

This was a good read. I enjoyed not knowing where the plot was going, there were so many possibilities and I didn't guess any of them right until it was spelled out for me!

It was a great thriller that kept you on your toes. I'm giving it a 3.5/5 because at the start it was a bit slow to get into. But once I got about 60% in I flew through the rest.

Definitely recommend!

We feel so secure with all the systems we can use to protect ourselves and our homes. Think about doorbell and any other cameras in and around the house, tracking systems on cell phones or other tracking gadgets, but do we ever stop to think that those can be used as easily against us, allowing people to follow our every move...

I first had my money on someone being responsible for the murders, but I had to throw that idea overboard rather swiftly. Although in the end it seems they might have it in them...

So I had to concentrate on someone else, but on who. Well, that was rather straightforward,because one person was offered on a plate or was this to obvious?

The further I read, the more entangled the main character Caz became and the more she realised she needed help. Time to come clean and it seems she is not the only one who has some explaining to do. 

I never saw this coming and I was pleasantly surprised by the denouement.

My favorite character? It has to be Joe(y), the dog. He certainly is one cleaver cookie. 

Very entertaining story. 4 stars

Thank you

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have enjoyed everything this author has written and this was no exception. Great storyline, great characters and a real page turner.