Reviewer: Tracy Date Night by RC Matthews
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 3, 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
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Ever since Jordan Billette’s father, Jeremy, died unexpectedly when she was eight years old, Jordan and her paternal grandmother (‘Grannie’) have shared a special bond by creating a tribute to Jeremy: a scrapbook that documents the important milestone of Jordan’s life from her first report card with letter grades, to her first kiss, to graduating from college.
Upon graduating from college, only one significant milestone remains; her wedding day. When Grannie is diagnosed with aggressive cancer, she makes one dying wish to Jordan. Grannie wants to watch Jordan walk down the aisle. Not engaged? Not even dating? No problem. Grannie has a plan. She signs Jordan up for a dating service—dinner dates twice per week will surely turn up a soul mate!
JT Murphy has been best friends with Jordan’s older brother Jared since they were in diapers. Grannie wisely insists Jordan meet her dates at the restaurant where JT waits tables because she needs protection from unworthy jerks. JT is more than happy to help; Jordan is like a sister to him. So why does her smile light up his evening whenever he sees her and why is he noticing that she has curves in all the right places? As the wedding draws near…JT wonders if it’s his heart that needs protecting…from the pain of potentially losing Jordan forever.
The couple end up spending more time together and end up falling in love. JT, however, doesn’t want the relationship out in the open and Jordan doesn’t want to hide. Between the pressure of dating and the wedding Jordan’s had enough of JT’s hemming and hawing. She needs a commitment – but she may not get what she’s looking for.
This was a cute story. Yes, I admit, it was weird that Jordan was dating with the plan to get married in just 2 months. How can you meet a complete stranger and plan to get married so quickly. Yes, it’s happened before, but to go out looking it just seemed odd. The author did make the story work, however, and with JT stepping in and claiming Jordan for himself it ended up making sense.
Now I did have some issues with the book. The story was told in alternating 1st person POV. This is not a bad thing but we were never given any indication from the author as to who was speaking. Most of the time it was a chapter change or we had a few *** to separate things but even then it was confusing. I also didn’t care for some games that Jordan was playing with JT. She had said her piece about coming out in the open and he didn’t budge on it so she accepted a date from someone else hoping to spur him on. I do not like when a woman does that – at all. In this books case it worked to make him jealous but I think it’s a completely immature thing to do. These are adults, not high schoolers. My third issue was strictly a personal preference – the author had Jordan comparing JT’s looks with Robert Pattinson – ug. I personally am not a fan of that actors so having this hero described as such was a complete turn off for me. As I said, a personal preference. For others that might be a huge turn ON so there ya go. 🙂
Overall it was a cute book and an enjoyable read.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5