A good book to learn from. All in the dating world should read this. The writer includes lessons learned and what she would prefer to have happen on a date. With this many bad dates, you might wonder if she is being to particular, but I can assure you that all of these are very bad dates.

okay, so i really wanted to enjoy this book. but it did not work for me. it was way too much and just not what i was looking for. i might come back to it in the future to try again. thanks so much, netgalley!!!

This book was really funny in places, the spped dating experience had me laughing out loud.

It showed how often online dating have people who aren't entirely honest which was my own experience too.

I found some of the book repetitive but overall it was entertaining and a nice light read.

(2.5 stars)
This book documents 28 different dates that our author has had the misfortune of experiencing. There's a heavy implication of humor although I don't know if I really found it to be laugh out loud funny at any point. There are humorous situations that are described and I'm sure someone, somewhere has laughed at them. I'm giving this 2.5 stars because I found 28 to be a bit too many dates to read about. Some of them weren't even "dates" but just unfortunate situations that revolved around men. The set up of each chapter is the age, date location, how they met, and how they are on the date. She then gives a little introductory info on the guy and where she's at in her life and then describes the date. At the end they're all wrapped up in a neat little "lessons learned" section. I'm not sure I was a huge fan of the set up of these chapters. It felt forced at times, especially in the chapters where they weren't even on a date. I didn't find it necessary for every single "date" to have a lessons learned.

It's entertaining enough that I'd recommend to someone who needs a palate cleanser in between other books but I'm not sure if I'd recommend in other situations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poppy Mortimer for sending me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book is written for laughs so you can expect to find a substantial amount of exaggeration and cringe-worthy moments. It feels like a series of blog posts from the days of Xanga or LiveJournal -- which makes me wonder what the heck I wrote in there about my dates in the past. I feel like I have some pretty good candidates to create my own list.

The author repeatedly talks about masculine qualities that she likes -- but every chapter/date story ends with "lessons learned" about all the horrible things she wants to avoid. You can't have the light without the dark, unfortunately. You have to take the disgusting farts, bad breath, minor panic attacks, misguided optimism along with the strong manly biceps and all the rest. Some of the dates didn't sound too awful (like the firefighter who got scared in the fun house?) while many others were wildly oblivious -- the roid rager, the verbal abuser and the dog-man. Which makes me wonder: what would be THEIR sides of the story for the date?

If you're still single by your 40s -- give up and just enjoy your life. Or, buy property to open a pension for 55+ single ladies. in Australia. I'll be looking for Poppy's address and checking on costs of moving to Oz with five cats shortly...

Posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4846324080?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Warm and sparking, it felt like listening to a friend recounting date, a mix of funny and glad-it-wasn't-me!

A lovely summer read I had a lovely weekend reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the preview of this book. 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humorous Memoir is exactly as the title promises- a humorous memoir. Mortimer's nearly 20 year dating history is fun to follow, and written like journal entries, which make the reading fun. My only dislike is that some of the critiques and criticisms that Mortimer makes of her dates is hard to connect with. At times it comes off overly judgmental, and it makes it hard for you to want to finish reading the passage. Overall, this was a unique take on a memoir and a fast read.

Funny book, plenty of laughs, and there's a heart, and underlying message. One I recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book

The premise of this book follows a woman on a string of awkward dates. A great concept in my opinion! The book is written clearly and is easy to follow. However, at times the book was repetitive and far too long – 15 anecdotes would’ve been suffice and more engaging. Furthermore, I felt there was an air of arrogance embedded within these recollections, yes, the point of the book was to talk about her bad dates but to find and highlight flaws in every single date was a bit pretentious. The book was comical at times and would make for a good pool or beach read.

Every time I have a date (especially a disastrous one), I think "well, this should be published in a collection of essays, because my god!" The author actually went ahead with it. I don't know how to be nice about it, unfortunately.

One important thing when reading a memoir or personal essay is that you need to like the author's voice. I genuinely did not enjoy this author's voice - now, I know this is a horrible non-sequitur, but it is unfortunately what it is. I didn't find her funny at all, and I didn't like the pompous tone with which they body-shamed literally everyone they meet. The fat shaming was horrible, especially. I genuinely disliked how all of it was masked as humor!

To add to this, I thought some of the dates were truly more sexual assault than humorous. I suppose you need to make light of it to survive sometimes, but some of the men's behaviors were so concerning and so creepy! I didn't think the author should have written about it at all, even with trigger warning - I mean some of this was truly horrible and not at all the author's fault. It scarred me and I was flabbergasted at how the author found humor in them. I don't want to say they are brave, because they shouldn't be - none of us should have to be brave! (Note: I debated if this paragraph should be in the review, but for honesty's sake, I had to put it in here - those who do not feel comfortable with this should never pick this book up!)

Finally, I think this book would have possibly worked better on audio- mainly because the tone of the author might be easily communicated on audio. I didn't want to keep hoping "X was a badly executed joke and not them actually shaming this person, right?"

I think I'd recommend it to people who don't mind a few shaming jokes, who are tired and exhausting after dating men, and who like it when people don't take themselves too seriously. I was simply not the intended audience of the book, I think.

I love memoirs. There's something about them that I just enjoy them a little more than I do some fictions books. 28 Disasterous Dates ticks all the boxes. The writing is just perfect and I laughed a lot.

A super fun and easy read! 28 truly disastrous dates, I found my self laughing, cringing and unfortunately relating to a few dates!

I appreciated the trigger warnings on difficult chapters, and I loved reading the growth of Poppy throughout her dates and how she figured out exactly what she wanted. Recommend for an easy, light read if you’re looking for something fun and entertaining.

Unfortunately this was not for me at all. I made it to chapter 10 but honestly couldn’t continue. I kept thinking it’d get better but it just didn’t.

I love the idea of the book but the execution not so much. I didn’t like the writing style and get like it was a teenager writing.

The only thing I did like was the ‘what I learnt’ parts but for me it wasn’t worth continuing reading just for those.

This book is funny as it shows the worst of worst types of dates. I can laugh thinking back to what I thought my worst dates where and then reading those.
This book is for light hearted laughs but not much else.

This funny book of dating disasters was a welcome relief after all the intense books I’ve been reading lately. How enjoyable to read about crazy dates the author experienced and look back to my own 20’s when I had some nightmare dates.

A witty and optimistic adventure of 28 first dates that never made it to the second. I'm surprised she's not turned off of dating forever! I'm fascinated and traumatized by each of her disastrous dates!

This is a very, very funny book about disastrous dates over a period of 20 years. Each story is short and concise and hilarious. Some of the dates are beyond bad taste. It is remarkable how boorish some of these men are, in addition to being clueless. And Ms. Mortimer does not go easy on herself. The concluding chapter has good tips on dating, which ties back to the previous chapters. The book is a winner, and thoroughly enjoyable. I am 70, married to my beautiful wife, we've been together for decades, so we are blessed. You'll enjoy this book, even if you are a happy. long time married guy who still remembers his first date with his wife.

Oh, this was such a fun read. The author is British, but has dated in the UK, Australia and America, and the result is just hilarious. She sounds a really lovely person, and doesn't take herself too seriously. Even if the stories are exaggerated a little (and I suspect sadly that some are not!) they make for a great tale, which she tells really well.

Thoroughly enjoyable, laugh out loud, great fun, even for oldies like me that haven't dated in decades!
Thank you to NetGalley and Poppy Mortimer for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A solid lighthearted read that made my worst dates feel like walks in the park compared to the author's stories! I appreciated her humor but not so much her sweeping generalizations (ex/ Americans talk too much). This would be a great airplane or beach read. I wish I could find more info about the author because she sounds super interesting, alas I'm struggling to find anything! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.