Reading this book makes me wish I'd had some sort of dating club with my friends back when we were in high school! It also makes me think about my own high school experience and some similarities that existed when I was a junior and had planned with two of my friends to do a group date, too! It was a memorable experience, and I'm happy to say that it was because of homecoming dance that year that I met the man I would later marry :-)

In First Date, Melody Carlson brings together 5 unlikely girls who turn out to have more in common than they thought. Their views on guys and interaction with their parents were all so believable and I found myself wanting to read more to see what would happen next! It also gave me a foreshadowing of how I want to be for when our daughter and her friends want to start dating. I never thought I would start enjoying YA books as a middle-aged woman, but it's actually kind of fun to reminisce and also get caught up in enjoyable plots. I will be reading more!!! ( )

Review of First Date by Melody Carlson. A group of girls at a Christian School start a Secret Club to try to get dates to the dance. Devon thinks it odd the boys aren't interested in dating. I liked the way they had a group dinner for the group before dance to save guys money. I also liked idea of group dates especially as it allows them to get to know each other and not be alone with a guy they don't know. I read the book before giving to my granddaughter. ( )

Too contrived... The girls' names start with A, B, C, D, and E and the boys' names start with H, I, J, K, and L. Really? Also one of the girls is assaulted and she says it wasn't date rape so no big deal, but the description says her dress is dirty and torn. I'd say that's kind of serious and she should have at least told her parents. I also don't like how the girls are so critical of each other. I felt like that was portrayed as a good thing in the book. ( )

Five girls decide to form a club to make sure they each have a date for the next school dance. Unfortunately, it was too short a book to develop the girls in any substantial way... one was the worldly teen, one was the devoted Christian teen and the other three sort of meshed together in my brain. It didn't help that the girls' names started with A-E, making me think it was more of a formula than anything else (the boys names went from H to L).

Melody Carlson usually does better. It was disappointing. ( )