Book review - 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humourous Memoir by Poppy Mortimer

 As a child of divorced parents, Poppy lost herself in romantic novels and romantic Hollywood films with dashing, handsome heroes. Furthermore, she blames these pastimes on her lack of intuition when going on a date. The book is a memoir of Poppy's dates which range from the funny to the scary, over ten years and three continents. How does Poppy find herself on a scary date with a fireman? How does Poppy deal with the date who asks her out by sending her a photograph of his penis? Moreover, does Poppy's memoir finish with her finding the love of her life? Read 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humourous Memoir by Poppy Mortimer to find the answers to these and other questions. 

I liked that Poppy Mortimer starts each chapter with details of her age, where she is living, where she meets each man and how they ask her out. Which helps to visualize the scene created. The end of each chapter has Poppy reminiscing over what she has learnt from her date and what she will take from it. Sadly by the next chapter, she has forgotten most of what she has learned and gone out with another disastrous man!

I was disappointed with this book. For me, it was like reading a teenager's diary. Some dates were mildly funny but less humorous than the author would lead us to believe. The book is well written and flows very well, and I enjoyed the first half of the book; it was interesting being an onlooker of someone else's disasters. Unfortunately, the stories became formulaic after a while, and I felt that Poppy Mortimer needed to try harder to make the book funny, which made it boring. I struggled to read to the end of the book. 

I would recommend 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humourous Memoir by Poppy Mortimer to young adults. There is no swearing in the book ( as Poppy can not bring herself to type expletives), but there is a fair sprinkling of penises, so I would not recommend it to a younger audience! 

I want to give 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humourous Memoir by Poppy Mortimer 3 out of 5 stars. The book did not live up to my expectations; it was more of a groan-out-loud than a laugh-out-loud book. There were some spelling and grammatical errors, and the book could do with another proofreading, although these did not distract from the stories. The dates became too formulaic and similar the more I read, which made the last half of the book boring, and I struggled to finish it. I did enjoy Poppy Mortimer's style of writing, and the fact I was not keen on 28 Disastrous Dates: A (Mostly True) Humourous Memoir would not stop me from reading another book by this author.