Review of Five Dates by Amy Jo Cousins

by Amy Jo Cousins

4 Stars

Helping his sister Lucy raise her kid has put Devin’s love life on hold. When he loses a bet to her and the penalty is to go out on five dates with men she’s chosen from Guys4Guys.com, he thinks that’s bad enough. Finding out she used a thirteen-year-old picture of him to score a date with a young guy who looks like a rock star? Epically bad.

Jay thought he wanted to fall for an older man. But his last boyfriend left him feeling humiliated and determined to stick to guys his own age. When he realizes he’s been conned into a date with exactly the kind of man he’s sworn to avoid, he’s ready to walk away on the spot. Only Devin’s swift apologies convince Jay to accept dinner to make up for the deception.

“The date doesn’t count for the bet unless you get a goodnight kiss.” After one not-a-date dinner with Jay, Devin isn’t worried about his sister’s rules. He just wishes he could convince Jay to go out with him for real. Jay wants no part of Devin, but Devin wants every part of Jay . . . so he asks Jay to help update his look for the rest of his dates. But once Jay’s made Devin over into the perfect date, will he be able to let him go?

This is genuinely cute story, a fun easy read and so well written.   Sometime we don’t feel like picking up a big 300+ book, wading through angst and backstory, and just want to read something fun and easy, and this was it!  

The books starts off with a bet being cashed in by Devin’s sister, and whoohoo, it is a dozy, have five dates, including a goodbye kiss at the end, all arranged by his sister.  What could go wrong?  Well, to start she uses a picture of Devin for 10 years ago, and no one likes to be tricked.  The first date is Jay, and man, does Devin fall hard, but who wouldn’t he is the ultimate pretty boy.  But Jay has been burnt before mb an older, professional man, and isn’t interested in re-living those mistakes again.

Being a short story, there isn’t a lot of meat to the relationship, or really Devin or Jay’s life-stories.  

 We get enough to makes sense of their feeling in the book, but we don’t have to journey back through the angst that has brought them here.  Don’t get me wrong, Jay has some baggage, but doesn’t create angst within the book.  And we aren’t usually ones for the May-December romance, but it works so well here, and helps Jay deal with his self-esteem of never being good enough for his last boyfriend.  

All in all, this is a great sweet, summer read, Amy Jo Cousins delivers on a well-developed, well-written short story, whose ending will leave you with a smile!