Review: First Date by Krista McGee - Juhina

Title: First Date

Author: Krista McGee
Publication date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Genre(s): Young Adult (Spiritual)
Source: NetGalley
Format: Ebook

Pages: 336

Addy Davidson discovers God's unexpected plans for her life when a reality TV show turns her quiet existence on its head.

The orphaned daughter of missionaries, Addy is quite content to stay in the shadows and never draw attention to herself. But when she's selected for a reality TV show to try to become the President son's prom date-a show she didn't audition for-she's suddenly in America's spotlight.

The lights, the make-up, the competitions, and the blogs discussing every move she makes all make Addy incredibly uncomfortable. But through her time at The Mansion, Addy comes to realize that first impressions aren't always right, that hiding out may not be what God had planned for her life, and that her faith should affect everything she does. It may just be that her selection wasn't random at all and that she's on this show "for such a time as this."

First date reminded me so much of Meg Cabot's All American girl. Hot president's son. Check. Stubborn girl, check. I really wanted to like it as much as I like All American girl but unfortunately I was disappointed.

The story had so much potential, the plot and settings could have resulted in many awkward and butterfly fluttering moments but I felt like the author focused too much on religion. Yea, that's the theme that overtook in this novel. I actually do not mind reading about books with religion infused in them, but this book was super saturated with religious talk. It was too much for me especially since Christianity is not my religion. I thought I was getting into a cute read, and while it was in the end, I ended up skipping many pages of religion talk.

However I really liked how the president's son and our protagonist's friendship and romance bloomed. I however wished the author put more scenes with them. Overall this book was cute, but a little heavy on the religion. So I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind religious themes in their books.