The App Trap

De: Dan Calley

Narrado por: Dan Calley

When Danny’s mother is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, he finds himself in a race against time to fulfil her wish for him… to find a soul mate.

Danny’s quest for love soon steers him into unfamiliar territory, and before long he’s introduced to a powerful new addiction: Online dating.

But has he taken a wrong turn? Because neither serial dater Harry, nor fetish scene enthusiast Ben, seem like the type one brings home to mother, and time is quickly running out.

Will Danny find the love of his life, or is his chance of meeting the perfect man slipping away one date at a time?

The App Trap is a bittersweet journey into the world of the London dating circuit. You will laugh, you will cry, and you may never swipe again.

©2025 Mark Restuccia (P)2025 Mark Restuccia

Kissing lots of frogs on the way to finding HEA

This story is the first novel by the wonderful audiobook narrator Dan Calley. I love that he narrated his own book. His narration really made the humor stand out. I laughed out loud SO many times throughout this! It's short, quick read and I had a hard time putting it down because I kept wanting to hear about the next adventure. I will say that sometimes I wish there had been more differences in the voices for characters. Nonetheless, it was easy to follow along.

In this book, Danny decides to seek out a soulmate via dating apps. His poor mum is dying of cancer and he wants to be settled in order to fulfill her wish for him. Despite the very sad situation, this story is super funny as Danny encounters some very bizarre dates and has to navigate through some..interesting...situations. Throughout all the mishaps, Danny keeps trying and trying. In the end, though, Danny very much earns his HEA, though the sweet ending is tempered with bitter. I love that Danny has to kiss a heck of a lot of frogs before finding a prince, but I love that he has fun meanwhile. I enjoyed this very much!

App Dating

This was definitely a unique spin on what "dating" through apps is like. It was a humorous story, and I did find myself smiling at the ridiculousness of it all. This was my introduction to Dan Calley and thought the writing was good. I'm not usually a fan of when authors narrate their own books, but Dan Calley pulls it off. His voice helped me get into the story. It was an enjoyable ride.

Harry and Danny

Danny's dating problems had me howling. I was 💯 team Ben until the roommate situation. That was so messed up. Hilarious, but messed up. I would have never talked to Ben again. The guys dating 7000 people himself anyway. It's just hypocritical. Harry is perfect. The narration was amazing!

The dating comedy is hilarious

This book was unexpectedly good in audio form. I’ve continued to enjoy Dan Calley’s narration.

The story kinda wrapped up too quickly. It was enjoyable as a comedy of funny, dating stories, thus the HEA seemed rushed, even though it was the point of the whole thing. I think it was due to the timeline skips. Also it might have been too British humor, so anything that seemed like funny, I just chalked it up to British things that I didn’t get.

I look forward to more comedic stories from Dan.

This was different...

3.5/5 rounded to 4.
OK, so… this was a bit different from my usual MM romances. As it is, the romance part is quite limited and comes towards the end of the book. There is in fact, romance, in that Danny finally ends up with his own man, but it comes after the best part of the book describing (in hilarious and cringe-worthy detail) his (mis)adventures in the world of online dating.
The story is super funny for the most part, but the ending is totally not (seriously, no spoilers, but if you may want to skip the last chapter).
Dan’s performance as a narrator is great as usual, and though the book is not perfect in certain aspects, let’s not forget this is only his second book as an author.

Battling dating app FOMO

This is a new to me author Dan Calley but not a new to me narrator. I've listened to quite a few books with his narration and I love his voice.

Was this the best book I've ever listened to, no, no it's not... but it was enjoyable in parts. Would I listen to something else written by this author, yes, yes I would... I'd love to see what else he can do besides this slapstick style comedy. British humor isn't always that funny to me but there were a few times I laughed out loud.

I read other reviews that talked about the ending being upsetting or shocking but I didn't feel that, I guess I'm a realist. It was definitely a bit of an abrupt ending though. The author could definitely have spent some more time there.

Rounding review from 3.5 stars to 4.

Not a light hearted comedy but really good - you will laugh and cry!

For whatever reason I absolutely thought this was going to be a light hearted comedy of twists and turns. Turns out I definitely got the twists and turns right, not so much the light hearted comedy. Don’t get me wrong there were definitely some laugh out loud moments (I’m not going to say Danny saw his mom at his first bdsm party, but I’m not going to say that he didn’t either). It’s an interesting take on the current dating culture and I honestly wasn’t sure how Danny was going to end up with his HEA until it all made sense and he did. Was it a little stalkerish and creepy? Yes. Yes it was. But also, very creative. The bdsm is basically pretty light - think first date light. I will say, Danny’s mom’s cancer journey hit me in all my feels and because a larger part of the book than I thought. While it might seem like Danny was initially kind of dismissive of his mom’s diagnosis, for me it really paralleled the experience a lot of kids have where the parent downplays the illness until it can’t be downplayed anymore. This book was deeper than I thought and I’m not ashamed to say I really did laugh and cry. I’m familiar with Dan Calley as an audio narrator so my (met) expectations were high there, but it’s my first book of his as an author and I was not disappointed.

A story that made me laugh a lot

Danny embarks on the world of online dating to find the love of his life to introduce to his mother, who is ill.
This is my second book by Dan Calley, who is one of my favorite narrators. I laughed a lot at Danny's adventures, as he goes from not having a smartphone to becoming a pro at dating apps.

Great narration...

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was very well done. Unfortunately, I didn't connect well with the actual story. There were some good bits of humor. It was fascinating to watch the MC navigate some truly bizarre dating situations. Both MC's continue to be with other people before deciding to be together. I never felt like the MC's connected genuinely before they were exchanging ILY's. We are warned it's not a typical romance, and boy is that accurate. Then it ends, very abruptly and very tragically. Check the TW.

Okay

I've listened audiobooks narrated by Dan Calley, but I had no idea he was also an author, and was excited to read and listen to his own book. This story was a slice of life journey for Daniel delving into the dating pool via dating apps on his new smart phone (upgraded from a flip!) trying to find a partner to introduce to his mom after she discovers she has cancer. This story definitely had colorful characters and dates that were a mix of disastrous, awkward, and some funny. (Makes me glad to be ace and not have to worry about navigating all that! Ben's serial dating sounded exhausting to me! lol) Some characters I liked better than others. But I very quickly lost interest in the dating aspect and didn't feel particularly connected to any of them- not even his soulmate at the end. No heat or chemistry or passion.

At the core, I loved the relationship between Daniel, his brother Finn, and his mum- loved the close bonds, the bantering, and the teasing. And this book outright made me cry at the end- so expect tears! I didn't and it threw me off and depressed me for a little bit if I'm honest. I wish this ended differently because it was very tough to read and listen to. I expected this book to be a comedy and a happy ending, or at least to feel at peace with things in consideration with his mom, but I was just left crying with.... ***spoilers***
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... the mom's death rattle breaths in her coma in her final moments- the boyfriend horrified. That's not how I expected his boyfriend to "meet" his mom! Gone on the next (and final) page and the story is just over. No epilogue of them together or anything to lighten that heartbreaking moment mourning a character you easily grow to love in the story. I would have even loved something with the couple and his brother a few months later supporting each other or something.

Overall: 3.5 stars rounded to 4
Performance: 4 stars
Story: 3 stars