Brand Name Dates
Melani BlazerContemporary romance
Available from Cerridwen Press
ISBN: 1-4199-0277-6
October 2005
| This story is about Jill Renee Anthony and the adventures she encounters at work. She works as a photographer for the Daily Digest newspaper. She was a loner by choice and devoted to her work. She is offered an extraordinary challenge - working undercover to investigate an underground dating club. Jill would be a pretend applicant and go seek out prospective dates arranged by the club. Jill's mother had just moved back to the city a few weeks ago. She placed an ad in the local paper advertising for a boyfriend for Jill and giving out her home address. Jill and her housemate Hayley had been dealing with a regular parade of visitors in response to the ad. Jill feared getting involved in a relationship and turning into her mother who had had multiple husbands and was now searching for Husband No. 4 or 5. Benny Drake, who worked for Com Ed and came over to read the gas meter, was mistaken for one of the potential boyfriend applicants. He became good friends with Jill and Hayley. When Jill first went to the dating club, she was given a questionnaire, they did a criminal check on her, took a picture and gave her a visual survey. She was also shown around the place. The place was huge and packed with people. Sandy at work was writing articles on the club based on Jill's notes. She asked Jill to go back and get more information and the assignment could go on indefinitely. Jill compared each of the men to shopping for clothes, checking the details of each man's personality like you would check the details on a certain fabric. Ted was a leather trench coat; Charlie imposter denim; CJ bikini; John cashmere; Jerry suede.
Jill couldn't understand why her mother and all her friends were so pushy about her dating someone. She thought she could do this assignment without getting emotionally involved. She didn't think she would find a man whose personality matched her like a perfect fabric that is suitable for the perfect outfit. How does Jill deal with this surprise? I found the men like shopping theory interesting. Jill was careless with all the men's feelings. It was obvious from the initial meeting that Benny was interested in Jill. She was also careless with him but he was a very patient man with a plan and seemed to be waiting her out. Jill was of the opinion that nothing would change and life would be as before after this assignment was over. Jill was surprised. The surprise was a good one. I recommend this book to everyone.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Ellen |
