The Dating Game (Silhouette Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

Shirley Jump (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Silhouette (December 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373197950
• ISBN-13: 978-0373197958
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,738,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nationally bestselling author Shirley Jump didn't have the willpower to diet nor the talent to master under-eye concealer, so she bowed out of a career in television and opted instead for a career where she could be paid to eat at her desk'writing.

She started out in journalism, selling her first article at the age of eleven and dreaming of being the next Jane Pauley. After writing 3000 articles and two non-fiction books, Shirley grew too dependent on her robe and fuzzy slippers, though, and decided a career as a freelance writer suited her better.

Then she got married. And had two kids.

Humor became the only thing that got her through the mashed potato flingfests and toilet paper decorating sprees. At first, seeking revenge on her children for their grocery store tantrums, she sold embarrassing essays about her children to anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Working Woman's Soul and Chocolate for Women II. However, it wasn't enough to feed her growing addiction to writing funny.

So she turned to the world of romance novels, where messes are (usually) cleaned up before The End and no one is calling anyone a doodoo head. In the worlds Shirley gets to create and control, the children listen to their parents, the husbands always remember holidays and the housework is magically done by elves.

She sold her first book to Silhouette Romance in 2001. That novel, THE VIRGIN'S PROPOSAL, won the Booksellers' Best Award for Best Traditional Romance of 2003. Two of her subsequent books were finalists in the Golden Quill Awards and two others were finalists in the Madcap Awards for best romantic comedy. She is also a Reviewers' Choice Award winner.

Shirley has sold twenty-six novels and now writes stories for Harlequin/Silhouette and Kensington Books about love, family and food'the three most important things in her life (though, there are many days when the order is reversed), using that English degree everyone said would be so useless.

She found a way to combine all her favorite things in her recipes with her own romantic comedy series from Zebra Books, which launched in September 2004 with THE BRIDE WORE CHOCOLATE. The fourth, THE BACHELOR PREFERRED PASTRY, is a February 2006 release, followed by PRETTY BAD in February 2007. Her next Romances will be a linked duet of BACK TO MR. & MRS. and MARRIED BY MORNING in May and June 2007. She also writes for Harlequin NeXt.

Though she's thrilled to see her books in stores around the world, Shirley mostly writes because it gives her an excuse to avoid cleaning the toilets and helps feed her shoe habit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Originally Posted on Romance Junkies in 2006, May 14, 2007

By 

Jennifer Wardrip (Bloomington, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dating Game (Silhouette Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

Shirley Jump is one of the best romantic comedy authors around, and yet I'm always surprised at how much I love her stories! Laugh-out-loud funny, with warm, intriguing characters, the humor she invokes into her story lines makes her stories come alive on the page. THE DATING GAME is no exception-an absolutely original plot, main characters you can't help but love, and a supporting cast that fleshes the story out until you know what you're reading could happen in real life.

The story starts out with Bowden Hartman, an employee of Speedy Package Services, playing God/Fairy Godmother/Prince of Love. He's in charge of delivering winning notices to two women-Tiffany Barrett, a former Miss Indiana, who's won the lead role on the "Love and the Average Jill" reality show, and Mattie Grant, a woman who's won a position on the reality show "Survival of the Fittest." Both shows are set to debut on Lawford Channel Ten's new line-up. Deciding to do something he deems necessary, Bowden switches the envelopes, and the result is that Mattie, who believed she'd be competing on "Survival of the Fittest," for which she'd been training, ends up at a mansion with a butler, a new wardrobe, and several eligible bachelors vying for her attention.

When Mattie finds out she's on the wrong show, she's all set to high-tail it back home. But Larissa Peterson, host of "Love and the Average Jill", decides that Mattie is the absolutely best choice to be the star of the show. One of the show's producers, Steve Blackburn, agrees. So does the first bachelor Mattie meets, Dave Simpson. Strikingly handsome, with an air of mystery, Mattie feels an immediate attraction to him-but she's still not sure about appearing on the show. After all, she chairs the Lawford Girls' Soccer League and coaches two of the girls' teams. She doesn't date a parade of men, but the fifty-thousand dollar prize money could mean a lot for the Soccer League.

Dave Simpson is entranced with Mattie Grant upon their first meeting. There's nothing fake about her, and although she's not the former Miss Indiana bachelorette he was expecting, he quickly finds out she's even more. The only problem is, Dave is on the show under false pretenses of his own, and as his feelings for Mattie grow, so does the hole he's dug for himself. Telling her the truth could damage their growing relationship, and Dave's finding out that for the first time in his life, he's found a woman he could actually come to love.

THE DATING GAME is fresh, funny, and totally addictive. Once I sat down to read it, I couldn't get up until I'd finished the last word. Mattie and Dave are such intriguing characters, and the premise of the story is such an original one. Will Mattie and Dave have a true happily ever after, or will Bowden Hartman's matchmaking scheme go awry? You'll have to pick up a copy of the book to find out, but believe me, it's worth it!

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny take on reality dating shows, April 4, 2007

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dating Game (Silhouette Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

When a deliveryman exchanges the packages meant for two reality game show contestants, teen soccer coach Mattie Grant, who's spent several months training for "Survival of the Fittest," finds herself trading in her cleats for stiletto's and donning evening gowns, make up, and big hair as the bachelorette in reality dating show "Love and the Average Jill." At first the producers are ready to remedy the situation then decide that Mattie is much better than the beauty queen they originally selected.

Investigative reporter David Bennett is also a contestant, hoping to find an angle for a story. Neither counts on actually meeting a soul mate, but as the two play to win, their hearts are getting affected by the game as well as their desire to walk away with the cash. Adding to the intrigue is deliveryman Bowden, who thinks the two are perfect for each other. Now it he could just convince them... What will Mattie do when she discovers that David is there to break a top story as well as her heart?

Jump's offering in the reality dating show oeuvre is a light romantic comedy with plenty of plenty of promising characters, but with the limits she has to work with (being a Silhouette Romance, thus pretty condensed), the characters are a little under developed. Nevertheless, it is a solid early story in Jump's growing library of titles, as she is best known for her "romances with recipes." Readers interested in this type of story will probably also like "Jane Millionaire" by Janice Lynn.