Dear Cupid [Mass Market Paperback]

Julie Ortolon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2001

Once upon a time, there was a redhead named Kate Bradshaw who naively thought Happily Ever After was just a heartbeat away. One kid, one divorce, and a stack of bills later, Kate isn't necessarily a candidate for Man-Haters Anonymous, but she's not winning any points with the love-struck readers of her Dear Cupid advice column either. If she's going to keep her job, she needs a man to remind her that romance can be fun. Someone attractive. Someone easygoing. Someone with whom she can polish her rusty flirting skills-- and absolutely nothing more. Enter Michael Cameron...

One might think a drop-dead handsome movie animator would have no problem marrying himself off. As Kate soon discovers, one would be sorely mistaken. A little too attached to his shabby bachelor pad couch and rumpled Hawaiian shirts, Michael is counting on Kate to turn him into husband material and find him a wife. But little does Kate know that this is just Michael's plan to convince her to give love a second chance and to look for the future Mrs. Cameron in the most obvious place of all: the mirror...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kate Bradshaw's popular "Dear Cupid" Web advice column helps the hapless and hopeless find true love. But in the aftermath of her painful divorce, Kate's advice turns too bitter for her boss's taste. To retain her job and regain her zest for romance, Kate leaves her native Texas hill country for a business trip to L.A., where she practices her flirting technique on the first attractive man she sees, movie special-effects man Mike Cameron. Kate confidently expects that Mike will disappear from her life after their brief meeting. Instead, he falls in love with her. Sensing Kate's wariness of relationships, but desperate to be part of her life, Mike hires her to turn him, his clothes and his home into marriage material. His decision to withhold the identity of the wife he has in mind keeps the two at comic cross-purposes. Even after they give in to their attraction, Mike must win acceptance from Kate's son, Dylan, and convince her that forever is not a dirty word. Just like a valentine, this frothy read is both fun and insubstantial. But Ortolon's (Drive Me Wild) lively style and brisk pacing are perfectly suited to her playful theme, and her characterizations of Mike and of Kate's maritally muddled neighbors have a genuinely appealing warmth.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

If your romantic problems were enough to drive you to write your favorite advice columnist and the answer you received was a man-bashing, cynical diatribe, would you ever read that column again? Probably not, and that's a problem for Kate Bradshaw, whose column is quickly losing its appeal as her bitter postdivorce emotions find their way onto her Web page. As a last-ditch effort to lose her cynicism, and to save her job, she picks a man at random and flirts with him. It works all too well. All Mike Cameron wants to do is fly home to Texas after his twentieth high-school reunion. Although driven and successful, he realizes he has needs that work just won't fill. All of a sudden, a beautiful stranger is flirting wildly with him, and he can't help but respond. So begins this fun, lighthearted romp through the wilderness of conflicting emotions confronting Kate and Mike. An enjoyable journey with a satisfying ending, their story is sure to please. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (July 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312978715
• ISBN-13: 978-0312978716
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,169,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm late bloomer when it comes to reading -- and writing. I didn't discover either joy until I discovered romance novels in my early twenties. Now, I'm totally addicted. My biggest joy is bringing all my interests together in my books, to have the chance to celebrate the things that excite me through my characters. So when people ask me, "Do you put yourself or real life experiences in your books?" the answer is "You betcha!" I just edit out the boring parts, and emphasis the fun parts. And take a LOT of literary license!

Since I love to travel, all my books are set in places I've actually been. Sometimes those real places morph into fictional places -- like Pearl Island -- but I try to capture the magic of the setting and people in all my books, to make writing them like a trip to a wonderful world where good always triumphs and love always ends in Happily Ever After -- against all odds. That's what makes life worth living, and books worth reading: when someone grabs the brass ring.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Read!!, July 27, 2001

By 

Christine Shaw "cms246" (Scranton, PA. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dear Cupid (Mass Market Paperback)

Since her divorce, Kate Bradshaw's online column "Dear Cupid" hasn't been scoring any points with her readers and the owner of the online magazine that runs her column threatened to cancel her if she didn't put the fun back into her romance advice. Kate needed to take control and regain her carefree spirit she'd lost in recent years. What better way than to find a man to make romance fun again. She didn't want a serious relationship, just someone to flirt with. Looking around, she spied Mike......

Mike Cameron believed in love at first sight, but he never found the "right girl" for himself. His job as a movie animator didn't help since he worked about sixteen hours a day. Relaxing, eyes closed, waiting for his flight at L.A. airport, Mike began thinking of marriage. His thoughts were interrupted when a woman spilled her purse at his feet. Upon opening his eyes, Mike found himself face to face with the most enchanting woman he had ever seen. He knew at that moment that she was the "right girl" and he intended to convince her that she would be very happy as Mrs. Mike Cameron.

Once again, Ms. Ortolon has delivered a well-written and delightful novel. Her characters are well-developed and there is much interaction among all these characters. The leading lady, Kate Bradshaw, has much on her plate. She is trying to put her life back on track after divorce from workaholic who had no time for his family. Her seven-year old son, Dylan, suffers with asthma and her confidence level is at an all-time low. Mike Cameron is the perfect hero for this story. Not brash or crude, he is caring, considerate and very patient with Kate, allowing her the time she needs to heal, but he is very determined to win her heart. You will just love the way he wins approval from Kate's little boy. Mike is so easy going you can't help but love him!

If you want to read a very good story try this one. And then try Julie's previous novel "Drive Me Wild". This author is now on my auto-buy list. Thank you Julie for many hours of reading pleasure.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars breezy beach read, June 25, 2011

By 

Radella (Here and There) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dear Cupid (Kindle Edition)

Kate has turned bitter and taken to a bit of male-bashing... not an ideal situation for an online romance columnist. While waiting for a flight back home, she decides to practice her rusty flirting skills on an unsuspecting man in a loud Hawaiian shirt. He happens to be Michael Cameron, a highly respected and talented movie animator. For him, it's love at first sight. While Kate feels an attraction, she wants nothing more to do with him. Mike devises a plan to spend more time with Kate, even though the pretense is so thin both can see right through it. While Kate's life slowly falls apart, Mike tries to convince Kate to believe in herself again.

This is a fairly straightforward, predictable read. At first, Kate comes off as shallow and selfish, with her love of nice clothes and a nice home, and an attraction to powerful men. It is almost as if she doesn't know herself, because Mike might have it all, but that isn't why she falls for him. She also cares more about her son than anything else, willing to give up on her own dream to make sure that Dylan is protected and cared for. While Kate worries that Mike will disappoint Dylan like his father has, and Mike isn't sure he really wants anything to do with another man's child, Dylan is ultimately the reason they can come together to form a big, happy family.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud, cute, sweet, sexy contemporary romance!, July 22, 2001

By 

Melinda Freeland (Canyon Lake, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Cupid (Mass Market Paperback)

Julie Ortolon does it again! Just like her first book, Drive Me Wild, her new book has an orginal plot and has a flirty, sexy, sweet,humorous tone all rolled into one! Again the author appeals to me by writing sexy scenes without being "graphic." It was also nice to read about familiar places in my home state of Texas. Her heroine Kate is an e-zine columnist who has become down on men since her divorce. Kate's boss Gwen hints that if Kate doesn't quit writing columns and advice e-mails that are so negative on love, that Kate will be out of job. Kate decides to be a little crazy and flirt with movie animator Michael Cameron in an airport. He winds up pursuing her under the phony notion that he wants Kate to help him find a wife (through her friend's business called Wife For Hire), when of course he wants Kate to become his wife. The author does a superb job of showing sexual tension between the two that keeps you turning the pages. Julie Ortolon also makes the reader really FEEL what the characters feel, such as when the author reveals Kate's feelings on divorce and about Kate's son Dylan, who has asthma. Great contemporary romance - I'm going to tell all my friends to read this book!