Dinner for Two and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.96 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Kindle Edition
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Dinner for Two
 
 
Start reading Dinner for Two on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Dinner for Two [Paperback]

Mike Gayle (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Price: $22.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Monday, January 30? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover, Import --  
Paperback $14.45  
Paperback, June 1, 2004 $22.95  
Audio, CD, Audiobook --  

Book Description

June 1, 2004
Dave Harding's got a wonderful wife, a beautiful home, and a job he could do in his sleep...

So no one is more surprised than Dave when he hears his own biological clock start ticking. Loudly. Unfortunately, his better half, Izzy, has no nine-month plan for fat ankles or a credit line at Baby Gap. With even worse timing, the music magazine Dave writes for folds. Desperate for work, he's forced to become an advice columnist for a teen magazine.

But he's about to get a serious wake-up call.

Wading through letter after letter of adolescent angst is the last thing Dave wants to do, especially since he could use some help dealing with his own. But one letter is about to make all his little problems disappear -- and replace them with one big one.

The letter is from a teenage girl named Nicola. But she doesn't need advice about boys, or friends, or the latest fads. She's looking for her father, whom she's never met. She's looking for a man to call Dad.

She's looking for Dave.


Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Turning Thirty $23.99

Dinner for Two + Turning Thirty
  • This item: Dinner for Two

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Turning Thirty

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With chick lit flourishing, the hopeful but floundering subgenre of lad lit has emerged, a prime example being Gayle's novel about a 32-year-old music journalist whose marriage is threatened by the appearance of a daughter he never knew he had. After losing his job at a music magazine, Dave is persuaded to take a stab at writing an advice column in the trendy Teen Scene and is surprised to find that not only is he being solicited by brokenhearted girls and anxious female friends for relationship advice, he's sought out by Nicola, a beautiful 13-year-old girl who claims to be his daughter. Keeping secret his deepest desire, to father a child, because his wife Izzy, editor at a glamorous women's magazine, has admitted she is not quite ready for motherhood, Dave loves the idea that he could be Nicola's father and surreptitiously commences a relationship that opens his heart to the love of this stranger-daughter. But when Izzy finally learns about Nicola, Dave realizes that he may have to choose between the love of his life and the daughter of his dreams. Gayle's sensitive and poignant male-perspective novel may not be the guy's equivalent of Kinsella or Fielding's hilarious escapades, but it will tug at the heartstrings and give female readers a peek into the male psyche.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Thirty-two-year-old Dave Harding has an enviable life--career as a music journalist; a beautiful wife, Izzy; and a nice flat in London. But he feels the pain of Izzy's miscarriage so deeply that he realizes how much he wants to be a father. As luck would have it, it turns out he already is, to a 13-year-old girl, Nicola, with whose mother he had a one-night stand just before college. After he learns of Nicola's existence, they begin seeing each other on the sly, telling neither Izzy nor Nicola's mother. This ploy buys them time to get to know one another before dealing with the inevitable complications. But deal they must, eventually. Gayle, to his credit, does not tidy things up too neatly, letting Izzy and Dave's relationship ride the fence. But, all in all, this is meant to be a feel-good book in the Nick Hornby vein, complete with numerous references to rock music. One problem: Hugh Grant may be too old to play the title role. Beth Leistensnider
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (June 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743477669
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743477666
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,931,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars lighthearted relationship drama, July 30, 2004
This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)
In London, thirty-one years old Dave Harding is a music journalist for Louder magazine, a publication that boasts that its audience is "people who live for music" while his beloved wife Izzy works at Femme Magazine. He likes his work there so is a bit taken back when the magazine folds.

Through a friend Jenny, Izzy gets Dave a job as an agony aunt at Teen Scene. Dave provides relationship and other advice to mostly adolescent girls. Leery when he first started because he took himself seriously as a music critic, Dave soon realizes he is enjoying the advice column. However, as Izzy recovers from a miscarriage, Dave believes his biological clock is running down and needs a baby to feel fulfilled. Everything changes when thirteen-year-old Nicola sends him a letter at teen Scene insisting that he is not her agony uncle, but her biological father. He quickly believes she is right, but agonizes how to tell Izzy still healing from her miscarriage as he is terrified by how the woman who he loves with all his heart will react.

This lighthearted relationship drama stars a sensitive male who loves his wife so much that everyone knows it. Dave's need not to hurt the already battered Izzy actually leads to mistrust and doubt as his good intentions towards his spouse and his newly discovered teenage child backfires until the ladies come to the rescue. Mike Gayle furbishes a fine tale starring characters readers will cherish especially fumbling nurturing and loving Dave.

Harriet Klausner
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a great read, May 14, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)
Light, sweet, a dash of humour and a great read on a man's view of the world. A must!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


4.0 out of 5 stars Cute not Corny and Meaningful not Preachy!, May 11, 2010
This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)
Dave Harding is a British magazine music journalist. He is married to Izzy and they are beginning to think about kids when Izzy gets pregnant - then miscarries. She closes down and then Dave loses his job and he starts work as an "angry uncle" for a teen magazine. Nicola sees his picture and realizes he is her father and contacts him. Thus begins the dilemma of whether and how to tell Izzy about Nicola and what it all means for the rest of each of their lives. And, don't forget, he must keep dishing out advice to the teen girls along the way.

It's nice to see a book like this written by a male author and from a male's perspective in the actual text. Although seemingly hard to believe Nicola could find Dave this way, the topic is handled really well - without being mushy or preachy. The sub-plots about friends are under-developed, making you wonder why they are in there other than to fill spacebut, I guess the couple has to do something outside of being together.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews




Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
teen scene, astral weeks, male man, agony uncle, favourite record
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mike Gayle, Love Doctor, Dave Harding, Oxford Street, First Class, Wood Green, The Total Truth, Lad Lie, Van Morrison, Tottenham Court Road, Ask Adam, Dawson's Creek, Puff Daddy, Nicola O'Connell, Father's Day, Big Mac, Burger King, Brendan Casey, Ministry of Sound, Muswell Hill, Public Enemy, American Pie
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:






i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...