Getting Personal (Red Dress Ink (Numbered Paperback)) [Paperback]

Chris Manby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004 | Series: Red Dress Ink (Numbered Paperback) (Book 37)

Three's a crowd -- or is it?

A trio of pals who, on their own, have utterly lost the dating game, decide to team up. They trust each other with their lives; now they've got to trust each other with their love lives. Ruby, Louisa and guy friend Martin do the desperate deed and pen personal ads, sort replies and plan dates -- for each other.

Friends don't let friends settle . . .

Which is why Martin won't let Ruby make her usual mistake of being a just-divorced egomaniac's "transitional lay," Lou is mad to match Martin with a girl with a brain and Ruby is determined to find the blond stranger who captured Lou's eye on the underground one morning.

A hilarious triple blind date at the same restaurant results in one split check, one spark-filled encounter and one very distraught young man handcuffed to a towel rack. But to find true love, the friends realize they've really got to broaden their horizons without losing sight of what's in front of them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's a great idea . . .and Manby's writing more than does it justice." -- Marie Claire

About the Author

In 1995 Chris Manby met a New York psychic who told her she would write seven novels. She has just finished her eighth. Which means she probably won't marry that millionaire, either! Raised in Gloucestershire, Chris now lives between London and Los Angeles. Her hobbies include reading in-flight magazines and she hopes that continually crossing time zones is an effective anti-aging strategy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Red Dress Ink (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373250606
• ISBN-13: 978-0373250608
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,537,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute but stretched out..., August 7, 2004

By 

Becca (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting Personal (Red Dress Ink (Numbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

This was a really good book. Some parts of the plot were so obvious,but only occur in the last 5 pages or so. Like others have said,I think that Ruby's adoption was just a way to lengthen the story,because once I got to that part,it went really slow. I didn't really see the relation between that and the whole idea of the book. I would have loved to cut out some of the adoption parts and have seen more of what happens to Lou in the end! There's only about one sentence that refers to her and the guy she ended up with but that's all. Besides that,it is a good read,and I like how it's essentially 3 stories in one (Ruby's,Lou's and Martin's).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just average, August 10, 2007

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting Personal (Red Dress Ink (Numbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

Perennial singles and best pals Ruby, Lou, and Martin attend yet another wedding where Ruby commiserates on her lack of love life. When they discuss that the bride and groom met through a personal ad, a brainstorm is born - they'll write ads for each other, weed out the creeps, and find the perfect mate for a friend. Ruby will write for Lou; Lou write for Martin, and Martin will write for Ruby. But no one is good enough for Ruby in Martin's eyes. Nursing a crush on her (and she on him), he vetoes most of the folks that respond to the ad. Fearing that they would spoil their friendship, neither has acted on their feelings. Ruby does her best to find the mysterious person Lou exchanged wayward glances with on the crowded train. Lou knows that the person Ruby picked is not the one from the train, but continues to see him, finding that he is annoying perfect boyfriend material.

Manby's modern dating tale is lacking in many respects. For the most part is it pretty predictable, though Lou's admission at the end was a little bit of a surprise. Ruby's character is too desperate, making the reader wonder what has Martin tied up in knots. It also has some pretty glaring errors, the biggest being Manby's attributing "The Pina Colada Song" to the wrong artist (it was performed by two-hit-wonder Rupert Holmes, not Barry Manilow). Manby missed the boat on this one - it could have been so much better had she injected some humor and less pathos into the story. Other than that, it is just an average read that I recommend you pick up at the library. My copy is headed for the charity bin.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flat out hilarious, December 21, 2004

By 

Cherry Stone "Cherry" (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting Personal (Red Dress Ink (Numbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

This is one of those books that hooks you from the first sentence and has you turning the pages in a flurry.

Martin, Lou and Ruby are all useless at picking partners so place personal ads for each other with hilarious results.
Martin is a loveable, sweet, very realistic character and you root for him all the way in his quest for love and personal fulfillment. Lou and Ruby have their own complex hang ups - everyone will be able to relate.

There are so many reasons this book is fantastic but the main one is it is madly funny. It made me laugh out loud on the subway, on the bus, in a cafe. It is spot on, well observed, pee in your pants hilarious. Funnier than Marian Keyes and all the other chick lit pretenders. This is the real McCoy.