Insider Dating [Paperback]

Jennifer O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Abby Dunn, barely thirty and recently divorced, has taken herself off the dating market. Instead, she's using her experience to turn the tables on the opposite sex by building a dating database to rank underperforming men and set women straight when investing their greatest asset: themselves.

Now, what started as a pet project is becoming a fulltime enterprise. But while Abby's busy hedging bets, someone is skewing her data and threatening to ruin her model. Even worse, he's about to teach Abby that, while it may be perfectly legal, nothing good can come from insider dating.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Recently divorced financial whiz Abby Dunn has an idea that will save women from repeating the dating mistakes of others. She has used the principals of investing to develop a members-only online database where women can search potential dates using ratings based on details from their exes. When Abby meets the one man who seems to beat the odds, she almost lets her obsession with finding his hidden flaws undermine her second chance at love. Abby gets her happy ending, but it takes a good deal of soul searching and the implosion of her database to get there. O'Connell expertly brings courtship into the twenty-first century in this well-written tale that will please both romance and chick-lit fans. In the age of Internet dating, Abby's database hardly seems like a work of fiction, and the characters have real-life desires and neuroses. Readers will see shades of themselves in Abby and her friends. Kostovski, Aleksandra
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"I'm crazy about Jennifer O'Connell's novels, and INSIDER DATING is another fun, smart and insightful treat!" -- Melissa Senate, author, SEE JANE DATE and LOVE YOU TO DEATH

"What if a database could tell you everything you might need to know about someone before you even met? INSIDER DATING asks just that with results that are both very funny and surprisingly heartfelt. I laughed out loud, I pondered, and I was ultimately thankful that such a database doesn't exist. Jennifer O'Connell's best book yet!" -- Alison Pace, author of PUG HILL and IF ANDY WARHOL HAD A GIRLFRIEND

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Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451221168
• ISBN-13: 978-0451221162
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Although I've written about a reality dating show, a prescient pastry chef, and a woman who inspired an 80's rock hit, I have not spent hours dissecting The Bachelor, I can barely follow the directions on the back of a Betty Crocker box, and I can only dream of a long-haired, guitar-thrashing rocker even giving her a second glance.
While I cringe at the thought of being called Jenny again after all these years, my first teen book, PLAN B, will be published under Jenny O'Connell by MTV Books (March 2006).

Even if my days as a high school senior are long behind me, I did receive my B.A. from Smith College and my M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Nine guys is a mission statement", February 6, 2008

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insider Dating (Paperback)

A year after the finalization of her divorce from Alex, investment broker Abby Dunn applies her financial knowledge to an on-line members-only database of eligible Boston bachelors. She isn't ready to take the plunge into the dating pool yet - she's waiting for a sure thing. As the members enter data about their dates and ex-boyfriends, they in essence are enabling other members to forecast the probability of compatibility based on his historical dating and behavior patterns. When Abby finally meets someone too good to be true, her quest to find out what is wrong with him nearly costs her everything, including her heart. Can you learn from her own past to look at a future with another man?

O'Connell can always be counted on to tell an entertaining story filled with humor and a flawed but realistic heroine with realistic friends who accept her despite her quirks. She takes a departure into more serious territory with a seemingly unsympathetic character in Abby - but shades of humor flow through Abby's aloofness asshe hides her insecurities. Though it can get a little heavy at times with her introspection about what went wrong in her marriage (and as the book progresses, it becomes evident), the payoff is a sometimes funny and often poignant look at a modern woman who will do anything to protect her heart.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars poolside page-turner, June 29, 2007

By 

K. Sarantakes "foto girl" (Austin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insider Dating (Paperback)

I picked up Insider Dating on a whim because the back cover synopsis made it sound intriguing. It was time for a new novel and I finished this one in under a week. Although I have not shared the same experiences as Abby (main character), I can relate to her and the trouble she got herself into, stemming from unfinished business in her past. Her "crime" was completely inappropriate for a 30-something to commit, but she is easily forgivable because you can see that behind her mistake, she is a good, likable person with the same weaknesses and fears as the rest of us, and she takes responsibility for her actions. If Ms. O'Connell should write a sequel to this novel, I would buy it in a hearbeat.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worth reading, June 26, 2007

By 

AMY AUSTIN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insider Dating (Paperback)

i enjoy jennifer o'connell's writing, and it seems to improve with each book. the main character's emotions result in unethical behavior, beyond what i'd usually accept in a likable person but somehow you do still feel for her. the dialogue is what i really enjoy about o'connell's writing. she has a way of providing depth to characters with a-typical conversations. i particularly enjoy her male characters because while attractive, they are not storybook. neither are her endings for that matter; satisfying and good endings but lessons are learned, not erased.