4 out of 5 Stars

Thank you to Shannon at Reads & Reels!

Synopsis

Cassie doesn’t want your pity. She doesn’t want your sympathy. And she certainly doesn’t want to date you.

When perpetually single Cassie McTiernan agrees to her friends’ online dating scheme, she thinks she’ll go on maybe two dates then bail before things get uncomfortable. She’s turning 30; might as well give it a shot, right? Little does she know that they’ve devised a contract, binding her to date one man per month for one year. Sure, if she finds Mr. Right she doesn’t have to complete their challenge. How hard could dating be?

Jumping through an increasingly long list of hoops, Cassie realizes that she might have to endure the entire torturous year with twelve strange men beside her. What could go wrong? Why does her first date need two cellphones? And is the man who broke her heart years before lurking behind that shadowy bush?

My Thoughts

Well, I probably shouldn’t be happy about saying this. But, I loved this book because Cassie reminds me so much of myself! Snappy, judgmental, sarcastic and pessimistic. Not a good picture to paint of one’s self but, there it is!

“And he smiles way too much. Oh God. I’m one of those people who hate others for
being too happy.”

She’s also a cat lady…. so again, my new best friend.

“If I need to fall back on talking about
Prospero’s shenanigans, I’ll know the date was a bust. I can spend
hours talking about him, but Jesus that’s boring if you’re the other
person, or so my brother says.”

Colleen McMillan created a character that had eloquence and wit and kept me laughing one disastrous date after another,

“Why does dating make you feel like a fish market display? They catch you,
chop off your unnecessary parts and put the tender bits on display
at a set price. If no one chooses you it’s off to the garbage can.”

She also has the issue of having a hard time looking passed her own problems to see what is going on with anyone else. Just because you’ve been “forced” to do this dating project by your friends doesn’t mean that anyone else has stopped living while you’ve been at it. I can say that I have been guilty of this! Sometimes our own problems can feel so big they overwhelm us when friends and family members are silently pleading for our help and support. But, her friends were AMAZING! I wish I had girlfriends like this who had helped me in the dating game! (Not to say that I didn’t luck out in the end) But, it was a long and lonely road without the support of wonderful gal pals like this!

“Alicia, Lindsey, and Keeley arrive at my apartment, each
carrying two bags. I’m unsure what’s in any of them but prepare for
the worst. Alicia brings out notebooks and planners and a few Instyle
magazines prepared for who knows what. Lindsey has spaghetti
Bolongese and salad for four and three wine bottles. Keeley is armed
with makeup and hair products and fishes out some trendy clothes,
looking at me then at the items. She makes contemplative noises and
puts a few things aside but keeps some rather immodest skirts and
one dodgy lace camisole.”

This book really goes to show that sometimes you need to get out and get to know knew people so you can really get to know yourself. And, sometimes happiness is closer than you think!

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Author Bio

Colleen may be a writer, but she’s also a dater. Many of the events in this novel happened to her or someone she knows, both male and female. Who hasn’t felt the harsh slap of an unanswered email on Match.Harmony.Fishing.com? Who hasn’t narrowly avoided an oncoming mouth with its tongue sticking out and drool tendrils forming in the corners? She wrote this novel because her fellow online daters needed a voice, or at least a fun read to get them through the day after their online crush quit the website because he “found

someone else.” She has been published in Iconoclast literary magazine as well as in her college literary journal, Prologue. She lives in Minnesota with her faithful cat, Duncan.

REASON FOR WRITING THIS PARTICULAR NOVEL

My love life is disastrous, mainly because it’s nonexistent. What dates I did go on in my twenties went well enough, or so I thought. After a long string of first dates with men who weren’t too keen on my opinions once we actually met in person, I wondered if my other friends were having the same issues. Hint: they were. This was before rampant “dick pics” emerged, and most online dating sites were pay only. I signed up for Plenty of Fish, a free matchmaker site my friend recommended, which was an even bigger school of sharks masquerading as tropical fish. I had a terrible relationship stemming from that site, which prompted me to finish the little novel I’d been working on for years.

-Colleen McMillan

Publishing Website

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