REALITY TV BITES
Shane Bolks
Avon Trade
Reviewed by Jenna Bayley-Burke

No one does a bad day the way Allison Halloway does. A boring date with Dave can only be made worse by fighting with the opposing teams mascot and getting doused with blue Gatorade, which of course ruins the leather seats in his car. To add insult to injury, back at her place when she offers to, ahem, take his mind off his troubles, Dave declines. Writing him off as just another toad she's kissed on her way to finding her prince, Allison plans to focus on work. Where her boss ambushes her with a plan to have the interior design form star in the latest reality television craze – Kamikaze Makeover!

A reality TV addiction has always been Allison's guilty pleasure, but the thrill of signing on has more to do with the executive producer – a sexy European prince! Things are not as perfect in reality TV as Allison expected – her team is expected to design rooms with vibrators, tin cans, and duct tape. And the prince? His behavior is beyond ungentlemanly. When Allison kicks him to the curb he retaliates in unimaginable ways that have her running from town, only to run out of gas and straight into Dave. And since Allison specializes in moving from bad to worse, the evening doesn't end until she's pudding wrestled in a bar and stripped off her clothes in a parking lot.

An endearing heroine who lets nothing stand in her way, a lecherous villain and a hero the reader falls in love with long before Allison does pack this story with both touching moments and laugh-out-loud ones. A book smarter than reality television, never taking itself too seriously. Shane Bolks delivers a witty, poignant, and completely entertaining read.

4 Kisses