I really enjoyed this clean, funny romance. I got this from my TBR pile and I'm not sure where I bought it. I voluntarily chose to review it. I've given it a 5* rating. It was a real pick me up story and pulled me in it's game. It read pretty fast and smiling at the ending. ( )

Shirley Jump is one of the best romantic comedy authors around, and yet I'm always surprised at how much I love her stories! Laugh-out-loud funny, with warm, intriguing characters, the humor she invokes into her story lines makes her stories come alive on the page. THE DATING GAME is no exception-an absolutely original plot, main characters you can't help but love, and a supporting cast that fleshes the story out until you know what you're reading could happen in real life.

The story starts out with Bowden Hartman, an employee of Speedy Package Services, playing God/Fairy Godmother/Prince of Love. He's in charge of delivering winning notices to two women-Tiffany Barrett, a former Miss Indiana, who's won the lead role on the "Love and the Average Jill" reality show, and Mattie Grant, a woman who's won a position on the reality show "Survival of the Fittest." Both shows are set to debut on Lawford Channel Ten's new line-up. Deciding to do something he deems necessary, Bowden switches the envelopes, and the result is that Mattie, who believed she'd be competing on "Survival of the Fittest," for which she'd been training, ends up at a mansion with a butler, a new wardrobe, and several eligible bachelors vying for her attention.

When Mattie finds out she's on the wrong show, she's all set to high-tail it back home. But Larissa Peterson, host of "Love and the Average Jill", decides that Mattie is the absolutely best choice to be the star of the show. One of the show's producers, Steve Blackburn, agrees. So does the first bachelor Mattie meets, Dave Simpson. Strikingly handsome, with an air of mystery, Mattie feels an immediate attraction to him-but she's still not sure about appearing on the show. After all, she chairs the Lawford Girls' Soccer League and coaches two of the girls' teams. She doesn't date a parade of men, but the fifty-thousand dollar prize money could mean a lot for the Soccer League.

Dave Simpson is entranced with Mattie Grant upon their first meeting. There's nothing fake about her, and although she's not the former Miss Indiana bachelorette he was expecting, he quickly finds out she's even more. The only problem is, Dave is on the show under false pretenses of his own, and as his feelings for Mattie grow, so does the hole he's dug for himself. Telling her the truth could damage their growing relationship, and Dave's finding out that for the first time in his life, he's found a woman he could actually come to love.

THE DATING GAME is fresh, funny, and totally addictive. Once I sat down to read it, I couldn't get up until I'd finished the last word. Mattie and Dave are such intriguing characters, and the premise of the story is such an original one. Will Mattie and Dave have a true happily ever after, or will Bowden Hartman's matchmaking scheme go awry? You'll have to pick up a copy of the book to find out, but believe me, it's worth it! ( )