I don't know if we still call this type of book chick-lit,
but right from the start that's the feel; bright, lively
and not too committed because we're into having fun while
we're young. Only in THE DATING INTERVENTION, Delaney
thinks it's okay to keep three men on the go for steady
dating. When all three friendships fail, her girl pals
decide Delaney is in need of help.
Summer and Josefina, both comfortably settled, commandeer
Delaney's social life plans and remind her that she's no
longer in her twenties. The best men will all be taken
soon, and she'll be left on the shelf. Their town in the
north of Arizona isn't large, but its online dating sites
are their first port of call. This could be energising - or
disastrous. And what about Delaney's job? Bartending is
lively, but not progressive. While her lack of cooking
skills is a real turn-off for steady men. Jake Rhoades for
example; a good-looking guy she's spotted but not got to
know. Delaney insists that Summer and Josefina have to hit
the gym with her.
I admit to thinking that Delaney sounded like a girl
wasting her life, but she's put herself through veterinary
college and is choosing not to pursue that job. I find this
inexplicable. And if she only ever eats salty takeaway
food, how come she has good skin and figure? But Delaney,
we learn, has major confidence problems. No firm happened
to be hiring when she qualified, and the boyfriend who
proposed to her secretly kept another girlfriend or two in
case she didn't work out. Delaney decided to be the gadfly,
but she's kept it up too long, and it hasn't done her any
good.
The problem I kept having is that if Delaney took a
veterinary degree it's because she loves animals, and she
would have moved to find jobs, whether horses or small
pets, or volunteered at a shelter. She eventually finds her
calling, and I'm pleased for her. Delaney's mother turns
out to be a lovely, confident and positive person. I also
like that the two supportive friends are each having their
own problems, and their tales can be highly entertaining.
This is a complex, chatty, character-filled story with a
wide variety of people. Hilary Dartt's energy and
enthusiasm for her tale keeps the pot on the boil, with
barely a pause for breath. THE DATING INTERVENTION may be
the most fun you've had this year.
Delaney Collins’s intuition is always right on. The trouble is, she never listens
to it - especially when it comes to men. So when her fail-proof dating system
fails completely, her best friends, Summer and Josie, stage The Dating
Intervention, in which they take control of her dating life. Although she
struggles to follow the rules they set out for her, her intuition tells her that if
she doesn’t, she may end up alone and forever lonely in a sea of men with
stained neckties and cumbersome baggage.