Reality Check

by Leslie Carroll

IF LIZ CAN’T FIND “THE ONE”
SHE’LL TAKE THE MILLION.

Liz Pemberley is a smart girl with a weakness for bad boys, but for the first time in her life, her bad luck with men might just pay off. A hot new reality TV show called Bad Date is offering a million dollars to the singleton with the best story of romance gone awry. There’s no one with a more dismal dating history than Liz and she intends to prove it . . . on national television.

Once she gets on the show, the unimaginable happens–she meets a really nice guy. And not only is Jack Rafferty nice, he’s also, sexy, sweet, and ready to settle down. But as contestants on Bad Date , they’ve signed a contract that makes fraternizing with each other a major no-no. What’s a girl to do? Of course she wants to win the prize money, but Jack is too good to resist. With her fate on the show hanging in the balance, Liz will risk it all for the one thing she has always wanted–the perfect man!

Genres: Chick Lit

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

I used to tell people that I was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx; but the truth is that apart from the stellar education I received at the Fieldston School in Riverdale, much of who I am was shaped by my two grandmothers, who encouraged me to follow my bliss long before it became the sort of catchphrase you find on tee-shirts and new-age tchotchkes. My East Side grandmother took me to FAO Schwarz, the New York City Ballet, and afternoon tea at the Plaza Hotel, where I dreamed of becoming another Eloise. My West Side grandmother took me to the Central Park carousel and the zoo and treated me to colorful paper parasols and gummy, lukewarm pretzels from the vendors whose wares my East Side grandmother deemed too "dirty" for human consumption.

There are writers on both sides of my family, and although I always loved to write, I never anticipated that it would become my profession. I had wanted to be a ballerina; and though my club feet were corrected at birth (from the stilettos I adore now, you'd never know) and my short Achilles tendons made my toes turn in (corrected at the age of 9), I was never going to end up en pointe.

About a year later, I decided to become an actress when (if?) I grew up, and I never looked back. I majored in Theatre at Cornell University, worked in summer stock, and took classes with a couple of acknowledged masters. I performed a lot of Shakespeare and other classics in New York parks, basements, church choir lofts, and the occasional Off-Broadway theatre; then founded and ran my own nonprofit theatre company for several years. And when things got slow, and I found myself working three survival jobs simultaneously (one of them as a journalist and editor), I decided it was time to pursue an additional creative avenue.

Fast forward a decade. I'm now a multi-published author in three genres, as well as a freelance journalist. And I've also adapted a number of classic texts (Ivanhoe; The Prisoner of Zenda; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve) for the stage. I began writing women's fiction and historical fiction simultaneously, but my first published novel was the urban romantic comedy Miss Match in 2002. In 2005, as I continued to write about feisty female New Yorkers, my first historical novel was published under the pen name Amanda Elyot. While keeping those literary plates spinning I made my historical nonfiction debut in the spring of 2008.

In what I laughingly refer to as my spare time, I'm still a professional actress, working when the scripts and the roles excite me.

I'm such a native New Yorker that I still don't have a driver's license, "Big Sky Country" means Central Park, and the farthest I've ever been from the Upper West Side for any great length of time was my four-year stint upstate in Ithaca, at Cornell, known for its rigorous academics and its equally harsh permafrost.

My birthday falls on the same day as two of my heroes—F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jim Henson. So I reread The Great Gatsby every year and number Miss Piggy among the great actresses of her generation. My favorite color is deep hydrangea blue, and it just kills me that it doesn't look good with red hair.

I live in Manhattan with my husband Scott—who is my hero and everything I ever dreamed of. For the past couple of years we've been considering an addition to the family in the form of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Reviews

[Sherri Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous look into the reality TV shows so many of us are hooked on. This story centers around two people who are "losers in love." They audition and are accepted to compete on a new reality TV show called "Bad Date" where every week, the contestants tell of a "date from hell" experience. The one with the least bad date is voted off the show by the studio audience. At the end of the 13 weeks, the one left standing wins $1 million. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, for the heroine Liz, she meets the man of her dreams on the show. He's one of the contestants. What's the problem, you are wondering? All of the contestants have signed a contract that makes fraternizing with each other a major no-no. So major, that if caught, they could forfeit the big bucks.

This is the second book by this author that I have read. Lots of humor, but laced with the real life experiences anyone can relate to.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it was an amusing book, I had a hard time staying interested in it. The last several chapters started to really drag and I couldn't stay with it. Ok all in all, but not one of my favorites.

[Rachel Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story. very funny.

[Purple · Rating 3 out of 5]

I swear i kept waitin for somethin big to happen but it didnt. A light chick lit.

[Crystal Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book until I got to the ending. The ending just didn't live up to the wit and sparkle of the rest of the book.

[Joanna Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect juicy chick lit.