DREAM GUY

Author: Candy Halliday ISBN: 0446614556 2/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: WARNER FOREVER

Fed up with bad dates and worse relationships, video game designer Annie Long decides that if she can't find the perfect man, she'll just have to create one. "Joe Video" (on DVD at fine retailers) is the ideal interactive boyfriend for the modern woman: attentive, supportive, sexy, adoring--and he'll never leave the toilet seat up, hog the remote, or break your heart! Matt Abbington--an unforgettable romantic mistake of Annie's who just so happens to be her boss--is sure that "Joe" will make their company a laughingstock. While the whole city is chiming in on the virtual battle of the sexes, Rico, the drop-dead gorgeous model who played Joe, offers Annie a little hands-on-role-playing. But what's really turning her on are Matt's hungry-for-you looks. Maybe the perfect man for Annie isn't on-screen, after all. Maybe he's the flesh-and-blood guy who makes her days challenging but her nights absolutely divine.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Halliday is a hoot!

I chuckled, snorted and laughed my way through Ms. Halliday's DREAM GUY. With several outrageously funny characters and Ms. Halliday's definite gift for comic timing, DREAM GUY fairly sparkles with good cheer... and oodles of sexual tension.

While the romantic couple, Annie and Matt, stumble their way toward love, several of the secondary characters almost steal the show. Most noteworthy among some nicely sketched (often kooky) characters are Collin, the gay friend of the lead couple; Rico, every woman's dream fantasy; and Helena, Rico's Latino bombshell girlfriend.

This character driven tale is wonderfully paced as well. DREAM GUY never falters, never drags. The characters and the situations they find themselves in keep this story moving along quickly.

So if you like sexy, well-written romantic comedies, DREAM GUY is the book for you.

Of that, I am certain.

Debbie Jett