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What if your best friend called in a favor and that favor turned out to be throwing you onto a TV reality show like the Bachelor and that Bachelor turned out to be the same guy that snaked his way into the lease on your new home, leaving you out in the cold?
Samantha Parker needs a change of venue. Jump starting her career in photography had seemed so easy at home, until her mentor stole her work and took the credit. Now she wants to make a fresh start, and that's what she thought she was getting when she was promised an unbelievable deal on a rental in the California bay area. But Nick Ryan got there first.
Nick Ryan offered to pay a higher rent on the cottage hoping the location would give him the solitude and the inspiration to write the book that will advance his career. Nick's plans change quickly when his reprobate brother has an accident, removing him from his spot on a new TV reality show akin to The Bachelor. Little brother, Derek, asks Nick to step in for him with one proviso – he has to choose the daughter of a thug that backed his business and to whom he owes a large debt.
Samantha agrees to help out the friend who took her in off the street and fill the vacant spot as the 18th bachelorette on a reality TV show, planning to be eliminated from the show on the first night. Her determination is even greater when she finds that the Bachelor is none other than the guy who stole the house she was supposed to be renting. Nick can't explain why he doesn't eliminate the woman so clearly disinterested in being selected to continue on the show. His mission is to select the thug's daughter as the winner, in spite of her ugly, spoiled little girl personality. That goal is supposed to erase his brother's debt and potentially save his brother's life. But as the show continues, he finds himself drawn to Samantha, finding in her the family he always wanted but never had. But how can he choose her when his brother's life hangs in the balance?
TV Bride is a pleasant diversion about friendship and family and taking charge of one's life. In the age of reality TV, the premise is familiar. The obstacles Ms. Ballou presents to the characters seem insurmountable and the reader wonders how she's going to be able to bring Nick and Samantha together in the end, or if Nick will continue to enable his little brother at great personal expense. The supporting cast is fun to watch and the friendships that Samantha makes along the way buoy this story along. I enjoyed watching the characters grow and would recommend this – a great book to take along to the beach.
Reviewed by Karla Brandenburg
for The Road to Romance
May 27, 2007
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