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The Serial Dater’s Shopping List by Morgen Bailey – Blog Tour

Thank you to Sarah Hardy for organising this blog tour and to Morgen Bailey and Bombshell Books for an ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info

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Synopsis

Are you looking for the perfect summer holiday read? Then you’ll love this laugh-out-loud comedy about the highs and lows of dating.

Izzy is a journalist who usually writes a technology column for a local newspaper. Her somewhat-intimidating boss William sets her the task of dating thirty-one men, via an internet dating site, all within a month, and writing about it for the paper.

Having an active, though fruitless, social life with her friend Donna, Izzy knows what she wants in a man, so creates a shopping list of dos and don’ts and starts ticking them off as she meets the men.

Follow the ups and downs of the dating process including Tim ‘the Weeble’, whose date leads Izzy to see banoffee pie in a whole new light, Lawrence the super-skinny social worker, Felix with his bizarre penchant for Persian Piranhas, and ‘the music maestro but don’t talk about dead pets’ Jake.

By the end of the month, will Izzy have met Mr Right?

My Thoughts

Izzy, a single 40 something journalist, is set a task of dating 31 men in 31 dates using on-line dating and then writing about her experiences under the title – what I learned today.  And so follows a hilarious story of Izzy’s adventures as she dates her way around Northampton’s characters and meets a diverse bunch of men – each one teaching her something about dating and life itself.

This delightful novel is perfect for a one sitting read or for reading around the pool on holiday.  It’s such a light-hearted novel but one that’s impossible to put down, often providing moments of uncontrollable giggling outbursts.

The character of Izzy is likeable and relatable and I really enjoyed reading about a female character of my own age – I’m really chuffed with the influx of 40 something female protagonists in recent romance novels.  Despite finding herself in many dating mishaps – she embraces each situation and nearly always remains polite and dignified.  The ensemble characters add fun back up such as Donna, Janine, Karen and Will who are all colleagues of Izzy’s, and Morgen Bailey has pretty much covered every single type of man in her selection of dates for Izzy.

I highly recommend this for fans of women’s fiction/chick lit.  Although there is a romantic element, I think this is more about the journey of dating, the types of people we meet in life and the fun we can have when we open our hearts to different types of people.

Author Bio

Morgen Bailey (Morgen with an E) is an author (of novels, short stories, writing and editing guides), freelance editor (for publishers and indie authors), writing tutor (in person and online), Writers’ Forum magazine ‘Competitive Edge’ columnist, blogger, speaker, and co-founder of Northants Authors. The former Chair of three writing groups, she has judged the H.E. Bates Short Story Competition, RONE, as well as the BBC Radio 2, BeaconLit, and Althorp Literary Festival children’s short story competitions. She also runs her own monthly 100-word competition. 2018 events include talks and workshops at Troubador’s Self Publishing Conference speakers, workshops and panels at Delapre Book Festival, interviewing and workshops at BeaconLit, and NAWG Fest with her ‘Editing your Fiction’ weekend residential course. Morgen can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and many others. Her blog is http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com, and email address morgen@morgenbailey.com.

20 comments

  1. Reblogged this on Morgen 'with an e' Bailey and commented:
    Wow, what can I say? This is amazing: “This delightful novel is perfect for a one sitting read or for reading around the pool on holiday. It’s such a light-hearted novel but one that’s impossible to put down, often providing moments of uncontrollable giggling outbursts.”

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  4. Well, you’ve piqued my curiosity! I’m a huge chick lit fan, and I really like the idea of a chick lit character in her 40’s. (I’m not *quite* there yet, but it won’t be long, so it’s fantastic to see that we’re making it into stories like this!) As an introvert, the concept of going on so many dates in so little time sounds unbearably exhausting, so all the better to read about someone else doing it. Thanks for putting this on my radar!

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  5. This looks great. I got a copy of My Favorite Half Night Stand and it kind of sounds similar and funny like this. When I was younger I had a book called 30 Guys in 30 Days, a Rom Com that I really enjoyed. I really need to finally read My Favorite Half Night Stand and maybe also add this to my TBR because you’re always full of good book recommendations.

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