I think I'm in the minority here- but this case might be more of me than the book. I am not a big fan of the bachelor franchise but this is totally for you if you do! It's a whole season of a bachelor-esque show except it has a secret contestant- a reality tv show writer who wants more out of her career.

It's like if Reality Steve secretly went on the Bachelorette, but opposite. This was insanely fun. I do wish there would have been a stronger resolution at the end. It just kind of ended and I wish it went just a touch further, just because post-Stag was such a huge part of the book. Regardless, this was a fun and sweet book.

This book is the reality of now, with all the reality dating shows around. Abby who writes reviews of the reality tv show gets invited to actually participate in the dating show. Loved the book, and an easy read.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable light-hearted romance, based around the concept of a bachelor-style reality show. In my opinion, the book does require a bit of suspension of disbelief in terms of the circumstances that lead to Abby ending up on the show (e.g. I realistically don’t think that her column would be popular enough for this to be something that would benefit the production company, especially when all the extra hassle of having her on the show is considered). However, this definitely didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.

I thought it was well-written, and although I was a bit hesitant when reading the warning from Sandy Barker that there are a ton of characters to keep up with in the book, I actually found it really easy to keep on top of who was who! I also know Barker mentions a cast list which will be at the back to help those reading physical copies, and that on the non-ARC e-reader copies you will be able to click on a name to remind you who a character is, but even without these I think the characterisation is good enough to make the characters feel distinct from one another.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between the Abby and Jack, however I wish we were able to see a little more of their relationship. Whilst the kissing in storerooms was cute initially, I was sad to never really see their relationship progress much further than here. It does feel as though the focus of the book is firmly on the show rather than the romance, which was still fun as someone who enjoys reality TV, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to reality TV haters!

Such a fun book! With Love Island on the telly each night I couldn't but link them together! Abby is such a funny protagonists and couldn't help but relating to her. Loved it!

Wow, this was a fantastic book. We follow Abby, a journalist who recaps reality TV online. After a particularly popular recap, she's invited to join the cast of The Stag as an undercover contestant.

I loved all the behind the scenes bits and how relationships developed between Abby and the other girls, not just with her love interest.

If you don't particularly like smut in your romance books this is perfect for you.

2.75 stars?? I really don't even know. I never round up reviews, but this definitely isn't on the same level as some of my 2 star reads, so I've decided to round up here.

The synopsis of this book sounded really intriguing, but unfortunately this book disappointed me quite a lot. A book that's basically The Bachelor?? Sounded great to me. Except I found so many issues with it. With a plot like this, and so many girls living together, I think anyone would expect lots of drama. And yes, there was drama, but it was just so bland and hardly entertaining most of the time. Some of these girls could have truly tore each other apart, and yet they didn't. The writing was also just really messy. I can deal with writing that's not the smoothest as long as I'm enjoying other aspects, but I found myself stopping so much to even try to understand what I was reading. There were many chapters that were articles Abby was writing about the show and they were nice to read, but the next paragraph would jump right back to actual Abby, and into her thoughts. It did this so much that eventually I had no clue what she was thinking and what was actually in the article. So unless I plan on spending 5 minutes reading each page and breaking it down, it was just really confusing, and I think it could have been executed much better. There were also just so many higher suspense scenes where I was expecting more details, and instead they faded to black. Which over the course of this novel just created a very dull plot.

However, there were still some things I did enjoy about this book. The friendships formed throughout were pretty well done compared to a lot of other aspects, and I think they were definitely one of the stronger points of this book. I also really enjoyed the excursions, the change of setting really helped make the book more interesting, and I actually wish there could have been more of them.

There's not really even much for me to say about the romance in this book. It wasn't terrible, just very forgettable. I did really like Abby and Jack, and I think making their relationship more important could have definitely improved this book a lot, since it did really feel like there was something missing.

I do definitely say check out this book if it sounds interesting though, just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean others won't. Release date is September 10th, 2021.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter (via NetGalley) for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review will also be posted to my BookBub immediately.

This book was nice. A cute rom-com. Abby is forced to become the contestant in Love Island/bachelor-like show called The Stag. In the meantime she falls in love with show producer Jack. The show part of the book was definitely better, it was funny and gave you some insight of how this reality shows are made. I really liked it. But the romance in this book was disappointing. I didn't connect to these characters much and I didn't get the chemistry between them. 4/5⭐

Thank you NetGalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

This was set-up as a cute rom-com set in the world of reality T.V. on a show similar to the bachelor. I think I just I didn't connect with the characters as much as I should have. And though it was touted as a romance, there just wasn't much of it in the book. Jack and Abigail have chemistry, and you can tell from the start of the book, but it takes a great deal of back and forth, without real tension, before they actually come together, and it didn't feel romantic or passionate to me.

I did enjoy the exploration Abby had as herself as Doe Abby, Anastasia (the reality writer) and herself and how many times the characters Abigail portrayed were herself in some ways. I also liked the relationships that were formed between the contestants on the show, and the exploration of these relationships. The author did a great job of creating some likeable side characters, with friendships that were genuine and true.

I found that the book moved really slow at times and though there was a romance, it was not all encompassing and I didn't find myself rooting for them or connecting with the characters. I guess this book just wasn't for me, but it may be for people who love reality TV and the drama of reality TV. I received a copy of this from NetGalley and the publisher for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Sandy Barker is a new author for me so I was quite excited going into this novel. Sadly, I was not a huge fan. I had a vague feeling throughout that I had read something like this before/seen it on television and the whole thing just felt a little bit generic to me. I did not despise it by any means, but at the end of the day it just felt like brainless entertainment that I probably will forget about by tomorrow.

I really enjoyed this book. It follows the story of Abby who ends up as a contestant on reality TV series The Stag to.help get a behind the scene take for her journalist column. It was entertaining and easy to read and interesting to get more of an idea of what goes on behind the scenes. It felt a good time to.read it as I've been watching love island so could see similarities. Definitely recommend as a bit of a differential hearted read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the EARC in exchange for an honest review!

I normally wouldn’t choose a rom-com book; it’s ordinarily something that I really need to be in the mood for. But despite this, I plunged into this book and devoured it in one sitting, which doesn’t happen often and shows that the premise was certainly engaging.

This book follows Abby, a writer whose most notable works are catty recaps of reality TV shows written under a pseudonym. When one of her pieces goes viral, she is invited to be on the reality dating show undercover, whilst writing recaps under her pseudonym. The show is set in Sydney, and involves 12 women competing for a chance with the ‘Stag’ (the name of the programme). Predictable chaos ensues.

There some ups and downs, some laugh-out-loud moments. There were also some things I wasn’t keen on, such as overuse of the term ‘sans’ and regular use of “obvs” in dialogue. Despite this small niggle, however, I did find myself hooked in and rooting for Abby. I was pleased to see that it wasn’t all about women fawning over men, either. There were some great moments for independent female empowerment in here; even though romance is the primary genre, the male characters didn’t swoop in to ‘save’ the women (a common trope in rom-coms that I absolutely can’t stand).

Overall, this is a good read for anyone who wants a bit of light hearted fun, and probably also good for those who enjoy ‘reality’ TV (though, I generally don’t and I still enjoyed it!).

I enjoyed the 'behind the scenes' hilarity of this book and it felt very realistic to believe that these people would behave in this way when on a dating gameshow, whether that be the contestants or the show producers. The romance was OK and kind of sweet but it seemed to be more complicated than it really needed to be

I adored this book. It was such a fun read and completely fit my romance mood. I’ve been watching Love Island recently and I love The Selection and some Bachelor type books I’ve read on Wattpad so this book fits right in with that theme.

The Dating Game follows Abby, a writer, who writes recaps under a pseudonym about a dating show The Stag. One of her recaps goes viral and her editor and the director of the show want Abby to participate and write her recaps with first-hand experience. Abby eventually agrees as her career depends on it and what follows is a whirlwind holiday in Sydney, with romance involved of course!

‘I don’t want to be with you, because I’ve fallen for someone else.’

I adored the growing romance between Abby and Jack, a producer on the show. Due to his job, their relationship has many obstacles to overcome. I always find books set on a dating show so fascinating and this was no different. The friendships that were formed between the girls were great, particularly that of Becca and Abby. Although, that friendship also had to deal with many bumps along the road due to the fact they were supposedly competing for the heart of the Bachelor, who has taken a liking to Abby.

This book was very enjoyable and I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one sitting! I highly recommend if you love romance, dating shows and swoon-worthy characters!

I just recently got into reality tv dating shows such as the Bachelor and Bachelorette and was interested immediately when I saw that this book was available as an ARC. The book follows Abby Jones, writer of reality TV show recaps and reviews, but aspiring journalist. She gets the orders from her boss to go behind the scenes and write about the show as a contestant on the Stag. She is a hot mess and doesn’t really want to go even though it is going to be produced in Australia. She meets Jack, the hot producer and they have what seems to be an instant connection.

This story was something that would usually make me excited. It has elements that, when in other books, I found engaging and entertaining. In this book, I felt that it was a bit too wordy and hard to get through. I found myself forcing to read through all of the word vomit just to get to the meat of the story. Honestly, the concept is really good but I think that some parts could have been cut out and it wouldn’t really have affected the story. Overall it was good so I would give it a 3.5 out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and One more Chapter for the ARC review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for this one, the summary sounded fun and I love watching the bachelor!

It started off good with how Abby and Jack met and got on. I really liked their chemistry. I liked the premise of why Abby had to go on the Stag and how everything was developing, but then it kind of flatlined. In my opinion the time with Abby and Jack actually together was severely lacking and there was way too much focus on everything else.

There were funny parts, but overall I was underwhelmed. It had the potential to be so much more.

The Dating Game by Sandy Barker stars Abby Jones, a woman with dreams of being a serious writer that ends up writing recaps of reality shows like "The Stag" under her pseudonym Anastasia Blabbergasted. When her most recent recap goes viral, she is voluntold by her agent that the producers want her on the show as a plant to get the juiciest gossip to write more recaps.

This one was so much fun! I loved that it went further than a typical romance, and focused on the dynamics of the "Does" with some romance sprinkled in later. This was a funny, light-hearted read!

This was a really fun book and felt like the perfect beach read. The main character Abigail is really funny and relatable. Abby went undercover on the dating show The Stag which is the Uk version of The Bachelor. I enjoyed the more "behind the scences" aspect and reading about the relationships that the women on the show formed with one another. Perfect book for anyone to read who enjoys reality TV!

As a very big fan of The Bachelor franchise I REALLY wanted to like this book. However that just wasn’t the case.

I would say it’s just me but I found the writing almost chaotic and really struggled to find any connection to the main character Abby. I also found it difficult to keep up with all the characters, I know a character list was provided at the end of the book but it was still A LOT.

There were obviously good points in the story and it was a great premise but just wasn’t executed the right way for me this time. Definitely will be keeping an eye out on Barker's future works though because I see the promise!

The Dating Game is a light-hearted rom-com, set in the world of reality dating shows. Abby, who writes a TV show recap column, is sent undercover to take part in an Australia season of ‘The Stag’, a reality show similar to The Bachelor.
We follow Abby, as she forms friendships with the other ‘does’, struggles to meet deadlines for her columns while keeping her writing gig a secret, and tries to work out what to do about her growing crush for producer Jack.
This was a feel-good read for me. It was entertaining to get a look behind the scenes of a reality show, and there was a sweet slow burn romance. If you enjoy reality shows (which are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me), then you’ll likely enjoy reading The Dating Game.

Thanks to Netgalley and One More Chapter for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.