In ‘The Dating Game’, we meet Abigail Jones, a young woman who writes a tv show recap column under the pen name of Anastasia Flabbergasted. The show, cleverly called ‘Stag and Does’ is a fun spin on the Bachelor. When her boss and the tv show’s producer come up with a scheme to put Abby undercover on the show to get a more detailed look into the behind the scenes, she is swept off to Sydney, Australia for filming.

While Abby is pretending to be looking for a mate, the perfect guy inserts himself into her life in the form of producer, Jack. Abby has to juggle not only her writing gig, but also the many relationships amongst her fellow ‘does’, her crush on Jack, and trying to play the game well enough to stay on the show until the end.

I enjoyed this different take on the behind the scene look at a dating show. The different ladies on the show were fun to get to know, and the book as a whole seemed completely believable. I think fans of the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises will really enjoy this fun take on the show!

Thanks to Netgalley and One More Chapter for the ARC given to me in exchange for my honest review.

Yes, yes, yes! As a lover of all reality TV shows and romcoms, this book is it!!!! I don't even want to give anything away because I loved this book. It was such a fun, cute, and easy read!! I've been reading some books that take a lot of energy to get through and this book was such a breath of fresh air! In love. 10/10.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and One More Chapter for this ARC.

Sandy Barker is a new author to me, and like any new author, I'm always more excited to read their work. There are a ton of reality/dating competition shows nowadays, and The Dating Game reminded me of a mix of a few shows. This book felt very comparable to reality TV for me: mindless entertainment. This book wasn't bad, but if you're looking for 'the next great romance' book, this isn't it. If you go into this book knowing that, you may find it more enjoyable.

The story was easy to follow but the characters didn't stick out at all. While this book didn't really bring anything new to the genre, I don't think it was trying to accomplish that either. I do wish some more risks were taken with the plot/dating show aspects. Nothing major happened, and I wish there was more drama and excitement to get you hooked.

Overall I think this book will be much more suited to reality TV show lovers who find those short of shows appealing.

Hi everyone!
I absolutely adored this book. It was the perfect beach read!
This book is about a writer that goes on a dating show (something like the bachelor), but she doesn’t find love in the conventional way.
The writing style is perfect for this genre: fast paced and entertaining.
Even if you know from the beginning who the main character is going to fall for, it was intriguing and full of surprises.

In conclusion, if you like dating shows and reality tv this might be the perfect book for you. I’m also going to watch for new books by this author!

oh my god, this was such an entertaining book! There was just the right amount of tension, which kept me turning the pages. Next to that, Abby was a witty and likable perspective to read from. It was a good story both plot wise & character wise! There was loads of character development in Abby, and you really see her flourish and goes for what she wants. In a story like this, it could either be really confusing and hard to keep up with, or it could be the best thing ever, and in this case I’m glad to say it was the latter. We stuck to a small group within the twelve girls and it was pretty easy to distinguish them. It was also a treat to see developments outside of Abby’s character—something that you don’t see often in books—characters such as Daphne and Becca came across as complex when originally presented as quite flat, they become increasingly well-written characters. Although it took me a while to really get hooked into ‘the dating game’ it was highly entertaining and a great read!

Honestly I struggled my way through this one. I've read books with a similar premise that I loved so I had high hopes. Sadly it ended up taking me ages to get through because I kept getting bored and putting it down every few pages. I'm seeing lots of people loving it so I'm not sure why I didn't connect at all but I just couldn't anyone to like or something to latch on to.

Disappointed but still glad that other people seem to have loved it, it's always good to see a book finding its people.

What a fun book! I loved seeing what goes on behind the scenes of a reality dating show (The Bachelor!). In the book, the show is called The Stag, and one of the contestants is a blogger with a pen name who’s been writing snarky recaps of previous seasons. She’s supposed to write recaps from behind the scenes, but ends up getting more than she expected when she agreed to go on the show. I especially liked the relationships the contestants form with one another, the girls spend more time with each other than they do with “the stag”. I highly recommend this book, 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

* I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. *

I really, really enjoyed this. It's not my first book that involves a dating type show like the Bachelor. And honestly, I love them so much! The drama is so fun. I liked the main characters, Abby and Jack. The will-they-won't-they was done perfectly. I also liked a majority of the supporting characters - Kaz especially. She was a hoot!

The only thing I would change is the end.. it seems rather abrupt and I wish there was an epilogue or something! I wanted to know what happened next. Overall though, an easy and fun read.

This book contains all the elements to be my catnip. And, for the most part, I enjoyed it—mainly due to the snappy dialogue and effortless verve of the writing style. Your mileage may vary on this but I’m one of those of those readers for whom a witty turn of phrase can cover a world of sin.

And while I wouldn’t say there’s a *world* sin to cover here, there’s some sin. And by “sin” what I actually mean is “unresolved plot elements and lack of emotional payoff.”

Plus the premise alone required a sufficiency of suspended disbelief that while I wouldn’t say it was unwilling exactly it was definitely slipping into dubcon. The Stag is this book’s equivalent to The Bachelor (serial numbers not so much filed off as scribbled out with a felt-tip), only the current series is some sort of weird British/Australian mash up, set in a beach mansion in Sydney. Probably because it’s borderline impossible to imagine Bachelor-style dates in the UK: and now Liam has invited Tiffany on a romantic one-on-one date at Beamish Museum.

ANYWAY. That’s the background. Back to the actual premise. The heroine, Abby, has aspirations to be a serious journalist but earns her living writing content—specifically reality TV show recaps—for an online site that I think is supposed to be Buzzfeed. She writes these under a pseudonym and her snarky style has made them very popular, so much so that when her recaps generate additional interest in the latest season of The Stag, the producer taps her editor have Abby become a contestant on the next season of the show. Apparently because this will make her recaps better? Because that will be better for the show? Because the one thing we all know reality TV producers love is having actual fucking journalists literally on-set witnessing all the shady shit that reality TV producers do to make the shows that they make.

Listen, I do not buy this at all. But here is my disbelief. And here I am suspending it.

What unfolds is a potentially intriguing clusterfuck of public versus private selves. Between her recap-writing-persona, her persona on the show and who she is, or believes herself to be, Abby has about sixty-five different identities to juggle. And while this is on the one hand unnecessarily complicated, it is thematically resonant with both the “nothing is as it seems” of reality TV and the various roles society expects women to play, in general and in the sphere of romance in particular. The way the book is structured further feeds into this: the narration transitions almost seamlessly from Abby’s direct POV to her written-up recaps to the constructed footage of the show itself. This is, at once, really fascinating (because it’s sometimes genuinely hard to get a handle on exactly what happened) and frustrating (because it’s sometimes genuinely hard to get a handle on exactly what happened).

The other thing I really liked about the book was its focus on the developing relationships between the women on the show. There is also a romance, between Abby and one of the producers, a Generic Australian Man, and for better or worse it honestly feels a lot less well-articulated than the various friendships. This personally didn’t trouble me, although it did mean I was chomping at the bit to get back to the show whenever the hero and heroine where alone together (which is probably counter-productive to a romance arc) but I did kind of love the way that, by the end of the book (and without spoilers) some very traditional romance tropes had been reconfigured to centre and celebrate a friendship between two women. There’s even a dark moment, a betrayal, a big gesture, and a reconciliation for heaven’s sake. Unfortunately, that only served to further side-line the romance but, again, I appreciated the direction the book chose to go in, especially in the context of a problematically heteronormative dating show that is explicitly designed to put women in competition with each other.

Apart from the romance, which was arguably one of the weaker elements of the book, there were a few other things that didn’t quite work for me. In particular, there are two women among the contestants who appear to have been scouted explicitly to be “villains” – and it quickly becomes clear they’re awful off-camera as well as on. The heroine calls them “the Cruella sisters” because they’re so appalling but that’s kind of the whole problem. They are, indeed, so appalling they might as well be the ugly stepsisters in a cartoon fairy-tale. Literally everyone else in the book, including the guy whose attentions they’re all competing for and is obviously a total wanker, and the heroine’s “nasty” editor, are allowed *some* nuance to their characters. Not always nuance enough to redeem them, but nuance enough to be human. Not so Tara and Kylie. And while I do understand that horrible people who are just horrible exist in the world, in this case it felt … out-of-step with the rest of the book. And is especially problematic because Tara is explicitly presented as from a working-class London background, whereas Daphne, the super posh one, who is also initially portrayed as being kind of dreadful, is later shown to be human, with all the attendant virtues, flaws and vulnerabilities. This made the portrayal of Tara come across as a bit … lowest common denominator, dunk on the chavvy one, and have it be justified because the chavvy one was presented as irredeemably terrible in every way.

Which was an odd blindspot because the heroine is herself from a working-class background. Although that was an element the book mostly left dangling, along with Abby’s panic attacks, her issues around financial stability, and her aspirations to be a “serious” journalist. While the reality TV show aspect of the text gave it an undeniable momentum (and really did keep me turning the pages enthusiastically), something I struggled with throughout was how much the book seemed to be setting up that it seemed to later forget, drop or simply stop caring about. I don’t know if there was simply too much going on, but it did mean that while the conclusion of the book was satisfying in terms of the show, it wasn’t very satisfying in terms of the characters. Abby and Generic Australian Man do have a conversation about their future, but I didn’t feel Abby was any closer to either progressing her career as the “serious” journalist she wants to (or feels she should?) be or reconciling herself with the value of what she does currently. What happened to other competitors? Were they okay? What did Daphne do? What about Abby’s reputation, given that her attempt to conceal her identity as a contestant was going as Abby Jones instead of … Abigail Jones? I have questions. I have so many questions. And some of them, at least, were testament to how involved I felt with the contestants of the show. But some of them just left me feeling like the book hadn’t so much finished as hit its run time and rolled credits abruptly.

The other thing that didn’t quite work for me was the production side of the reality TV business. Going back to Tara and Kylie as villains, I was slightly troubled by the way they were just terrible people who had been recruited to be terrible and, therefore, were terrible. Because, from what I understand, most reality TV villains are made not, err, born. And this was partially addressed by the book itself in that the producers do need to “turn” one of the remaining contestants into a villain to inject drama and tension into the finale episodes. But this was really the only time that the producers were shown as actively creating the storylines of the show. Abby does acknowledge the “guiding” hand of the producers, and notes how manipulative it is (as well as the overall fucked-upness of putting women in a bubble and half Stockholm-syndroming them into thinking they want some random guy enough to compete with each other over him) but this never felt real to me at any point. I mean, even the big dramatic storm off that occurs in every season of The Bachelor happens here spontaneously and voluntarily by Tara getting called on her bullshit, fired from the show and then choosing to storm off.

From everything I’ve seen, heard and read about this kind of reality TV, those kind of storm offs happen because of quite a lot of hardcore manipulative stuff directed at someone who is a little bit vulnerable and currently trapped in an emotional pressure cooker. Not because someone is evil in a way that just happens to make really good TV. And I know this is a romcom, not a dark satire of Dystopian television, but because the hero is one of the producers (and I think it would be really hard to get romantically invested in someone who emotionally manipulates vulnerable women for drama) it means the book has to consistently draw back from the, well, the reality of reality TV. Which, in turn, means it kind of lacks an edge occasionally.

And now this is all sounding very negative.

The truth is, I really did have fun with this book. Despite the ways it didn’t always work for me, I was super invested in the show as it unfolded and I sincerely loved the heroine’s voice. Plus she’s British and even though I understand the author is Australian, sounded authentically British to me. Given how many American-authored books I read, this was such a pleasure. Oh, and the book is also an abashed love letter to Sydney: which, well, fair play too. It sounds like an amazing city and I enjoyed being able to play virtual tourist.

PS - for them as care, this is one of those m/f books that takes place in some kind of AU where queerness does not exist and is never acknowledged as existing anyway. Obviously it's not my job to police books for the presence or absence of queer characters but it always feels faintly confusing to me when contemporary-set books seem to take place in this weird hinterland of unremitting straightness. I should also emphasise this is an observation, not a criticism.

Abigail Jones is a writer, under her alter ego Anastasia Blabbergasted writes pithy summaries of reality shows. Her recaps of ‘The Stag’ dating show (think the Bachelor) gets her the attention of the shows producers. And suddenly she’s part of the show she’s been writing about. But rather than the stag it’s the Aussie producer, Jack, who catches her eye.

This is light romantic story, an easy summer read. The romance plot is signposted right from the start but is enjoyable to watch unfold. It’s also a story if female friendship. It’s a perfect summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers and the Author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was a clean romance that was the perfect read for the warmer weather. I could not put it down! Based on a The Bachelor-type show, it was a really nice and easy read. In spite of not really watching reality TV in my spare time, I loved this idea and how it was executed.

All of the characters were three-dimensional, and I really enjoyed the fact that there was never any major problems for the main couple. In addition, in spite of it being based around a competitive show to find love, I really enjoyed the fact that the other women supported each other and had realistic friendships.

The ending left you wanting more, so if a book 2 is on the cards I would definitely read that too - Sandy Barker is fast becoming one of my favourite authors!

Loved the premise of this book and how “real” reality television really is. Loved the characters and the conversations throughout. Great read!!

arc provided by netgalley.
this book is really fun if you’re into tv reality shows like the bachelor or even love island, i think this is a great book and i actually learned about what happens behind the scenes. abby, the main character is funny and really interesting because she refers to her "alter egos" all the time: doe abby and anastasia. anastasia (which is also abby) writes snarky recaps of this tv show called the stag and the recap does so well they decide to get her undercover in the villa as one of the contestant looking for love. but there, she meets one of the producer (jack) which is a heartwarming character. anyways the tropes of this book had tons of good things and they were so promising but the book ended up being a bit flat and i couldn’t really get into the story. i think it has to do with personal preferences tho and a lot of people would love this book!

*3.5 stars

I was really intrigued by the plot with a wannabe journalist going undercover as a contest in a dating reality show to get the real scoop about all the things behind the scenes and perhaps also finding herself a love story, but unfortunately the story fell kinda short on the last aspect. It had some love interests, but I would not classify this as a full romance book, since the romance was quite a small part of the story as I see it.

The focus was more on the girls in the show and getting to know them all better. I loved seeing them form friendships, some better than others, and mostly just having fun with each other. Of course, there had to be some rotten eggs in the group as well, otherwise there would be no drama between the girls. I liked Abby as a character and it was really fun to see the whole thing from her eyes. And her recaps of the show was hilarious and definitely the highlights of the book! Kaz stole the show though, her total honesty and just being herself made me want to be friends with her.

The problem(s) I had with the book in general was that the writing style was not really my cup of tea, so it took me a while into the story to get used to it and then it gradually got better but it wasn't relaxing to read in a way, you know. I had to concentrate to comprehend the things that were written, I don't know if it was the layout of the text in the e-book or what it was, but it stole the attention away from the real story. But the biggest anticlimax of them all was that ending, I mean I wanted an epilogue!! I wanted to see the girls reunite, how it went for Abby's career, her relationship, the feedback from the public when the show finally aired??

Overall, a quite enjoyable read but the focus was more on the dating show, the girls and more of what happens behind-the-scenes than any romance going on. I loved seeing the friendships grow and how it really is when the camera is not rolling in a reality show. Unfortunately, the book left me with more unanswered questions than a standalone rom-com should and therefore it brought the story down.

This is a fun spin on the dating show trope. The main character is a journalist and gets to anonymously be a part of a Bachelor-type show. Set in England and Australia, this was a fun escape. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This made me laugh out loud, go watch The Bachelor and kiss my husband in appreciation that I didn’t have to ever date again!

Abby is a fabulous writer and trying to get in on the writing scene by making a bit of money by writing comedic follow-ups to The Stag (think UK version of The Bachelor).

When the producers find out and love the blog, they think it’s a great idea to put Abby in the show…as a contestant. Give her the true behind the scenes.

Abby sees how truly heinous the show is and the girls are played out to be. She finds some true friends and meets the crew….oh the crew.

Jack is a hunk and he’s so stinkin sweet. But Abby is undercover and no one knows but Jack. Can she possibly hook up w him? The Stag is a complete jerk and a waste of space…and Abby is supposed to be falling in love with him on set. What a disaster.
And in the midst, she is writing the blog of her life.

A RomCom to remember…..

As someone who really enjoyed Kate Stayman-London's "One to Watch" with a similar premise, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was entertaining and a great book to read for a change of pace.

One thing that felt so weird in the beginning is that Abby is stressed about using the name "Abigail Jones" and so they come up with a "alter ego" ... of.... literally Abby Jones.... which is the same as her original name? Am I going nuts? Like thats the same thing as just saying her name is Abigail.... anyways, after suspending disbelief at that point I was able to continue reading the book and enjoyed it!

A cross between The Devil Wears Prada and the Bachelor, Sandy Barker's book The Dating Game takes readers on a twisty adventure through the world of reality media. Abby Jones is not looking for love, in fact, she's only here under duress. Really. Writing under a pen name, her snarky write ups of a popular Bacheloresque show has won her a position as a contestant. Only she's not really a contestant, her job is to get as close to the top as possible in order to get an insiders perspective so she can write even more snarky articles. Whew! Unfortunately for her, one of the producers is a handsome, nice guy who seems to like her, many of her fellow contestants are fabulous women, and the bachelor is a jerk. All it takes is one wrong move and the whole thing ends in a blaze of glory. With a deft hand and lots of wit, this is an excellent choice for a beach read.

The Dating Game is a romantic comedy about the hottest reality tv show about looking for love. Abby is a writer that writes recaps of reality television under a secret identity. When her recap of the dating show, The Stag goes viral, her editor thinks that she should be on set writing the drama as it happens in the next season. She is excited to find out that the setting of the next show is going to be Sidney, Australia. The bad news is that the producers want her to actually be a contestant on the show as well as writing the recaps undercover. She does not want to be on camera pretending to be looking for love but she doesn't have a choice in the matter. Once she meets the gorgeous producer, Jack, she begins to feel more positive about being involved with the show. The contestants provide plenty of drama for the show. This is a funny good read. I recommend it.

I recently entered into sort of a romance frenzy and this book definitely fueled some of it!! It was such a fun engaging read all the way through. I love when books can make me laugh out loud just like this one did.
Thank you so much to netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!