Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sex, Lies and Online dating By Rachel Gibson

Sex lies and online dating was one of the few books that captivated me from the start based on the humour. The story is woven around two individuals that got into online dating for work related purposes only to end up liking each other.Rachel Gibson has a very vivid imagination regarding the cheesy characters that date online, especially the names they choose as screen names – Hardluvnman, Bigdaddy182, Luvstick, Klondikemike. I found a portrayal of the characters void of good manners and etiquette, although typical of screen names and personalities, I did wonder if it was a fair presentation of online dating.

What I enjoyed about the book, was the way she brought her characters to life. They weren't Hollywood type with perfect bodies, you tend to feel she's talking about someone you know (or could know). Sometimes you read a book and could predict the characters' reactions to certain situations based on how you perceive them - knowing fully well they're fictional and evolving based on a formula - I didn't feel that with this book.The reactions were realistic and not a formula to make the story flow, which indeed gave it a better flow. How she captured their emotions and reactions was refreshing, there was no exaggeration or purple prose and to me, that was good writing - to remain as real as possible and still be able to capture the readers attention from start to finish.I liked how she resolved the conflict in the end. The only thing I didn't care for was that the main characters got married eventually. I felt the story was complete without that bit.

She left me wanting with the bit about Clare behaving oddly though. Clare was mentioned only a few times in passing so giving her the centre stage that late in the story was distracting. It may be because Ms Gibson had plans of working on a sequel, if not, that last bit didn't blend too well with the rest of the story. However, Rachel Gibson is one writer whose work I am certain to read again.

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