Double Dating with the Dead
Grade : D

Okay, the truth is that I’m willing to suspend a little disbelief every now and then in order to enjoy a book. Really. But when a novel requires that I also jettison my common sense right along with suspending any reality – including the most basic “people just don’t act like that” standard – then it just Pushes Me Too Far. And, man, was I Pushed Too Far with this one.

The plot is ridiculous. (And asinine.) A psychic with a column in a local newspaper is insulted when an author insults her on local television by implying she is a fraud. Said psychic’s mother challenges him to stay two weeks in an abandoned and supposedly haunted hotel alone with the insulted psychic in order to prove to him the existence of ghosts. He doesn’t believe in ghosts, of course, and plans to write a book exposing the psychic as a fraud when the two weeks are over.

Now, I believe in ghosts, but I don’t believe in dumb ones. Or cute ghosts either. And, regrettably, that lowest common denominator of ghost-world is just what the author offers up here. In fact, in this novel’s scant 264 pages of second grade-size type you have:

  • Within the first five pages (five pages!) and in between some truly dizzying displays of head-hopping, said insulted psychic agrees in a side bet to sleep with the hero if he doesn’t believe in ghosts by the end of the challenge. Yep, that’s just what I - and, gee any career woman - would do when someone seriously challenges our professional credibility.
  • And not to even mention that a book exposing a local psychic would be marketable on what planet?
  • To add to the book's impressive sense of realism, a young woman uses the word “yummy” in speaking to our hot hero about just how hot he is. Yuh-huh. As we used to say when I was a kid, last time I heard that I fell off my dinosaur.
  • A really cute cowboy ghost appears to our heroine in full-out corporeal form on page 26. He’s funny! He’s sexy! He’s hot! He’s total bunk!
  • Much merriment ensues involving our psychic’s wacky mother, our hero’s wacky mother, our heroine’s wacky cousin, and our hero’s wacky brother. I’m still chuckling from all the wackiness!
  • The Bitch columnist who just Hates our heroine because said heroine's column has more room (and that's exactly how the author puts it) writes a really Bitchy column that, apparently, her editor doesn’t read until after it’s published, because, boy, does he think it’s Bitchy! And she gets fired!

I could go on and on, but why the hell should I? This book was painful to read. This book is expensive to buy. And, truthfully, you really don’t need to read any more about the depths of my pain than you need to pay $14 for this book.

Reviewed by Sandy Coleman
Grade : D

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : August 28, 2007

Publication Date: 2007/09

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