Love by Numbers
by Sara Donovan
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BLURB:
Choose an available
compatible guy-friend who doesn't turn you off and rewire your brains for a hot
and heavy romance.
1. Get emotional while
watching a sad movie.
2. Share a major
adrenaline rush.
3. Be competent at
something cool, but don't make a big deal out of it.
4. Have him provide food
from the hunt (a good restaurant will do).
5. Eyegaze until it doesn't
feel weird.
6. Fulfil each other's
primary fantasies within reason and without judgment.
7. Sleep together like
stacked spoons.
Repeat the above until
love and lust click in. Then send your love brain chemicals into overdrive by
not seeing each other. That's when things really get cooking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Review:
I devoured this book! It was a quick read and just what I was in the mood for. It's a fresh, funny and witty, a really original and different way to talk about romance
April is attracted to a co-worker. She's sure if he knew her better he would be fall in love with her. Unfortunately just she manages to have an appointment with him ends up that he is attracted by her roommate. Depressed she decides to go to a psychologist to understand why she always falls in love with the wrong guy. During therapy she establishes a list of things to do to conquer her ideal man that for her is her best friend Nathan. Will he be the right one?
It's a light and pleasant reading, is the perfect book for a quiet afternoon read!
This was my first time reading a book by this author, and I can say with complete certainty That it will not be my last!
I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
I received an advanced reader copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
April is attracted to a co-worker. She's sure if he knew her better he would be fall in love with her. Unfortunately just she manages to have an appointment with him ends up that he is attracted by her roommate. Depressed she decides to go to a psychologist to understand why she always falls in love with the wrong guy. During therapy she establishes a list of things to do to conquer her ideal man that for her is her best friend Nathan. Will he be the right one?
It's a light and pleasant reading, is the perfect book for a quiet afternoon read!
This was my first time reading a book by this author, and I can say with complete certainty That it will not be my last!
I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
I received an advanced reader copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Half an hour later, Claire helped me carry my boxes to my
new floor.
‘I’d lose the breast-enhancers if I were you’ she said when
we were alone in the lift. ‘The men in this office are worse gossips than the
women. They’ll notice if your boobs are bigger one day to the next, and have a
big discussion about it.’
I gave her a confused look.
‘You’re not serious?’
‘I’m deadly serious.’
The lift stopped at the fourth floor, but Claire held down
the ‘Close Door’ button. A buzzer went off in protest.
‘I’d do it now if I were you,’ she said.
‘Now?’
‘Yes. Quickly.’
I put down my box, reached into my bra and fished out one chicken
fillet, then the other. My C was instantly a B. I put the fillets in my
handbag.
Claire gave me a look of approval, then took her finger off
the button. The doors released and we walked straight into the
six-foot-four-inch frame of Wade, Ryan’s boss.
‘Wade, this is April, your new L and D consultant,’ Claire
said, taking charge.
‘So … April,’ he said, casting a micro-glance at my cleavage
before stepping into the lift. ‘Welcome to the jungle.’
Before I could answer, the doors closed and the lift whisked
him away.
‘Typical Wade,’ Claire said with disapproval, before putting
on a determined look like a pith helmet and slicing her way through the jungle
that was the fourth floor. Loud phone conversations, lively debates, shouts
across workstations and counter-shouts back filled the space. No one paid any
attention to Claire, me and my boxes.
I kept my head down until she suddenly came to a stop near
Ryan’s workstation. I had a good look at his things since he wasn’t around.
There was a calendar blu-tacked to his bookshelf, pictures of an unknown beach
and ski slope, a President’s Club certificate (a junket for only the best
salespeople) and a laminated quote stuck to the top of his computer monitor:
Victorious warriors win first, then go to war. The words Sun Tzu — The Art of
War, were in small writing underneath. Fortunately, there were no happy couple
or girlfriend pictures.
‘So what do you think?’ Claire asked.
‘Um. There’s a lot of energy in here for sure,’ I said.
‘It’s pretty noisy, though.’
‘I meant what do you think of this workstation?’ she said
putting the box she was holding on a desk a few metres from Ryan’s. It was so
close. Too close. Like being in the front row of the cinema.
‘Is that spot also an option?’ I pointed to a workstation further
away.
‘Too far away,’ Claire said. ‘It doesn’t send the right
message to the team. I want them to know you’re available.’
She glanced at my skirt which seemed to ride up every time
she looked in my direction.
I put my box on my new desk, then wriggled my skirt down
when she wasn’t looking.
‘By the way, did you know that Toby was working on a
team-building afternoon for these guys and the Technical Support team? They
need some cohesion.’
‘He never mentioned it.’
‘It’s tomorrow,’ Claire continued. I gave her a surprised
look. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Bad taste. The day after retrenchments and we’re
spending money on lunch and a jet boat ride. It was booked a while ago.’
‘Shouldn’t it be jet boat first, then lunch?’ I said.
‘Talk to Wade about it. Call me if you have any problems.’
Claire walked away as my phone buzzed. It was Wade inviting
me to a team meeting in half an hour.
I tried to stay calm as I unpacked my things, but it was
hard. My eyes kept checking out the lift, waiting for Ryan to appear. I felt
like a predator waiting for her prey. Only it was the other way around. I was
the prey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Sara Donovan is a corporate facilitator
and instructional designer who delivers training programs in neuroscience and
communication skills. She draws inspiration for her writing from psychology,
science and her accidental romcom life.
A little interview
Where
are you from?
I’ve lived in Sydney, Australia, my whole
life, and I love it – despite living out in the suburbs, nowhere near the
harbour and spending extended periods in traffic just minutes from my driveway.
The beaches, climate, lifestyle and sport
are just a few reasons why Sydney’s worth the occasional grid lock.
What
is the first book you remember reading?
I wasn’t a bookworm for most of my
childhood and skimmed almost everything I had to read until I opened the cover
of ‘101 Dalmatians’ by Dodie Smith when I was 10 or 11. That book gave me my
first ‘sneakily reading a book under the covers with a torch’ experience.
The idea that dogs thought humans were their pets, had a network where they
could send alerts (the twilight barking) and could roll in soot so they could
run undetected through the streets of London at night (all 101 of them), really
floated my boat.
What
gave you inspiration to write this book?
Reading a neuroscientific study that
explained that the ‘falling in love’ experience was significantly influenced by
the environment and also by our kindergarten fantasies of what a perfect parent
would be like, created so much fascination in me I had to write a story about
it.
The topic also interested me because I
often got hooked on the completely wrong guys and “missed” the right guys when
I was growing up.
It was a frustrating and painful experience
to have a broken ‘man picker’ and it wasn’t until I discovered the role of my
brain’s hard wiring, that I could understand why I made such poor love choices
when I was younger.
I wanted to write a book about a woman who
had the problems I did, but used her knowledge of the ‘brain in love’ to get in
control of who she fell in love with.
Without giving too much away, of course it
isn’t as simple as that. Nonetheless, I wanted to explore the subject in a way
that could be hopefully entertaining, unpredictable and also helpful to anyone
confused by their love choices.
What
is the hardest thing about writing?
Time. Writing is very time consuming and I am time poor in many ways. I run my own
management consultancy and have a family, so I can’t just write and do nothing
else – as tempting as that would be sometimes.
Ironically, time is also the best thing
about writing. When you’re in the creative flow of a story, you’re basically in
a trance state, which often creates blissful feelings – especially when the
characters take over and you’re just a witness discovering what’s happening as
you type. When you’re in that kind of blissful writing trance, you completely
lose track of time.
I was recently on a 5 hour flight, deep in
a writing trance and was really confused when the air stewardess told me to put
away my computer because we were about to land. I thought we’d been in the air
about 20 minutes.
What
else do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
Reading, reading, reading of course! And
talking about books, films and the meaning of life with family and friends.
I also love hot yoga, meditation and
cooking really yummy food that is easy to make and healthy.
What
are you working on next?
I’m working on a romantic comedy about a
socially active women who is trying to save the world and win the guy at the
same time. She’s a wannabe documentary film maker who is in love with the
subject of her film – a social activist who is living off the grid in what
appears to be an ideal community.
The story is an exploration of the
monogamy/polyamory spectrum, how far people will expose
themselves for a cause they believe in and the light and dark side of being a
hero.
Buy Link:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Sara will be awarding an eCopy of Love by Numbers to
3 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.
This book sounds like a fun read! Thank you for the giveaway.
RispondiEliminaThanks for hosting!
RispondiElimina