The Dating Intervention: A Review

The Dating Intervention is another tongue-in-cheek “girl meets boy” love story. Right after reading Click, Date, Repeat, I didn’t think I would like another romance story involving finding online matches and although the beginning was a bit slower paced than I would have preferred, I enjoyed reading about our protagonist, Delaney Collins.

In the first book (Click Date Repeat - completely diff author and not related to this book, at all), the world of online dating was new and Chloe’s friends scoffed at the idea of meeting men online but in the Dating Intervention, it was Delaney’s friends that brought up the subject and set up her online profile. Where I can relate to Chloe’s parents and her cultural world view about things, I can totally relate to Delaney’s attitude about needing a backup plan to ensure that no hearts would be disappointed or broken. Where Chloe needed assurance from friends and the Universe that where she was at in life, and who she was with, was where she thought she needed to be; Delaney was your “screw it, fine, whatever,” type of woman. She accepted disappointment and met it with a system that worked for her. Delaney doesn’t have as many dates as Chloe did, but she did have a couple of fun dates and even went to a speed dating thing! In the world of fiction, these two should meet and compare notes!

Delaney had a fail proof system of having three men at one time to fulfill her. There was the sexy boyfriend, the adventurous boyfriend and the boyfriend who mentally challenged her. My husband could fall into one of these needs at any given time, sometimes, mostly when I need him to, but three different men to meet our needs? If we only wanted sexy evenings, have someone whisper sweet nothings in our ear, call up boyfriend number 1, our Latin lover. If we get tired of the cheesiness and want to just canoe, rock climb, push our bodies physically, try boyfriend number 2 today. If we’re tired and want to relax at a coffeehouse and argue about existentialism – is that a thing? – call boyfriend number 3.

I got exhausted thinking about how her relationships actually worked. I mean, do you just go down the list? If one is busy, call the next one? But luckily for me, it opens with Delaney being dumped by all three boyfriends. On the same day. And you thought you were having a bad day, right?

Of course, her friends step in and help her through the breakups and came up with a plan called the “Dating Intervention.” Delaney would give up her “freedom” and relinquish her love life to her friends. They set up the rules, line up the men, the dates, when to kiss, who not to judge and how to accept that our life at thirty four doesn’t include being a bartender and eating take outs.

I truly love stories that have realistic depictions of our friendships with childhood friends. I love Summer and Josie and their love for Delaney. We only really see our limitations but our lovely friends want so much for us and can see the potential in the mess we are presenting to the world. There is a little bit of judging, a little bit of back talk and hurt, but what friendship doesn’t? They were rooting for her and in turn, made this mess of a character worthy to root for. I still am friends with my childhood best friends and I appreciate the honesty and feedback I get from them. I loved how the women are related and were in different stages in their lives: the married with no kids (Josie), the married with FIVE kids (Summer) and our lovely single protagonist, Delaney. In my early thirties, of course, I can relate to being single once upon a time and out with girlfriends, and being married and carefree and then turning into a family of three.

This is a fun beach read with some sexy scenes and I truly enjoyed getting lost in Delaney’s little world, especially if it included some sexy men in our life!  

Rated: 4 stars