Melissa Pimentel's Love by the Book is a funny take on the dating world. Anti-heroine Lauren, a late-20s American woman in London, smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish and is allergic to commitment. She isn't looking for anything serious; she loves dating a variety of different blokes to escape her sad past and decides to make a study of it.
After researching a number of dating bibles for sport (everything from The Rules and The Game to dating methods from the Victorian era), Lauren unleashes some of their techniques on unsuspecting men. Her recorded findings gauging the effectiveness of each method come off like journal entries, giving the whole story a conspiratorial feel. Readers will laugh until they cringe as Lauren dates men from all walks of life, including a 41-year-old biker who lives with his parents and a techie gazillionaire who's obsessed with salted shark meat. Pimentel's debut novel is not only funny and hip but also refreshing, as this female protagonist is definitively not on the eternal hunt for a husband.
Lauren's adventures will appeal to those who want to reminisce about the days of dancing all night and snogging the bartender, as well as anyone with a funny bone--Pimentel's descriptions of the myriad of Lauren's potential suitors are unbelievably entertaining. --Natalie Papailiou, author of blog MILF: Mother I'd Like to Friend