The (Fake) Dating Game by Timothy Janovsky

Narrated by Mark Sanderlin

The trend for reality-TV themed romances continues in Timothy Janovsky’s latest standalone novel, The (Fake) Dating Game, in which the PoV character, Holden James, is hoping to compete in a Supermarket Sweep-style gameshow as a kind of homage to his late mother. I enjoyed the story – the love interest is a good guy, and I liked the unlikely meet-cute, but the gameshow element is fairly minimal, so if that’s the main reason for your interest in this title, you might want to alter your expectations a little.

Holden James’ mother died just before he finished high school, around six years before this story begins. They were very close, and one of their favourite things to do together was watch Madcap Market; they had even planned to apply to go on the show, but then she got sick, and it never happened. But Holden promised her that one day, he’d go on and win it for both of them, and when the story opens, he’s excitedly asking Buckley, his boyfriend of four years, to fly to California with him to attend the auditions (the competitors are always couples – romantic partners or familial) – he’s already bought the plane tickets. But Buckley immediately throws cold water over the idea, disdainfully dismissing Holden’s enthusiasm as an obsession and telling him he really needs to get over his mother’s death. The evening just goes downill from there and ends with them breaking up.

Four weeks later, Holden lands at LAX, even though he hasn’t been able to find someone to audition with. His last bet is an old school friend who lives there – but when she turns him down, Holden heads back to his cheap hotel room to drown his sorrows in the contents of the mini-bar and break-up songs at maximum volume. His wallowing is interrupted around midnight by a phone call from the concierge to ask him to “stop blasting sad bops on a loop” because it’s disturbing the other guests. Holden recognises the voice on the other end – it’s Leo, the cute guy he’d chatted with and who’d helped get him a restaurant reservation earlier in the day. Tipsy and feeling sorry for himself, Holden rambles about everyone else needing to be as miserable as he is and complains about having run out of booze and snacks, and Leo offers him a deal. If he helps him out with the snacks, Holden will turn the music down. He turns it off, and twenty minutes later, Leo is at his door offering pizza and company.

Over the next hour or so – and the game of Monopoly Leo brought with him (he remembered Holden saying he liked games) – Holden and Leo start getting to know each other a little. There’s real chemistry and connection between them; Leo is kind and sympathetic and easy to talk to (plus he’s really hot), and Holden invites him to stay the night. Leo does – although sleeping is all that happens – but they arrange to meet up the next day for some definitely not sleeping ;). Those plans are derailed somewhat when Leo is fired from his job (due to a scheduling mix-up), but on hearing about the prize money Madcap Market offers, he suggests to Holden that they should pretend to be a couple and audition for the show – his half of the prize money will tide him over while he looks for another job.

Holden tells Leo he’s getting ahead of himself; they have to get through several rounds of auditions before getting onto the show, and then they have to actually compete against two other teams in order to win. Leo is confident they’ll make it, but Holden – who knows the show format inside out – isn’t so sure. Still, he has zero chance of getting on the show on his own, so he decides to take Leo up on his offer. They have a lot of work to do – the contestants need a really good knowledge of grocery brands to win the trivia round, for example, and Leo is pretty clueless, so Holden is going to have to coach him – but he’s determined to give it his best shot.

The romance in this story worked really well for me. It’s sweet and sexy (this is the author’s steamiest book yet) and funny and charming, and the two leads are likeable and thoroughly engaging. They start hooking up pretty early on, but because the author has already established a strong connection between them, the sex never feels casual – it’s more that these two have been in a relationship almost from the start and they just need to realise it. I really liked the way Leo slowly helps Holden start to regain his self confidence, and how he knows to give him the space he needs to heal.

A large part of the story is centered around Holden’s struggles to come to terms with his grief and find a way to move on. His relationship with his mother is genuinely touching; it’s easy to understand exactly why he’s finding it so hard to let go, and the author handles it in a sensitive and relatable manner.

There are a couple of big-ish downsides to the story that caused me to bring my overall grade down a bit, though. First of all, Buckley flip-flops between being an arsehole ex and a partner who deserved better, which makes him seem like two different characters; and secondly, the timeline is really, REALLY off. Quite a few of the reviews I’ve read have complained that the gameshow aspect of the story is too little, too late, although honestly, I didn’t have a problem with that because it wasn’t the main selling point for me. My issue is with the fact that the auditions, call-backs and filming all happen within less than a week, which is highly implausible.

This is the first time I’ve listened to Mark Sanderlin and I confess my reaction is mixed. He’s very good, no question – his performance is well-paced and both the leads and secondary characters are clearly differentiated – it’s just that I didn’t particularly care for his voice-type, which is higher-pitched than pretty much all the other male narrators I listen to regularly. (And honestly, I did occasionally have to remind myself I wasn’t listening to a female narrator with a low-pitched voice!) YMMV on that of course. Mr. Sanderlin hits all the emotional beats of the story and portrays both leads very well, injecting real warmth and humour into their dialogue and bringing out Leo’s confidence and open, friendly personality as well as conveying Holden’s quiet reticence and the deep sorrow lurking just below the surface. The connection between them is nicely conveyed and the sex scenes are well done.

The (Fake) Dating Game a funny, tender and poignant tale about a young man struggling to come to terms with grief and find his way, wrapped up in a sexy/sweet love story, and I enjoyed listening to it despite my reservations.

Caz

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Buy The (Fake) Dating Game by Timothy Janovsky on Amazon