Fresh Face Friday: Neurotically Yours by Bonnie Trachtenberg

Happy Friday Everyone!  I hope everyone has had a great week.  I know personally mine felt like is was moving backwards at times.  Though I had a sluggish week I think you all will love this week’s spotlight.  I know I loved this book.  I would read at work at times and have to stifle the urge to laugh out loud at some the hysterical situations Bonnie Trachtenberg’s characters find themselves in.  Be sure to check out the rest of my review.  You will no doubt love the new find of Bonnie Tractenberg and Neurotically Yours.

Book Blurb: (Courtesy of Goodreads)

Smart, attractive, and ambitious, thirty-seven-year-old Dara Harrison is, nonetheless, still single—and on sabbatical from dating. Ironically Los Angeles’ most renowned relationship advice columnist, Dara has become a Southland sensation with her “tell-it-like-it-is” approach to the mating game.

Parlaying her success into a new business, Dara launches a revolutionary dating service geared for the perennially single and romantically challenged. Its no-holds-barred theme soon makes the company a roaring success, even catapulting Dara onto the national talk show scene—until, of course, it all backfires.

With her company under threat and a publicity stunt gone haywire, Dara is forced to join the ranks of her lonely heart clientele, and suddenly realizes that saving the business she cherishes, means facing her lifelong fears—and maybe even falling in love again.

Witty, poignant, and immensely engaging, this romantic comedy from the bestselling author of Wedlocked: A Novel features sparkling dialogue, colorful characters, and a story that pulls you in and never lets you go.

Review:

Neurotically Yours begins with a game of Mystery Date.  We meet a young Dara Lynn who actually finds the potential in the dud.  After ridicule at her choice she runs to her room for a good cry.  We then fast forward 30yrs and see Dara as a successful relationship columnist for an entertainment magazine.  With a tell it like it is approach to relationship Dara is very successful has many loyal followers.  That is until the day her boss finds the column too depressing and fires Dara.  Now, aimless Dara drifts and struggles to find what to do with her life.  After her friend has a bad break-up and they get drunk on one too many Pina Coladas, they come up with the idea of translating Dara’s column and relationship advice into an online dating service for the perpetually single.  Everything seems to be going well until Dara is unexpectedly challenged to find her love through her own dating service.  Along with her impending dating challenge she soon faces a law suit.  We soon follow Dara on disastrous dates and navigating a very hot but quite difficult client hell-bent on bring both Dara and her company down.  Can Dara find love through her own philosophy or will she lose everything she has strived protect including her heart?

This was a wildly entertaining and addictive read.  There are parts especially with the dates that had me in tears….the good kind from laughing so hard.  I adored Dara and her many quirks.  But, I think what really makes the book go from good to hilarious are the supporting characters.  Reggie and Jesse are so unique that Bonnie must know people like them for them to be so well written.  But, to top everything is the hot Nick Wyatt.  I really liked him then he ticked me off but eventually he came back to my good graces.  Overall, I would whole-heartedly recommend this book.  But, I will give you one warning read it in the privacy of your own home or people will think your nuts laughing as much as you will be.

Author Bio: (Courtesy of Goodreads)

Bonnie Trachtenberg graduated from New York University with a major in Film and Television Production. She promptly found a job on a B movie you never heard of. Four days later she retired from her film career after working the craft service truck and throwing her back out while attempting to lift a man-sized coffee urn.
Realizing she was meant to be a writer, Bonnie worked 4,749 crappy jobs (give or take) on two coasts before being published in a national magazine. Her writing career then took her from the health and fitness field to the entertainment industry to journalism and public relations before she landed her dream job as Senior Staff Writer/Copy Chief at Book-of-the-Month Club. There, she wrote hundreds of book reviews and hobnobbed with the literati. At this time, she also began work on her first novel.
Five years later, Bonnie was laid off along with 500 of her colleagues after a corporate takeover. She did not despair, but instead took it as a sign from the heavens that it was time to finally finish her freaking book already. She did. Her debut book, Wedlocked: A Novel, was released June 16, 2011. A second is in the works.
Bonnie lives on Long Island with her husband Mitchell Silbowitz. The two were high school friends who met up again in 2003, renewed their friendship and then fell in love. She has three stepchildren, four cats and a dog that wishes he was a cat.