Sex, Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson

Title: Sex, Lies, and Online Dating
Author: Rachel Gibson
Published: 2006
Series: Writer Friends
Rating: 2 stars

Sex . . . 

What is it about men anyway? Bad cars, bad jobs, even bad teeth—nothing convinces them that they can't snare a Size Two Babe with a D-cup chest. And after way too many internet dates with men named "luvstick" and "bigdaddy182," Lucy Rothschild should know.

Lies . . .

But sitting across from her now is "hardluvnman," and he seems different—sensitive, honest, and hot! He says he's a plumber, while Lucy claims she's a nurse! She's really a mystery writer, dating online while researching her next book. Hey, everyone lies a little, don't they?

And Online Dating . . .

But Quinn's really an undercover cop hunting down a serial killer, and he sees Lucy as his top suspect. And while he could really go for this smart, sexy woman with the killer bod—if that's the only thing "killer" about her—he knows he needs to wine and dine her and discover the truth. Hey, he realizes the dating scene can be deadly—but this is ridiculous! 

Sex, Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson follows a mystery writer, Lucy Rothschild, through her latest novel, dead.com and the research for said novel. Lucy enjoys her life, researching and writing her books, snuggling with her twenty pound cat, Mr. Snookums a.k.a Snooke (if anyone watches Jersey Shore; he he), and hanging out with her other writer friends. Only this time, her ‘fiction’ novel turns decidedly ‘nonfiction’ when a wack job decides to bring her novel to life.

Quinn McIntyre is an undercover cop trying to find the murderer before he/she/it/they (don’t wanna give too much away) commit another murder. He’s had his own hard life, and lives for his job. But Lucy isn’t making it easy on him, especially since she’s the prime suspect and all Quinn can think of is how beautiful she is and how amazing she’d be in bed. Bad cop, no cookie!

This isn’t the first book I’ve read by Rachel Gibson, and it’s not the first book I’ve read in this series, Writer Friends. But I was disappointed by the “mystery” aspect of it. I thought I figured out who the killer was in the first sixty pages, and my belief was reinforced not forty pages later. Then we completely ignore the killer, besides the creepy letters we get, until the last ten pages. The killer wasn’t, in fact, who I thought it was, but the tradeoff was so quick and so without basis that it felt severely anticlimactic. The only thing I can think of is when Batiatus (from Spartacus: Blood and Sand) says to his wife Lucretia “not all ventures end in climax” and she says “a fact known well to many women.” Well known indeed!

The romance aspect varied for me. The sex was always great, and towards the end I was satisfied with their love, but in the beginning I just didn’t feel like it was there. I also don’t feel that RC gave us much in the buildup of the romance. One minute there’s no love, and the next there is, and you’re kind of left thinking uhh, where did you come from? But how well written it is in the end sort of makes up for it.

If you have never read Rachel Gibson, I wouldn’t start with this book. Although it is the first book in the series Writer Friends, there is no need to read them in order. The only issue is that all the characters are mentioned throughout all the stories, so something may be mentioned that you hadn’t yet read from a particular book. RB really is a good writer, and her stories are normally amusing, entertaining and a bit heartwarming. I’d recommend True Love and Other Disasters, which is by far my favorite book from her, although it’s the fourth installment in the Chinooks Hockey Team series. The first is Simply Irresistible.