Book Review: Love Elimination by Sarah Gates

Book reviews

1 Sept

Love Elimination by Sarah GatesPaperbackReview copy provided by publisherHarlequin Mira, July 2016Synopsis- Love Elimination might be a hit new reality dating show, but Anna Hobbs isn’t in it for love. Coerced onto the show by her sister, a producer, Anna is a reluctant fill in. Anna dreams of owning her own dessert café; a dream that has taken years of hard work and strict saving. She knows reality TV is a big, manipulated lie — and gorgeous leading man Luke Westwood can’t possibly be for real. Can he?Olympian snowboarder Luke Westwood thought he had retired from competition. Now he’s starring in the cutthroat world of Love Elimination, with twelve beautiful women vying for his attention against the backdrop of a tropical paradise. With cameras in every corner, why is it only Anna — careful Anna with her bills and budgets — who Luke feels he can be himself with, at long last?All Anna wants is a quick elimination, but with each date she is more reluctant to relinquish Luke to the conniving contestants — or even to the women who are starting to become friends. It doesn’t help when Luke insists on using the limitless television budget to indulge her heart’s desires. Or that the moments they’ve stolen, alone and away from the cameras, have sizzled with passion. As the dates wear on the evictions become more brutal and the contestants’ secrets are exposed. Will the pressure get too much? Or will love close in on Luke and Anna?Review- Due to other review commitments I hadn't planned to read this book, but when it turned up on my doorstep and I read the synopsis it interested me enough to put it in my TBR pile. I mean, how was I suppose to turn down a novel inspired by reality dating shows like the Bachelor? Especially when I'm a trashy Bachelor addict! So I picked up the book and told myself I'd just read 50 pages and if it didn't grab me I'd move on. Well, it did grab me and I finished the book within a day or 2. It's an easy, fun read about the behind the scenes of reality TV and that it is possible for love to develop in such an impossible situation. Anna signs onto the show at the last minute as a favour to the show's producer, her sister. She plans to get eliminated immediately and use the the huge cash bonus to set up her dream dessert cafe. She doesn't count on Luke's attraction to her and his reluctance to boot her from the show, and as the show goes on Anna begins to question whether she could actually have a future with the dream bachelor after all. Anna and Luke are likeable characters, they aren't perfect and there were a lot of moments where they annoyed me but for the most part I liked how their relationship developed and the challenges they had to overcome. A pleasant, fun read!