Reviewer: Janet Davies
Title: Winning Chance
Author: Betty Jo Schuler
Publisher: Whiskey Creek Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-59374-749-7
Release Date: 2007
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Present Day – St Louis, Missouri
Overall Rating: 5.0
Sexual Content Rating: Sensual
Language (Profanity/Slang) Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: None
Betty's Website: http://bettyjowrites.com/
Out of the blue, Lori Hayes receives a letter advising her she has won a "Dream Date" contest and is expected to go on television to be matched up with her dream date. What? This has to be a mistake. Lori did not enter any contest. This is a contest for beautiful people. She knows she is no beauty. She is a woman trying to make ends meet. She owns a store, an old car and rents a small apartment. Dreams like this don’t happen for people like Lori.
Chance Dawson lives in a small apartment with paper thin walls. He is intrigued by his next door neighbor the woman he calls Red. What starts out as her banging on the walls for him to turn down the motivational tapes he is listening to becomes a crazy kind of relationship. Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met? Only problem with this is Chance has a plan. The unknown girl next door is not part of it. He plans to win the Dream Date contest and win a house.
When Lori sees one of the prizes is a Corvette, her dream car, she re-thinks the whole Dream Date idea. How hard could it be pretend you’ve fallen in love on a blind date? She has pretty much fallen in love with unknown man next door so maybe the she could risk her luck and get her dream car in the bargain.
Chance and Lori are instantly attracted to each other when they meet. Surely spending a romantic weekend together cannot be that hard? And why do they feel this familiarity with each other? And why do they keep thinking about the next door neighbors back home?
I loved the idea of people not meeting face to face yet falling in love with each other just by the sound of a voice and the thoughts an unseen person conveys. The characters of Lori and Chance are really well rounded. Both are funny, vulnerable and strong. I enjoyed the element of coincidence in Winning Chance – that two people will fall in love regardless of how they meet be it behind a wall or on a contest. It is a sweet romance that holds true to traditional values but it had that edge of sexual tension to keep in interesting.
I believe readers will identify strongly with Lori. She is a competent woman who doesn’t believe she is attractive or that someone as gorgeous as Chance could not be interested in her. In an age of ‘beautiful’ people and body issues, I liked that this book is focused on the real people and emotions.
The whole tacky element of game shows was portrayed really well – from the ingratiating game show host to the photographers trying to catch the contestants in the act of falling in love.
I would have happily continued reading Winning Chance and I was disappointed when it got to the end. But that is the mark of a good book. If you like sweet romance with real, fallible people and believe that when it comes to love there are no coincidences you will love this book.
Janet
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