Game Over: A Novel - Softcover

Parks, Adele

3.42

1,655 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743457617 ISBN 13: 9780743457613

Publisher: Pocket, 2004

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Cas Perry wants nothing to do with love - her dad walking out on her mother was quite enough romantic drama, thank you very much. And why should she bother with relationships when she can manipulate just about any man for sex? The steely-hearted TV producer plays with other people's love lives and orchestrates unscripted fireworks on the edgy reality show Sex with an Ex - a ratings blockbuster that is sending her already-hot career skyrocketing. Now, the woman who has all the answers meets the man who, for the first time, poses questions other than "buy you a drink" . Stunningly handsome Darren would be a sensation on Sex with an Ex - and Cas needs him to ensure the show's success. So why is she wining and dining the sexiest man she's ever met - and talking about family values, marriage, and fidelity? Darren's principles are changing the rules of attraction. And this may be one game Cas won't mind losing. . . .

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Product Description:

Game Over "An affecting first novel that successfully combines a cheeky first-person narrative with a serious look at the consequences of adultery. . . A balanced exploration of the rules of marriage." --"Kirkus Reviews." Full description

Review:

I'm as hard as nails on the outside. Scratch the surface and I'm as hard as nails on the inside. Impenetrable. Well, emotionally impenetrable, not the other. Not frigid. Technically, I guess, for want of a more user-friendly term, I'm a slapper.

Cas Perry's self-portrait is astute. Since her father deserted the family home when she was only seven, Cas has led a life "awash with cynicism, constraint and calculation". As she points out, the psychology isn't difficult to figure--to protect herself from being betrayed again, she "dumps before she's damaged." And there are plenty of men queuing up to be dumped--what with her glamorous job and "sexy, cool, flawless" looks, Cas normally has charge of the relationship reins, until she meets Darren. A breathtakingly beautiful tree-surgeon, with long gypsy hair and a set of teeth the Osmonds would be proud of, Darren looks as if he has just what it takes to smash through her tough-gal stance.

Game Over is a saucy twist on the twentysomething girl-meets-boy fiction that has bombarded our bookshops recently. Cas is an exhilaratingly unconventional female protagonist and it's refreshing to read a city-girl novel about a woman who is trying her hardest not to find Mr Right. That said, there's also a comforting predictability about her--just like the hero (yes male) in a Mills and Boon romance, it's inevitable that Cas will "submit" to love. The question is will Darren be interested when she does. Like Adele Parks' debut novel Playing Away, Game Over looks set to be another winner.--Jane Honey

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