Wendy Markham, Once Upon a Blind Date

Once Upon a Blind Date

Wendy Markham

Warner, Mar 2004, $5.99, 336 pp.

ISBN: 044661176X

In New York City, Dominic Chickalini and Maggie O'Mulligan are best buddies even if she becomes upset when he wants her to do wifely things like picking up his cleaning. She informs her pal that he needs a spouse and decides to find him one.

In lower Manhattan, Charlie Kennely and Julie Purello are best buddies. As a relationship advice columnist Charlie believes that Julie's life is all work and no fun since an engagement ended. He informs his pal that she needs a spouse and decides to find her one.

Maggie and Charlie complete the questionnaire for their respective pals at Matchmocha asking for mates in Manhattan, the boroughs except for the dangerous Bronx and too far away Staten Island. The matchmaking company pairs Dominic and Julie. They are accompanied by their matchmaker when they meet at Madison Square Garden. This is love at first sight except not for Dominic or Julie. They have nothing in common including no spark. On the other hand, Maggie and Charlie, who respectively filled in the likes and dislikes for their pals, go at it from the first moment as enemy combatants falling in love.

Though her friend's acceptance of Maggie's insistent pushing of Julie on Dominic seems out of character for a person who easily would tell her to bug off, fans will enjoy this amusing matchmaking romance gone awry. The key to this Manhattan (and somewhat Queens) madness is that the four characters seem real with unique personalities. ONCE UPON A BLIND DATE is a fun tale with a humorous matchmaking twist.

Harriet Klausner