Singletini »

Amanda Trimble is an award-winning copywriter. She grew up in Illinois, and now lives in San Francisco. Singletini is her first novel.

Sometimes Flying Solo Means You Just Have to Wing It

sin•gle•ti•ni: A curious type of female typically found living in urban settings; possessing an unusual, some would say deathly, fear of growing up and getting married.

Meet Victoria Hart. She’s sassy, sparkling, and taking the Chicago dating scene by storm as a professional “wingwoman”—a modern-day matchmaker hired to help clueless guys find Miss Right. With nights on the town, drinks on the house, and clothes on the credit card, Vic is loving her glam singletini lifestyle. There’s just one little problem . . . okay, maybe two. She needs to keep her new career a secret, and the first of her friends just got engaged—ENGAGED!

Vic isn’t sure she’s ready to be that grown up yet—she likes her life the way it is. Not that being a wingwoman is all wine and roses. With clients ranging from cowboys and would-be porn stars to her best friend’s boss, Vic quickly discovers this late-night Cupid gig is trickier than she anticipated. To make matters worse, she somehow agrees to help plan her friend’s swanky wedding, complicated by a never-ending to-do list and a very shady groom.

With too many wingwoman gigs, bridezilla demands, and more and more friends eyeing the altar, Vic is starting to feel a little lost, a lot confused, and completely bombarded by love connections. Does she really want to stay solo . . . or use those wingwoman skills for herself?

Publishers Weekly

Neurotic, chatty Victoria Hart is a typical shopping-and-Starbucks chick lit heroine who made a college pact with three friends at the University of Illinois: all would be "singletinis," women with jobs, men, money and martini parties. Now 24, Victoria is loving her life in Chicago-except that she's been fired from her computer sales job, doesn't have a boyfriend and her best friend Gwynn has just announced her engagement, threatening the pact. Victoria's new job as a wingwoman (a platonic woman-for-hire who takes men into social situations and helps them with their pick-up technique) and her time-consuming position as part of Gwynn's wedding party, center the unfolding action. A Bridget Jones-like suffering of one wacky humiliation after another detracts from the juicy banter and clever inclusion of faux horoscopes and news articles. Though Victoria's narration is vibrant, funny and confessional (she demands of the reader, "You can't tell anyone I cried, though. Okay?"), anyone over 24 will probably bristle at Victoria's "I feel so old. I'm almost twenty-five" shtick. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.