Kelly Grace Pickens is in love and about to be married--or so she thinks. Her fiance Trevor, who is also her manager for struggling singing career, doesn't show up for the wedding. On the same day, she learns that she's not getting the touring gig she and Trevor had been counting on. She's emotionally devastated and publicly humiliated, and she soon learns that she's also homeless and destitute. Trevor hasn't actually been paying the mortgage on her condo as he had claimed. She's also left holding the bill for the very expensive wedding that didn't happen.

What's a girl to do? Into the breach steps her cousin Sissy, co-producer of the reality show, Count Down to Love. It's a show that will be instantly familiar to anyone who has ever watched, or seen the ads for, The Bachelor, or Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire. She descends on Kelly while she's sitting on the front porch of her daddy's home, eating her wedding cake, because daddy's not home and her keys are locked up in her foreclosed condo. Kelly needs someplace to be, and some way to earn some money. Sissy, it turns out, needs a replacement contestant for Count Down, because the "naive, wholesome girl" is now in the hospital with anorexia and won't be out in time to start shooting. Kelly, a genuinely naive, wholesome girl, daughter of a Baptist minister, is not happy with the idea, but she really does need money, needs to not be sitting around brooding over Trevor's disappearance, and accepts Sissy's promise that she'll be off after the first show anyway.

Things don't go exactly according to plan, and Kelly spends the next few months traveling the country, getting acquainted with the other contestants, making both friends and enemies, and most of all spending time with the handsome bachelor, Dillon Black. It's complicated enough even before Trevor reappears and she learns where he's been and why. She's got some major decisions to make, and the repercussions send shock waves through all her new relationships.

Skipping lightly away from the plot points, the interesting thing here are the relationships, among the women as much as between each of them and Dillon, or between Kelly and Trevor. Kelly is a sweet, naive, but under it all smart and tough young woman. She's also a Southerner, born, bred, and raised in Nashville, TN, and of course she takes it for granted that the Southern view of the world is the fact-based one. There is one black contestant on Count Down, and she is, surprise surprise, annoyed and offended when Kelly comes to breakfast wearing a nightshirt bearing the Confederate battle flag. Kelly staunchly defends it as a symbol of Southern heritage, not a symbol of slavery and oppression, apparently never having stopped to give two seconds' thought to what "Southern heritage" with respect to the Confederate battle flag really is. She even refers to the Civil War as "Northern aggression," never having been taught the bits about the states that became the Confederacy seceding after the country had an election and they didn't like the results. Or the bit about the Confederacy, specifically South Carolina, launching the first attack, against Fort Sumter.

That episode wouldn't be nearly as funny if we weren't supposed to agree with Kelly and think Patrice is a hyper-sensitive idiot. It gets better when she assumes that, because she is black, Patrice--who is a native New Yorker from an upper middle class background, will have a really good recipe for fried chicken, and then defends that silly assumption on the grounds that fried chicken is "soul food." Of course they wind up using Kelly's grandmother's recipe, and the irony is completely lost on everyone, especially Kelly.

But this really is more amusing than offensive, though I won't vouch for everyone reacting the same way I did. Kelly really is a solidly nice girl, honest and kind and too trusting for her own good. The Christian beliefs she was raised with are central for her, and she does an impressive job of living up to them while in the midst of a reality show that encourages cut-throat competition. She also forms a close friendship with another of the contestants, and is friendly with all who aren't hostile to her. The complications of these ladies all living together while competing for the one handsome, rich, charming guy who is dating all of them, and by the rules of the show can't commit to any one of them until the end, are nicely handled.

I won't claim this is great literature, but it's an enjoyable, entertaining romance with values that will be pleasing to readers who sometimes find it a challenge to locate good reading that doesn't conflict with values and customs more conservative and restrained than are typical here in the early 21st century.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

Count Down to Love is so much fun in the way it goes behind the scenes of a Bachelor-type show and lets us in on all the little juicy details. It's like being an insider! A perfect weekend read. Full review at www.bubblebath-books.com ( )

I think this will become my go-to book whenever my friends ask for a good romance book to read. I may have to purchase it first, so I can loan it to them. (My rational thinking about a good excuse to purchase my own copy!) I started this book this morning and finished it at about 9 PM. I couldn't pull myself away from it.

My favorite part were the scenes between Dillon and Kelly during the making of the "reality" show. They were a hoot to read. I loved their interaction and that they had so much in common. The flirtation left me wanting more and the kissing scenes weren't so bad either.

Kelly however was having trust issues because at the beginning of the book she was left waiting at the alter for a groom who was a no show. I couldn't imagine the trust issues in falling in love with someone knowing he was dating and kissing other girls.

Anyway..... this is a clean and fun romance book. I give it my highest recommendation. I only give five stars to books that grab my attention so much that I literally do not care about a dirty house, kids running loose in the neighborhood, etc. I just need to read and find out what happens next. ( )

Count Down to Love is a fun, flirty and very clean read. I really enjoyed the precious moments that Kelly spends with Dillon. She really needed to meet someone like him: someone warm and caring, someone who appreciated her as a person, not a moneymaking tool. I liked Kelly herself. She’s outspoken and honest, a large contrast to the worldly girls on the show.

Honestly, I don’t like how country girls are considered naïve and city girls sophisticated. I’m a city girl, and I’m not especially rich or snobby, but I do like how Kelly is a country girl. I love stories about country girls and guys, and Kelly is an especially sweet girl. She likes to look nice, but she isn’t too big on fashion. She’s honest and wants to help people for a living. It’s obvious what Dillon sees in her, but she’s going through heartache and hasn’t learned to appreciate whom she is. That’s what the story is about.

I know that Ford meant for this to be a story about Kelly discovering herself, but I believe that she centered the story too much on Kelly. We don’t get to meet a lot of the cast or see much of Kelly’s interactions with them, which would have brightened and fleshed the story. She could have also developed Trevor’s impact on Kelly’s life more so that we know why she’s so hung up on the fiancé that jilted her on their wedding day.

Still, this is a great book for a summer read, and I enjoyed myself immensely. You don’t see too many clean adult novels. There were no sensual scenes in Count Down to Love. In fact, other than the fact that the characters were adults and had jobs, you could see this as a young adult novel. Older readers of contemporary teen reads will enjoy this book too. ( )

This book surprised me by how much I loved it. I thought, "Sweet romance? Okay, I'll try it." This was sweet by secular standards but a sizzler when it came to kissing and emotional turmoil. It made me think of the reality show THE AVERAGE JOE, but in reverse because the star was a guy and not a woman. (I don't watch much television and this is the only reality show I've ever seen.) But this book was better than the show. Plus, I got to go on a ton of adventures with Kelly to include going up in a hot air balloon and skydiving.

I was as confused as she was about my feelings for a very long time. Dillon was a great hero, and he was stuck in the role he'd committed to, but that also cost him a lot. What woman would enjoy watching the man they are falling in love with kissing other women? But he had to for the show, and make it look convincing. Of course, it didn't hurt that he loved kissing. :) Anyway, this story was told entirely from Kelly's perspective, but I loved that it was limited to her point of view because it intensified the tension. We only knew as much as she did and it wasn't much most of the time.

Some people might have gotten frustrated a bit with her dedication to Trevor, but he was a great manipulator and she started to see that, but at the time time who wants to admit they made a bad choice? I loved how the author tied a lot of her issues into her mother leaving the family when she was young. That kind of trauma to a ten year old definitely leaves its mark. And so often what happens to us in childhood drives our motivations as adults. I was also pleasantly surprised with the subtle faith element and that the character had a spiritual side. Most books unless they are blatantly Christian fiction don't include that aspect in the character's personality. I thought it made her more well-rounded.

When it all came down to the wire, I was near tears myself. I felt as betrayed as Kelly did, but there was a part of me that wanted to hope that what she'd experience was real and not all staged. Then again, she'd fooled herself for a long time about Trevor, right? Anyway, her personal growth in this book from a woman who is led by a man to a woman who knows what she wants and is willing to buck up and deal with some things was truly inspirational for me. I loved experiencing Kelly's life with her and was sorry to see it end. What a great book! Now I want to read the next two books the author has coming out in the future. Loved this one! It's making my favorites list for 2011 because I kept wanting to read it and do nothing else until I finished. Seriously, my butt fell asleep in the easy chair, but I kept on reading... Highly recommended! ( )