Monday, December 15, 2014

Love is not free. The price is 99 cents. / Rudolf Kerkhoven


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Humor

Approximate word count: 90-85,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Rudolf Kerkhoven lives in the South West of Canada, near Vancouver. He’s the author of three novels as well as the co-author with Daniel Pitts of four “choose your own adventure” novels.

For more, visit Kerkhoven’s website.

Description:

“ … a darkly comedic romantic-drama. Mathematically brilliant but socially anxious Xavier Dekker has developed uCupid, a 99-cent phone application that purports to flawlessly match people with an ideal mate anywhere around the globe. Xavier's estranged younger brother, David, is a new father and downloads uCupid as a lark, not because he's unhappy with his marriage. But unbeknownst to him, his wife has done the exact same thing. And soon everyone will download uCupid. And soon everyone will be madly in love. So, then, what is the problem? How can so much love cause displeasure? And just what is Xavier keeping secret about this 99.97% flawless app?”

Appraisal:

Xavier, the brother of the protagonist David, is the stereotypical computer nerd. He’s socially awkward and sometimes too logical by normal standards. I’m afraid I saw a bit of myself in Xavier at times. :) I even thought uCupid, his phone app to match people with their “soul mate,” wherever they might be, sounded like a great idea. The right data, analyzed the right way, can solve any problem, right? I’d sure like to think so.

Of course, where Xavier (and I) fall short in our theory is that the typical human isn’t as logical as Mr Spock would like us to be. Human emotions and, yes, love is largely about emotions, aren’t always so logical. Love isn’t free … is funny, dark and thought provoking, with explorations of themes involving family, our obsession with (and sometimes over reliance on) technology, and yes, even love.

FYI:

Adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues


Rating: **** Four Stars

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