Prime Time Love

Abigail Love #1

by David Blake

An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here and here.

A standalone book that's the first in a series.
ROM COM WITH A VODKA & COKE
Can a girl fall for a guy if his name sounds like a mechanically operated sex toy?

Abigail Love and her new cameraman, Will, were in the same class at school. Ten years later they find themselves working for the same company, but at first, neither can remember who the other one is. As they start to date, what happens when they find out, especially when Will realises that it was Abigail who'd teased him into early therapy?

Genres: Romance

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2017

About the author

NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR

With number one bestsellers in both the UK and Australia, to date David has written twenty-two books along with a collection of short stories. He's currently working on his twenty-third, Bluebell Wood, which is the next in his series of fast-paced crime thrillers. When not writing, David likes to spend his time mucking about in boats, often in the Norfolk Broads, where his crime fiction books are based.

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www.david-blake.co.uk/CONTACTDAVID

Reviews

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review

Prime Time Love is another hilarious, sarcastic book from the brilliant mind of David Blake. He again skewers modern media, politicians and police H&S regulations. In his previous books Mr. Blake has poked fun at the police, the PM, branches of the Military, and most bloated bureaucracies in the UK to hilarious results. In his latest book he targets the media, specifically internet media and politicians and political party protestors.


We meet Abigail Love, a female reporter who has no objection to spinning news out of whole cloth, she fakes an interview with a comatose patient, or simply exaggerating turning a Thrift store cash snatch into an armed shootout. She also has no ethical objection to posing as the police to get close to her story.

She is joined by her camera man - in this case an Iphone camera- who is a former print reporter made redundant and desperate to avoid poverty. He is also a former school mate who she tortured for 5 years of primary school causing him to need therapy. For a while they each pretend not to recognize the other and awkwardly do their job. While their bosses inadvertently create a panic and riot at a UKIP Meeting.

Former Inspector Morose aka the Serial Slasher of Southampton & South Coast, has successfully faked his death, changed his identity and is seeking the Conservative party MP seat for the district. Patience isn't his forte so he is soon creating chaos, faking crimes and attempting to assassinate his opponents. For further background on Former Chief Inspector Morose please see The Thrills & Spills of Genocide Jill https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... & The Herbaceous Affair of Cocaine Claire https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

This book is simply a brilliant satire of modern culture, media and policies. You don't need to read the other books in the series to enjoy this one.

Note: This is a quick read alas my reading was interrupted by a visit from my son and the American Football play offs

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great from David Blake who mixes the sarcastic Brit with a bit of romance!!
This story is an off shoot of the Inspector Capstan series but focusing on an internet news team. Abigail Love is a reporter trying to get the top news stories. She is teamed with a new member of staff Will Wankett a newspaper reporter looking to move to a new job. Sparks fly but there is history between Abigail and Will.
There's laughs aplenty with the shenanigans created by Morose an ex inspector and serial killer!
I received this as an ARC for an honest response by TBC and I'm looking forward to more.

[Fiona Mccormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to TBConFB for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.
This book is brilliant! It is a hilarious modern day satire on social media and news sources - alternative facts anyone? - and on the murky world of politicians. Abigail Love is the reporter who doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good story and her new cameraman with his trusty I-phone is Will Wankett, the boy whose life she made a misery at school. Both of them pretend they don't recognise each other but who could forget being taunted with 'Wee Willy Wankett has lost his blanket' for 5 years? The poor boy had to go into therapy to recover!
This is the first David Blake book I have read and I am now going to download his other books to see what I have been missing. Some of the characters featured in this book have been in previous books so I can't wait to catch up with their stories. This book just appealed to my strange surreal sense of humour and had me howling with laughter, I absolutely loved it!

[Annemarie Groves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think Drop The Dead Donkey meets The Office meets Python meets League Of Gentleman and you're going some way to getting an idea to the style of literal, sarcastic, twisted humour of this read. Set in the world of speedy news at the raw front line cutting edge online local news stream, as a by-election, party conference, escaped murderous convict and a series of missing dogs vie the headlines. Armed with an iPhone and a microphone our young entrepid duo are tasked with getting the scoop, while also dancing around a school-years meeting of a totally different kind.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was a bit limp"

I laughed twice. This is puerile humour, appealing to the lowest common denominator. Until I read the author's background at the back of the book I thought it had been written by a teenager. One reviewer compared this to the script of a 'Carry On' movie. They stopped making those films for a good reason. Nobody was laughing at that brand of slapstick humour anymore. I can't see this series heralding a comeback for the genre.

[pauline marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

British Comedy at its finest

This story had so much banter and chuckle moments i was NEVER BORED! I didn't laugh out loud of course but it does put a smile on your face! And with these quirky characters and the situations they get themselves in you have to love and laugh at them for it. David Blake did a good job making time for the readers to know each of the characters without focusing too much of the Love interests all the time. The book makes you want to read more and I can't wait to smile again!

[Donna Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this book is hilarious. If you haven't read any of David Blake's previous books, you don't really have to in order to enjoy this one; however, I guarantee that once you do read it, you'll be eagerly seeking out the rest of his work. He has such a dry wit and outrageous sense of humor that you'll find yourself laughing out loud at some of the farcical shenanigans that take place almost non-stop throughout the book. This book came at just the right time when I needed a "pick-me-up" and was guaranteed to put a smile on my face and lighten my mood each time I picked it up. If you haven't already, you need to discover this gem of an author. There are far too few books like this out there, so we need to cherish this one.

[Ernest Gautier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spirited and Highly Entertaining

Like the first book I read by this author, the plot flows with a subtle undercurrent of sexuality that keeps the reader projecting the developing tension between the attractive protagonists.

[Alysa Blackwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny, a great sequel.

[Simon Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Blake has not disappointed with this new story.  I loved the capstan stories and this one follows on from them, although you don't need to have read them first.  the story follows abigail and will who are a YouTube news reporter and cameraman respectively in Portsmouth.  The story starts with the former police commissioner killing someone and stealing their identity and then running for the mp of Portsmouth and the follows abigail and will investigating the election.  I found this story just as funny as David's other books and if you like Robert Rankin or Terry Pratchett books then you will probably like this one.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I’ve read by this author now and they’ve both been fun, and chock-full of riotous laughs. Not so much zingy one-liners coming at you as great situational humor.

The author excels at depicting characters who are easy to identify with in their desperation to achieve their ends, and out of that desperation comes the most outlandish behavior and comical circumstances. Take our bad guy. “If it weren’t for him turning from Police Chief Inspector, to mass murderer, to escaped convict, to criminal mastermind, to invading insurgent, I doubt we’d have had the success we’ve had so far.” Now that’s one hell of a character arc that might just make Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame feel personality deprived and lacking in a sense of direction. But he’s not even the character I’m referring to. The one doing the talking, the one the quote is excerpted from is the head of the news show, desperate to fill the air time now that the bad guy of the century that has been holding everyone enthralled is no longer available to generate headlines. Now you can just imagine what the newsroom chief will do to fill that void. Though not to worry, turns out news of the bad guy’s death is greatly exaggerated, and you can just imagine what extremes our bad guy will go to in order to stay out of prison after just escaping. He’s yet another very desperate, determined man. The book is full of these characters who will simply not be deterred from their objectives. At any costs.

Then there’s the matter of our budding heroine who will do anything, and I do mean anything for a news story, determined to make her mark in the viciously competitive youtube market where you’re either getting a billion hits or you’re one of infinitely many nobodies. And she’s determined not to be a nobody. So pointing a camera at a comatose patient while he grants her a very quote-worthy interview is no problem. All that takes is sticking the microphone in front of his mouth so the camera can’t tell his lips aren’t moving and the rest involves sending the script to the sound effects guy. It’s outlandish behavior, but it makes perfect sense coming from a newsgirl so bent on getting ahead in the industry that she’ll do whatever it takes.

I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what the author’s actual theme is, but I couldn’t help but see the social satire and profundity about the human condition as it is today radiating from every page in glorious Technicolor. Far too many of us have far too unreasonable expectations for ourselves and one another in a globally competitive economy that drives everyone sooner or later to this kind of insanity. Maybe Blake didn’t mean to argue this theme, but it’s a major takeaway all the same. So, if you like to avoid reflecting on the human condition whenever you can because it involves too much deep thinking, you’d just rather laugh away your problems, congrats, you’ve finally found a book and an author who will make reflecting on the human condition far easier than you think, all while keeping you sane by keeping you laughing. You just might be the last sane person on earth, though, if the medicine takes.

I should probably mention, for those whom it might concern, that in addition to being a comedic-thriller, this is also a romance. And the dynamic between the newswoman and the cameraman is subject to the same laws of the rest of this twisted universe. So have fun with that.

[Philip J Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book, like many, has its pros and cons. starting with the cons:
a lot of the characters seem too dumb and absurd to be believable. I understand that this is a goofy comedy but it does detract somewhat from the story. having a character's far fetched plan work only because the other person is so dumb to fall for it makes the story difficult to accept. the humour, at times, seems lazy. this is a pity because David Blake can do great humour without trying. dialogue in the book can be quite amusing, and clever, but sometimes it borders on childish. 'Will Wankett' as the character name? even though this is a plot device, it did seem lazy. it wouldn't take much effort to think of a cleverer name.
the pros:
Blake's books are likened to the Carry On films. I grew up on these films and it is a good comparison to make. the two main characters, and the interest you will have in them will keep you reading. the book is an easy read, overall, and it didn't take long to finish. the story allows the character development of the two leads and makes you want to see how their relationship plays out. it's unfortunate that the surrounding characters, mainly the antagonist, is so annoyingly developed.
overall:
give it a read. take a break from the thick tomes that fill your shelves. don't worry about Tolkien's many paragraphs describing a tree, or Stephen king's slow paced setting of scenes. for something fun to pass a few hours, try this. it is at least original.

[Pinchy's Pages (Jenn Harrison) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't for me. I recieved it in return for my honest review. I was looking forward to reading it, the synopsis sounded hilarious, but found myself disappointed. The situations seemed pretty far fetched and unbelievable. Like a four month old You Tube news channel having a several paid correspondents. I also felt like there was no character development. Abigail and Will were still the same people at the end of the book. They seemed very flat to me.
The dialogue was spot on though. I laughed a few times during Will & Abigail's exchanges.

[Jaybour · Rating 4 out of 5]

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE COMMA

Astounding! There is nary a sentence in this novel that escapes comma faults. The author or editor simply sprinkled commas over the text and let them fall where they may. I spent an enormous amount of time highlighting these glitches for the record. The result was not a sprinkling but a deluge! What a way to destroy what could have been a great read. To the author: invest in a competent proofreader.

[gerald morson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny

David Blake writes a real funny books ,a great time in to inspector capstan the characters are unbelievable funny and the story line hilarious