review: the last blind date by linda yellin

The Last Blind Date accounts how Randy Arthur brought Linda Yellin out of a long depression with a single phone call. Soon she’s planning a trip to New York to see him and he’s flying out to Chicago to meet her. Yellin doesn’t particularly want to move to New York, but her new love has children, so she must make that sacrifice. That’s when Yellin’s insecurities come shining through. She takes a job at a television network despite having no experience, so when it doesn’t work out she calls her coworkers backstabbers and makes fun of the programming. She went to public school, so she makes fun of her neighbors (and husband) who are concerned with what private school their children will attend. Her husband and his friends went to Ivy League universities for undergrad and grad school while Yellin went to the University of Illinois for a bachelor’s and never even thought about grad school, so she deems them pompous. My first turn-off was the whole needing a man thing, but I expected The Last Blind Date to be funny because of the blurbs from numerous great authors so I read on. I suppose Yellin’s criticisms were supposed to be funny, but I must admit to be biased to not be impressed by her complaints. You see I attended private school as a child, went on to prestigious private universities (albeit on the west coast) for undergrad and grad, and now work in television. The only part I found the slightest bit entertaining was the very brief chapter on home renovation. It was the one time that Yellin didn’t seem completely insecure in her role as second wife/stepmother in an unfamiliar city.
1/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.