ALICE CHEN'S REALITY CHECK

A woman joins a reality show for couples, but winds up needing to fake date her former high school rival to keep her dream of winning the prize money alive.

Teacher Alice Chen is struggling to keep up with her student debt and her mother’s medical bills. Her sweet but somewhat absentminded fiancé, Chase De Lancey, has a plan, though. All they have to do is go on Dawn Tay’s Inferno: Love Is Hell, a reality competition show for couples. If they can make it through a litany of challenges and come out on top, they’ll be awarded $1 million. Of course, Chase has put in their application before even telling Alice about it, but when they get accepted, she decides his plan isn’t so crazy after all. Then everything comes crashing down when Chase is caught on camera making out with another contestant, Selena. If Alice still wants to play the game and win the prize money, she’ll have to find a new boyfriend—and the producers mention that she seems to have chemistry with Selena’s partner. Unfortunately, the chemistry isn’t positive, since that partner happens to be Daniel Cho, Alice’s old high school rival. The former enemies, who still have plenty of baggage between them, have to ham it up and pretend to date for the cameras to stay in the game. The reality TV and fake-dating aspects of Loo and Young’s book would be enough to make this a compelling romance, with extra tension provided by Alice and Daniel’s fear that their act will be exposed. About halfway through the story, however, a dead body turns up on set, and now Alice and Daniel have to fake date, win $1 million, and solve a murder. The mystery is an element too far, sending the story careening toward the over-the-top end of the spectrum. Up until that point, though, Alice made for a wonderful protagonist with a lively, competitive streak, and Daniel complemented her whip-smart, problem-solving attitude. It’s unfortunate that a dead body had to throw a wrench into the works, in more ways than one.

A fun reality-show romance slightly hindered by a quirky whodunit.