20 Times a Lady

May 8, 2006
Bosnak, the woman behind the popular "Save Karyn" Web site (she also penned a book by the same title), makes her fiction debut with the tepid tale of Delilah Darling, a woman on the cusp of 30 who loses her job and sleeps with her heinous former boss in an entanglement that's the 20th notch on her headboard. It's a painful realization, as she'd just read in the New York Post
, that the average person has 10.5 partners in their lifetime. Fearing she has more than reached her quota, Delilah takes off on a cross-country trip, determined to find "the one" among the 20 of her former lovers. But she soon discovers that the men of her romantic past—an inmate, a rehab patient, a dog-obsessed Amway salesman and a Muppeteer among them—aren't exactly life-partner material. Clever chapter breaks that feature maps and voice-mail transcripts are fun additions, but the story—hobbled by limp humor, razor-thin characters and phoned-in prose—takes too long to find its inevitably happy ending.

Starred review from June 1, 2006
Delilah wakes up in bed with her boss. Why is that a problem, besides her having been fired just yesterday and her boss being kind of disgusting? Because it means she has now hit her self-imposed limit of sleeping with 20 men. Refusing to up her number, Delilah tracks down her previous 19 conquests, convinced that she has to make it work with one of them. As she begins a cross-country trek, she finds one in jail, one who has become a priest, and more than one who won't speak to her. Is Delilah doomed to a life of celibacy? Making her fiction debut, Bosnak, who first attracted attention when she solicited online donations to pay down her credit card debt (recounted in "Save Karyn" ), writes with a keen eye for comedy. The result is absolutely hilarious. [New Line Cinema has acquired the movie rights. -Ed.]

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
Don't hate yourself in the morning for reading this book and liking it. It's as irresistible as a pint of Ben & Jerry's and goes down as easily. Free spirit Delilah hates herself after she wakes up with inappropriate man number 20 the day after she's been laid off from her job. Since this number is the limit Delilah has set for herself before getting married, she has the expected loopy single-gal freak-out and goes on an extended journey to track down every badly chosen man she's ever slept with and determine if she didn't make a mistake tossing one of them back into the dating pool. Astute readers will spot Mr. Right immediately--a Colin Farrell look-alike who tracks down Delilah's old boyfriends and is charmed by her quest. Fans of chick lit will recognize the overbearing mother, the quirky pet, the misguided ideas about love and relationships, and the laugh-out-loud encounters with old flames that end in hilarious flameouts. The lively pace and outlandish story will keep readers hooked, but don't skip the footnotes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)