Stealing a cliché from Forrest Gump, Amy Matayo’s The Wedding Game is like a box of chocolates. Delightful, colorful, well-developed characters are mixed up in a sweet-tart romance and placed in a colorful reality TV plot. Sprinkled among ingenious twists are nuggets of witty humor and snippets of snarky sarcasm.

And like a box of chocolates, each deliciously addictive page will have you saying, “more please.” More Ellie and Cannon!

Amy Matayo has mastered the craft of writing in this clean, contemporary romance. And like a box of chocolates, the sweetness of The Wedding Game lingers long after the book is finished. Gratifying but no calories! Loved this book! A great Christmas or anytime gift for anyone: women, teens, and if you sneak it into your man’s Kindle, I know he’ll love it, too!

About The Wedding Game: Cannon James has a plan: Sign on as a contestant for his father’s new reality show, marry a blonde hand-picked by the producers, and walk away two million dollars richer. It’s all been arranged. Easy. Clean. No regrets. Until Ellie McAllister ruins everything by winning the viewer’s vote. Now he has to convince America that he’s head over heels in love with her. Not easy to do since she’s a walking disaster. Ellie McAllister has her own problems. She needs money, and she needs it now. Despite her parent’s objections and her belief that marriage is sacred, she signs on to The Wedding Game…and wins. Now she’s married to a guy she can’t stand, and if she wants her hands on the money, she has six months to make voters believe she loves him. Not easy to do since he’s the most arrogant man in America. It doesn’t take long for Ellie and Cannon to realize they’ve made a mess of things…even less time for their feelings for one another to change. But is it too late for them? More importantly, can the worst decision they’ve ever made actually be one of the best?

And for more sweetness, here’s my interview with Author Amy Matayo:

Holly: How did you come up with such a clever plot for The Wedding Game?

Amy: A couple of years ago I was watching Good Morning America while getting dressed for work. They were running a feature on Kim Kardashian, telling about her recently-announced divorce. Well, I had just watched clips from her televised wedding a few days earlier, so I know she had only been married for a month or so. Annoyed, I turned to my son and said “You know, pretty soon there’s going to be a reality show where two strangers get married for money.” I meant to sound outraged, but instead my brain started spinning. The idea for The Wedding Game was born right then.

Holly: Can you share The Wedding Game’s journey to publication?

Amy: Originally The Wedding Game was sold as a three-book series, but a few months later my publisher (B&H Publishers) made a decision to discontinue their fiction line. The Wedding Game was salvaged in the process, but after a lot of back and forth I made the ultimate decision to get my rights back on that book as well. After a lot of communication with my agent and editor The Wedding Game was released on Amazon November 16, 2013.

Holly: What did you learn from your publishing experience that really stuck with you?

Amy: That it can turn on a dime, and that authors need to be open to new opportunities when they present themselves. Publishing is changing at a rapid pace–not necessarily always in the greatest way–and it’s sometimes tough for authors to keep up. But with self-publishing on the rise, indie success stories becoming more and more visible, and hybrid (both traditionally and self-published) authors willing to take chances on multiple venues, there are lots of opportunities for writers right now.

Holly: Best advice for other writers?

Amy: That even though the writing road is hard–like any other career in the arts, I suppose–keep going. Write every day, even if it’s just a paragraph. The only people who make it are the ones who don’t give up. And believe me, my family and friends have to talk me off the ledge almost every day.

Holly: Readers will surely want more after finishing The Wedding Game. Future books?

Amy: Love Gone Wild is a sort-of sequel to The Wedding Game. It’s also reality-show based and takes place in the Alaskan wilderness–a Survivor-type scenario.  It releases on Amazon  March 1 of next year. And then later next year will come Sway, a New Adult romance that intersperses a political theme of separation of church and state.

Thanks Amy!

And a little more about this fabulous up and coming author:

Amy’s Bio: I graduated from John Brown University with a degree in Journalism. I came this close (holds finger and thumb together until they practically touch) to also having an English degree, but decided I wanted to get married instead and besides, who needed it? After all, managing an entire six-credit-hour semester seemed just so exhausting, and one degree was more than enough. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Not the marriage–that’s all good. But the pseudo-exhaustion. It might be nice to have that degree right now. Anyway, after graduation, I went to work for DaySpring Cards–a division of Hallmark–where I worked for seven years as Senior Writer and Editor. After the birth of my first child–a ten pound boy–I became a freelance writer before pursuing novel-writing full time. My first contracted novel–The Wedding Game–won the 2012 ACFW Genesis Award. It released on November 16, 2013. As the mother of four children with a husband immersed in political life, I have very little free time. I prefer to spend that time enjoying intellectual pursuits such as: watching television with my feet propped up, watching movies with a bucket of popcorn, and watching my laundry pile high–with no desire to do anything about it. It’s a fun life.