Stacey Ballis tackles home improvement and reality TV—and reminds us that sometimes life and love are better left unscripted… What do you get when you give two hopeful singles fashion consultants and interior designers, allow them four days to perk up each other’s homes and get a total style overhaul, then let their single friends celebrate the results at a fabulous party? You get Swap/Meet, the newest reality show on the network block, where major changes are either embraced or embarrassing—and Lily Allen’s dream job turned nightmare. At first, Lily was thrilled to appear on Swap/Meet . What better way for a Chicago interior designer to promote her business and enjoy some pseudo-celebrity? She just didn’t think she’d be doing take after take with the ditzy host, dodging sabotage attempts, and getting caught in the middle of the fashion czars’ lovers’ spat. Plus, the cute, curmudgeonly carpenter on her team knows just how to push her buttons. Episode by episode, through do-it-yourself disasters and matchmaking miracles, Lily discovers that a little bit of controlled chaos is the spice of life—and love… In her third outing, Ballis, author of Inappropriate Men (2004) and Sleeping Over (2005), offers up a frothy, fun send-up of reality TV. Chicago interior-designer Lily Allen is thrilled when she gets a job on the new U.S. version of Swap/Meet, where contestants trade apartments and help redesign the apartment of the person they've traded with. What Lily didn't count on when she took the dream job was fussy contestants, a ditzy host, warring fashion consultants who've just broken up, and a competitive fellow designer. Despite the stress, Lily's best friends, high-powered attorney Hillary and artistic Naomi, keep her balanced until they start to get frustrated with her crazy schedule. Lily barely has time to see her friends, let alone date, so she puts off earnest, persistent Ron in favor of the show's sexy new producer, Gary. Readers will have a blast watching Lily and her friends try to figure out what their priorities are in this lighthearted tale. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Praise for Stacey Ballis and her novels   “With the perfect blend of humor and heart, Ballis’s writing is powerfully honest and genuinely hilarious.”—Jen Lancaster, New York Times bestselling author of By the Numbers   “Her storytelling will have you alternately turning pages and calling your friends urging them to come along for the ride.”—Elizabeth Flock, New York Times bestselling author of What Happened to My Sister   “Smart, sexy, and delightfully buoyant…Scrumptious.”—Quinn Cummings, author of The Year of Learning Dangerously   “A sparkling, heartwarming novel with all the elements of a can’t-put-it-down read—a heroine you’ll root for, unexpected plot twists, and dangerously good descriptions of food!”—Sarah Pekkanen, author of Things You Won’t Say   “Insightful and hilarious.”— Today’s Chicago Woman I have long been fascinated with home improvement television, and with Do-It-Youself projects. So when the idea came to me to imagine a world in which a single, 30-something interior designer could get swept up into a world of not-so-glamorous television, I knew this was a story I wanted very much to tell. After all, with as much reality-television as we see today, home improvement shows were some of the first to turn the camera on 'regular people', often with surprising and sometimes hilarious results. I had a wonderful time with the whole cast of characters in this book, and I hope that you laugh as much while reading it as I did while writing it! Stacey Ballis  is the author of ten foodie novels:  Inappropriate Men ,  Sleeping Over ,  Room for Improvement ,  The Spinster Sisters ,  Good Enough to Eat ,  Off the Menu ,  Out to Lunch ,  Recipe for Disaster ,  Wedding Girl , and  How to Change a Life . She is a contributing author to three nonfiction anthologies:  Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys ,  Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume , and  Living Jewishly .