In Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker, Marla takes her readers for a hilarious romp through her days as an L.A. matchmaker and her daily struggles to keep her self-esteem from imploding in a town where looks are everything and money talks.
Professional Reviews
Will keep you laughing until the very last page
Marla Martenson has, let's face it, an extremely strange and somewhat "cool" job. Her daily grind is made up of power-broker men who are usually short, chubby, and bald, looking for that ultimate Double DD, blonde-haired goddess to marry and have children with. Of course, they all say that what they're looking for is "smart with a great personality," but we all know better.
On a daily basis, Marla has to hobnob at parties and recruit women to join her ranks of the "beautiful" people. The egos that she has to deal with - including that of her boss - are so large, that it's surprising they can all fit in such a small area of the country. Perfection, of course, in Beverly Hills is a prerequisite, so even Marla has a hard time not running to the local "plastic-man" for her injection of Botox.
In this book, Marla begins by letting us know about her own background, and how she came across and fell madly in love with her Latin-lover Adolfo. They are absolutely hysterical when they're together, calling each other "Lucy & Ricky" when they speak, yell, or play. He is a man with an extremely wonderful musical talent, and plays the piano at a local club. He loves Marla and wants nothing more than for her to keep her job during the bad economy, and make sure she never cuts her long, beautiful red hair.
Marla goes into her office and revels in the fact that the décor is certainly beautiful. She's a woman who can boast about a lot of success stories, as she has many pictures on her wall of couples who are now happily married simply because Marla introduced them way back when. Now, her boss is a bit on the difficult side. At the beginning of the book, he fires a young woman from her matchmaker position, and saddles Marla with most all of the work that the company currently has. She spends her days reading and writing emails (which are absolutely hysterical, by the way) between herself and her "girls," as well as the men who are longing for their soul mates; some customers even do book-length "write-ups" about what type of woman they're looking to spend their life with. When Marla originally moved to L.A. she wanted to be an actress, and still sometimes goes out on calls, but matchmaking seems to be her innate gift, so whether she likes it or not, she's stuck with her position.
The amount of stupidity and egomaniacal speech that she has to put up with from some of her clients would make most women turn away and go get a job at Walmart, just for the peace and quiet. Not to mention, some of the girls are extremely upfront with her about only wanting one of these old, rich men so that they can buy the latest Gucci bag, and they can't see why the millionaires don't understand that they have to "shell it out" in order to get someone as beautiful as they are to even talk to them, let alone score a second date.
The back and forth banter in this book is absolutely hysterical, and mind-blowing all at the same time. It certainly does show that these types of things are not exaggerated - there are really men out there who think Double DD is part of a woman's SAT score; and, there are women out there who couldn't get any higher than a Double DD on the test if they tried.
Quill Says: With the meteoric rise of Patti Stanger and her show on Bravo called The Millionaire Matchmaker, it comes as no surprise that this subject is in the limelight of the publishing world. These stories of the beautiful, not to mention extremely rich, people, that these "matchmakers" meet on a daily basis, will keep you laughing until the very last page. They'll make you want to quit your boring ho-hum job and head to the coast ASAP!
What a great read!
This book was great! I normally am a slow reader, but I finished this in 2 days- it would have been much less but Marla Martenson's wit made me go back and re-read so much of it out of pure comedy and audacity of her clients. It was a perfect touch to include the emails...you HAVE to read them to believe them!! Her writing style was fabulous and made relating to her so easy. I can't wait for her next book!
PHE-NOM-EN-AL!!
Did it have to end? I blazed thru the book in just a few short days reading it every chance i got. Every time i had to put it down i would skim ahead to see how the match date ended up working out....shhhh yes i cheated a little!!! The way Marla wove her job(matchmaking) with the love story of her life between herself and Adolfo was amazing. This book had everything..humor( some of the matchmaking stories), funny life stories(almost like a Lucy(Marla) and Ricki(Adolpho) tv show), happy endings( for some of the matched up couples), quirkiness( some of the people Marla had to match), mystery( do marla and adolfo land up buying a house, does anybody make it to the alter, etc) but mostly this book centers on LOVE...btwn Marla and her husband, some of the matched couples and every person that is mentioned in the book how they all want to find their one true love. And the way she brought humor into everyday life was just PHE-NOM-EN-AL!! It is truly one of the great reads i have had in a long time. Marla i can hardly wait for your next book and see what love stories u can match up. I hope u can continue to find true loves for all your clients and keep the fire going in your own love story!!!
Asa D Seeley, a young Afro American man, shares his struggle to leave his past behind as he reaches for his future. In his one-of-a-kind style, he searches for answers...from the visible & invisible. A Memoir in Poetical/Prose form.
On February 20, 2003, pyrotechnics at a rock club in West Warwick, RI set off a devastating fire that roared through the crowded club, killing 100 people and injuring hundreds more. Gina Russo was one of the survivors, and she retells her harrowing e
This book is an autobiographical account of the lessons I learned about life and how I was able to apply them to inspire, motivate and empower others in my own work as a firefighter, as well in my daily life as a husband, a father and a man. When I w
