Virtually Perfect

'I'll show you my darkroom.' It's way up there with 'Come up and see my etchings' and Eve knew it. Auctioneer, Evelyn Blake, is looking for a plus one. Her colleagues' wedding is fast approaching. No one likes rocking up to those things alone. Fuelled by a bottle of Pinot Grigio, sheer frustration and a smattering of panic, Eve lands on an internet dating website. Amongst all the bare-chested mirror shots and men-with-no-neck, there is one dating profile that stands...
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'I'll show you my darkroom.' It's way up there with 'Come up and see my etchings' and Eve knew it.

Auctioneer, Evelyn Blake, is looking for a plus one. Her colleagues' wedding is fast approaching. No one likes rocking up to those things alone. Fuelled by a bottle of Pinot Grigio, sheer frustration and a smattering of panic, Eve lands on an internet dating website. Amongst all the bare-chested mirror shots and men-with-no-neck, there is one dating profile that stands out.

Shutterman has been single for a while (since walking in on his fiancée and best friend in the throes in his own bed). Years of hard work, one fluke Mont Blanc shot, and photographer Benjamin Macy finds himself catapulted to fame and fortune. Handsome, young, rich and accomplished, he's the ultimate bachelor. Far from the Deptfort tower block where he grew up, the past he tries so hard to hide.

Her dark eyes danced out from the black and white photo. She stood out a mile amongst all the pouters and posers. Her cupid's bow lips were painted dark and parted wide. She was laughing - nothing forced about it. Her eyes were laughing too. Her face was framed by a mass of long, dark, untameable curls.

She'd never even told him her name.

In the afterglow of a particularly good sale, Eve agrees to ditch her microwave dinner and go out with Ben. Maybe it's the ambiance: the mood-lighting, the Spanish guitar, the food (possibly the wine). She finds herself captivated.

Eve and Ben meet at a crossroads, on two different journeys, from very different starting points in life. They discover that their paths have crossed before, their pasts weaving across one another. As demons and ghosts begin rearing their heads, when the secrets come tumbling out, will the knots be tight enough to keep them together, or will they unravel and part?

Sadie Mills' debut book Virtually Perfect is a contemporary romance novel exploring the world of online dating. Sizzling with sex, bubbling with humour, crackling with tension, Virtually Perfect is a 21st Century love story. From Brighton Pier to Reykjavik; the National Gallery to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, we take an emotional journey through the eyes of both Ben and Eve. Sometimes sad, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, this debut novelist's gritty writing breathes life into a virtual romance, transforming it from binary code to real life.