An honest look at Love on the Internet

– What’s on the Bookshelf

Nearly 40 million singles in America share a personal little secret. They’re using the Internet to look for true love and/or lust online, but aren’t necessarily admitting it.

The truth is that online dating has grown immensely popular over the past decade, due, in part, to continuing advances of the Internet and the proliferation of dating sites. Yet, for many people online dating carries the same stigma that used to be associated with printed personal ads in newspapers: that you must be some kind of desperate loser to have to resort to placing a classified ad in order to get a date.

But despite their shortcomings and somewhat risky nature, personal ads actually worked. It wasn’t long before these classified ads migrated online, and soon gave rise to more structured “socially acceptable” commercial dating sites. Many of these have become profitable by charging fees for identifying candidates who match personal profiles and preferences, and offering the promise of fewer frightening surprises and disastrous first dates and an express lane to Mr. or Ms. Right. But shouldn’t love be free? A lot of people seem to think so. Many continue to shun the paid sites and opt instead for the wild and wooly approach to online dating – free personals.

FREE LOVE – True Stories of Love and Lust on the Internet documents this increasingly popular trend and presents a collection of actual online ad postings as they originally appeared and the stories behind them – all told in the posters’ own words, triumphs, disasters, warts and all. These stories take you into the mental and actual bedrooms of a diverse range of people with a variety of backgrounds, personal needs, wants and desires, sexual orientations, preferences and lifestyle choices.

I don't usually read or review non-fiction books, but this one had an appeal to me because well...who hasn't read the classifieds once or twice. Whether for humor or just curiosity it's not uncommon. So I received this from the author for an honest review.

The individual stories range from humorous to sweet. Not only do you get the story and personal ads, but you get the reasoning behind the postings. Why were they looking for someone? Did they find that special person for them? I personally like the ones where the poster does it just out of curiosity. One author put what they believed no one would answer to. You'll have to read it to find out how that ended up.

Online dating sites and finding someone via the internet is certainly more common now than it was even ten years ago. I would say Kelleher has compiled an accurate representation of the diversity of people using social networking to find their true love. If you are considering it and want to know how others fared I'd check out this book.

For additional book reviews on Amazon.com.

To purchase a copy of Free Love, click here to find it on Amazon.