Dating in the 1980s versus dating today: It’s all about the hair

With: Jenny Holiday

Giveaway Alert!

I have two books on sale right now. They’re very different books—like, laughingly different. The Engagement Game is a contemporary romance between career-focused adults in a big city, whereas The Fixer takes place on a college campus in a small town in the mid-1980s. Of course, we’re in Romancelandia, so each couple gets their happily-ever-after, but the juxtaposition between the two books got me thinking about the differences between dating in the two time periods.

First, the internet. In The Engagement Game, our heroine Rose is deep into internet dating sites in search of Mr. Right. She clicks, she swipes, she dates, she repeats (spoiler: they’re all duds). In the 1980s, on the other hand, you had to, like, meet people in the physical world. (I know, right?!!!) Related: Because the internet was not a thing in the 1980s, internet stalking was not a thing either. So when Jenny, the heroine of the Fixer, needs to get the attention of Matthew—she’s trying to get him to help her with an important cause—she has to literally follow him around and try to figure out his class schedule. How very old-school! And forget digging up the dirt on your date in advance. If you wanted to know something about him or her, you had to…ask?

Second: In the 1980s, people actually went on dates. Like, one person asked the other out, and at a prearranged time, came together—without their friends—to participate in a defined activity. If you’re under thirty, you probably think I’m speaking a foreign language.

Finally: hair. Yes, hair. We can’t really talk about dating in the 1980s without talking about hair. Think about someone who has really good hair today. What are you imagining? Maybe some nice, subtle beachy waves? Or shiny straight hair? Or tidy braids? Now go off and type “1980s hair” into Google images. Go do it…I’ll wait.

Are you back? Did you die laughing? There isn’t really a “2016 style” per se, but we can define it, relative to the 1980s, as “not enormous.” Oh, the teasing, the curling, the backcombing! The hugeness, regardless of hair type! I was too young to date in the early 1980s, and too dorky to date in the late 1980s, but had I been on the market, I’m honestly not sure how the whole hair thing would have worked. Would he have broken a finger trying to run his fingers through my hair? It would have been a real risk.

Title: The Fixer

Series: New Wave Newsroom #1

Author: Jenny Holiday

Genre: New Adult Romance

Release Date: September 13, 2016

Synopsis:

Jenny Fields is a crusader. The editor of her college newspaper, she never met a cause she couldn’t get behind. So when the administration announces it’s tearing down the historic art building, she’s on the case All she needs to do is get Matthew Townsend, the art department’s boy wonder, on board. They say he his talent is unbounded. It turns out so is his ego.

Matthew Townsend cares about art. And that’s pretty much it. If he has a reputation for being moody and aloof, that suits him just fine. He doesn’t have a family worth speaking of, and as a scholarship student, he can’t afford to goof off like the preppy rich kids at his school. He certainly doesn’t care about the art building. Or about the relentlessly perky Jenny, who looks like she was barfed up by Rainbow Brite. What will it take to the preternaturally cheerful girl with the massive savior complex to leave him alone?

Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

Title: The Engagement Game

Series: 49^th Floor #3

Author: Jenny Holiday

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: September 13, 2016

What's a little blackmail between friends?

The black sheep of the old-money Rosemanns, advertising executive Marcus has made his own way in the world--and done extremely well for himself--but his family is still pressuring him to join their investment firm and settle down with a quiet, unobjectionable girl.

Which is why the sexy Rose Verma is the perfect date for his family's charity ball. A bleeding-heart lefty from the wrong side of the tracks, Rose has never met a stray dog she didn't love or a polka-dotted mini-dress she couldn't rock. Marcus has enough dirt on Rose to "convince" her to play along. And if he lets it slip that they're engaged, all the better. 

But all's fair in love and blackmail, and Rose is ready to play a few cards of her own...

Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

Author Bio:

Jenny Holiday started writing at age nine when her awesome fourth grade teacher gave her a notebook and told her to start writing some stories. That first batch featured mass murderers on the loose, alien invasions, and hauntings. (Looking back, she’s amazed no one sent her to a kid-shrink.) She’s been writing ever since. After a brief detour to get a PhD in geography, she worked as a professional writer, producing everything from speeches to magazine articles. More recently, her tastes having evolved from alien invasions to happily-ever-afters, she tried her hand at romance. A lifelong city-lover, she lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family. She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Greenburger Associates.

You can visit her online at the following places: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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