Can a girl from a small town in Maine find love in New York City?

Or in the wine country of California? Or in sprawling Atlanta?

Additional Photos

Ashley Hebert of Madawaska meets bachelor Ben at a national park, where they hop aboard a scooter and zip past majestic waterfalls and magnificent mountains, holding on to each other on Monday’s episode of “The Bachelorette.” The Associated Press

That is the next crucial question for Ashley Hebert of Madawaska as she continues her search for romance on ABC’s dating reality show “The Bachelorette.” On Monday’s episode, Hebert, 27, picked the four bachelors whose hometowns she wants to visit, and whose friends and families she wants to meet. The hometown date scenes were filmed this spring and will air next week.

Monday’s episode began with six men still vying for Hebert’s attention in Taipei, Taiwan — and with Hebert knowing she had to narrow the field to four.

On her way to doing that, she had an overnight date with Ben (last names aren’t used on the show), a wine maker from Sonoma, Calif. When Ben didn’t come back to the bachelors’ shared hotel room after his date, the other men got jealous. Ben told them he didn’t sleep in the same bed, or even the same room, with Hebert.

Still, others were jealous. The most jealous was J.P., a construction manager from New York City. He was so upset, in front of Hebert, that Hebert decided to give him a reason to be less jealous. She told him she was picking him for a hometown date.

Later in the episode, Hebert decided she would not have a hometown date with Ryan, a solar-energy executive from California, because she didn’t feel a romantic or physical attraction to him. Ryan was the only one of the remaining men with whom she had not had a one-on-one date.

“In my head, you’re my perfect guy, but I’m not feeling the romance, I’m not feeling the physical passion,” Hebert told Ryan.

A minute later, she was seen telling the camera she wasn’t sure about her decision.

“Ryan is funny and smart, he’s a great guy. … I’m not 100 percent sure I did the right thing,” Hebert said.

Then again, reality TV is not really about doing the right thing, as viewers of “The Bachelorette” have seen this season. Hebert fell hard in early episodes for a man named Bentley, who repeatedly told the camera he didn’t care about Hebert but wanted to win her attention because he was competitive.

And to further emphasize the wrong choices so often made on reality TV, Monday’s episode included a taped interview with Emily Maynard, the woman who essentially won the season of “The Bachelor” that Hebert was on. Maynard ended up with bachelor star Brad Womack proposing to her.

But on Monday’s “The Bachelorette,” a tearful Maynard told America that she and Womack were no longer together. Apparently, they both made the wrong choice. Host Chris Harrison said — with a straight face — that the couple had a hard team keeping their relationship private after leaving the reality TV show. Maynard complained that photographers were following her around.

Hebert is hoping things will work out better for her.

The four bachelors Hebert chose Monday for hometown dates were: J.P. from New York City; Constantine, a restaurant owner from Atlanta; Ben, the wine maker from Sonoma; and Ames, a portfolio manager from New York City.

Lucas, an oil field equipment distributor from Odessa, Texas, was sent home, as was Ryan.

After sending Lucas home, Hebert was seen crying and saying to the camera, “I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t cut out for this.”

The show will continue airing Mondays until the finale Aug. 1, when Hebert is supposed to pick the man for her.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com

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