Laura J. Wellington

I used to serve as the Dating Expert for one of the largest media companies in the world. So, I've read a lot of dating books.

I wanted to love this one, but I was turned off almost immediately.

I couldn't tell the premise or reason for the book, other than "folks tell me I give good dating advice, so I should write a book about it".

Unfortuinately, this is why most folks write a dating book, and why they fail.

I'm also a bit surprised that the editors allowed this book to go to print as it did. In the Kindle version that I was given (for free, for an honest review), it had numerous run-on sentences, grammatical errors, and spacing issues. As well, the stream-of-consciousness style didn't give me any feeling of purpose. As I read, I often asked myself, "Why am I still reading this?" I wanted better, stronger storytelling. I actually pleaded for it on occasion, out loud, as I read.

The author stated early on that this is a "reliable dating handbook to keep Jane on her feet happily skipping towards Dick". Okay. I'm not sure how it's appropriate to use a children's book as a premise to sell love, sex and relationships... but if it works for you, then go for it. It didn't work for me.

This book only focuses on the first meet and greet stage and/or the first three months of a relationship. Great focus and very timely, but again... not very useful in this case.

The chapter headings were distracting, and, I found them them completely irrelevant to the actual topic.

I haven't a clue what this author's credentials are, as welll. Perhaps I gave up before they share them, but usually in dating books they're stated early on - even if it's just "I've done this, I've helped folks, and now I'd like to help you". The only "credentials" I read were, and I quote, "let me tell you".

In a nutshell, I felt like the author was trying to prove something to me, instead of showing me or giving me any sort of practical how-to's that would help me "skip" along to Mr. Dick/Right.

I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the option to read and review this book - and it has prompted a few very frank discussions with other wannabe dating authors. So, it's not all bad. As well, I realize this was a labor of love and the author spent a lot of their time creating their book. I don't want to shame them, or in any way dissaude them from trying again.

I do, however, want to suggest the author finda really fantastic nonfiction dating-specific editor before writing another book in this genre, and perhaps asking themselves why they wanted to share this book with the world. I suspect that the author has a lot of great ideas and stories - it just didn't come out in a way that honored their amazingness in this book.… (meer)