Date Like a Woman: Not the Target Audience, Still Thoroughly Enjoyed the Book
Let’s be clear: I am not the target audience for Kai Nicole’s book Date Like a Woman.
This isn’t a dig at the writer, her arguments, her viewpoints, and her stylistic choices. When contacted to read/write a review of Date Like a Woman, I even sent a short email to the author explaining my enthusiasm to review her work while also making known that (in my perspective) I didn’t think I wanted to date…like a woman.
Yet throughout the work (and a full stash of wit), Nicole drops insightful statements, affirmations, myths, and truths about her perspective on dating. From the get-go, the writing jumps off the page and sticks in your ears, challenging the reader to drop false expectations, learn to love yourself, and debunk some serious issues surrounding dating. The writing flowed seamlessly across these and other topics so well that I finished the book in darn near 2 sittings (which, for the folks at home, is a rarity).
I was impressed by the author’s re-affirmations and reminders hidden throughout the book as well. Normally, such repetition is a cause for concern (at least from my perspective). But Nicole’s not-so-gentle reminders really forced me to chew on some important points scattered throughout the chapters.
One critique that I would note can be found in the first line of this review: I am not the target audience for Date Like a Woman. From this reviewer’s perspective, the target demographic for the book seemed to exclusively be for women interested in dating men. As such, I struggle to accurately fault Nicole for writing without inclusion of sexual minorities, such as bi women, when it is clear for whom the book is written.
That said, I absolutely learned a lot from reading this book. I do want to note that I personally did not agree with the author on certain arguments and descriptions of dating, but that does not at all mean that I took nothing away from Nicole’s work. On the contrary, I was impressed by how many times I had taken out my pen and underlined, starred, or put a key symbol (as in, this is “key”) in the copy I was reading. There’s a lot of good information to be garnered from the author’s experiences, even if you’re not the target audience. And for that, I have to applaud Nicole’s work.
Writing: 9/10. Strong writing style throughout the work.
Consistency: 8.5/10. The author held their arguments/conclusions consistently throughout the piece.
Clarity: 8.0/10. Arguments were clearly written. Would only point to try to include more research if applicable to specific arguments to strengthen them.
Organization: 8.5/10. Very well organized.
Overall: 8.5/10. Congrats on your four star review!