Date Like A Girl Marry Like A Woman by Jessica R Bunevacz : A Review

BOOK TITLE: Date Like A Girl Marry Like A Woman

AUTHOR: Jessica R Bunevacz

ISBN/ASIN: B01DR16QLK

GENRE: Adult Non Fiction (Self help, romance, love, memoir)

NUMBER OF PAGES: 241

FORMAT: Digital / Kindle

SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I thank Laura of iRead Book Tours

SUMMARY:

Date Like a Girl, Marry Like a Woman: The Polished Woman's Guide to Love, Romance, and Sex will help you navigate how to have a good time with "Mr. Right Now" and how to hold onto "Mr. Right" once you find him. Providing a mix easy to follow rules, and anecdotes showcasing how they worked (and in some cases what happened when they were ignored), Jessica Bunevacz is the best friend you'll wish you had all along and the one whose advice you'll go back to again and again.

Unlike “The Rules”, its successors, or similar books offering guidance on how to snag a man, this book isn't about playing hard to get, instead it's about playing to win. And the only way that you can truly to that is when you acknowledge yourself as the MVP. This is why one of the first rules in Date Like a Girl, Marry Like a Woman: The Polished Woman's Guide to Love, Romance, and Sex is about shedding your insecurities, and why other rules offer insight on looking, feeling, and being your best, with an emphasis on having your own life. Additionally, while other guides stop when you get to a marriage proposal, this is the book you'll come back to after you say “I do”. Understanding that happily ever after may be a good way to end a movie, but isn't a good way to start a marriage there are real tips about everything from friendship to sex to finances with both humor and heart.

Ultimately Date Like a Girl, Marry Like a Woman: The Polished Woman's Guide to Love, Romance, and Sex is a work that is meant to transcend beyond the pages as it's lessons are applied in daily life. It never asks a woman to shy away from her impulses or to hide who she is or what she wants, and instead celebrates her independence and sensuality while showing her ways that she can make her romantic life more fulfilling.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

As far as titles go, this one (not with the help of the subtext / tagline) caught my attention. I expected the book to be a set of rules, dos and don'ts that would give women looking for a date or hoping to find the right life partner. The cover looked fitting for the title and the summary ppromised something different. 

REVIEW:

Some books do not let you guess about their contents much. Not with the summary, or with the other details. Once you begin reading, however, the content take you completely by surprise and really change your perspective. This is one such book. Dating advice can be of many ways - it can be a personal account of things that worked and didn't work, an impersonal list of things that might work or a generic list of advice passed down generations. This book is a combination of all three. Peppered with 'tips' that are in the do / don't format, sounding like strict instructions. It has incidents from the author's life (that is where the 'memoir' part comes) that she uses as an example to supplement her tips. Then it also has generic ideas - simple ones like no matter how independent the woman might be, it should be the man who pays for the dates.

The book was divided into two parts, the first one being 'date like a girl' and the second one being 'marry like a woman'. Not much of a surprise, and quite a neat organisation. While both parts have thirty rules each, the first one is a varied set while the second one is the set of instructions for how a 'polished wife' should behave. The sixty tips each have different things to offer, and it can be said that the author keeps it varied. Some are long, spanning into many pages while some are decidedly shorter, depending upon the experiences the author has had and the importance of that particular instruction / tip.

The organisation of the book's content is clear. Each individual chapter follows a particular format. The tip comes first, followed by a short explanation and an incident from her life, finally with a section on how to put that tip into action. This unconventional approach is fun to read and makes the book look cleaner. One positive thing I could note is that the author admits early on that she didn't necessarily follow all the things she preaches. (Some people might think this defeats the purpose of a self help book but this quite makes it realistic). The chapters are neatly divided, and the language is clear enough to understand.

But the book fails in the actual content at places. While I did expect a different book that gives radical dating advice, what I did not expect was the advice that sometimes might backfire. The parts relating to personal hygiene and keeping appearance intact - before and after marriage are in depth advices probably not found in many other books. But the main theme of 'having fun' while dating and advising withholding information and multiple dates might shock old school beliefs. The book began on a great note, the first solid dating advice being very sound. But as time progressed, I was not quite comfortable with some of the other parts of the book.

The book is not particularly a dating guidebook. It is a morale booster for women, encouraging them to have fun while they can and marry right. Maybe it serves the purpose if you want to read a book that gives you tips and tells you that you are beautiful.

VERDICT:

Not a book I would follow but has some valid tips.

RATING: 3.5/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

What do you get when you mix a strict Catholic upbringing, a strong curiosity for the opposite sex, and the need to grow up quickly? If you're lucky you get an outcome like Jessica Bunevacz, the vivacious and outspoken first time author behind Date Like a Girl, Marry Like a Woman: The Polished Woman's Guide to Love, Romance, and Sex.

Born Jessica Rodriguez in the Philippines and raised by her grandparents after the separation of her mother and father, Bunevacz was thrust into the role of provider after the murder of her mother when she was fifteen. With four siblings relying on her she began work early, first as a live mannequin and later as a model, actress, talent manager and television host. The jobs not only helped her to support her siblings, but also her first two children. One of her proudest moments while working in entertainment was as the force behind a project called “Miss Ugly No More” where women were showed how they could feel and look their best. Juggling family and work Bunevacz was not content to simply sit on the sidelines while life passed her by, and dating became her favorite contact sport.

Traveling frequently for work and fascinated by men it wasn't long before she developed a set of rules to snag them, and guidelines for how she could remain at her best without being bested by the games others were playing. It wasn't long before she became a self-proclaimed MANnizer, capable of capturing and holding the attention of whoever interested her, while also continuing to do what was in her best interest as both a mother and entrepreneur with both family and a business to protect.

A romantic at heart however she soon stopped her pursuit of “Mr. Right Now” when she met the man who was “Mr. Right”, the man who became her husband. Newly married, she found herself rethinking everything she knew and realized that the same qualities that made a woman an amazing girlfriend didn't necessarily work for a wife. Rather than wait for someone else to write a marriage manual, she retooled her dating rules for herself to apply for a life after marriage. Jessica Bunevacz is now a happily married wife and mother of three currently residing in California.

While her life has been unconventional she has no regrets, and lives with the understanding that we all have the same basic desire: to feel loved, whether it's just for one night or for an entire lifetime. Using her own life experiences as a basis she develop real-world relationship advice to help women feel more confident and comfortable whether they're dating or have already said "I do".

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle and Paperback

PRICE $.9.92 for Kindle, $17.50 for Paperback

BOOK LINKS: Amazon