Stephanie SnoweCritiques

It's hard to believe this is a non-fiction book, but it is. It's about author Stephanie Snowe's life as she enters the world of online dating and interesting dates she meets along the way.

I like the tone Stephanie's set up. She has a healthy sense of humor about her life, and it shows throughout the book. It's almost unbelievable that one woman can meet so many awful men.

This reminded me of a book I reviewed called I'm with Stupid, but this is written better and the fact that it's true makes it funnier. I can't wait to see more books from Ms. Snowe. I'm interested to see how everything turns out.

Stephanie Snowe was handed lemons and she's made it into lemonade, spiked lemonade, in this entertaining account of re-entering the dating world after her cheating husband left her while she was pregnant with twins. Each of the chapters in this short, quite funny book details another of Snowe's disastrous dates. The men she finds on the internet are hilarious in their complete awfulness. And their total unsuitability is only funnier given that Snowe herself was brutally honest in her description of herself in hopes that she would maybe find a nice man who didn't have any unreasonable requests.

Snowe is not really a stereotypical Southern belle, although it was gold when her mother suggested that she needed to cultivate an interest in NASCAR in order to find herself a man. She could, instead, start a successful career as a stand-up comic with her throw-away comments and sass. The tone of this book is conversational and chipper, snarky and entertaining. Reading this feels like you're sitting with Snowe and dishing the dirt on each dreadful date while you laugh and drink wine and laugh some more. It's hard to believe that someone endured all those bad dates and cheesy lines but I'm glad she did or we wouldn't have this light bit o' fun. An easy and quick read, this will please the chick lit set even if it is a memoir rather than fiction.½

I don’t think I know any Southern Belles, but after reading this book I feel like maybe I’ve met one. It’s a delightfully crazy account of the dating game, related by a divorced mother of twins. And it’s all the internet’s fault. With tongue in cheek, the author paints the most outrageous pictures of potential partners that are all too plausibly real. A girl could indeed get discouraged. There’s the deranged parrot, the “Daddy never loved me” maybe-homosexual, the one who just wants to marry someone… And through it all, romantic mother keeps up her outrageous banter, good humor just occasionally slipping to the wrong side of despair, until…

It’s advertised as a “true story” and reads like it’s got to be true. Plus it’s hilarious, touching, and fun and I hope there’s a sequel.

Married at 22 and pregnant with twins, Stephanie never imagined she would find herself re-entering the frightening, mysterious world of dating. But after her husband leaves her for another woman and she has their children alone, our fearless narrator discovers a new strength -- and, many months later, puts herself back out there to find a new love. And preferably one without a mullet.

Meeting Mr. Wrong is Stephanie's short, fun book detailing her "romantic misadventures" while she experiments with online dating via Yahoo! Personals -- and meets quite a cast of characters. Among many others, we meet Gil, the "birdbrain," who probably adores his feathered friends more than he enjoys human contact, and Ben, the coworker who can barely remember Steph's name, let alone be bothered to keep from vomiting in her general direction while drunk.

Stephanie's incredibly strong, narrative and hilarious voice is what kept me compulsively reading this one. At 150 pages, this was definitely a fast and enjoyable read. There were several "laugh out loud" moments -- especially when Stephanie's mother was trying to convince her that if you want to find a man in the South, you sure as hell better like NASCAR -- and I found myself chuckling at several other points, too! Though I've never met her, I felt like I could clearly hear her speaking voice through the entire book. As a woman growing up in and out of the South, I felt like I had an extra appreciation for it.

A fast, fun and ultimately hopeful read for anyone who loves dating horror stories -- or for anyone looking for a laugh and "thank God that wasn't me!" moments! And does Stephanie's story have a happy ending? Grab this one and get to reading!