The Rules II : More Rules to Live and Love by

Rating:
Summary: WORST RELATIONSHIP BOOK
Review: THIS IS THE WORST BOOK A WOMAN COULD EVER BUY ON THE SUBJECT OF RELATIONSHIPS.THIS IS A BOOK FULL OF MULNIPULATION OF FIRST THE WOMAN THEN THE MAN.THIS BOOK IS VERY SIMILAR TO BLACK MAGIC AND CULT LIKE THINKING.IT BRAINWASHES YOU INTO THINKING YOU ARE EMPOWERED AND GETTING SOMEWHERE..WHEN IN ACTUALLY YOUR NOT EMPOWERED BECAUSE TRUE POWER COMES FROM BEING WHO YOU ARE!!!!! AND ATTRACTING THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE REAL YOU!!!!!IF YOU WANT TO BE SET FREE.BUY BARBARA DE ANGELIS.THE REAL RULES!THAT IS A MASTERPIECE.IT'S THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.IN A PRECISE AND SIMPILIFIED WELL WRITTEN BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: Smart Women, too, need The Rules!
Review: This series of books has gotten some bad press for advocating behavior strategies that could be interpreted as manipulative. Some of the tactics seem questionable (hence the 4 stars and not 5). However, if you go beyond the specifics and see The Rules in context I think that the authors' advice seems more palatable and appropriate.

I think that the core readership the authors want to appeal to are those women who give of their time, energy, bodies and souls too soon and too freely, only to get hurt. Some of these women behave this way primarily out of neediness. The "get a life, develop some hobbies, make time for your friends" advice is targeted at such women. There is an additional not-so-obvious target group for these books. The large contingent of smart women who extend the "go for it" approach that has served them well in other areas of their lives to convince a man to fall in love with them, can also save themselves a great deal of hair-pulling by heeding Fein and Schneider.

It seems to me that the authors are trying to get across the message that you cannot coerce someone to fall in love with you. You need to take things slow and wait for signs of definite interest before investing your precious self in a relationship with him. Rules II outlines the specifics you need to look for and be aware of before you make any kind of committment to a potential significant other.

Now an obvious question arises from this credo. What if HE too takes the responsive role in a relationship? The Rules authors counter this argument in the first book proclaiming that men who wait for the woman to take the first move continue this trend into the relationship. After reading The Rules books, I too have observed this. Fein and Schneider are very upfront about not having being trained in therapy; their book is purely based on anecdotal evidence. This commonsense (grandma?) psychology is surprisingly effective once you understand the spirit of what the authors are trying to convey and not get bogged down in their sometimes questionable tactics.