Dating Rocks!: The 21 Smartest Moves Women Make for Love (Paperback)

The best part of this book is Nakamoto's wit as he helps the reader along. As a former Dale Carnegie instructor, personal development trainer, and international tour director, Nakamoto knows how to tell a story. There's a rather amusing tale of how he and a friend had sworn off all women as gold-diggers since all of the women they encountered at an upscale nightclub would only go out with them once. A friend of theirs tells them, "The problem isn't that these women are gold-diggers. It's that you guys unfortunately can't afford them." Lesson to be learned from such wise words: don't try to place the blame for your lousy love life on someone or something else; be proactive, take control of your love life, and good things will follow.

The book follows a rigid but successful format. Each chapter begins with a nifty quote from a major author or artist, past or present. For instance, Chapter 13 titled "Competition," opens with a quote from Margaret Halsey: "The great disadvantage of being in a rat race is that it is humiliating. The competitors in a rat race are by definition rodents." An honest male prospective that summarizes what is to be learned in the chapter follows these quotes. Nakamoto also includes an anecdote from his life such as the email he received from a woman complaining about an aspect of her dating life, followed by a list of steps on how to successfully accomplish whatever the theme of the chapter happens to be.

Nakamoto, is not new to the "how to catch a man arena." His previous book, Men are like Fish: Everything a Woman Needs to Know about Catching a Man, was a funny, intelligent look at the dating scene with tips on how to not only initiate a great relationship but enhance the one you are in. In his latest book he offers an honest and refreshing male perspective that any woman can use if she finds herself in a dating slump.

Unlike many of the dating books out there, he doesn't send the message that women should wait for a man to decide what he wants to do about being together but instead he teaches women how to be proactive when it comes to their love life. He tells them to put themselves first -- their needs, wants, and desires. Ladies, you can't get any better advice than that.

In Dating Rocks you will find no catchy phrases and no antiquated ideals, just good solid advice (that may or may not net you a man), but along the way will provide you with a great deal of fun, insight and personal growth.

Reviewed by Tamika Johnson for ForewordReviews.com

After attending a publishing seminar, I decided to enroll in a one-year publicity campaign where I sent my book to various newsletters, Internet sites, radio stations, television producers, and magazine editors.

One of my publicity leads got me a 10-minute appearance on the daytime television talk show The Other Half which starred Dick Clark, Danny Bonaduce, Dorian Gregory, and Mario Lopez.

That appearance along with other media appearances eventually got the attention of iVillage.com, the largest women’s community on the Internet. An editor for iVillage.com was in search of a man to become the host of their message board called "Ask Mr. Answer Man."

I agreed to appear on that site and answer questions from women of all ages and around the world about men, dating, romance, and love. My main function was to provide an honest male perspective on the issues of a woman’s everyday life.

After doing this for over a year handling 10-15 questions a day, I began noticing certain patterns or consistent problems that women were experiencing. So I started saving my responses as template instead of writing the same thing to future posters on the same general issue.

I also began to stop using the fishing metaphor from my first book in my responses. Since not every woman was into my Men Are Like Fish theme, I saw a place where I could offer my new understandings about women’s love challenges in a non-metaphor way. The experience that I gained from being the Answer Man had given me the examples, experience, and feedback to venture into a new book.