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Book Review of When in Doubt Check Him Out: A Woman's Survival Guide for the '90s

When in Doubt Check Him Out: A Woman's Survival Guide for the '90s
gotchagal avatar reviewed on + 97 more book reviews


A great book! This is just chock-full of information that you won't easily find anywhere else. If your a single woman, especially a single mother, or even a dating man, you will find this book a lifesaver.

Having this book is much like hiring a private investigator with access to all kinds of information, but a LOT cheaper. You'll be amazed by how easy it is to check someone out when you know how and who to ask.

I was a long-single divorced mother of three young daughters and was not interested in remarrying until my girls were almost grown. I was a writer, photographer, artist and owner of a gourmet cheesecake company. I had a full and busy life.

I dated a lot and met many different kinds of men from the nice guys just getting by pretty well to the big-time CEOs and yes, even millionaires. It was interesting, fun, but sometimes scary and worrying.

Occasionally their ideas of truth and fact were more like lies and fiction, but it wasn't always easy to find the difference. Exactly who were these men? What was true about their past lives and the backgrounds they had related to me? How was I to know? Then I found this book!

A brilliant doctor I dated was interesting, unique fun to be with most of the time. He had mentioned that he had been in the Navy for several years and we talked about some of his adventures while in service. He seemed almost perfect, except for a few odd incidents and changes in his behavior.

I decided to check him out. I learned that he had been in the Navy, but for a very short time. He was given a psychiatric discharge. He had also been arrested twice for getting into some physical altercations in another state. I removed his name from my dance card.

One attractive man I dated for awhile sent me flowers at least twice a week and used to phone me several times a day. He wouldn't give me his phone number (this was before everyone had cell phones), or his address. The reason he gave was that he was very big in the real estate field and many times had to spend several days at other locations, especially when he had important showings scheduled. He spent little time at his own home he said.

He was one of the very few men I had allowed to pick me up for a date at my home, instead of my usual habit of meeting my dates at a restaurant or other location. I felt safer when I met them in a public location and it saved me from any possible wrestling matches at my door at the end of the evening.

However, I did let this man pick me up one evening, and when he came in, he turned and looked at the lock on my front door and commented that the lock was kind of puny. I thought that was a strange remark. Nothing more was said about it, but I tucked the information in the back of my mind for future reference.

One day I thought about this book and after looking through it, I phoned the State Real Estate Board to see what information I could get about him. It turned out that he had no real estate license now nor ever before. They had never heard of him.

He'd also told me he was a former CIA agent. I was able to check that out too. Yup, no record of him existed.

I wrote this all down and added even more information the book had led me to and took it with me on our next lunch date. I asked him a few innocent questions about his recent real estate dealings while we had our salad. As he began telling me about his pending big deals, I quietly placed a paper on the table in front of him with all the information I had gleaned. I said, "You are not at all who you claim to be.", got up and walked out of the restaurant and his life.

I went home and called a locksmith to come and change all my locks to bigger, better and safer. I never heard from him again, and I never stopped feeling as though the book might have saved my life. At the very least, it saved me from going through some bad times.

Who knows? The book might save your life or protect you from having some really bad experiences. Check it out. Good luck.