"The Man Test" by Amanda Aksel #BlogTour and #Giveaway!

DESCRIPTION:

Marin Johns is San Francisco’s Pollyanna couples therapist. She’s months away from wedded bliss when she discovers her fiancé is having an affair. After nursing her broken heart with Kleenex and break-up songs, she adapts a new brand of thinking when she uncovers a tell-all book that proves all men are liars and cheaters who will do and say anything so they’re not found out. No exceptions.

In an attempt to convince her friends of her newfound truth, she begins a fictitious relationship with James, a do-gooder from Montana. Marin seeks any means necessary to catch him cheating from hiring a PI to enlisting the help of a fidelity tester. Will her new "boyfriend" beat the statistic or will Marin regret the satisfaction of being right?

MY TAKE:

4 Stars!

Women's Contemporary Fiction

This was an enjoyable and quite interesting book, to say the least! I LOVED the concept of the idea of Marin doing ALL she can to prove all men cheat, and the book she's going to write proving the point!

What prompts this is Marin catches her fiance' cheating on her, mere months away from their wedding. This is when she is convinced ALL men cheat no matter what, as you would figure after being cheated on in the past, too, not to mention her job as well, of counseling married couples in which generally the man has cheated. 

Marin devises a plan and to goes to every length possible to prove ALL MEN 'do' cheat!  

Marin meets a test man who just seemed to good to be true. "This" was a cheater, he had to be because he was just to gentlemanly. She went to the greatest lengths of hiring a Private Investigator to prove to herself he 'does' cheat on her. This is by FAR the furthest you can go to prove it, right? Nope! Marin also finds this place that does what is called "The Man Test". That, you have to read about! It's hilarious! Extremely original, but I don't want to give this spoiler away! 

So is he cheating or not? That's what this story talks about. Marin, her relationship with her previous boyfriends, clients, and her girlfriends who just so happen to be married, and some of them have had this very same thing happen to them out of the blue, and her, too. 

In Marin's quest to prove all men cheat, when she and some of her girlfriends go to Las Vegas to celebrate on of them getting married, some of them are aghast at some of the things she does to prove ALL men cheat, such as the PI she hires, The Man Test, and more, but she feels the need to prove this point. 

For instance, she tells one of her clients, 
"The truth will set you free and yet people have a tendency to keep secrets and difficult feelings from those they love." 
This client never does fess up, yet he knew differently, as she did, but eventually this came back to bite her in the behind. 

For Marin, this new man in her life, James, when he finds out, it pushes him away very angrily, and she realizes she has feelings for him. She doesn't want him pushed away. This IS a good man. 

She was able to redeem herself with him, but I wished I saw this softer side of Marin more often throughout the book because I liked this Marin more than I did the mad and angry Marin, but then again maybe this was the great part about the book. This one part really showed how deeply Marin feels, and how raw her emotions are/were. It probably didn't help that she worked with couples who were affected by this on a daily basis, either, but I liked this softer and more trusting Marin. (I think if I worked with couples who cheated on each other all the time my views on men might be just like Marin's!) 

What I didn't like about the book was at the end when Marin tells James everything that has happened to her in the past. For James, it's all new to him, but for us, the Reader, we already know all of this. Can't complain too much because the rest of the book was great!

If you have ever been cheated on by a man and/or wanted to get back at one, or wondered what it felt like but without it happening to you and at a safe distance, or want to read what this woman puts James through, then this is the book for you! A fun, comical, yet serious at times great book to definitely take your mind off the mundane! I highly recommend it!

I received this book for FREE from the author/her new publishing company, http://www.elephantinepublishing.com/ in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Meet: Author Amanda Aksel

You can find Amanda Aksel on:
Twitter at @amandaaksel
On Facebook at Amanda Aksel
Goodreads at HERE!
Amanda's website HERE!

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