The Alpha Woman Meets Her Match: How Today’s Strong Women Can Find Love and Happiness Without Settling

Rhodes and Schneider (Second Honeymoon) adapt lessons learned from Rhodes’s psychology practice in this treatise on type-A women and how they can maximize their chances for long-term relationships. The authors assert that every person is a mix of Alpha—hard-charging and dominating—and Beta—less ambitious, but with superior interpersonal skills. After presenting a 100-question quiz, which determines the Alpha/Beta breakdown and then breaks down results into a complicated continuum, the authors embark on a number of case studies from Rhodes’s client base, with topics including sex, relationships, recovering from affairs, and amicably divorcing. The book’s main problem is that for the material to work participants must honestly navigate the daunting questionnaire and, while presumably anyone who purchases the book will do so, getting a casual date or a new boyfriend to do the same is unlikely. Yet without it the advice offered doesn’t radically differ from other “how to find a man” books. Still, the authors’ commonsense, non–quiz-related advice—such as the importance of talking through differences in religion and finances before marriage—are spot-on. The advice is solid, but it’s perhaps best used as a tool for those already in committed relationships. (May)