Why I read it:  I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  Welcome to Need to Know—Because a Woman Can’t Be Too Informed

Dating in D.C. is like navigating an apocalyptic wasteland populated by men in expensive suits with zero mating potential. Need to Know provides all the information a savvy single woman like you needs to avoid dating disasters.

By night, Jordan McAdam is the proprietor of a popular website that rates D.C.’s hottest bachelors—everything from how quick they are email you back to their skills in the sack. She’s been burned once too often to accept any man at face value. By day, her job as an office temp puts her in the perfect position to do a little fact checking on her rich and powerful subjects. When her latest assignment brings her face to face with the sexy but mysterious Forest Redder, Jordan decides to do a little “hands on” research of her own. To Jordan, he seems like the perfect man – but she knows there is no such thing. Moreover, there’s a big problem: Forest knows Jordan’s the woman behind the scandalous site—and Jordan knows he knows. Will he expose her secret—or find his own posted on Need to Know?

What worked for me (and what didn’t):  Like my other Cosmo Red Hot Read, this one surprised me because it had more story and the sex, while steamy, wasn’t something which occurred immediately.  A relationship (a fast one but a relationship nonetheless) was developed prior to the couple getting physical.  (That’s not to say there’s necessarily anything wrong with a story which starts with a bang (or even a real life encounter) but merely, it’s not what my mind went to when I saw the label “Cosmo Red Hot Read”.  Perhaps that says something about me.

Jordan McAdam runs a subscription based website where members post questions about men in the Washington DC dating scene and answers about whether they are a good dating risk are both crowd-sourced (other members answer) and confirmed/verified by the Jordan and her friend/assistant site administrator Elle.  As the website is fairly new, Jordan supplements her income by temping and this puts her in contact with various of the men referred to on the site and enables her to verify certain of rumours.

As an aside: I really don’t know how legal it all is – it seems to me that unless what is on the site is actually true, there could be potential defamation actions.  I don’t know a lot about it, but I gather that the US has a “safe” clause for site owners which basically says they are not responsible for what other members post, but still, there wasn’t any discussion in the book about liabilty management.  Of course, liability management is so not sexy so I can kind of understand why it wasn’t mentioned but my legalish brain wondered.  Also, the book represents a kind of fantasy where douchebag guys are outed and the sisterhood works to keep everyone safe.  There doesn’t appear to be a portion of the website directed to women seeking women – although it is pointed out in the book that women can be bad dating risks too – the book is firmly in heterosexual territory.

Anyway, moving on.  Forest Redder is one of the few high profile Washington men not on the site already and the source of much speculation.  He is gorgeous and eligible.  Jordan likes the bad boy businessman type and Forest rings all her bells.  However, Jordan has family baggage which make her reluctant to trust. Her mother is a serial dater and marry-er, her interest being, apparently, largely financial.  Jordan is very self-sufficient and anything that hints of sharing a burden with a guy has her running a mile.

“You’re not exactly engaged in normal wedding-guest behavior.”
“Clearly you don’t go to many weddings.” Jordan had been to seven for her mother alone, so she considered herself a bit of an expert. And, really, hiding was the only way to get through them.

Forest has his own baggage, having been disowned by his family.  However, there is a powerful physical attraction and the more each finds out about the other, the more that attraction grows and deepens and the more other attractions become apparent.

I appreciated Forest was very clear on issues of consent and careful not to act outside it, while still being all sexy.  Forest was also extremely patient with Jordan (more so than I would have been I think) when ownership of the website becomes an issue in their relationship.

What else? Each chapter of the story starts with a member submitting a request for help to the website – either asking for advice or passing on a rumour and asking for verification/debunking and answer either from the site owner or other members.  I was a bit nervous about it because there was a kind of man-hating vibe about it but I’m very pleased to say that some of the “answers” were to the effect that the questioner was on a winner so not all the men referenced on the site were dogs.

It took me a while to read this book which is kind of surprising given I enjoyed it and it is only about 100 pages long.  But I found it difficult to read the font (the “f” and “r” were really difficult to distinguish) and it was super faint on my reader, even with the text enlarged (it was fine on the computer but for some reason on my reader it went all wonky).  Here is screenshot of what I mean.

Click to embiggen
(it actually looks better on the PC than on my reader)

My reading was a bit disjointed therefore and, even though I liked the story, that and the font itself did affect my grade.  Because for me, it’s all about the reading experience and formatting/font issues are a part of that.

The guy on the book’s cover does look a bit satyr-like – it’s the ears – unfortunately.  Nevertheless it was a fun sexy story and the hero was an really nice guy (mostly), disguised as an alphahole.

Grade: B-

BUY IT:
AMAZON     KOBO