This book is a practical guide to using the science of attachment and relationships to find the right life partner. If you were brought up in the Western world, you've been trained on fairy tales of love and relationships that are misleading at best, and at worst have you making mistake after mistake in starting relationships with the wrong kinds of people who will waste your time and keep you from finding a loyal partner. Science has the answer! Or at least a guide to save you the time and effort of discovering for yourself how many wrong types of romantic partners there are. Reading this book will help you recognize the signs of some of the syndromes that prevent people from being good partners. We'll go through those syndromes and point out some of the signs. Those little red flags you sometimes notice when you are getting to know someone? Often they speak loud and clear once you understand the types, and you can decide immediately to run away or approach with caution those who show them. If you're young and just starting to look for a partner, good news-the world is swarming with well-adjusted, charming matches for you, if you know how to recognize them. The bad news: you are inexperienced and you may not recognize the right type of person when you date them. Many people expect to experience an immediate sense of excitement, an overwhelming rush of attraction, and to fall in love rapidly and equally with someone who feels the same. This rarely happens, and when it does it usually ends badly! And expecting it will cause you to let go of people who are steady, loving, and attentive, if you had given them a chance. So once you've identified someone who makes you laugh, answers your messages, and is there for you when you want them, don't make the mistake of tossing them aside for the merely good-looking, sexy, or intriguing stranger. If you're older, bad news: while you were spending time and effort on relationships you were hoping would turn out better, or even happily nestled in a good relationship or two, most of the secure, reliable, sane people in your age group got paired off. They're married or happily enfamilied, and most of the people your age in the dating pool are tragically unable to form a good long-term relationship. You should always ask yourself, "why is this one still available?"-there may be a good answer (recently widowed or left a long-term relationship), or it may be that this person has just been extraordinarily unlucky in having over twenty short relationships in twenty years (to cite one case!) But it's far more likely you have met someone with a problematic attachment style. As you age past 40, the percentage of the dating pool that is able to form a secure, stable relationship drops to less than 30%[1]; and since it can take months of dating to understand why Mr. or Ms. SeemsNice is really the future ex-partner from Hell, being able to recognize the difficult types will help you recognize them faster and move on to the next. This book outlines the basics (which might be all you need), and points you toward more resources if you want to understand more about your problem partner. If you're wondering if the guy or girl you've been hanging out with might not be quite right, this is the place to match those little red flags you've noticed with known bad types. And by getting out fast, you can avoid emotional damage and wasted time, and get going on finding someone who's really right for you. Study all of the bad types and you'll detect them before even getting involved. Or you could be one of the few people who recognizes their own problems in one of these types. There are study materials and plans of action for you, too. If you've had lots of relationships and they all seem to go wrong, the common factor is you! Your task is to make yourself into a better partner - a goal that even the most evolved of us can always work toward.

The stories you are about to read are true. Often hilarious and always relatable, they all describe the moment when good sense and simple self-respect triumph over the human need to be loved—or, at least, the need to be with a particular man. The relationship may not last beyond lunch, or it may linger for weeks, months, or even years. But inside, you know: it's over. What Was I Thinking?58 Bad Boyfriend Stories includes contributions from: Francesca Lia Block Bonnie Bruckheimer Cindy Chupack Kate Coe Melinda Culea Carrie Fisher Wendy Hammers Nicole Hollander Maira Kalman Lisa Napoli Lynn Snowden Picket Mimi Pond Rachel Resnick Penny Stallings Laurie Winer Amy Wruble Whether the story is funny, sad, poignant, sweet, or just plain psychotic—we bet you can't read just one.

Wanted: one very bad boyfriend for the holidays I don't just need a fake boyfriend. I need the worst fake boyfriend in the world. Someone who'll get my family off my back about my perpetually single state. Someone so awful they'll beg me to never bring another man home again. Gabe promised he was up to the task, but by the time we've said hello to the parents and dropped our bags in my childhood bedroom, I've learned that he's a little too good at being bad. We have so much fun, in fact, that I start to forget it’s all for show. By the time Christmas Eve rolls around, Gabe’s the only thing I want to unwrap. And if I do, I’m afraid he’ll be the gift I never want to return. My Fake Bad Boyfriend is a hot standalone holiday novella that's sweet as a candy cane, funny as Elf, and spicy as fireball whiskey in your hot chocolate. Treat yourself to a laugh-out-loud holiday romance!

‘I devoured this book in a single sitting, it grabbed me right from its hilarious opening paragraph. Poppy Dolan is simply unputdownable.’ Claudia Carroll When Molly's sweet but hopeless brother Sam comes to her with news of yet another failed romance, she offers to show him where he keeps going wrong. By teaching Sam some of the golden rules of dating, Molly helps Sam land his dream woman. Molly soon hits on the idea of turning her dating wisdom into a career. With the aid of her two best friends it isn’t long before The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp is off the ground, educating men in the art of texting, fashion and understanding women. Yet as Molly and co solve their clients’ problems, they soon realise that sometimes it’s easier to dish out the advice than to take it – and that maybe the rules of love are made to be broken... ‘A hilarious book, about love, family and friendship... extremely entertaining.’ Kim the Bookworm ‘An incredible first novel that fans of chick-lit of will enjoy.’ Curled Up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea ‘An immensely enjoyable read.’ Mama J Hearts

He might be bad news, but he's also the story she's looking for... After five years of wasting my Journalism Degree writing an advice column, my editor offers me my first real assignment. Too bad I'll have to work alongside a Private Investigator from out of town. Enter Grayson Cole. The broody and secretive bad boy who took my V-Card eight summers ago then broke my heart. After years of hating Grayson for leaving without saying goodbye, now I'm the only person who can pose as his girlfriend. Between the long hours working together and the public displays of affection, it's getting harder to tell what's real. I need to walk away before history repeats itself. But when Grayson shows up at my door in the middle of the night and tells me why he really came back... What started out as fake, becomes dangerously real...

Winner of the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. One of Buzzfeed's Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2021, NBC's 10 Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021, and Pink News' Best LGBTQ Books of 2021. "This hurricane of delirious, lonely, lewd tales is a taxonomy and grand unified theory of the boyfriend, in every tense." —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "I loved this book—raunchy, irreverent, deliberate, sexy, angry, and tender, in its own way." —Roxane Gay An irrerverent, sensitive, and inimitable look at gay dysfunction through the eyes of a cult hero Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure—from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama—Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it—or perhaps because of it—they shine. Armed with a deadpan wit, Purnell finds humor in even the darkest of nadirs with the peerless zeal, insight, and horniness of a gay punk messiah. Together, the slice-of-life tales that writhe within 100 Boyfriends are an inimitable tour of an unexposed queer underbelly. Holding them together is the vision of an iconoclastic storyteller, as fearless as he is human.

Have you ever wondered if you’re involved in a bad relationship? In How to Be a BAD Boyfriend,“The Girlfriends” give you specific examples of what to look for; many are humorous and others are downright nasty. Presenting more than 170 indicators of bad boyfriend behavior, this humorous look at men and dating provides an opportunity to not only double-check the status of your relationships but to laugh out loud. Based on a host of past experiences with bad boyfriends, the “tips” in this guide will help you take a closer look at the guy you’re with. In relating these experiences, the girlfriends realize that they are not alone and that you also may have a story to share. If you would like to submit your own “bad boyfriend” experiences, check out the form at the end of this book. How many examples of “bad boyfriend” behavior can you detect in your own relationship? The Girlfriends A simple discussion about relationships between two friends turned into a humorous, six-hour road trip that will never be forgotten. We knew we needed to share our insights and put a positive spin on some less than appropriate behaviors. Thus How to Be a Bad Boyfriend was launched.