Who is Cindi Targosz?

Cyndi Targosz is a celebrity image consultant, motivational speaker , certified lifestyle expert and relationship advisor who specializes in balancing life, stress management, fitness, fashion, beauty, weight management, and more. As president of STARGLOW Productions, Inc., her programs reach corporations and organizations, private individuals or small groups and the commercial mass market. Targosz is an audio/video star and spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. She has gathered accolades from her head to her toes. Cyndi recently was named “One of the World’s Top Fitness Pros” by Diet & Exercise Magazine! She was also profiled in a cover story by the Daily News, extolling her M.B.S. SYSTEM™ (Mind, Body, Spirit). The programs in this system have helped thousands of people to cope emotionally and physically!

That’s just an excerpt from her website, StarGlow Productions.

Now seeing as that is out of the way, let’s get to the book.

My initial reaction. I didn’t like the cover. Yes yes, odd thing to mention, but to me, and how I interpreted it…well…I just didn’t like it. But this is not really about the cover now, is it?

So I have this thing where I don’t like even considering younger guys. I mentioned briefly about it in another post HERE. In any case, I thought it would be interesting to see another person’s view on the whole thing; in this case an older woman’s view.

I liked how she opened up the book, her Guide to Dating a Younger Man, with a personal story about her parents. It was cute to add something so personal, and to share such an experience with us. I often get amused that things work out like that. Having an experience that you can directly speak from. It was also interesting to see little boxes constantly pop-up throughout the ‘guide’ that shared experiences of other people. (Kinda reminded me of the whole He’s not into book.) She introduced statistics, and really got into motivating women to really seek the inner sexpot in themselves, to encourage them to seek out new experiences with the younger man.

But then the first annoyance came up.
She stated that it just wasn’t cool to use the term ‘Cougar’ for older women looking for younger men. Which is fine, I personally hate that word as well. BUT she continues throughout the entire book stating younger men as BOY TOYS. I personally did not like that contradiction. Using that term for the younger men, was basically…making it sound as though women were only using them for sex, a play thing, just as she stated with the cougar example. So despite the fact that she relabeled ‘cougar’ as ‘boy toy babe’, it really didn’t change much in my minds view as I was reading along.

Throughout the book, she tells women to feel empowered. To really seek self stability before attempting any sort of relationship with a Boy Toy. (I think that’s important in ANY relationship, older or younger.) And she emphasized that constantly, which made me ignore the whole issue on using the term boy toy for the moment. So the first few chapters were about self security, and how to really create a strong woman who doesn’t really care what others say, and life by her own rules.

Then we get into the ‘interesting’ parts.

Boy Toy Talk Translation.

Young-Guy Speak
“I prefer quite neighbourhood restaurants.”

The Secret Code
“I can’t afford the expensive restaurants that you usually go to.”

LOL. There are only a few of these, but I was amused in a weird way, that she even included this into her book.

She goes into the difference modern day types of dating, and how to find your sense of style. Things to talk about, things not to. Not to become a suga-mama, when to dump the younger guys. Etc. Etc. Etc. She goes in depth to explain issues that might arise when being introduced to your younger man’s family, and the type of people/categories that you will encounter, and how to avoid disaster from interacting with them.

Alright.
I really expected too much. I think, perhaps the view/ideals between the author and I are way too different. Perhaps because of the lifestyle she lives, being all absorbed into the public eye, is what made the difference between us. But I can’t imagine wanting to follow anything in this book that pertains to her ideas of dating a younger man. I think that if I were to look at this book, as reference in how to create a more stable you, then I can give her credit. But in terms of the whole explanation on dating a younger man; it was just something ‘novel’ for me to read. Yes it may be the age thing, seeing as I am not anywhere near the age that she is referring to in the novel, but even then…I really didn’t think I could have learned anything that I hadn’t already known.

It’s not bad just to read, if you can get over the middle part of the book. Which is when you start getting serious with the younger man, and need to meet his family, or decide whether things are going anywhere or not. It was nice that there were statistics throughout the book, and little blurbs of other peoples personal experiences.

But in the end…I’m definitely not a fan, nor has this really enlightened me on the subject.

You can find the book HERE when it is released in December of 2008.
Thanks to Adams Media for sending the book, TWICE so that I could get a chance to read it.
And thanks to minibookexpo for hooking me up with the book.
Hopefully the person who did end up getting my first book, enjoyed reading it :)