But we had such a good time …

From the understandable to the absurd, author and professional matchmaker Rachel Greenwald breaks down men’s most tried-and-true excuses to discover the real reason they don’t call back after a date. Greenwald applies the aggressive research skills she developed as a Harvard MBA and the razor-sharp intuition honed during her years as a dating coach to the most discouraging dilemma daters face in the days following an apparently amazing date: “Why didn’t he call me back?”

Advocating that you change his perception instead of your personality, Greenwald’s vast study and witty analysis of men’s behavior is nearly a science in its fine points, and truly a contemporary approach to the speedily evolving game of dating. After conducting business-world-style “Exit Interviews” with nearly 1,000 men who failed to follow up, Greenwald supposes that the swelling popularity of dating and networking sites like eHarmony and Facebook leads men to believe that their ideal woman — someone hotter, smarter, funnier or more fill-in-the-blank than the one across the table — is just a click of the mouse away.

Greenwald explains the stereotypes men often rely on in order to easily categorize a woman on the first date: from the glitzy Park Avenue Princess who grills her date about the size of his bank account over a five-star dinner, to the aggressive, husband-hunting Closer, who made one hapless guy feel like “she was interviewing [him] to be a sperm donor!”

Most women don’t fall into such limiting categories. But the author explains, using carefully culled chronicles of dates gone awry, how easily applied these labels are in a man’s world seemingly flooded with available women, and how smart daters can avoid the trap by perfecting their date’s perception. Loud and clear, Greenwald offers the no-frills, tough-love advice that every single woman doesn’t want — but often needs — to hear.