I did enjoy this book, though I must admit that some of the gender roles seemed a bit stereotypical. I have noticed that this occurs in almost all self-help/relationship books. I think that these stereotypes help to exacerbate the problem rather than alleviate the symptoms. However, overall this book does speak about relationships and how they can be very confusing. I am not a big fan of these types of books, but aside from the stereotypes it was very informative. Of course, most of this should be common sense, but in moments of anger, confusion, or sadness, we often don't think of these things from a sane point of view. ( )

Self-help books. Yuck. I could not get through this book at all. I tried multiple times and could not do it. It might be a self-help book thing or a couples thing, but it was not the book for me. ( )

I thought this book was well written. I enjoyed it a lot as I learned how to handle many situations with people differently than I would have in the past. There was great insight into peoples feelings, and reactions to different things. ( )

Kim Olver makes an earnest attempt to bring together an amalgam of sources in order to present a positive advice book for married couples. Unfortunately, for me it fell short. First, I disagreed with some of her basic premises, like the need for an "alone" stage, the idea that only one partner needs to be willing to heal a relationship (that cooperation of the other partner isn't needed), and the need for the belief in a higher power in order to have a strong marriage. Also, I grew weary of her summarizing of theories from her mentor and trainer, William Glasser, whose name she drops about once every other page. Rather than developing her own theories of marriage, Olver parrots Glasser's own published works, and the works of other relationship experts. The book felt like an edited reference book of other writer's theories rather an original work. My final criticism, although I realize that I had a galley copy that might still receive some editing, was the number of grammatical, punctuation, and organizational errors it contained. Hopefully, a proofreader will be taking a close look before final printing. Having said all of that, I liked her section on internet dating safety (I learned new things from it), and I appreciated her preference of the phrase "providing information" over the old, "constructive criticism." But most of the information here is standard, and not unique. If you are interested in the theories of William Glasser, or if you like the kind of book that summarizes the advice of other relationship experts, so that you don't have to read them all individually, this is for you. However, unfortunately, Olver does not offer much that is new, or unique. ( )

Though an interesting a relatively well-written book, my experience was really soured by the presence of a rather large amount of gendered pseudo-science. Particularly when the author dealt with sexual relations, she presented the typical behaviors of males and females as deeply and clearly different. Not only is her treatment of the subject deeply misleading, but it also assumes a heterosexual couple. As long as you completely skip that chapter, however, the book does offer some sound advice on building and maintaining a relationship. ( )