What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds

Rating:
Summary: Valuable advice for LDS couples. More examples, though!
Review: My fiancee and I, in hopes of avoiding the pitfalls of many newlywed couples, read this book with the hope of better preparing ourselves for our upcoming life together. Do we feel better prepared after doing so? Yes. The Bytheway's advice is based on well-accepted principles which lead to a happy marriage (communication, understanding, patience, overlooking little annoyances, etc.). Perhaps more importantly for their audience, they present these principles in an LDS context, complete with quotes from church leaders.

But, like any good church talk, we wanted more personal examples, more specifics! The title ("What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds") implies that the Bytheways are about to tell us about the challenges they had early on in their marriage, and how we can avoid them. To be fair, there were examples, but we were craving more! They write about a few "crisis" talks they had, but what were these about, and how did they solve the problems? The reader is left hanging.

We can understand their hesitancy in sharing specific info. about their personal lives, especially since their friends and family will probably read their book. But isn't that a risk one has to take when writing such a book? The chapter on intimacy was representative--they essentially refer the reader to other sources for details. We (with parents who were afraid to tell us ANYTHING about intimacy, esp. DETAILS) are looking for an LDS source for such information. It's hard to come by.

Overall, we loved the Bytheway's attitude toward marriage--that it can be great! That's what we want. Like them, so many people have told us how hard marriage will be. While realistic, we are getting tired of hearing that lamentation, and choose to MAKE things work. Thanks, John and Kimberly Bytheway, for your help in our endeavor.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Information
Review: This book was filled with all kinds of information and suggestions to keep the "Honeymoon" in your marriage. The honeymoon never has to be over. There was a lot of useful information for the first year of marriage. I really enjoyed reading this book.