I'm sure this book will help many women but I did not find it interesting in my case. Maybe because I don't have a relationship problem. I still found it very interesting, it gives lots of tips.

Unfortunately, I do not have many nice things to say about this book. I did think it was well written. I read a lot of self-help and sometimes the authors tend to overdo it with the psychobabble. The Empowered Wife wasn't like that. It was very easy to read/understand. The content is what I took issue with. This book may as well have been entitled How to Be a Doormat. I can get behind the messages of self-care and gratitude. I cannot get behind not having an opinion (or not expressing it, anyway) and giving away total control. I knew the moment I got to the chapter titled Your Husband Does Not Want To Hear Your Opinion that I was going to have issues. Of course I don't condone being disrespectful to one's husband. But there is a huge difference between being disrespectful and expressing one's opinion! And I vehemently disagree with a woman giving up total control of the finances. If a woman wants her husband to be in charge of paying bills, of course that's her prerogative. But, she should have access to the bank accounts and bills so she knows exactly what's going on! It's dangerous for a woman to be completely in the dark about the family finances. The author claims that marriage is easy. Ha! Anyone who's been married knows that that's absolutely not true. Of course your husband is going to be happy if you agree with everything he says and never express your opinion on anything! I felt like I was reading a non-fiction version of The Stepford Wives. I just don't see any of this advice working long term. Women who follow this nonsense are going to end up holding in their feelings until they blow up and end up on an episode of Snapped.

In The Empowered Wife, Doyle provides very realistic martial advice using what she calls the Six Intimacy Skills. The Six core skills are: Replenish, Respect, Relinquish, Receive, Reveal and Refocus. These skills sound simple because they are, it’s changing your behavior and attitudes that present the real challenge as Doyle discusses in her case studies of real women that are using the Six Intimacy Skills in their own marriages.

What I liked about this is that Doyle explains the skills in an easy to understand and employ way. She even provides real experience on how women have incorporated these skills in their relationships and how this has benefited their marriages.

What I disliked about this book was that I find Doyle’s tone to be a bit sexist both toward men and toward women. I understand that Doyle is writing for a general audience and may feel inclined to write according to normative gender roles, but I don’t believe in a “boys will be boys” mentality which is the tone I get from reading The Empowered Wife. While this doesn’t make the advice any less relevant, it did make me frown and cringe in some areas of the text which is not really a pleasant experience for me or readers that may feel similarly.

This was a well-written book. As a former counselor, I felt that it walked a good line between tough love and advice. It provides realistic scenarios, actual do-able solutions, and sound advice for special situations. I would recommend all women to read this within the first few years of marriage, and possibly even the men as well. (They can keep it a secret...) It takes two to keep a marriage together, but one acting alone is a good start. This is the perfect book for a couple with young kids, under stress, or just facing the seven year itch.