4.5 stars

This is an extremely intriguing memoir based on the title and even more so once you dive in. We are only intimately associated with our own marriage, and that's only if we are married, so it is completely vulnerable for the author to let us into the inner workings of her marriage.

It is difficult to read this without leaping to judgment - of any sort.  As a book, it is immensely immersive. I thought I had only been reading for 15 minutes, and over an hour had elapsed. I imagine a few people will be turned off by the first 20 or so pages, if they already weren't turned off by the title, as the author gets VERY detailed about her sex life with her husband and her other lovers. The author doesn't gloss over anything. This is your forewarning (if somehow the title didn't register with you).

I felt sympathy toward the author. She found a man she met sexually attractive while married, and her husband Stewart instantly told her to have sex with him. And he was out the door to meet other women he wanted to have sex with (it completely sounds like he was primed to have a girlfriend or had already had a girlfriend). The author really isn't into polyamory; she's into relationships. But once they open the door to other people, her husband didn't want to close off their marriage again. If you have watched any of those polygamy shows, you know that the man is the instigator in almost all of these extramarital relationships. The author wanted to give up polyamory many times, as the jealousy was too much for her and the pain of failed relationships hurt.

Again, I appreciate the author being so vulnerable and using her real name. Her story was very similar to the stories I have heard in other venues (although mostly anonymous), yet this was so real and vivid.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loving this book that opens eyes to different types of marriages and overcoming difficult situations as a couple

I've read a few books, both fiction and nonfiction, about open marriages, and it seems many of them take the approach of diving directly into the deep end. Oftentimes, the excitement and thrill of a new partner completely engulfs the need for complete honesty and thorough discussions with their current established partner, which almost always leads to trouble. The author makes a lot of mistakes throughout this process, hiding feelings of resentment and being deceptive in expressing her true feelings toward her husband and her other partners. A lot of her actions are impulsive, risky, and based on her need for affirmation and attempts at quick fixes. Even though both Molly and her husband feel freedom in being able to pursue other relationships, the addition of other partners inevitably adds complications and stress, and the feelings of jealousy never fully dissipate. I am impressed by her perseverance, despite the many challenges she faces, and her fervent determination to find herself.

This book reads so much like a novel, with a tightly-plotted storyline and brisk pacing, that I often had to remind myself that this was a memoir. I flew through this memoir because it was so action-packed, with cliffhangers and foreshadowing. I was so curious as to what situations Molly would encounter and how she would navigate these exciting but emotionally taxing relationships.

There's so much I like about the book. People engaged in open marriages tend to be secretive, so this really is a groundbreaking because it is candid and interesting. I did find myself frequently wondering how on earth they made time for each other as a couple when they were raising kids, having careers and constantly dating. I am curious if the author's going to write full-time or engage in a new career because being a school teacher with this information "public" could be challenging. Mostly good story telling throughout the book.

It sounds weird to say but there was a lot more motherhood and child content than I expected from a memoir of an open marriage. Not that was expecting an "adult" book but it was really more child-heavy than expected. Of course, that makes sense because she is a mother but I felt like it was a little repetitive. I sympathized with the migraines though!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I finished this book in one sitting! It was so interesting to learn about this couple getting agreement and navigating the world of an open relationship. Appreciated her honesty of how she processed her feelings and how at times she would act with her husband while she was conducting the same activity and at times oversharing. It was hard for her to find the balance of what to share, how much she should attach herself to the secondary the partner. I appreciated the narrative of going to therapy and helping her work through her feelings and especially the migraines. This was a very interesting read!

MORE: A MEMOIR OF OPEN MARRIAGE is an un-put-downable peek behind the curtain of one couple’s experiment with opening their marriage. It’s emotionally frank, sexually graphic, and does not shy away from asking—and attempting to answer—the tough questions. What *do* you, as a human being with feelings, do with your jealousy, even your rage? Is it possible to love more than one person, and would doing so dilute your love or double it?

I thought for sure the author must be writing under a pseudonym, but there she is on her author website, full name, headshot, and all. Good for her.

The only thing I didn’t care for was Winter’s over-reliance on direct quotes from songs, TV shows, and books. (And not as chapter epigraphs, but in-text.) She’s an avid reader and singer-songwriter, so I get her love of words, but I would have preferred she paraphrased them in her own way so we understood why those particular quotes spoke to her instead of leaving her inclusions up to the reader to interpret.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I found this to be quite the interesting book between graphic descriptions of sexual encounters and Molly's emotional response to being in an open marriage. Lots of good things to think about before you dive in yourself.

I loved this book. It was honest and refreshing. It has some pretty steamy parts, too, which made it fun to read. Molly’s exploration of herself and her marriage is so honest and instructive. I read this book in two days - I just couldn’t get enough of it.

I loved this book for its emotional complexity and nuance--and its deep look at the experience of open marriage. Notably the narrator looks unflinchingly at herself and her experience. This is a riveting book.

To be fair, I vacillated a smidge between 3.5 and 4 stars for this read. I appreciated the candor and vulnerability of the story and Molly's willingness to offer her marriage and journey of self-discovery for us all to critique and overanalyze. Memoir is a challenging genre in and of itself without adding on the somewhat novel topic Molly places at the center of her story. The beauty of the work is that it's not salacious or graphic for the sake of eliciting shock, awe, or voyeurism. The memoir is equally about womanhood, motherhood (in her own role as a mother and her relationship with her mom), perfectionism, and therapy. Perhaps I'm overstating, but Molly's journey to understand herself more deeply was the most engaging aspect of the entire work. There were contradictions and annoyances (whew, the double standards were wildly annoying and off-putting sometimes), but ultimately I ended up appreciating that Molly captured all of those instead of wrapping the story up in the neatest of bows.

I enjoyed this author’s writing on this topic of polyamory and her experience with it. The counseling she underwent helped to make it understandable why she kept exploring this lifestyle and learning about it.

A raw intimate memoir about the authors open marriage.She shares her issues with her marriage her dissatisfaction with the state of her life and though in love with her husband and the mother to their two young children wants more excitement more intimacy for herself.Her husband also has the same desire for an open marriage.She shares her dates her therapy sessions the difficulty being married while dating for both of them.I found her memoir of this lifestyle interesting ,One thing that sticks out the author never seems truly happy or sure of what she really wants her tension manifest itself in painful migraines.I found this memoir open honest well written and involving.

interesting book about a couple's experience with open marriage and their love and their trials of heartbreak and finding new loves. It was interesting that her parents had an open marriage. Loved the talks with the doctor and helping them figure out the why of doing it and what she is getting out of it and their couple's therapy.