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brigittebosshardt's review
2.0
This book was totally not what I was expecting!! It was definitely eye opening for sure. I learned a lot and really enjoyed hearing about Pamela's journey. Some parts of the book bugged me though like how she tries to force her husband to do things he is not comfortable with. I am really glad I won this though and enjoyed reading it.
inkletter7's review
2.0
Not entirely sure what to think about this one...it was an interesting read - a good glimpse into an underground world of a sexually frustrated suburban housewife. I just don't understand how a woman who claims to be happy in her marriage out of the blue one day decides she needs more that her husband can't give her. So what does she do? She starts getting erotic massages from gay men. Miraculously, this leads to an acceptance of her body (according to the book, her food issues utterly disappear), and her husband doesn't seem very phased when she finally tells him after almost a year of sessions. I guess the book just seemed like everything went a little too easy for her, she never struggles with the fact that she's doing this behind her husband's back, the fact that it could destroy her successful career, or the fact that she's using "scared intimacy" as her newest crutch.
satyridae's review
2.0
I was so disconnected from Madsen for the bulk of this book because she kept insisting that she loved her husband and yet she kept him at an unforgivable distance for months while she wrestled with her sexuality and her desires. I would have been entirely in her corner, cheering her journey on, if she hadn't kept inventing reasons not to tell her husband anything. Nothing. Not a word.
Sexual fidelity isn't important to me, never has been- but honesty is non-negotiable in any significant relationship I enter into, and reading about dishonesty mixed with elaborate protestations of love and grandiose rationalizations about the difference between healing sexual touch and sexual fidelity feels unclean. I found myself walking away from this book a number of times, but I kept coming back to see if she'd finally bite the bullet and fess up to her husband.Which (is this a spoiler?) she finally did at practically the very end. And he rose to the occasion with dignity and loving acceptance and none of the things she was sure he'd say were said.
Aside from this huge, glaring issue that I understand is MY hang-up and not hers, it was interesting to read about how organizations like the Body Electric work, and remarkable to be almost present for some of her Sacred Intimacy sessions. It was also pretty harrowing to read some of Madsen's mother's remarks about Madsen's body, toxic shaming garbage. That was a nice jumping off point for her to explore some of her body image issues, and her journey to healing around that was the most powerful part of the book for me. The other thing that leaped out at me was how much dough she had to have lying around to be able to go to $300 Sacred Intimacy sessions every couple of weeks, buy $400 corsets & bags full of sex toys and fly to week-long seminars at every opportunity. And her husband didn't notice this cash outlay? See, I'm back on the lying thing. Which truly did ruin the book for me, in every way that matters.
Sexual fidelity isn't important to me, never has been- but honesty is non-negotiable in any significant relationship I enter into, and reading about dishonesty mixed with elaborate protestations of love and grandiose rationalizations about the difference between healing sexual touch and sexual fidelity feels unclean. I found myself walking away from this book a number of times, but I kept coming back to see if she'd finally bite the bullet and fess up to her husband.
Aside from this huge, glaring issue that I understand is MY hang-up and not hers, it was interesting to read about how organizations like the Body Electric work, and remarkable to be almost present for some of her Sacred Intimacy sessions. It was also pretty harrowing to read some of Madsen's mother's remarks about Madsen's body, toxic shaming garbage. That was a nice jumping off point for her to explore some of her body image issues, and her journey to healing around that was the most powerful part of the book for me. The other thing that leaped out at me was how much dough she had to have lying around to be able to go to $300 Sacred Intimacy sessions every couple of weeks, buy $400 corsets & bags full of sex toys and fly to week-long seminars at every opportunity. And her husband didn't notice this cash outlay? See, I'm back on the lying thing. Which truly did ruin the book for me, in every way that matters.
melissacutler's review
4.0
Very, very interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it until the last few chapters. The ending lost energy and ended abruptly, without a satisfying resolution of Ms. Madsen's journey. But, I'm so very glad I read it. Tons of insight that made me see certain things in a different way.
nilchance's review
3.0
The sex in this book is very, very hot to me. The ethics of paying for erotic services behind one's spouse's back is... troubling, in my opinion, and that colored my enjoyment of the rest of the book. Which is unfortunate, since the story is otherwise well-written and liberating and interesting. Also, I feel like the ending was abrupt and the epilogue (detailing the author's loss of her blog and then her job because of her company's reaction to her lifestyle) held a story I would've liked to read in further depth.
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