-Keeping Score: A Guide to Love and Relationships Review + Giveaway

Title: Keeping Score: A Guide to Love and Relationships 

Author: Marc Brackett

Genre: Non-Fiction

Publisher: Self-Published

Published: July 1, 2012

Format: Paperback

Pages: 128

Source: Received from the author in

exchange for an honest review

Read: December 7, 2012

In A Few Words: Has good analogies

My Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads: Add to Your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:

It's a relationship book even a man will read.

Keeping Score provides a relationship evaluation quiz followed by a common sense guide for relationship improvement, all with a humorous twist. You can determine if your relationship has the qualities it takes for a successful marriage and lasting love affair.

If you're single- read this book to see how well your potential life partner measures up. If you're married- read this book to reduce conflict and increase your happiness.

Take control and shape your union into a relationship that will stand the trials of life and go the distance

Melissa's Musings:

This book is very straightforward and to the point. The basic idea behind the book, at least my understanding of what the author is trying to present is that it's easy to score the compatibility of two people based on a number of different factors, which there are several questions to in each section. It then gives the reader some suggestions on how to work on certain areas where you and your partner may be less than ideally matched. 

I really appreciated that the author realized that some issues in a relationship, like trust, are subjective, and there is no "one size fits all" answer to issues in these types of areas of a relationship. The author gives general suggestions in this area and leaves the rest of working through these issues to the couple.

One thing that I found a little disappointing was that some of the questions were only yes/no, one option or the other, without a middle option, when the question could have benefited from that. One of the questions that was like this was a question on religious beliefs. The question is : 

Have you and your partner resolved in what faith any children you may have will be raised?" Then it's a straight yes or no answer, with no middle ground for people who may not participate in religion at all.

I understand why these are closed ended, yes/no questions. It makes them easier to score. The desire for middle ground answers is more a personal preference than a flaw in the book itself.

I also find it very interesting that this book is written by a male author. This is just a general observation, but most of these types of books, or at least all the ones I've read have been authored by women. It's refreshing to see these issues from a male perspective for a change.

I do agree with the claim that the synopsis makes, that this is a book that even a man will read. I know my boyfriend would walk through this is I asked him to.  The analogies are personable, easy to relate to, and make good sense. The issues that come up in relationships are addressed from both the male and female perspective.

One little change that I would have made to the book would be to have tried to change the scenarios/situations up at least slightly from the male and female sides. The questions and situations are copied word for word for each. I understand the reasoning behind it, it just got to be a bit boring reading it all the way through. I think it would be a little more engaging to see the material presented in a slightly different light for both sides, or at least the questions asked in a different way for each.

Overall, this is an excellent book that hits on many of the key elements that need to be addressed and worked on in a relationship and this gives the reader the system to help you figure out which areas might need work. The charts are easy to use and there are example individuals in the back of the book to help you figure out how to analyze your scores.

Giveaway Time!

When Marc contacted me about doing a review, he very generously offered and sent along two additional  paperback copies of Keeping Score: A Guide to Love and Relationships when he sent my review copy so that I could do a giveaway for my readers. Thanks Marc!

Giveaway Rules:

The giveaway will be limited to US ONLY as I'm sending the books myself 

You do NOT have to be a follower of this blog to enter. Anyone who chooses to follow is appreciated.

This giveaway will follow the guidelines outlined in my Review Policy located at the top of the blog.
Winners will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond before alternate winners are chosen.
This giveaway will run from December 19 2012 to January 3, 2013 at 12:00 am Pacific Time
There are NO Mandatory entries, do as many as you like

Enter Below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway