Project: Happily Ever After: Saving Your Marriage When the Fairytale Falters [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Alisa Bowman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2010

What do you do when your marriage is so unhappy that you begin to fantasize about your husband’s funeral? That’s how bad it got for Alisa Bowman. . . So she launched a last-ditch effort to save her marriage. Project: Happily Ever After is her fearlessly honest and humorous account of how she went from being a “divorce daydreamer” to renewing her wedding vows—and all of the steps in between.

From bikini waxes to erotica, romance instruction manuals to second honeymoons, the silent treatment to power struggles, she goes where many marriage-improvement gurus have feared to tread. Equal parts funny, poignant, and most importantly, useful, Bowman’s story will give other miserably-married folks courage and hope. And in addition to telling her own story, she packs straightforward prescriptive guidance, including a “10-Step Marital Improvement Guide.” Readers will laugh. They’ll cry. And they can start on the road toward their own happy ending!

Editorial Reviews

Review

John and Linda Friel, authors of The 7 Best Things (Happy) Couples Do, April 6, 2010
“Project: Happily Ever After will get people talking about those aspects of marriage that most couples keep deep in the vault. With honesty and humor, Bowman writes about a journey of a marriage in recovery, and wraps it all up with the rarest of outcomes--a happy ending."

Ian Kerner, bestselling author of She Comes First and He Comes Next
"Sometimes realizing you are not alone—along with having a good laugh—helps you relax a bit and see an answer that was there all along. In Project: Happily Ever After, Alisa is just the confidante and comedian you need in the toughest of times."

Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D., nationally syndicated columnist, radio talk show host, and author of Emotional Fitness for Couples and Emotional Fitness for Intimacy
“Much more than a relationship book, Project: Happily Ever After is a true-life love story. Join other readers in the sometimes serious, sometimes silly ups-and-downs and rebuilding of a couple. The really good news here is that Alisa has given us a road map to do the same for our own relationships. It’s never too late to have a happy ending.”

Kiri Blakeley, writer for Forbes, contributor for ForbesWoman, and author Can’t Think Straight: A Memoir of Mixed-Up Love
“Alisa Bowman gets to the funny, painful, buoyantly optimistic, scathingly truthful core of what it’s like to be disenchanted with your husband and marriage—and then tells us, in pull-no-punches prose and narrative worthy of a thriller—what to do about it. If you’d rather kick your hubby than kiss him, rather kill him than coo at him, read this book now!"

 

Pat Love, ED.D, author of Hot Monogamy

If you have reached rock bottom in your relationship, read this book. It’s sexy, savvy, and oh so hopeful.”

 

Charla Muller, author, 365 Nights
“I adore this book, and heartily recommend it to anybody whose marriage has gone from a sweet fairy-tale to a disaster drama. Alisa Bowman has a delightfully funny and honest voice, and shows how she was able to turn her own marriage around with the help of a willing partner, a lot of self-help books, and raw determination.”

Jonathan Alpert, psychotherapist and advice columnist
“Alisa Bowman’s Project: Happily Ever After takes you from the depths of a marriage on the verge of collapse to a healthy and loving relationship. Alisa provides practical and powerful tips for taking control of your unhealthy relationship and making it happy again.”

About the Author

Alisa Bowman is a veteran self-help journalist who has coauthored or ghosted more than 20 books, including six New York Times bestsellers. A former senior editor at Runner’s World magazine, she has been a guest on several radio and television news shows and has been featured in First, Redbook, and Pregnancy. Since starting her “Free Marriage Advice” blog, she receives more than 50,000 visitors a month and has garnered national media attention. She lives happily ever after (most of the time) with her husband, daughter, and dog in Emmaus, PA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; 1 edition (December 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762439017
• ASIN: B006CDDI9E
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alisa Bowman is a professional writer and book collaborator. Seven of her authored and co-authored books have made the NY Times bestseller list and sold millions of copies. She is the creator of ProjectHappilyEverAfter.com, which was voted one of the Top 10 Marriage Blogs three years in a row. Voted one of the "most inspirational women bloggers" by Reader's Digest, she writes for a variety of national publications and has appeared on the TODAY Show, Discovery Health, FOX's Ask Dr. Manny, Better TV, and many others. Learn more about her at AlisaBowman.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Love, Respect, Communication and Forgiveness October 31, 2010

By William D. Curnutt TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I have to give very high marks to Alisa Bowman for her humility in writing this book. She is vulnerable, transparent, honest and very introspective. Her book details the true adventure of her life with Mark and their daughter Kaarina. When she and Mark meet she falls in love and so does he. They start spending time together and find that they are fairly compatible.

After the marriage some things start to change. Alisa details how Mark lost his job and vacillated about what to do next. His obsession with bicycle racing and exercise seems to be taking the top place in his life and Alisa is now second to that, if not maybe even further down the chart. Her prince charming has definitely turned into a frog.

She talks about how things deteriorate in their marriage. Communication falls off, desire falls off, sexual drive falls off, etc. It's all Mark's fault, at least that is what Alisa thinks. She finds herself contemplating his death. She dreams about how to kill him and move on with her life. Surely all of this is his fault.

What is puzzling though is in her descriptions how she explains how easy going Mark is. How often he is compliant to her criticisms and complaints and willing to try and adapt or be more sensitive. I found myself thinking often, this guy is awesome, why doesn't Alisa see this?

Then comes Alisa's desire to make her marriage a success and she starts project Happily Ever After. She goes to Amazon and finds every book on marriage that she can find and orders them. She starts to read and low and behold she discovers something, maybe the problem is as much hers as it is his! That's a shocker to her.

Maybe she is part of the conflict. Maybe her selfish desires have gotten in the way.... Maybe her husband isn't the insensitive slob that she has started to believe he is. Alisa starts to take the advice of the author's she is reading and put into practice things they suggest.

As someone who does a lot of pre-maritial counseling I could see where Alisa needed to learn some communication techniques and guidelines to help in her marriage. I was very impressed that she did learn these, and learn them through reading.

One of the best exercises she and Mark do together is to write out a list of the reasons they love their mate. Her three page list is shared with the reader in Chapter six and is amazing. Through writing that list Alisa starts to recall why she loves Mark and sets her heart and mind to change their relationship.

The book does a great job of sharing very honestly the struggles, the dreams, the desires and the fixes that are necessary to make a marriage work. While I usually deal with Christian Counseling books I was very impressed with the lessons that Alisa learns and how she and Mark work hard to save their marriage.

This book certainly gives a good deal of clarity into our culture today and how many young people are struggling to determine what "love" is and what "marriage" is all about. You will find many good lessons in this book as well as read Alisa and Mark's experiences of what not to do.

Enjoy! Read more ›

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can a prince who turns into a frog become a price again? December 9, 2010

By Sandra Trolinger VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Marriage in essence is a bond like no other that has a fixation on our culture and we gleefully watch Hollywood marriages go through scandals and come out stronger or lead to divorce which is covered in nearly microscopic detail.
Alisa Bowman just wanted to stop having vivid fantasies of her husband's funeral and get the divorce daydream out of her head and her marriage back on track.
The book details her journey and she bares her soul and gives a human glimpse into the highs and mostly lows that marriage takes on a wife and how she decides to try harder to get her husband back to that loving feeling.
Passages that resonated with me included: "It is better to fight that to be silent." Silence and lack of communication which most men struggle with can be a death knell and must be addressed. She states several times as do her fellow wives that "men are clueless" and if you must supply them with birthdays written on a calendar so they don't forget then DO it.
She also states, "I am not against divorce. I am against misery." She gives chapter by chapter advice on how to approach forgiveness, desire, intimacy, and chronicles how it affected her marriage as both spouses were trying to reconnect.
Her website is wonderful too and I highly recommend using it after finishing the book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening December 12, 2010

By momofsix

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

From the moment I started reading Alisa Bowman's book, I felt captivated. Sometimes, rather than reading yet another marriage manual, it can be more helpful just to hear the inside scoop on someone else's marriage. And, since the kind of marriage issues I relate to don't fall in the categories of, say, infidelity, abuse, and so forth, I found this book and her story particularly helpful. There are issues, but in many ways they are mostly issues of mindset and communication. I think any marriage can benefit from improving on these two points - I know my own certainly can.

I loved Alisa's friendly tone. I felt like I was having an intimate chat with a friend as I read the book, and I couldn't wait to get to the next page. My most valuable take-away from the book was that everyone has issues. No marriage is perfect. It sounds like a cliche, and it's certainly something I knew in theory, of course, but it took reading about Alisa's journey - all the details, large and small - for me to really understand this fact and apply it, with positive results, to my attitude towards my own marriage. Thank you for putting yourself out there and writing this book, Alisa Bowman!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Save Yourself From Divorce December 17, 2010

By Brette Sember

Format:Hardcover

As a former divorce attorney, I have to say that if more people read Bowman's book,there would be fewer divorces. Most people who end up in divorce court do so because their marriage broke down in ways that could have been prevented. Bowman's book offers solutions for those who are in unhappy marriages, looking for hope. Her ideas are down-to-earth and very doable. No, she's not a psychologist, but she's a real woman who turned her own marriage around. I think there are many people considering divorce who could learn a lot from her. Even if you aren't considering divorce, but feel just vaguely dissatisfied with your marriage, this book will help you fix that.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marine's opinion August 21, 2011

By Matt G

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was having another verbal argument with my wife, and the argument was about not having anything in common. Being in the military, and having been separated from eachother going on 3 months now, things were getting real tough. Communication wasn't all that good and it felt like our marriage was going down hill fast. What was I suppose to say to my wife about not having anything in common, I mean come on, I knew she was right. But I still loved her. So, I typed in google "I have nothing in common with my wife", and I came upon the authors website and heard about this book. I read what the book was about and I thought to myself "well it wouldn't hurt to read it, something's gotta give me an insight into what I need to do to help my marriage get back on track". The next thing I knew, I ordered the book and read it from cover to cover and have to say that I learned so much about what I could do about fixing my marriage. And the author was right, I don't have it all that bad, haven't gotten to point where I dream about my spouse's funeral anyway. Anywho, I get to see my wife in a couple weeks and give her this book to read as I did, and start a project of our own. I look forward to improving my marriage for the rest of my life. All I have to say is, thank you Alisa.