I'm a bit torn about my review for this. Steiner's story is compelling. So compelling, in fact, that I read the book in about one sitting (way past my bedtime too!). I really wanted to see how she would escape the relationship and was also generally curious about her life's path. Yet, I didn't love the book or Steiner's writing, I only liked it.

Anyone who has ever been in an abusive relationship should read this book. Then again, anyone who has ever wondered why women don't leave their abusers should read it.

Steiner is a good writer and shows vividly what it is like to be married to someone who is violent. I was into this story from the first page and read it in two days.

An interestesting, addictively readable memoir by a Harvard-educated woman (now a successful journalist and Washington Post blogger) who stayed too long in a marriage with a husband who regularly beat her. It's a chilling look at how abuse can affect the lives of people in all social classes and at any education level.

I ended up with this book sort of inadvertantly. It wouldn't have occurred to me to seek it out, but then once I got it I thought the subject matter sounded interesting, especially More...

This book gets 3 stars for two reasons: First, I admit that I was so engrossed in it that I didn't come up for air and finished it in record time, and second, the subject matter merits consideration and respect. That said, there are issues with it.

I had trouble liking anyone in this book. Clearly, the husband is not a sympathetic character, and even when we are meeting him for the first time on the subway, he comes off kind of repugnant. The parents aren't appealing, either, and there is all kin More...

I feel very conflicted about this book. Steiner has shown remarkable bravery by sharing her story with the world about the abuse she suffered behind closed doors. The abuse is shocking and thought provoking- as it is a warning to others not to ignore red flags in relationships.

I agree with many other readers in that her style is annoying and WASPY-- The first half of the book I found myself annoyed with the over-dramatization of seemingly normal moments. She seemed to paint small events and inte More...

1. Crazy Love is a true story about Leslie (the writer) falling in love with, and marrying, an abusive man named Connor. Some major conflicts are; Connor did many abusive things to Leslie. He beat her, threatened her, and then acted like it never happened. He held a shot gun to her head and threatened to pull the trigger, he choked her, he punched her and kicked her, and threw things at her. The main characters would be Leslie, Connor, Leslie's friend Winnie, and Leslie's parents.
2. What makes t More...

I wish we could give half stars to books...I really felt like this was 2.5 but the subject matter (being in an abusive relationship) warrants the book a 4. My only complaint, besides the fact that sometimes I wanted to punch this woman for being so WASPy and growing up so upper middle class (and hasn't she been punched enough?) is that at the begining of the book, she talks about her husband and kids and how you wouldn't think a woman like that with this perfect life would be in an abusive relat More...

One woman's memoir of her relationship and subsequent marriage to an abusive man. While I did enjoy this book, I did have two problems with it:

1. Steiner maintains that she had a "normal" upbringing. It's as though she thinks because she's blonde, beautiful, intelligent, and went to Harvard, that should have precluded her from falling into an abusive relationship. However, within the first five pages of the book, it becomes blatantly obvious that she grew up in a VERY dysfunctional family with a More...

Leslie Morgan Steiner, a Harvard graduate with a coveted position at Seventeen magazine and a hip apartment in downtown New York City, seemed to have it all. She had already achieved sobriety, after determining she did not want to follow in her mother’s alcoholic lifestyle. Her father distanced himself from the family by immersing himself in his career. In her early twenties, Leslie had youth and independence to encourage romance. The handsome and charming Conor showed up at the right time.

Had L More...

Crazy Love by Leslie Morgan Steiner was one of a few books about domestic violence that at times I had to put down and regain myself to continue. It is not a bad book at all. Leslie writes in a style that makes you feel as you are sitting right there next to her as she retells her tale of abuse at the hands of her husband. This is what made it hard at times to read because I had been in her shoes. I knew what she had gone through: I had felt the exact same way she had during my almost 5 years of More...

The is a non fiction memoir of a woman surviving a physically abusive relationship. I will give her credit for writing a book that might open some eyes and maybe even help someone.
But...
The whole premise of this book is that if she...Harvard educated, well to do and blond (smacks of bigotry to me) can be abused then anyone can. Well there is one huge problem with that. The part that puts her right in there with the rest of the statistics. She comes from a very dysfunctional family. Rampant alco More...

Off article talking about abusive relationships, and why women may stay:

"For a firsthand account that makes these dynamics painfully clear, check out Leslie Morgan Steiner's Crazy Love (St. Martin's Press). Steiner, who writes for the Washington Post on issues of work/family balance, describes her four-year relationship with her violent first husband with harrowing immediacy. Unlike most battered women, Steiner came from privilege: her family was well-off; her father was a judge. She was fresh o More...

Leslie Steiner tells the story of her brief courtship and marriage to a handsome, bright, charming, but very abusive husband. She narrates her experience in a direct, factual manner. Her narrative includes some of the internal dialogue and reasoning processes that went on in her mind as she gradually became more emotionally attached to her abusive fiancee and eventual husband.
Leslie did a reading and book signing at our local independent bookstore yesterday. She explained that it was not until More...

O.k thier is no doubt this is a compelling story but I have to say even though I have been in an abusive relationship myself I find that I could not relate. Maybe because Steiner had an education and a good one at that and had opportunities most battered women dont have that I had a hard time really attaching myself to her. Dont get me wrong I think Steiner did a great job of depicting how her relationship with Conner evolved from a seemingly loving relationship to an abusive one. I sympathized More...

So this book........ it keeps you very interested. She's incredibly succinct. Almost too much so, where i found myself thinking, as the book went on, "what!??! Why didn't you mention THAT before!??!!?" My only caveat on this book is, though, if you've been in an emotionally or physically abusive relationship - it is hard to read because it takes you RIGHT back there. That was the only thing that I didn't care for - it left me with a lot of the same anxious feelings and desolate moods that I used More...

This is a tough book to rate. It was definitely a fast read and I was pulled right into the author's turmoil. As with any abusive relationship, it's easy for an outsider (and someone who's never been abused) to think, "how can she stay!? I don't get it!!" Of course I had those feelings, but what was weird for me was that she never seemed to like him all that much. She didn't even want to get married in the first place. I never got that "I can't live without him" feeling that seems to be prevalen More...

Steiner's memoir of an abusive marriage gets off to a stumbling start with too much minutiae (think: a detailed retelling of washing the dishes with her best friend)and not-very-interesting characters. She has a tendency to describe people in a way that leaves you wondering whether you're supposed to like them or not. It's rather telling though, that the writer doesn't seem to settle into her "voice" until after she meets the man who will become her husband and tormentor. The version I read had More...

Though the pacing of the story was awkward -- focusing too much on unimportant details while rushing through traumatic incidents -- the story itself is intriguing. Leslie reluctantly fell in love with a charming, handsome man whom she soon found she couldn't live without, no matter how much he pushed her away (mentally and physically). She quit a cherry job, left the city she loved and followed him to a rural town where he began abusing her on a regular basis. It wasn't until she found some free More...

This book really irritated me. I appreciate that the author wrote about her struggles being in a physically abusive relationship. I have never been (nor will ever be) in an abusive relationship plus I have never had terrible self-esteem issues so I read this as a case study of sorts. I cannot really comment on the abusive husband, Conor, since he is just despicable as can be assumed. Also, I thought it was bizarre that the author completely skewed the information about her parents in this book. More...

Leslie has a great life. She works for Seventeen magazine in glamorous New York. She graduate from Harvard and she seems to have a good head on her shoulders. More into the book you realize that her home life wasn't so great. Her mother is an alcoholic and her father is a workaholic. But Leslie herself made a good life for herself.

Then she meets Conor. She didn't seem to have much interest in him at first but decided to along with him (sounds so familiar). At first things are great, he seems to More...

I bought this book mainly because I personally find other people’s lives and stories fascinating. With that said, I did not really like it all that well. I thought that the husband was crazy (which is obvious when one is a wife beater) and I found myself routing for the woman to come to her senses and leave his sorry ass to which I am glad she did. However, I did not much care for this woman either! (I am no way condoning the violence towards her) but to me she sounded like the most self-absorbe More...

This was a very good book, But I didn't like it. I knew I shouldn't have bought it but I needed something to read and it was only $2. It was a good story and it was well written but it was about one of the things I hate most: Abuse. This was a story about a woman who falls in love with her "Prince Charming". But the thing that made me really mad was that he started beating her before they got married, she still married him, and she stayed with him for 3 years. And it's a true story. I know when More...

It is amazing that Harvard grad/successful magazine writer/MBA student would ever stay in an abusive relationship. Steiner's memoir explains why women of all socio-economic groups stay in physically abusive relationships with men. Unfortunately, I kept yelling "get out of there", long before she left her unhealthy marriage. It was a compulsive read (read in a few hours in which I couldn't put it down) and many of the details were surprising and horrifying. Like a bad accident, I couldn't look aw More...

I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me so that I never read their recommendations again. Unbelievable that it was written by a Harvard grad, since it reads more like an article in Seventeen magazine. The author actually wrote for Seventeen, before giving up her job to move to another state with a man who choked her during sex (while repeating the creepy words 'I own you') long before she married him, the most apparent red flag in a long string of warnings she chose to ignore. Gi More...

I went ahead and gave this book 3 stars even though I only thought it was okay. I just think that 2 stars is kind of low for an okay book. Anyway, about half way into it, I almost stopped reading not because it was graphic or anything, just because Steiner kept making excuses for her husband's hideous behavior. I kept going though because I think a lot of domestic abuse victims tend to do this.

The ending felt too rushed to me. It seemed like she went from filing for divorce to waking up several More...

The author describes her relationship with an abusive boyfriend (who she eventually marries), and it seems pretty clear to me that one of her objectives is to remind/inform readers that domestic abuse is not confined to any particular economic or racial group. Quite a few goodreads reviews seem to find her constant reference to her privileged background to be annoying; I assumed the references were intentional, as important reminders that this kind of abuse could happen to anyone. I also think s More...

I completed Leslie Morgan Steiner’s Crazy Love, a true story about Steiner’s abusive first marriage. I say it was my least favorite of the bunch because it just didn’t read well, but not because the story was “bad.” I fully respect Steiner’s right to tell her story, and a horrifying story it is! I commend her on her mission, which is to expose (re-expose? pound home the message?) that abusive relationships don’t just happen to poor, uneducated non-White people.

Steiner grew up very wealthy, is Ha More...

I am strongly recommending this book to anyone who: 1) is or ever was in an abusive relationship of any kind, 2) has ever cared about anyone who is or was in any kind of abusive relationship, and 3) thinks they might have something more to learn about those who were or are abused by someone they trusted. That ought to include most of you, whether you realize it or not. :)

It is a memoir and there is no need for colorful storytelling, it is spooky, scary, sobering, and serious. Still, she happens More...

**Lady Journal Review **

This was a great story , so real it is too. What woman in general really go threw in life. There is this part of another review of this book somewhere else that says : A memoir of love and violence.


If you and I met at one of our children's birthday parties, in the hallway at work, or at a neighbor's barbecue, you'd never guess my secret: that as a young woman I fell in love with and married a man who beat me regularly and nearly killed me.


Every Girl should read this ! P More...

True story: well educated rich women can be victims of domestic violence. as a social worker, I have to respect what this woman is trying to do by writing this book. But as Theresa, I have to say this book drove me nutso-buttso at times. Her metaphors were forced, which is a major pet-peeve of mine. Also I disliked how she over-dramatized her childhood, and the way she described her family. All of this was in stark contrast with how she described her relationship with her abuser: unflowered, hon More...