Through the Glass

by Shannon Moroney

An impassioned, harrowing and ultimately hopeful story of one woman's pursuit of justice, forgiveness and healing.

When Shannon Moroney married in October of 2005, she had no idea that her happy life as a newlywed was about to come crashing down around her. One month after her wedding, a police officer arrived at her door to tell her that her husband, Jason, had been arrested and charged in the brutal assault and kidnapping of two women. In the aftermath of these crimes, Shannon dealt with a heavy burden of grief, the stress and publicity of a major criminal investigation, and the painful stigma of guilt-by-association, all while attempting to understand what had made Jason turn to such violence.

In this intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms and the human heart, Shannon reveals the far-reaching impact of Jason's crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders and the implicit dangers of a correctional system and a society that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation, and victimhood over recovery.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, True Crime, Biography Memoir, Biography, Canada, Book Club

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Through the Glass is an intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms and the human heart in which Shannon Moroney reveals the widespread ripple effect of her husband’s crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders and the implicit dangers of a correctional system and a society that prioritizes retribution over rehabilitation, and victimhood over recovery. 

Shannon’s story sparks discussion and debate about gaps in the justice system, the treatment of direct and collateral victims, offender accountability, and the future of prisons. It also inspires readers to consider the role forgiveness might play in their own lives—no matter how they have been wronged. 

Through the Glass became an instant bestseller when it was released across Canada in 2011 and was nominated for several awards, including the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada) and the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Writing. It was listed in CBC's Canada Reads Top 40 (2012) and has also been adopted as required reading at several high schools, colleges and universities. It is currently on the Top 10 List at the Empathy Library.

Through the Glass made its international debut in 2012 (titled The Stranger Inside in the UK only) and has been featured in major newspapers around the world including The Guardian (UK), The National Post (Canada), The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail, as well as numerous magazines such as Maclean’s and Chatelaine (Canada), That’s Life (Australia), Bella (UK), Welt der Wunder (Germany), Swiat Wiedzy (Poland), and You (South Africa).

Today, Shannon lives in Toronto where she is remarried and the mother of two-year-old twin girls. She is a sought-after public speaker, member of the international Forgiveness Project, and a volunteer with the award-winning youth program, Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE). She regularly gives public talks, guest lectures, and visits schools, book clubs and inmate groups that are reading her book. She also leads workshops on writing, forgiveness and restorative justice.

Reviews

[F. Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was at first startled, then incredulous, then furious with Moroney as I read this book; she struck me as deeply self-centred, with a remarkable blind spot for the suffering of her husband's actual victims. What angered me the most was that she repeatedly attempted to find out, from various mutual friends, co-workers, and acquaintances, familial and identifying details about her husband's victims; she demands to know the identity of the stepson of one of the victims, who was a student at the school at which she worked. When refused by the principal, she insists that it would make her feel "less anxious" to know who the kid is. Okay-- but it's not all about *your* comfort level, Ms. Moroney. Told no again, she attempts to find out from the vice-principal. Then, when she finds out that this victim's partner is a work acquaintance, Moroney is angry with him and the victim-- yes, you read that right-- that they asked mutual acquaintances not to disclose this relationship to her. I had to put the book down for a few minutes at that point. Moroney was angry at the woman her husband brutally raped for wanting her privacy. Wow.

All while Moroney petitions the court to have a publication ban placed on her own name, since she faces so much stigma and invasion of privacy. Seems fair.

Later, she: laments that she is denied a conjugal visit with her husband, incarcerated for brutally sexually assaulting and abducting two women; demands the right to, along with the women her husband raped, deliver a victim impact statement so long that the court calls a recess in the middle of it; has *her mother* deliver a victim impact statement (during which her mother calls the rapist her "son-in-love," with his victims listening in the courtroom). There's more that angered me, but those are the highlights.

It is offensive that she is profiting from the hideous crimes her husband committed, but what troubled me on a psychological level was the way Moroney repeatedly elevated her suffering, and even that of her violent and terrifying monster of a husband, to the level suffered by the victims. I'm not saying she didn't suffer, but I'm confident she didn't endure anything near what the two women imprisoned in her basement did.

[Courts · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is more of an exorcism than anything else as this book has haunted and enraged me for weeks, leaving me absolutely unable to move on without writing out all my myriad frustrations. The book jacket promised a journey of healing, forgiveness and restorative justice. Now, while that may have been Shannon Moroney's intent in committing her story to paper, what it ends up instead is an appallingly narcissistic screed that seeks to position her as her husband's biggest victim and provide copious excuses for him while minimizing his crimes. She spent the majority of the book seeking to humanize him so we the readers understand that he's a good man with a good heart. Or whatever. I don't need to be convinced of his humanity, I'm fully aware monsters like Jason Staples are living, breathing human men who laugh and dance and feel. I also know that they rape and murder because they want to. However there is another, contrastive story being told underneath Shannon's words, in the blank spaces and noted absences: that of how society, as individuals and as a whole, is eager to overlook sexual violence against, and even the murder of, women.

The description on the book jacket is deeply misleading. The second chapter - shockingly titled 'A Gentle Giant' - related how on their first date in 2003, 6'3" Jason Staples told Shannon that in 1988 he murdered his female roommate. He got angry that she turned down sex with him and he beat her head against the floor until she was dead, then he attempted to cover it up. He served a scant 10 years in jail before being released to work in the community, where he met Shannon. He was legally obligated to tell any woman he dated this information as part of his parole, as well as have them speak to his parole officer, and he also needed to inform anyone whose private residence he stayed overnight at. (Once he was granted full parole about a year later, he and Shannon celebrated no longer having to inform people he had committed a sexually-motivated murder before they stayed in their homes.)

To be fair to Shannon, it's pretty obvious that Jason targeted teachers (his relationship before Shannon was also with a teacher) perhaps because they would be more likely to see his brutal murder, committed at age 18, as a 'youthful indiscretion' similar to the ones made by the boys and young men teachers work with daily. It was a very solid strategy as Shannon absolutely did relate his crime to her job as a high school guidance counselor and mentioned it often in the book; it's part of why she believed his lies. 

Shannon apparently never wondered what would happen if she herself turned down sex with Jason or whether she was endangering anyone by bringing this man into their lives. She never once questioned, either before or after, whether he was using her for respectability purposes. A large man convicted of murder married to a young teacher in the suburbs is far more likely to be believed reformed than the same large man living alone in an apartment. She was appalled that anyone might consider her husband to be akin to Paul Bernardo and her to Karla Homolka, yet Shannon conveniently left out that Karla's presence made at least one of their victims believe she was safe. Shannon simply believed him when he told her things. Her demented devotion allowed Jason acceptance in her world, which was genuinely sickening to read. Over and over men and women, from her parents to her friends to her colleagues, just accepted that a man who had brutally beaten a woman to death using his bare hands simply must be reformed because he didn't murder any women while incarcerated in a men's prison, he pinky-promised to be good, and because Shannon loved him. The value placed on the lives of women is so low that there seemed to be no second thoughts about prioritizing a man's wounded ego over a woman's life; a fact seen in the scant amount of time Jason spent in prison, the restaurant he volunteered at while on work release that allowed him to work with vulnerable populations that included minors, and how easily and readily countless men and women simply took Jason's word that he didn't want to hurt anyone ever again. He lied.

[Note: the following paragraphs contain graphic mention of his crimes to further illustrate how devious and depraved Shannon's apology manifesto truly is. It includes details not in the book. Please skip if this might be triggering.] A few scant months after being granted full parole and leaving Kingston for Peterborough, Jason was the only employee working at a store when a woman entered with the intent to buy a treat for her mother. He forced her at knifepoint into the walk-in refrigerator, where he told her he would kill her if she didn't cooperate and bound her with duct tape. He proceeded to orally then anally rape her with such force that she needed multiple stitches after rescue. According to court documents the woman believed Staples was going to beat her to death, and prayed that she would die quickly. She was left alone briefly when another woman entered the store. Jason threatened her, cutting deeply across her palm with his knife, then choked her unconscious before he tortured and raped her. Then he rented a van, wrapped his victims in black garbage bags, ripping holes for their mouths, and brought them to the home he shared with Shannon where he terrorized them for many more hours, using excessive amounts of violence. 

Shannon left several of these details out, like how he threatened to kill the first victim and the excessive violence that left them bloody and bruised, likely because it didn't fit the narrative she attempted to paint with her book, that of a moment's deviation from being a good, kind-hearted man brought on by something else that conveniently allowed her to separate him from his actions. She made absolutely no mention at any point in the book of how the sexual violence of Jason's murder matched his actions in Peterborough, over 15 years later. The first victim acquiesced so Jason acted out a fantasy he later told Shannon was related to the violent anal sex he used to watch his mother receive from her boyfriend, but the second one fought back and after wounding her, he dropped the knife so that he could kill her with his bare hands, similar to how he murdered his first victim when she rejected him. That she survived his attempt on her life was only luck. That the attack in November 2005 bore such striking similarity to the murder he committed in 1988 was surely not. 

Shannon brazenly stated "I would never protect Jason" which I suspect was something we were supposed to admire about her, much like the many times she stated she didn't condone his actions, but after 133 pages of increasingly bewildering defenses of his actions, reading that line was nothing short of obscene. While editorializing on his crimes Shannon said "[the] women's eyes were taped, and so were their hands and feet, but they still tried to talk to Jason, to re-humanize him and bring him down from his psychotic ledge." This passage was where I realized that Shannon was not in denial and not ignorant, she was and is simply manipulative and narcissistic. How many times in our lives are we told to acquiesce to a violent man who is endangering your life, to let him rape you so he won't kill you, to talk about yourself to try to make him see that you're a human, you're a person and please don't kill me? In my lifetime, many. Yet here Shannon flips it to favour her murderer-husband by deviating from the standard language used in cases of male violence against women; her word choice serves to subtly massage the reader towards sympathy for Jason. They were trying to "re-humanize" him, not humanize themselves. They were trying to save his life, not their own. Jason's behaviour was not him living out a long-held violent sexual fantasy but in a state where he was "psychotic" and in need of being "re-humanized" by two women he had brutalized. It's an extremely calculated language choice that rather undermines her vow that she would never protect him. 

In addition to the prolonged attacks on the women, Shannon was also told another piece of information: Jason had placed a pinhole camera in the bathroom almost immediately after they moved to their house in Peterborough several months before and had been taping everyone who came into the bathroom for some cheap voyeuristic thrills. Jason had left the tapes in the van he had rented, but the police hadn't found the camera. While reviewing video to identify victims Shannon called his face blank and said she didn't recognize him, a technique she used to allow herself to differentiate between the "monster" version of him and the "gentle giant" part of him. In court, perhaps knowing that his attempts to lie and charm wouldn't work on seasoned members of the court like they did on Shannon and her family, Jason did not even attempt his usual gimmicks. It never seemed to occur to her that Jason had put these tapes in the van he had rented because he either wanted them to be found by the police and thus make his voyeurism victims aware of the humiliation as part of a final thrill before jail or because at some point he intended to dispose of them along with the women's bodies. She and her mother, another voyeurism victim, made sure they delivered the news to the other victims rather than the police. It seems truly bizarre that the wife of a sex criminal was allowed to inform other victims of her husband that they've been violated. For all her subsequent whining about how weak victim support (for her) is, she never considered how wildly inappropriate her actions there were.

From the start Shannon was fixated on knowing who her husband's victims were. For their well-being, she promised, totally not for her own gratification. The search warrants left at their house revealed the names of the victims and her friend quickly revealed she knew the woman a little, but not personally. "She put her arms around me and said, 'I promise to protect you - if we go anywhere together and we see her, I will tell you so you will know who she is, and you won't have to wonder if every woman you see is her. Maybe one day we can talk with her; it might be good for both of you.'" This set the tone for how Shannon saw herself for the remainder of the book and how she expected to be treated by not just by her close friends but every single person she met. She was Jason's biggest victim and she needed to be protected from the big, scary rape victims.

Shannon got deeply affronted and believed it deeply unfair whenever anyone attempted to protect the victims of her husband, because much like her husband, Shannon truly believes that what she wants is more important than the rights of the actual victims. When a colleague was shocked that Shannon was supporting and visiting Jason regularly, she didn't even attempt to understand why the woman acted as though she were suddenly "contagious". Rather than attempt introspection, Shannon simply writes: "I realized that I was going to have to be a lot more careful about what I said and who I spoke to from then on." 

She leveled up her narcissism when "another long-term friend" wrote her a two paged typed letter that expressed how troubled he was by the group email she sent. Interestingly, Shannon included some of Jason's letters in their entirety, perhaps in an attempt to let Jason's manipulations work on the reader, but did not transcribe the letter from the man concerned about her misogyny. No, that needed to be filtered through Shannon so his perspective doesn't permeate in quite the same way. Another clever technique to influence the reader.

"He demanded to know what message would be sent to Jason's victims if he were to show compassion for their assailant. What message would he be sending his sons? What message would he be sending to all the women in his life who have experienced sexual assault and abuse?...He said that my correspondence made it sound as if Jason were the real victim and the women minor casualties of a tortured mind." Instead of thinking about his words and contemplating how she might be hurting other victims Shannon cut this man out of her life. The devotion she demanded from others would absolutely not be extended to them by her. They had to try to understand this rapist or else, but she didn't have to try to understand the perspective of anyone else. 

"My family and I were devastated by all violence against women. I was also incensed that he and his partner had decided the victims would never recover - didn't that only victimize them further, condemning them to victimhood forever? How could they ever hope to recover if society deemed them ruined for life." I genuinely could not believe that only moments after being asked to consider the victims, she raged against the idea that her husband's actions might permanently affect them.

I'm going to include a passage from the only non-Shannon information online I could find. It's from 2013, three years after Shannon published this book and dared to write those words down.

"Each woman told the court their traumatic experience, however, has continued.
The older woman required stitches in her anus immediately after the assault. Her hair was hacked off and she was covered in bruises.
Scar tissue from the stitched wounds continues to cause bleeding and may require surgery, the judgment states. She suffers from panic attacks, nightmares, sleep interruption, insomnia, hopelessness and depression. The court states she is unable to feel safe anywhere and has numerous locks on the doors of her home.
“I would describe (the woman’s) testimony as displaying a grief beyond anything I have ever encountered in my legal career, which has expanded over 30 years,” the judge states.
The younger woman told court the assault broke her heart and faith in humanity. She is unable to focus during conversations, court documents state, and suffers from anxiety, flashbacks and is distrustful of male strangers.
“Overall she has lost her optimistic, happy view of life. Her energy levels have diminished and she is no longer the independent, strong, capable individual she once was,” the documents state."

In the five years between that letter and Shannon writing the book she didn't learn a single thing about empathy or compassion. She used this book to dismiss Jason's victims, over and over while praising her own strength and fortitude. Only her victimhood and Jason's matter.

This insensitivity continued when she returned to her job at a local high school (after chapter upon chapter of complaining that the wives of rapists just aren't getting enough support). She quickly became desperate to know the identity of the first victim's teenage step-son, who attended the school where Shannon worked. When informed she would not be given the name of the boy out of concern for his privacy Shannon had the gall to say "I will respect his privacy too, but it is extremely stressful for me to wonder if every young man is him." The school board, showing appropriate safeguarding, prioritized the child under their care and told Shannon she would be being transferred to a different school. She was affronted that the high school prioritized the well-being of a child and never returned to work for them. She later requested that someone associated with the school sit down with her in a restorative justice session to talk about how the school victimized her. Her ridiculous request was denied, commendably. 

During a court date, Shannon saw a colleague she knew from the board of a charity. It turned out his partner was the older woman assaulted, the father of the child whose identity she felt entitled to, and that he asked the board not to tell her because they needed some time and privacy. She sobs that she "didn't know". "I was saying two things at the same time: that I didn't know Jason was dangerous, and I didn't know it was his partner who was the first victim." Jason was, is, and always will be a violent murderer, marking him as dangerous forever, no matter how much he cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die promised to her. After court, it was time for Shannon to think about herself again. "The truth of what Greg had told me was also starting to sink in: fellow board members had kept the identity of the victim and her connection to Greg a secret for six months - Greg had asked them to." Shannon was outraged the victim's needs were prioritized over hers and later, "I confronted two of the people, but they were defensive... I found myself crossing off a few names from my Golden Circle list. More loss." 

The entire time that Shannon was insisting that she deserved the identities of the victims and their families she was also insisting there be a publication ban on her name so people wouldn't know that she was the wife of Jason Staples, the murderer and rapist. With absolutely zero irony. Then she wrote a book and did dozens of interviews about it, purposely tying her name to his forever as a way to bring attention to herself and profit off his crimes while his victims received nothing but trauma.

These final things are quibbles but drove me nuts within the book. Shannon's period was a few days late and she hoped she was pregnant. It started the next day. Inexplicably she referred to this period as not only a miscarriage but her "almost baby" several times. She wasn't ever pregnant. Another was that she became fixated on a few caffeine pills Jason took on the day of the attacks being responsible for his "psychosis" and using this as part of his defense. Included is a full-page photo of her and Jason pressed together grinning in prison, a few months before he was sentenced. 

I've read several memoirs in the past few years, some of which were heartrending and touching memoirs of childhood sexual abuse, loss, grief, and violence; victims telling their own stories with more compassion for their abusers than their abusers ever showed for them and with a critical, self-aware eye to the harm they might have caused others while in pain. Perhaps it is because of these memoirs of strength and compassion that this memoir read not as an empowering tale of restorative justice but a horrifyingly selfish tirade, nauseatingly desperate to prove that Shannon Moroney is a good person, dammit! beyond all reason. Yet I cannot imagine Jason's victims reading this and feeling even a modicum better because Shannon is so incredibly tone-deaf and downright cruel in her certainty of her own righteousness. She never once critically examined either Jason or herself with any genuineness throughout the entire book.

[Jillian Lewis-rath · Rating 1 out of 5]

One woman who puts her pain and suffering above every one else's. She marries a man who has murdered before but she's surprised when he commits another violent crime. With complete disregard for the rape victims privacy she goes on a journey for closure. I can understand how she would want closure but she is such a self centered ego centric it's sickening. Btw, getting your period after being a couple of days late doesn't mean you lost a baby which she keeps bringing up.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mind flashed back to the previous winter, when a stone had flown up and hit my windshield as I was driving along the highway. I had had just a split second to think, “Maybe the whole windshield won’t crack,” then watched helplessly as a deep fracture snaked its way across the entire glass. I had been as powerless then to stop the damage as I was now.

In February of 2003, Shannon Moroney met her future husband Jason Staples, and after an instant attraction, on their first coffee date, Jason told Shannon (as he was legally obliged to do) that he was a parolee, having spent ten years in prison for a murder he committed when he was eighteen. As Shannon got to know Jason better, she could not reconcile this “gentle giant” with the crime he confessed to, and after meeting with his parole officer and prison counsellor, she was assured that Jason’s crime was a one-off; an inexplicable and impulsive act of an immature adolescent; Jason had been a model, repentant prisoner and was well on his way to becoming an asset to the community. With the blessing of her family and friends — who were all apprised of Jason’s past and believed him to now be a safe and stable, loving and supportive man — the pair were married two years later. Within one month of the wedding, Shannon would be informed by a police officer that while she was away at a work conference, Jason had kidnapped and brutalised two women. Through the Glass is Shannon Moroney’s account of this experience: her efforts to understand what snapped in Jason; their frustrating experiences with the Canadian Justice, Mental Health, and Prison systems — and through her own experience of feeling further victimised by these systems, which offer no support for the families of offenders, how she furthered her education and became a world-travelling public speaker and an advocate for restorative justice. This account is heartfelt and well-written — Moroney continually and empathetically prioritises the experience of the women who were the victims of her husband’s violence while trying to explain all that he caused her to lose as well — and her story brings forward many interesting and debatable questions; as a book club pick, I’m looking forward to our discussion.

It was becoming clear what many people now wanted from me. It was a pattern I’d see over and over in the months and years to come. They wanted — sometimes even demanded — for me to walk away from Jason and never look back. To them it was simple and clear-cut: Jason was evil. Therefore, I should shun him, ostracize him, eliminate him from my life, mind and heart to prove I wasn’t like him and to prove that I was on their side — the side of “good”. Any other action from me — any attempt to understand the nuances of his mind, the motives behind his actions and the deeper reasons that led him to commit such heinous crimes — was to these people a betrayal and made me guilty by association.

I see a lot of reviewers saying that they know that Jason Staples was a smooth-talking psychopath who fooled this woman and her family into thinking he was a reformed man; that they all should have known better than to invite him into their lives; that he was obviously, after ten violence-free years on the outside, just waiting to pounce. But Shannon Moroney tells a different story: the story of a kind and gentle man who could not explain what snapped in him when he took a woman’s life at eighteen; could not explain what “darkness” swept over him when he abducted first one woman, and then a second while Shannon was out of town. She knew that Jason had been adopted as a baby (so they had no family medical history to go by), and although she knew her husband had been devastated by his adoptive father’s death when Jason was six, and that he found it challenging to be raised by a mother with bipolar disorder, it wasn’t until he was back in prison that Jason revealed the sexual abuse he had experienced while growing up. Shannon had relied on the expert opinions of Jason’s parole officer and prison counsellor when they assured her that he suffered no mental illness, but she would eventually learn that over his ten years in the Kingston Penitentiary, Jason had received no detailed assessments or therapy, and by keeping his head down and avoiding trouble, was successful at concealing the demons that tormented him. While waiting long months for Jason to appear in court, Shannon even discovered that the same mix of caffeine pills and ephedrine that Jason had been self-medicating with while she was away at that conference had been linked to psychosis. There’s no reason to believe that Shannon could have predicted her husband’s violent behaviour, and as he appeared to be just as confused and devastated (Jason called the police the night of his crimes, told them where to find the women, and made a full confession), Shannon decided to advocate for Jason; to see him through the criminal proceedings and attempt to understand what happened.

In no way could you compare Shannon’s experience with that of Jason’s victims, but this is her story and she suffered losses as well: She lost her job as a school guidance counsellor (one of the students at the school was the stepson of one of the victims and Shannon’s principal didn’t think he should have to see her there); she lost friends; she lost financial security and a feeling of belonging to the community; and she lost her husband and the future they had planned together — none of these losses were due to any of Shannon’s actions, but despite being diagnosed with PTSD and suffering in countless ways, her position as the spouse of a violent offender made her eligible for none of the programs and supports offered to victims of crime. (And while I see a lot of one star reviews calling this “poor me” whinging that minimises the experiences of Jason’s actual victims, I thought that Moroney successfully balanced being sensitive to these women’s pain while trying to highlight the areas where systems failed her.)

I was realizing that forgiveness was a decision I would have to revisit over and over. It was turning out to be a process, not a single act. Forgiveness neither erased nor diminished the magnitude of Jason's violence and its continuing ripple-effect. It didn't take away the anger, frustration or loss I felt about what he'd done, and it couldn't bring back the life I'd had with him. What forgiveness did do was remind me that there was a human being behind the violence, and that his heinous acts did not represent the sum of who he was. Forgiveness gave me the permission to see and know both aspects of Jason, to be enormously angry and pained by his violent acts, but also to let go of that anguish before it took complete control over my mind and heart. Forgiveness stopped rage from becoming resentment, and it released me from having every aspect of my character and the life I still had ahead from being bound to Jason's violence. Forgiveness put my life back into my own hands.

Who knows what led to Jason’s violent relapse — I’ll certainly never know — but I think that Through the Glass adds valuable insider evidence to the conversation around prison reform (and especially the need for better therapy for those offenders who will be on the streets again one day; that’s in everyone’s best interest). But more than that, it highlights where systems failed Shannon Moroney: as the wife of a violent offender, everyone from Police Victims Services and the Crown Attorney to her school board and insurance company treated her like an accomplice; and with Canada having one of the highest incarceration rates in the “developed” world, that implies the existence of thousands upon thousands of prisoners’ family members similarly left without needed resources and supports. Moroney’s story sounds like it could happen to anyone and I wish her experience on no one. This was a good read that gave me plenty to think about.

Similar reads:

This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications
(Diane Schoemperlen writes about her relationship with a parolee)

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
(Sue Klebold writes about her son Dylan; one of the Columbine High School shooters)

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The woman in this book made me so angry! He husband raped and kidnapped 2 women but she spends the entire book defending his actions and calling herself a victim!!!! I kept reading, hoping she would redeem herself somehow, but nope, she considered her husband a victim of the system and herself a victim because her dreams of a happy life were shattered.

[Katee · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book by a very self-involved person who made very, very bad life decisions, wont admit to them, and feels the need to justify her behaviour.

She knowingly chose to have a relationship with a man in prison (or on parole) for the murder of a woman, with strong sexual overtones (he says she refused his sexual advances), and when, several years later he kidnaps 2 strangers and brutally sexually assaults him the author is shocked. Shocked. How could he have done this??

Shannon - because he had done it before.

while I feel for families of people who commit crimes, there are varying degrees of knowledge and involvement, In this case, Shannon had 100% knowledge of his past. She blames the justice system for misleading her (well, she pretty much blames everyone for her decision).

she is still so self-delusional that she wrote this book and has an active website. It's actually embarrassing. I have never seen someone so in need of attention.

My condolences to the real victims and their families: the woman he murdered and the two strangers he viciously assaulted.

This does speak to the need for the criminal justice system to much better understand violence against women and sexual violence.

[Amy]

*SPOILER ALERT* I grabbed this book off the shelf at the library when I didn't have a book on hold to read. It's a book I probably would've never selected had I really understood the gravity of the crimes. But I found it captivating.

At first, I thought Shannon was naive & foolish in pursuing a romantic relationship with Jason. He was very upfront and told her from the beginning that he'd be in jail and was on parole for murdering a female roommate. I feel everyone has the opportunity to make amends and do better. But I also feel that you need to be smart in choosing relationships that are positive and healthy. I was even more shocked when she decided to stay in contact with her husband after he kidnapped and raped 2 women.

By the end of the book though, I found I respect this woman greatly. Never once did she condone or excuse Jason's actions-- nor did Jason. He always wanted to plead guilty. Shannon brings to light a very complex problem...how to make criminals take accountability for their actions but at the same time also providing support to help provide rehabilitation and hopefully recovery to the point that they can return to society and not be a threat. Having criminals just living in jails for years on end and the returning to society having had no real counseling, education opportunities it's helping anyone.

Her support of restorative justice was something I'd really never known much about but feel it much better way to help criminals be accountable but at the same time also allow the victims to address their accusers and hopefully be able to get answers and find some peace, so they can move productively forward in their lives without remaining 'victims'.

The ending was bittersweet. I surprised myself when I felt sorry for Jason when Shannon remarried. Not because Shannon shouldn't move forward; but because you could see it was heartbreaking decision for her as well. She knew at that time Jason would need to do the best he could with the circumstances he'll having being in jail for years on end. She could no longer spend her time trying to help provide legal assistance to help him maintain/build a healthy mental state. It was a reminder how cyclical abuse is if the victims never get proper counseling and coping skills.

[Stephani Gioia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so frustrated with so many things about this book, There is no way I would ever be able to put them on paper. The narcissistic way in which the entire things is written is so off-putting, I nearly put it down a few times. Kudos to her in her naive belief that the murderer she married was reformed. But once he committed additional violent acts, she somehow made it her life’s work to protect her own privacy at the expense of those he terrorized and violated, and had the audacity to condemn the real victims for their rights to privacy?! There are several victims in violent crimes but to compare her pain to that suffered by the true victims is doing a disservice to those who were attacked. It’s like she’s in this weird competition with them. Sorry but when the bubble burst, to try and continue along with her white picket fence life is not allowed to be compared with assault victims. Thank goodness I live no where near the school district in which she teaches. I only hope that motherhood has softened her and taken her obnoxiousness down a bit. The final cherry on top for me was her arrogance in discussing the anonymous keyboard heros who would dare comment negatively on her book and essentially calling them out for saying what they thought but not putting their name to it. Projecting?! Thankfully, I checked this one out from the library and hadn’t purchased it and contributed to her making money of of it.

[Dana Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has intrigued me ever since I heard about it. I volunteer to support and advocate for victims of crime and have often wondered, along with others in my field, who supports and advocated for the families of offenders? Especially violent offenders whose actions and crimes negatively impact not only their victims but also their families. Hard question.

In her book Through the Glass, Shannon Moroney tells her story: how her storybook marriage and life fell apart one month in, the day the policeman came to her hotel room to tell her that her husband had been arrested on charges of sexual assault, kidnapping and more. Shannon writes, in a straight forward way, of her journey through pain, guilt, denial, the loss of friends and employment and the many obstacles of the Canadian criminal justice system.

It is important to remember that this is Shannon's personal journey and it may not be the same journey that every one in this situation needs to take. I was impressed with how she stayed true to what she knew she needed to do for herself, despite the objections and misunderstanding of many of those around her. I was also impressed that she could write about her experiences in a way that didn't attack her attackers but simply states the facts, how she felt and what she did in a fair and understanding way. The story is very well written.

I must say that I was sceptical from time to time about the author's decisions in the process and wondered if they would turn out for the best. It was frustrating to read about the lack of help and understanding she received as she tried to follow a path that was not well marked or travelled. As a victim advocate, I was especially dismayed at the response she received from the victim advocate she was referred to, when it was determined that she also was a victim of her husband's secret life. I want everyone to know that not all advocates are as insensitive and rude as the one she dealt with. Even still Shannon persevered. She took the time to look inside herself and recognise what she needed. Then she went on a no-holds-barred search for support and help in moving forward with whatever decision she had made.

You'll notice that I keep calling the author by her first name. As I read, I found myself connecting with Shannon and her story in a personal way - possibly because of the volunteer work I do and possibly because of my own personal experiences, or maybe just because she is so honest and open in telling her story. There were parts of the book and the conclusions she comes to with regards to improving the justice system in Canada, that I don't necessarily agree with. And many of her decisions are not ones I would have made for myself. But each of us must process our lives and deal with our personal calamities in our own ways. What I do think this book does is open a door to discussion that has long been ignored in our society: what do the offender's family go through in the aftermath of his/her criminal behaviour? I think these silent victims of crime will benefit greatly from Shannon's experiences and her continued advocacy in this area.

[E · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you haven't read the book yet, I'll save you hours of your life that you will never get back: this screed is written by a narcissist who believes she's more of a victim than her husband's actual victims, that he's still a good person, and that his childhood abuse and use of drugs is to blame for his actions, not the fact that he's just a run-of-the-mill sociopathic sex offender. Her unwillingness to face her own bad decision to marry a convicted murderer, as well face the seriousness of his crimes is unbelievable (if I hadn't read it myself).
Her choice to include a picture of herself and her husband before his sentencing, looking happy and without a care in the world almost made me ill. She lists all the ways she feels *she* was victimized (sorry, lady, not knowing who the victim's stepson is does NOT make you a victim and you were NOT entitled to that information).

Don't waste your time. She didn't want her name published, until she figured she could make a buck. Then she felt "victimized" that she had to pay money to get a publication ban lifted- a ban she herself pushed to get in place.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am glad Shannon Moroney's life experiences had provided her with opportunity to give her life meaning and purpose through advocacy. However I believe Shannon was naive to fall blindly into love with a murderer and expect a happily ever after. There are many troubling comments in her book pertaining to forgiveness and lack of rights for criminals who have commited disgusting violent crimes. I agree, she did not commit the crime but I was shocked to read how upset she was when she was relocated to another school by her school board. Shannon had clearly lost sight as a teacher/guidance counsellor of putting students instead of herself first. I found this to be a reoccuring theme throughout her book. I gave her book 3 stars as it made me think, question and continue to examine restorative justice.

[Sallie Des Biens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish the author had focused more on the broken prison system instead of lamenting her "victimization". I believe she was genuinely concerned about the women her husband savagely assaulted, but to put herself in the same category did not resonate with me. She knowingly married a murderer. She chose to marry him anyway. The women who were brutalized had NO choices. All in all, this book left a bad taste in my mouth.

[AWBookGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shannon Moroney’s memoir, Through The Glass is one of the most emotionally compelling non-fiction reads I’ve stumbled upon in a while.

Through The Glass opens with an ominous knock at the door. Shannon opens the door to the news that her husband of only a month has been arrested for the brutal assault and kidnapping of two women. Shannon finds herself thrown into a world she cannot fathom, devastated from the revelation, and learning she herself has been a victim of her husband’s dark tendencies. What follows in the rest of the book is Shannon’s journey through the legal system, a desperate attempt to understand her husband’s dark compulsions, and ultimately a journey of forgiveness and peace.

Shannon’s experience highlights an often overlooked segment of the criminal justice system: the family of the offender. They are often given no guidance on how to proceed through the process, or offered much support, even if they, too, are victims of the offender. What Through The Glass did was offer me a stark reminder that there is often much more to a story than what we know. That crime doesn’t just happen to a victim. And this in no way is meant to diminish the impact to victim of a crime, only that it is a form of death in a way when a loved one commits a crime. You’re grieving the loss of a life you imagined yet the person you are mourning isn’t dead.

Shannon also reveals how it is possible to forgive a person but not an act. How it is possible to provide closure between victims and offenders through honest and open dialogue. And how some offenders truly do need to be locked away forever, for the safety of society at large.

Shannon’s story made me want to be a more compassionate person. I admit, early on in the book when Shannon recounts meeting her husband Jason, a part of me judged her for her choices. But as she explained how their relationship progressed, I realized two things. First, that I was too harsh in my snap judgement of Shannon, and second, that many of us are guilty of similar knee-jerk reactions and are probably guilty of misjudging a number of people.

Frankly, if I were ever in trouble, I would want people like Shannon and her family in my corner. This book is simply one woman’s story of a shattered world, and how she found her way through it and on to new happiness. The benefit is that in reading her story, we learn a lot about grief, compassion, and understanding. And just maybe, we want to be a better person because of it.

[Mary Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only made it halfway through this horrible book. I simply couldn't finish it, because Shannon Moroney tries desperately to come off as the biggest victim, even more so than the women who were brutalized and kidnapped, while she defends and makes excuses for her rapist husband. She demonizes anyone who doesn't want to welcome Jason (the rapist husband) with wide open arms after the attacks, as if she can't fathom people not finding his acts to be monstrous and unforgivable. She sinks low enough to pawn off responsibility onto caffeine pills he may have taken that day. I couldn't tolerate one more word of this whiny, self-absorbed brat. If I could give this book zero stars, I would. As it is, this book is sitting in my recycling bin, so maybe it can be turned into something worth being printed later. I simply can't say enough that I hated this book.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually had to quit reading this. It started off interesting but I couldn’t get over her maintaining a relationship and turning it into a pity party for herself.

[Stephanie Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a reasonably interesting story, but the attitude of the author left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel extremely sorry for her, and none of it was her fault. She does feel compassion for the victims, but feels a lot more compassion for, who is in her mind the real victim, herself.

Just one example, when she finds out about the crimes she says she feels no anger, only grief. But a few chapters later she finds out her husband watched porn and ran up a $3500 credit card bill, and that's when she gets angry and has a melt down at him. Compared to being violently anally raped, seems like she got off pretty light.

The description and preview of this book makes it seem like her husband committed the crime out of nowhere, but as you find out, he was actually a convicted murderer sentenced to life who was out on parole.

It is a complicated issue. Like a lot of criminals, her husband had a difficult upbringing and was allegedly abused as a child. However when the author muses that the caffeine pill he took that day must have caused him to black out and turn psychotic, it's hard to feel sorry for either of them.

The book raises some interesting questions about the value of rehabilitation for prisoners instead of long term incarceration. However she never considers the other side to this, which is if her husband had been locked up instead of "rehabilitated" (which in his case didn't work), he wouldn't have been able to commit these crimes.

[Laima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through The Glass by Shannon Moroney.

***I won this book from Goodreads as a First Reads giveaway***

This is a true story. Sad but true.
I found this book an eye opener regarding mental health, the prison system, courtrooms and rehabilitation.

Shannon Moroney met her future husband, Jason Staples, while he was working as a cook at a soup kitchen in Kingston, Ontario (hometown of Kingston Penitentiary). Shannon had taken a group of kids there for a field trip. Jason was very charming and they were immediately attracted to one another. I must say I give him credit for his honesty. On their first “date” Jason fully recounts his criminal past telling Shannon how he, at the age of 18, murdered his roommate and spent 10 years in prison. The therapists and doctors said he was a model prisoner and rehabilitated. In spite of it all the two were in love and eventually got married.

A month after the wedding, while in Toronto on a conference, Shannon was visited in her hotel room by the police with tragic, unexpected news. Jason was arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women. Shannon’s world crashed at that point.

This book is Shannon’s brave, personal and honest account of what happened after that. In my opinion she is an incredibly strong woman who took a tragic turn of events and found something positive out of it. Shannon became a restorative justice advocate. Even though her life was shattered and changed forever with strength found in her family and friends she focused on forgiveness and now speaks of moving to a system of restorative justice.
This was not a happy read and at times I found it difficult to go on. I rate this book 4 stars for its painfully honest account.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This booked stunned me; I could not put it down. Shannon Moroney did an amazing job informing the reader about what happened to her and her family in the aftermath of her husband's crime. As a reader I experienced anger, disbelief, frustration, and disgust about the situation Shannon found herself in, but I also experienced wonder at people's ability to forgive and give of themselves. Moroney managed to convey how someone can hate the crime that has been committed by a loved one but still love that person; black and white go out the window. She pointed out flaws within Canada's justice system and she pointed out people or aspects of that system that supported her. The story is a sad one but Shannon turns the negative aspects around and shows the reader how she survived the situation and takes the opportunity to share important information about restorative justice and Canada's justice system. I am very glad she decided to share her story and I'm glad I heard her interview with the CBC and learned of her book 'Through the Glass'.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of this book and was humbled by Shannon's capacity for forgiveness. Her life was torn upside down by the actions of her new husband yet she somehow continued to keep her head held high and create a new and inspiring life for herself. She credits her "Golden Circle" for helping her through this tragic, shattering situation and it is obvious that her family and friends in this group lifted her up..just as she lifted her husband Jason up in so many ways. This book is an eye-opening look at the Canadian legal and penal systems but it is also a book about love, childhood abuse, mental illness and above all forgiveness. It also demonstrates how moving to a system of restorative justice would help not only individuals but society as a whole. Thank you to Shannon Moroney for sharing her heartbreaking but ultimately inspirational story.

[Salty Swift · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not an easy tale. A true story actually about a Canadian woman who meets an ex-con (who killed his roommate when he was 18). The guy did his time and was apparently rehabilitated. She falls in love, marries the guy and a month after the wedding finds out that while she was away on business, he kidnapped and raped two women (and held them in their house before giving himself up). The next few years are spent coming to terms with her husband’s atrocity, helping him with obtaining reliable legal counsel and coming to terms with the victims pain. The issue I have is this. The book focuses on the woman’s love for her husband, while making herself the focus of injustice. How dare the media publish her name? How dare the school transfer her elsewhere? The reader is left with a queasy notion the victims’ real horror is somehow secondary to that of the writer.

[Eve · Rating 1 out of 5]

This woman is incredibly self centered and dishonest. I followed this case very closely since it started because I live in the area. shannon moron(ey) lies and disrespects the victims in this book. While in court she was purposefully rude to the victims by giving dirty looks and stating they needed to learn forgiveness. She sought this man out with it in her mind to either write a book of how she healed such a troubled person or how his relapse to violence effected her and how she had profound revelations. We can all see clearly which she ended up with

[Sidney Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read most of this book in one sitting, but then got busy with life and had to come back to it. I met the author prior to reading at the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse research conference in LA this October, and she was lovely. Her story surprised me, and I found her to be such a warm person. Shannon offered to even do a zoom call for some of my clients some time; she is truly an empathetic person.

Shannon explained that this book took her 3 years to write but people often finish it very quickly. It did feel odd devouring years of someone’s life so quickly. Her development and process through PTSD and forgiveness is so raw and I believe she expresses it in a real, non-clinical way. Nobody can say how they will react in crisis and she was very forthcoming. She has something in her that most do not.

[Ceeceereads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was intrigued to read this book but alarm bells started ringing early on when, in defence of her rapist husband, the author kept repeating the mantra that ‘the victims were okay and with their families.’ I felt this completely minimized the crime. I understand you would wrestle to come to terms with the facade you were shown to the person who was really underneath all along. I thought that level of honest soul-searching and realization would be intricate, difficult, and interesting. But I didn’t expect to read this abhorrent and bizarre defence. It feels here that the author doesn’t see things they way most people do and goes on to condemn people who were surprised by her actions in the aftermath. I found this book concerning and could not even remotely connect with the author (thank God.) I do not recommend at all.

[Sarah Isobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up to 5
Really interesting take on trauma, coping, and the justice system. I really liked the raw honestly and social justice lens. Took .5 off because I didn’t like the way the author made it seem like she and her husband were somehow better than other offenders and their partners (just my interpretation). Would be interesting to see how this would have played out if the offender wasn’t an attractive, white male. Overall though, loved this book and took a lot from it

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really torn on this book. Having never been put in Moroney's situation, and I hope to god I never come close to being involved in any possible way to this entire situation, I am hesitant to be too critical. It's eye-opening to see the impact such horrendous crimes can have on people that aren't necessarily the direct victims, and I agree that Canada's justice system is far from being ideal, especially for families of victims and of criminals. Moroney is no Karla Homolka, that much is very VERY clear. She had no hand in the crimes and was supportive and positive leading up to the events. And anybody who has suffered heartache knows that emotions override rational thought quite easily - making the whole situation that much more difficult to deal with, especially in the early days of a marriage.

But I have to agree with some of the other low-rating reviews. I found that I felt less and less sympathetic towards her position as the book went on. The victim's right to privacy is paramount; soaring above her "need" to know their identities. I was actually disgusted that Moroney felt so betrayed by the mutual friend who refused to disclose the one victim's identity with her. What a loyal friend to stay supportive of both parties in this situation without being a blabbermouth between them. That mutual friend was in a terribly awkward (and probably painful) position, and has all my respect for remaining silent on behalf of both sides. After all the pain and fear Moroney felt as a victim of voyeurism herself, I'm flabbergasted that she doesn't think that the women who were brutally raped, kidnapped, and nearly murdered don't deserve the same level of privacy. As if those two women aren't facing their own demons of stigma, shame, and rejection from some of the ignorant people out there that will victim-blame them for having their basic rights ripped away from them.

The oft-mentioned "miscarriage" is upsetting as well. It's one thing to have a positive pregnancy test, and know that you are carrying a developing baby, and then lose it, with all the shattered hopes and feeling of failure; it's quite different for one's cycle to be just a few days late. If it was, indeed, a miscarriage, I do feel badly that it was not reflected true to reality at all in the text; however, it really doesn't seem that way.

On the positive side, I'm extremely impressed that despite the selfishness that comes across in patches, that Moroney took her pain forward and made something positive out of it. Her work to increase the practice of restorative justice and to better the support systems that were essentially nonexistent for the criminal's family is beyond admirable.

I think overall this book is an excellent testament to the reform needed in Canada's psychiatric services, to changes needed with regards to restorative justice, and to the inspiration of goodness and change that can grow from traumatic experiences. But it also acts as a reminder that the rights to certain pieces of information (particularly identities) are not magically granted to anyone victimized in a crime.

[Rhiannon Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zombies, bug infestations and now true crime! I'm already so creeped out I don't know how I'll sleep for the rest of the year!


Through the Glass is one of those books I never would have chose for myself, I'm not a true crime girl and the cover blurb was not selling me. Imagine my surprise when, ten minutes into reading, I was so absorbed I could barely put it down.

A month into her marriage Shannon’s husband kidnapped and brutally assaulted two women. Although aware her husband had been imprisoned at the age of eighteen for murder, she was told, by his parole officers and psychiatrists, that he was a fully rehabilitated member of society and one of their success stories. After several years of a committed, loving and kind relationship, they were married with the blessing of all their friends and family. So how could this have happened?


This was a fascinating story, but not at all what I expected. Less about the crime itself and more about her experiences as the family member of someone who's committed a crime, she is very open and honest about her journey. I can't say I had ever considered the ramifications on the family members of criminals, but it was crazy to read about Shannon loosing her job, her denial for long term medical disability for her issues from the crime and the complete lack of support through victim services (even though one of her husbands many charges had been voyeurism of which she'd unwittingly been a victim of). The ripple effects in her life were astounding and it was enlightening to read about her experiences. As a school counsellor she also had a very experienced background to help her get through her situation, and as a reader her background was very informative in the description of her experiences.


In addition to talking about her side of the situation, Shannon takes great care to talk about her now ex-husbands side. He was immediately sorry for his actions, was in fact the person to report the crimes to the police, and only wanted to plead guilty so his victims need not suffer for longer then necessary. At no point does she condone his actions, however she takes the time and thought to explain his background, lack of proper psychiatric care while imprisoned for murder and how this came to destroy his beautifully rebuilt life. By combining her story with his, she illustrates a lot of the short comings of the Canadian penal system, it's lack of proper rehabilitative care and many of the ways that it could work better to actually reform criminals. She talks about other countries and their various systems and makes interesting comparisons and suggestions.


Although a very depressing subject matter, Shannon manages to make the book both uplifting and full of hope, and impressive feat. She talks about changes that can be made to improve the system for the families of criminals, the victims and the criminals themselves and she talks about the work she does these days to try and help make that happen. A thoroughly engrossing read, which has left me with a lot to think about.

[Suzanne Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Lock them up and throw away the key”. This draconian attitude for the perpetrators of crimes is the understandable reaction to the huge global increase in horrendous violent offending. Shannon Moroney in ‘Through the Glass’ (2011) gives those of us that have ever held this thought a chance to look deeper and, maybe, form another opinion. Moroney, while not condoning the actions of Jason―the man she was married to―searched for understanding of why and how this man she had loved could have committed the horrendous crime he did makes for compelling reading. Her compassion and love, as she searched for answers, resonated with me. But then I thought: am I evolved enough to feel this compassionate love for a stranger whom I’d no personal feelings of love for? I don’t think I am that evolved yet!

The other aspect of this book that gave me new understanding, was the experiences Moroney went through as an innocent victim of this crime: some friends ignoring her; long-term work-place associates not wanting to employ or talk to her; police interrogations that appeared to see her as an accomplice. This is another big issue that Moroney fully covers in ‘Through the Glass’. It took her several years to come to terms with it all, but―out of darkness comes light―“after personally discovering the lack of help available for family of criminals, she became a restorative justice advocate who speaks internationally of the ripple effect of crime”.

Interestingly, while reading this book I also had a copy of a new release ‘Shaking Hands with Love’ by the New Zealand medium Gina Ravenswood. Here I discovered that those that commit horrendous crimes are not linked to their soul. And what stops that connection? It’s the emotional body that surrounds and protects the soul: the hurts, pains and experiences that need to be released before their soul, their ‘true self’―that Moroney’s sixth sense knew existed within all people―could express. When Moroney digs deep, while visiting Jason who’s serving a lengthy sentence, for the first time he eventually releases his inner secrets of shocking, horrific childhood experiences.

This is a book I think all those involved in the justice system, whatever country they reside in, should read. With some cases “throwing away the key” is the answer to protect society. But a need for a more holistic approach, and research into new ways of restorative healing is self-evident after reading ‘Through the Glass’.

I highly recommend it.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to take my time reading this novel, and I frequently had to put it aside because of the vivid and emotional journey, and the close proximity of several of the locations mentioned.

This is an incredible book. These pages are full of so much strength and emotion. To be able to share all of this with so many people takes such bravery and grace, and to transform all of the pain of this journey into positive change for so many people; the victims, the families, and even perpetrators (who are generally victims themselves) takes more courage and determination than most people possess in a lifetime.

Shannon you are an inspiration and an incredible role model for anyone to admire and aspire to be more like. Your strength, honesty, and determination are nothing short of amazing, and the final image of you and your husband is beautiful and fills the reader with hope for the future, in spite of all the ugliness that exists in this world.

Thank you for sharing your incredible and emotional journey with the world and all the work that you are doing to try to make this world a better place.

[Elan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for the part where she finally wakes up to the fact that she's married to sadistic murdering maniac....um yeah ,she doesn't .,,,,.what a stupid woman!
She chose to continue dating him after her told her he was a convicted killer on parole,then she chose to marry him.She also chose to continue a relationship after he committed a horrific crime of rape and assault on two women just one month into their marriage.She chose to support him through all his legal proceedings..she is not a victim ,though she surely tries to fit the role

[Ghinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

A friend loaned me this book and said the story was amazing. I am an avid reader but when I started reading this book, I felt the writing was pretty amateurish compared to what I like to read. I'm sure most readers who enjoyed this book, liked it because of this incredible story line. Truth IS stranger than fiction! After reading a couple of chapters, I gave up. This woman makes no sense to me. I lost interest after her yet to be husband tells her of the horrific crime he was jailed 10 years for. That would have sent me running.