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Opened
Not yet published
Expected 17 Feb 26Vulnerable, provocative, and laugh-out-loud honest,
Opened
is more than a story about non-monogamy—it’s about what happens when a woman stops asking for permission to want more.
Courtney Boyer was a therapist and relationship coach who spent years teaching others how to communicate, connect, and love. But behind closed doors, her own marriage was suffocating. After years of rejection, loneliness, and shrinking herself to fit the mold of “perfect wife and mother,” she makes a bold, terrifying proposal at her seventeenth wedding What if we opened the marriage?
What begins as a desperate bid to save her relationship becomes a raw, unflinching journey of self-discovery. From deconstructing purity culture to navigating desire, body image, and patriarchy, Courtney’s memoir peels back every layer of conditioning to reveal the woman she was always meant to be.
This isn’t a guidebook. It’s an intimate reckoning with marriage, motherhood, shame, and the price of finally choosing yourself. Courtney’s journey is messy, sexy, and most of all, real. And it just might make you question everything you’ve been taught about what women are allowed to want.
If you’ve ever wondered what it costs to silence your own needs—or what it takes to finally claim them—this book will meet you there. Honest, sensual, and deeply human, this memoir is a rallying cry for anyone who’s ever Is this all there is?
Courtney Boyer was a therapist and relationship coach who spent years teaching others how to communicate, connect, and love. But behind closed doors, her own marriage was suffocating. After years of rejection, loneliness, and shrinking herself to fit the mold of “perfect wife and mother,” she makes a bold, terrifying proposal at her seventeenth wedding What if we opened the marriage?
What begins as a desperate bid to save her relationship becomes a raw, unflinching journey of self-discovery. From deconstructing purity culture to navigating desire, body image, and patriarchy, Courtney’s memoir peels back every layer of conditioning to reveal the woman she was always meant to be.
This isn’t a guidebook. It’s an intimate reckoning with marriage, motherhood, shame, and the price of finally choosing yourself. Courtney’s journey is messy, sexy, and most of all, real. And it just might make you question everything you’ve been taught about what women are allowed to want.
If you’ve ever wondered what it costs to silence your own needs—or what it takes to finally claim them—this book will meet you there. Honest, sensual, and deeply human, this memoir is a rallying cry for anyone who’s ever Is this all there is?
Audible Audio
Expected publication February 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 6, 2025
Thank you to the author, Courtney Boyer, for sending me an ARC of her new book.
As someone who grew up in the trenches of purity culture, this book was such an interesting look on how that ideology continues to impact us no matter how much we’ve processed and healed. The constant pressure women are put under to not only be submissive and supportive but to also responsible for men’s stumbling blocks and risks of temptations is astounding. Breaking out from that lie, that culture isn’t easy. And then finding what you truly want for yourself in the world can be doubly as hard.
What this book shows more than anything is that there isn’t one perfect type of relationship. What makes one person happy (such as through monogamy) isn’t what works for someone else (such as polyamory). And that’s okay. The best part of life is that you get to make the rules yourself. As long as the adults in the relationship are consenting and communicating, you find what works for you.
This book is by no means a “how to” guide on opening your marriage. It’s one person’s experience as they share the trials, the tears and the joys of going against the grain and being who they truly are.
There are some hard universal truths throughout the book. How we as women are forced to make ourselves small. How we are told to never put our desires or pleasures first let alone ask for what we want. That we accept the love we think we deserve because good enough is better than being alone.
I thought the book was well done and it leaves you rooting for her in the end. Hoping she finds whatever it is that her happy looks like and reminding you that you get to make your own rules when it comes to finding your happiness.
As someone who grew up in the trenches of purity culture, this book was such an interesting look on how that ideology continues to impact us no matter how much we’ve processed and healed. The constant pressure women are put under to not only be submissive and supportive but to also responsible for men’s stumbling blocks and risks of temptations is astounding. Breaking out from that lie, that culture isn’t easy. And then finding what you truly want for yourself in the world can be doubly as hard.
What this book shows more than anything is that there isn’t one perfect type of relationship. What makes one person happy (such as through monogamy) isn’t what works for someone else (such as polyamory). And that’s okay. The best part of life is that you get to make the rules yourself. As long as the adults in the relationship are consenting and communicating, you find what works for you.
This book is by no means a “how to” guide on opening your marriage. It’s one person’s experience as they share the trials, the tears and the joys of going against the grain and being who they truly are.
There are some hard universal truths throughout the book. How we as women are forced to make ourselves small. How we are told to never put our desires or pleasures first let alone ask for what we want. That we accept the love we think we deserve because good enough is better than being alone.
I thought the book was well done and it leaves you rooting for her in the end. Hoping she finds whatever it is that her happy looks like and reminding you that you get to make your own rules when it comes to finding your happiness.
Displaying 1 of 1 review