Ty NetGalley & Hanover Square Press for an ARC of this! I am super late to reading & reviewing; this came out last October 2024.

I Do (I Think) is a nonfiction book about modern day marriage, and what it means to get married nowadays. Even though I had almost nothing in common with the author besides a diagnosis of OCD, I appreciated Raskin's insights, research, and her dedication to making this as non-heteronormative as possible. Marriage is, at the base of it, patriarchal and heteronormative, but as a queer person, I still found value. I found value in the research done for this, but moreso the interviews done for this book to relay anecdotal experiences from all types of marriages. This relied more on stories and deep looks in the mirror rather than marriage statistics. But her inclusion of an array of marriage professionals (from couples counselors to divorce lawyers) was great.

Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of marriage - money & finances, the "right" time to get married, sex & commitment, & even how to reframe divorce. Divorce used to be seen as this awful thing that couples should never do if they vowed their lives to one another, but Raskin reframes divorce by the statistics of divorce prevalence in the modern age, and how just because you get divorced, doesn't mean you weren't meant to be for a part of your lives. All really good convos to have. And to have these conversations with yourself and/or your partner, each chapter ends with "questions to ask yourself" and "questions to ask your partner". I love the inclusion of these questions; it definitely takes the book up a notch for me because instead of just learning about the things the author wrote about, we can learn AND apply.

I am a huge fan of this one. Thank you for the history and explanation. I loved it. I will be recommending this one to folks for sure.

This was a fantastic read, even for someone who has been married for years. This gives a new angle of thinking in certain topics and loved all the examples.

Thanks so much for the gifted copy!

I think this book is a great read for anyone married, considering marriage, or even just curious about marriage as an institution and its place in today's society. It also has a lot of relationship advice that can be helpful regardless of if you ever plan on getting married. I think Allison Raskin is great at balancing evidence and anecdotes to make this book an easy and informative read. I learned a lot that I'm going to think about with regard to my own marriage and I'm glad I could read this. (Also random but I thought it was very fun that this book came out on my second wedding anniversary. Low-key made for me.)

Thank you to Netgalley and Hanover Square Press for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Special thank you to NetGalley, Allison Raskin and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC of this well-written book. The author did an incredible job of examining marriage as a social construct over the years and in today’s society. I truly feel that the author was unbiased and used a holistic lens of examining various relationships in terms of class, age, gender/sexuality, ethnicity/race, etc. This is an excellent book for anyone who is considering or curious about marriage or commitment. Highly recommend.

This is a fantastic read for anyone who is looking at the way marriage exists today in society and considering whether they want to become a part of that institution. So much of what we think marriage is actually is negotiable and the result of conversations and plans made by the individuals in them. So much great food for thought in this book!

I follow Alison on Tiktok so I was interested in what her book would be like. While I appreciated that it was honest and clearly full of the author's own voice, I somehow found it more annoying than charming. I think the subject matter is very relevant to today's world, but found it difficult to connect with the way this perspective was portrayed.

Allison Raskin, cohost of Just Between Us and a bestselling author, presents a clever and insightful exploration of contemporary marriage, offering guidance for a new generation grappling with its complexities and uncertainties. It's a fantastic read!