Sharing the couples books we have read over the last three years with our reviews and overall ratings!
c/o henley top | c/o joggers | eyelet headband | faux fur blanket | celestial coasters
The Five Love Languages
Laura Leigh: We read this book prior to our wedding after receiving multiple recommendations to do so. Which I totally understand after only a chapter into the book. The Five Love Languages is all about learning your partner’s love language as well as your own. Meaning how you best/prefer to receive love and also how you love to give it. Knowing your partners love language really helps to better understand how to give them love – this way they truly feel it! Definitely leads to a stronger bond and a stronger relationship.
Rather than reading together we read separately and discussed afterwards. I loved reading it this way as it left me time to think about each love language. While also reflection time. Time I spent figuring out which one related most to me and most to Joshua. Just as an FYI some people have one love language that is really strong while others have two that are pretty even. Joshua and I both had two we really resonated with. Lucky for us one of ours was the same!
Definitely, definitely, definitely recommend reading this book. Whether you’re single (figure out your love language), dating, engaged, or been married for 20+ years it’s an incredibly enlightening book!
Overall rating: 5 out of 5
Joshua: I highly recommend this book to folks that are engaged or may be engaged soon. This is a great way to learn how you can best love your spouse. We all think we know how to love our spouse or how they want to be loved based on what works for us. After reading this book, I quickly found out that was not the case. I have benefited from knowing the ways to love Laura that is most impactful for her. This book is an easy read as it lays out many examples for each love language.
Overall rating: 5 out 5
Devotions for A Sacred Marriage
Laura Leigh: Oh how I love this book. And oh how I thank this book and the author for encouraging (aka kind of forcing) us to chat about some tough topics! Topics we were have never thought to talk about or were a little sticky to bring up. We read Devotions for a Sacred Marriage the first year of our marriage. Joshua actually gave it to me as a wedding gift on our wedding day and we completed the first weekly devotion on our honeymoon. And I will say it is a phenomenal book for your first year of marriage!
I 100% believe this book made us stronger and more ready for some challenges life has thrown and will throw our way. We loved it so much we gifted the book to Joshua’s sister and her husband for Christmas this past year (they were just married in October 2019). I’m now thinking this may be our go to gift for our friends getting married here on out.
If you’ve been married for several years I still think this book would be a great one to read together. There’s one devotion every week you can read together than discuss the questions. We found it helped to set a day of the week to read. Made it easy for us to stick to it and know that evening was us time!
Overall rating: 5 out of 5
Joshua: This is a great book as well. I recommend this as a good devotional book for newly wed couples. It is one that gets you thinking about different topics that do not always come up in conversation. This book helps to continue the conversations that you experienced in pre-martial counseling. If you did not then I would say this is a must read for healthy conversations with your spouse. I know that Laura and I enjoyed it and grew deeper in our understanding of one another.
Overall rating: 5 out 5
Kingdom Marriage Devotional
Laura Leigh: This it the book we’re currently reading. I’ll be honest we haven’t done as great with this one. By that I mean, there are been weeks we have skipped/missed our weekly reading. I think it is in large part due to the fact that this one doesn’t excite us or get us thinking as much as the other two. I don’t find us challenged by this one or even relating to some of the topics. Therefore, it is hard for us to really dive in or be engaged with it. However, if we were deeper into our marriage and/or had children we may find that to be different. I think this would be a great book for those that have been married 7-10+ years or a couple years with toddler+ children.
I do love that each devotional provides three questions to chat about as well as prayer to pray together. That part has been very sweet and something we do enjoy.
Overall rating: 3 out of 5
Joshua: This book has shorter lessons than Devotions for a Sacred Marriage. I feel they are good topics and could be used more for a daily devotion rather than a weekly one. This would be a nice devotional to read at supper each night or each night before bed. It does seem like some of the lessons are repetitive but overall this is a good book.
Overall rating: 4 out 5
What couples books have you read? Which ones would you recommend? Comment below and share with us!
Read more from Joshua as well as several posts from both of us.
I need to pick up the five love languages book for Chris and I. I think that the way we love and the differences in how we love one another is SO interesting!
Rachel
http://www.hello-her.com
You absolutely should! It is truly such an interesting read/lesson learned.
xo Laura Leigh
We also read the 5 love languages together per your gift and recommendation 🙂 totally agree it was such a good exercise to do together before getting married!
-Morgan
The HER Chronicles [] http://theherchronicles.com
We are so glad y’all enjoyed it!!
xo Laura Leigh
5 love languages sounds SO interesting!
Lisa | lisaautumn.com
Oh it is girl! Definitely recommend.
xo Laura Leigh
I have been looking for a new book to read. So I will make sure to check this one out.
Xx, Nailil
thirtyminusone.com
Which one of the three are you going to check out?
xo Laura Leigh
I’m thinking Devotions for a Sacred Marriage would be a good one to read.
A great one to do a couple times a week. Hope you enjoy it!
xo Laura Leigh
I love this! The 5 love languages is amazing! My boyfriend just read “For Men Only” and now wants me to read the womens companion book to it.
http://moosmusing.com
Couldn’t agree with you more!! Oh that sounds awesome – might do those next.
xo Laura Leigh
Ok y’all are seriously the cutest couple!! Love this idea for a blog post!
🙂 thank you so much girly! So glad you loved the blog post!
xo Laura Leigh
I really wish my husband had a stronger desire to read, because I’d love to read these with him – primarily the 5 love languages book, since that’s been recommended for YEARS. I love hearing what you thought of each one, and your ratings based off of how far into your marriage you are and your stage of life as a couple. Such a great post!
Aw maybe ask him to do so as a gift to you for Valentine’s Day or an anniversary! And thank you gal 🙂 I am so thrilled that you enjoyed the post!
xo Laura Leigh
Love this idea and appreciate the insights! Some good picks here. xoxo, Sarah
Thank you gal! Of course 🙂
xo Laura Leigh
I absolutely love the idea of doing couples’ books where you both read the books and then discuss afterwards thoughts, feelings and ideas. I’ve been meaning to read the 5 love languages because I am really curious about all the ways people like to be loved long-term. Short-term is always different, then when you become more tenured, and I think it’s really important to figure that out for yourself as well as your S/O. Thanks for the reviews, looks like I have a few more books to add to my list! x
It is truly such a great way to bond and grow together! I could not recommend it more. Definitely agree learning the love language of your significant other as well as yourself is incredibly important and so helpful!
xo Laura Leigh
If only I could get my husband to read some books with me too, haha!
Girl ask for it for a gift!!! It’s such great quality time!
xo Laura Leigh
Wow- The Five Love Languages sounds like a major eye opener! I’d love for my husband and I to read that.
Oh it is for sure! Couldn’t recommend more. Y’all absolutely should!
xo Laura Leigh
I’ve been wanting to read about Love Languages! I can’t begin to tell you how many people have suggested that book!
You absolutely should gal! It is an amazing book and so good for your relationship!
xo Laura Leigh
I’ve heard great things about The Five Love Languages! Thanks for your honest review. I need to check it out for myself.
Of course gal! Thanks for checking out this post 🙂
xo Laura Leigh