Having read Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus, John Gray misses the mark where really intimate, loving relationships are concerned. His perception of the dynamics involved in relationships between men and women brings to mind the movie The Stepford Wives. In the movie, women are merely automotons, meeting the basic needs and desires of men, never needing to relate intimately with them or get involved in their lives. Rather than offering a hollow substitute, Dr. William Van Horn's book, The Seven Steps to Passionate Love, teaches couples how to enjoy a relationship of satisfying substance built on a solid foundation. You will not only learn what skills and tools are necessary to build and maintain true intimacy and passion in your relationship, but also how to heal the pain each partner brings into it. You will also learn how to break the destructive patterns that prevent lovers from effectively communicating. If this book had been available ten years ago, my husband and I would not have wasted so much time, money and energy on other ineffective books, tapes, videos and marriage councelling. We have literally fallen in love again and enjoy a truly intimate,loving,passionate relationship we never dreamed possible. Learning The Seven Steps to Passionate Love helped a dream become a reality. Thank you, Dr. Van Horn!

I wanted to learn how to energize my marriage, but I couldn't find any book that offered real solutions. When I read "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", I had trouble relating to the women John Gray described, so it was difficult to apply any of his teachings (most of which, by the way, seemed very sexist to me).

Dr. Van Horn talks about experiencing love on a whole new level and that's exactly what my marriage needed. Now, my husband and I are even closer to each other than we were when we first met. It feels good to share this love again and it spills out into our relationship with our children and friends. After reading this book, I feel WHOLE.

My husband and I both have professional degrees from Ivy League universities. About 20 years into our lonely, workaholic marriage, I was seriously thinking about leaving him. Yet because I did not want to subject our son to the anguish of divorce, I started to search for books that could help us learn how to improve our relationship and deepen our love for one another.

Two books helped tremendously: David Schnarch's Passionate Marriage, and William Van Horn's 7 Steps to Passionate Love. Each is brilliant in a different way. Schnarch's book helped us to see that "emotional gridlock" was inevitable in a longterm relationship, but that there were ways to grow individually and collectively into a much more fulfilling relationship. Van Horn's book has helped us to see what we must do day-to-day to create a more satisfyingly loving experience. Van Horn's book is lacking re design, editing, and proofing, but these are minor complaints. Today, we are a far happier couple because of the things that we learned from these two wise books.

Harry Hoyle collected all sorts of things. If it could be kept in a room, he had it. In fact, he lived in a house with 72 rooms, each filled with a different collection. Harry had everything from string and rocks, to telephones and ice cream. Harry and his cat, Max, would go to a different room each day, but never to the room where the giant jumping bean was kept. The jumping bean was very dangerous and had to be locked in at all times. Then one day, Harry realized that the housed was full. He had no place to put his new collection of old doorknobs. Harry finally decides that the jumping bean must go, even if it means taking it out of the house himself. Will Harry's plan work?
This fun-filled story is easy to read and follow along with. The humorous personality of Harry and the exasperated attitude of his cat, Max, make the comical duo very likable. Although the idea of a giant jumping bean is a little silly, I think it is a great topic for a children's story.