Book Review - Smart Love by Vincent Fudge II

Smart Love by Vincent Fudge II is a self-help relationship manual that uses the author's experience and volatile relationship problems to help others mend broken relationships. The author uses the alias Edward for this autobiographical book. Edward is married to Ebony, and the couple has two children, Elizabeth, born before the marriage, and Elijah, born after. We learn quickly that this is a toxic relationship, but Fudge bravely tells the story warts and all so that we can learn from his experiences. In the book's first chapter, we learn that many trigger points set the couple fighting. After a particularly explosive argument, Edward pushes Ebony's head into a wall, the police are called, and Edward spends a night in prison. He realizes that the relationship has hit a watershed. It is make or break time, and this realization is what sets in motion the writing of Smart Love. It seems to be the age-old problem of a couple having a sexual bond who otherwise do not seem to like one another but stay together because they have children. Their relationship is one of emotional, physical, and verbal abuse and can be started by both Ebony and Edward. The first thing the couple works through is their communication skills, and the author gives the reader lots of practical advice to change toxic relationship patterns. It takes Ebony and Edward a year of hard work to become more like the couple they want to be.

I liked that despite the subject matter being unpleasant, the book is written in a very down-to-earth way, and there are many lessons readers can learn from the practical steps laid out by Edward. I also liked all the analogies used, and they helped to clarify what Edward was teaching, e.g., page 190 - 'Think about people as flowers: there are many different types that have different fragrances, bloom at different times of the year, and require varying amounts of sunshine and water.'

I found this book immensely frustrating as Edward and Ebony claim to love one another, but their incompatibility is the root cause of their problems. The couple is trying to avoid upset to their children by divorcing. However, children pick up on the atmosphere and hear the fights, which begs the question, wouldn't the children be happier if their parents split up?

Smart Love has a plethora of grammatical and spelling errors and does not appear to have been edited or proofread at all, e.g., page 13 - 'How you work on fulfilling the vision is by defining what needs to be done to fulfill the vision.' This sentence does not flow very well, and the spelling should be fulfil. Because of all the errors and my frustration with the relationship, I am rating this book  3 out of 5 stars.

I recommend this book to adults or older teenagers who want to learn new ways to work through their relationship problems. There is no sex in this book, but there is some swearing; hence it would not be an appropriate book for younger people.

Thank you to Vincent Fudge II for a free copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review.

You can read more of my reviews here :  http://onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-tara-d-morgan.html