Before I purchase a book I always read the reviews quite thoroughly. I noticed that there were quite a few negative reviews for this book. I also noticed that many of the reviews bashing the author were not verified purchases. This leads me to think that many of the people leaving such negative reviews did not even bother to read her book. Which makes me ponder why so many people are trying to discourage people from reading her book. That in itself actually made me purchase her book and I'm glad I did. I found her story fascinating and I read the entire book in less than 24 hours.Christine's book details her story of her then husband coming out as transgender and the subsequent fall-out from that startling revelation. Thus begins her personal journey through a hell of pain, shock, anger, confusion, rejection, loss, worry, fear, etc, etc, etc. Christine is blunt and brutally honest about her feelings as she walks through this tragic time in her life. I appreciate her honesty and candor. I won't say this book was a pleasant read.....but it was an interesting read. It was what I would call a dark read. She writes very transparently about her feelings and emotions. She takes you on the journey with her as she walks through her own personal version of hell. Some negative reviews describe her as whining and having a poor me attitude. I saw the book in a different manner. She has a great ability to be so transparent that you can feel her anguish, pain, confusion, and hurt pouring off the pages. She draws you into the turmoil of feelings she was experiencing. You ache with what she is feeling and going through. She isn't just writing her story....she is pulling you into the place of pain and darkness that she was at. That's why I call it a dark read. I actually appreciate an author who is able to be so transparent that it pulls you into their story, their experiences, their pain. I also believe it takes a lot of courage to open up one's heart and share with the world the pain they struggled through in their darkest days. Her writing takes you through the different stages of the grief she experienced....sometimes you can feel her confusion....you can feel her reluctance to let go of the man she had known for over 20 years as her husband and the father of her children....you can see initially struggles to hold onto what she thought she had all those years. You can see her struggling to come to the realization that things will never go back to the way they were.....that her life and the life of her children will never be the same......that she will have to build a new life for herself and her children.Many negative reviews took issue with the fact that she still refers to her now ex-husband by male pronouns in the book. She explains why she does this. She married him as a male....she lived with him as her husband for over 20 years.....he fathered her 3 children. In her eyes, their life together for over 20 years had been with him living as a male.....that's simply how she sees him....it's probably how she will always see him. I can't fault her for that.....I don't believe she was displaying any type of phobia by this.....she was simply writing in the way that she still saw him. This is her story and it's how she saw and experienced it....therefore, it's how she chose to write about it.Some of her attackers have implied that she had no reason to be so upset as she had to have known all along. She addresses this in the book. She writes....."During the month when he was blowing our word apart, Tracey (ex-husband) often accused me of responsibility for his crisis. Precisely what I was responsible for varied from day to day. Some days it was: "It's your own fault! You knew how I felt!". Other times it was: "It's your own fault! You didn't know how I felt! I've suffered from gender dysphoria for years and you were oblivious!" From some of his sympathizers I would eventually hear, "He says you knew he was a transsexual." Left unspoken: Why complain now? From people who sympathized with me I would hear, "Of course you never knew he felt his way." To accusers and sympathizers alike, I had one answer: I knew and I didn't. To the extent that I knew, I didn't understand. In our twenty plus years together, there had been times when I was aware that something was slightly, or on occasion more than slightly, off-kilter about Tracey, that as good and as close as I believed our relationship to be, there was a distance that could never be bridged, a connection that couldn't be make. I operated without examining my motives, as if this thing weren't there. As if I knew that to face it head on would destroy our marriage".So yes, in hindsight there were red flags. Perhaps the author should have dug deeper and looked further after some of the few conversations they had over the years where her husband admitted he was struggling with his gender identity. However, the same could be said about her husband. He could have been straight up and 100% honest about exactly who he was and what he felt from the get go. Some may see it as she failed to him.....however, some would say that he failed her by not being completely up front from the beginning.Throughout the book the author shares the struggles she and her three children faced following her husbands decision to begin living his life as a woman. There is no doubt that they went through their own personal hell. They all suffered and it will probably affect them all for the rest of their lives. One of the things they experienced was the pain of not having very much emotional support from those is their religious community and circle of friends and acquaintances. The majority of the support went to her husband and the new life he had chosen for himself. Christine does admit that for a while she was very closed off and did not let anyone know about what was going on. Over time, she does open up and there were some people who stood behind her and the children. In some ways I do find it odd that so many people turned their back on her and her children. Why couldn't they be supportive of Tracey and the new life he had chosen......and at the same time show emotional support and friendship to those left behind to pick up the pieces? Why did it have to be one or the other?Ultimately, I am glad I chose to purchase this book despite the negative reviews. I was able to have a glimpse into the author's life, pain, emotions, and experiences. Is the book an upbeat book? No, not at all. It's a book that deals with a very tragic situation for the author and her children. Is there anger, sometimes bitterness, and negative thoughts in the book? Yes. I think that's perfectly understandable in her situation. Most people will never have to go through what she went through in life. It's easy for people to judge and say she's in the wrong....she should have blindly accepted that he needed to do this for himself and supported him 100%. I wonder what those same people would say if they were in the exact same situation that she found herself in. What if your spouse came home after 20 plus years of marriage and told you that they were going to live as the opposite sex? How would you react? It's easy to say you would be totally supportive. Often times we don't know how we would respond in any given situation until it happens to us.This book is about how Christine responded....how she felt...what she experienced....what she went through....and how her life and the life of her children were forever changed. I can't say that her feelings, emotions, and thoughts were wrong. She is the one who went through this experience.....and she is completely entitled to how she feels. This is her life......the live of her three children...it's been forever changed. So if she experienced anger, hurt, pain, rejection...etc....she is entitled to her feelings. She's the one who lived through it. She does admit at the end that she could have done things differently. She found forgiveness for her ex-husband. She also states that she was sorry for not being a better support to him during the process he was going through.So do I recommend this book? If you are looking for a "feel-good" book about a transgender person being openly accepted by their spouse and everything turning out "happily ever after".... then this is not the book for you. As I said....I see this as a "dark read". The book is full of deep, deep hurt...confusion,,,,pain....anger....fighting....a divorce.....devastated children.....lives forever changed....etc. I personally think it's an excellent book and a very worthwhile read. I appreciate the author being courageous and transparent enough to open herself open to ridicule and share what was a very traumatic and life altering event for her and her children. Whether you agree with the author's feelings or not.....this is her life....her story....she lived through it....and she is entitled to her own feelings and thoughts. After all.....it is her life...her story.