Kerry and Chris Shook’s book Love at Last Sight: 30 Days to Grow and Deepen Your Closest Relationships is all built on the premise that we love people the most after time and intentional relationship growth. While the world romanticizes the notion that there is no love like “love at first sight,” the authors explain that true love comes from knowing, appreciating, and caring about others (whether in a parent/child relationship, a marriage relationship, or a friendship) and knowing them better.

The book walks readers through thirty days of insights and tips, broken up into four weekly topics — the art of being all there, the art of acting intentionally, the art of risking awkwardness, and the art of letting go. Each day guides readers to ways that they can build better relationships in easy to understand language and with plenty of real life examples.

There is more psychology than theology in this book, which is fine since some of the Christian authors quoted (T.D. Jakes, John Eldrege) have some questionable elements in their theology. While there are passages of Scripture quoted and Jesus is upheld as expert on relating to others (which He was/is!), the focus is on a psychological approach to maintaining and cultivating deeper relationships. Many of the suggestions made — being intentional, understanding that people don’t always know how to express what they need in relationships, and acknowledging that you can’t have deep relationships with everyone you relate to — were elementary and not all that revolutionary. However, because we’re human and we fail to remember the basics when relating to others becomes difficult, these suggestions and many more were helpful and timely. The book is worth reading and reflecting on.

Many thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book to review. All opinions expressed are mine entirely.