RebeccasReads.com - It Starts with You! by Julia J. Austin

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It Starts With You!
Every Woman's Guide to personal growth and a successful Love Relationship

Julia J. Austin
Jackie Paper Publishing (2007)
ISBN 9781432713591
Reviewed by Tina Avon for RebeccasReads (8/08)

“It Starts With You” is an insightful, honest and an extremely hard book to read.  Why is it so hard to read?  It’s difficult because the author is basically calling us on our own stuff.

Somewhere along the line, we seem to have gotten into the habit of blaming parents, society, friends, and the environment for the way we act, the way we interact with other people, and for the way we behave in general.  “It Starts With You” is a personal guide that helps us take ownership of our own lives, which will help us be stronger partners when it comes to our intimate relationships.

Author, Julia Austin details honestly her own experiences dealing with love and relationships and how she realized that her growth in these areas was seriously flawed until she started taking ownership for the choices that she made and the people she chose to surround herself with.

The first part of this book is, to me, the most important, as it asks us to take an honest look at ourselves and figure out what is really going on with our relationships. What is the role that we play in creating the relationship and its patterns?  This is difficult for most people to do, as it is always easier to blame the other person.

Once we start to understand the roles we play (or replay) in relationships, we can turn our attention to the second part of the book, which is about growth.  It is about helping us figure out how to find the right person for us.  Austin pinpoints many subjects that need to be addressed, which are part of what makes a relationship successful, issues such as sex compatibility, finances, health and physical appearance to name a few.

I enjoyed the way this author writes, like a girlfriend talking to another girlfriend. There is a lot of practical advice here and although some of it may be hard to hear, it is important and needs to be heard.  Although we would all love to think that "we magically" fall in love and it will last forever, unfortunately reality is quite different.

  

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