Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take
What Makes a Marriage Last
Marlo Thomas · 2021
68/100
👎 Skip It
The format — candid conversations with couples who have genuinely lasted — is appealing, and the range of challenges covered (trauma, conflict, growing apart) is real. But the celebrity focus creates distance for most readers, and families with a traditional view of marriage should know that same-sex couples are included as positive models throughout. The warmth is genuine, but the substance is thinner than the premise suggests.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Includes same-sex couples (Elton John and David Furnish) as positive marriage models; families with traditional marriage definitions should be aware. We still scored it 68; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety70
substance62
craft72
originality65
accuracy74
hype68
age-fit85
human-eye66
Penny’s verdict68
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