This book is about the apparent incompatibility of romantic love and conventional marriage. They go together (the popular song has it) like a horse and carriage. But if the horse is ailing or otherwise not up to the task, the carriage will slowly rot away in the carriage house.
It is also about the perverse fact that people bring to such relationships their expectations from the past – as they remember them. Typically, they had hopes and dreams for their future together. When these are dashed, it occurs to them that they were better off before they got hitched.
Copulate we apparently must. But the realization creeps upon us that the world is not about lovers. It is about 40,000 other things. And those have to be dealt with … most often before anything else.
Thus the title, And They Lived Happily Ever … Before. Imagination and reality are often two very different things. This book answers the question, “What Does Love Have to Do with It?” The answers may surprise you. But they will make love affairs that end in marriage far better than you might even imagine they could be.