31 Days to Great Sex: Love. Friendship. Fun.

by Sheila Wray Gregoire

This practical book provides 31 days of challenges to help you and your spouse talk, flirt, and explore all three levels of sexual intimacy--physical, emotional, and spiritual--so you both can experience the best sex ever. Sex is incredibly important in a marriage, yet many things can throw it off course. Whether you are engaged and afraid you won't be able to light the spark, are newlyweds who haven't started off well, or have been married five, ten, twenty-five years, or more and you'd like to recapture the spark you once had, this book is for you! The challenges aim to spice up the bedroom while guiding you through all three levels of sexual intimacy. As you go through these challenges with lots of laughter and enjoyment, sex will stop being a source of tension and become something fun that brings you together, just the way God intended. The challenges slowly build on each other to help You're meant to have an abundant marriage--so don't settle for mediocre. Start your 31-day journey today!

Genres: Marriage, Nonfiction, Christian, Relationships

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2012

About the author

Sheila Wray Gregoire is an award-winning author of 9 books, including the ground-breaking Great Sex Rescue, and founder of BareMarriage.com. She's passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex to something that is mutual, initimate, and pleasurable for both. She heads up a team of researchers who want to bring evidence-based, healthy advice to evangelicalism when it comes to relationships. Sheila lives in Belleville, Ontario, with her husband Keith. They are the parents of two adult daughters.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for Christian couples to really reconnect. Doesn't just focus on techniques or spicy strategies (although there is plenty of that too!), but has a large focus on sex as a way to connect emotionally & spiritually.
My biggest take away was the lines of communication it has opened between my husband & I. I'm not prudish, and never felt we has any issues with sexual communication, but I was surprised to realize I had made many assumptions. I thought I knew my husband's mind on several of the topics the book brought up, but it gave us a platform to begin discussing things that you just normally don't. It's given us both the opportunity to understand one another better & draw us even closer.

[Mikaela Stadler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good follow up read for The Great Sex Rescue (which I consider required reading for any couple). This one seems mostly aimed to help couples who have been together for a while but are looking for some practical tools to make intimacy a regular part of their bedroom experience. It’s boiled down into practical “challenges” or “tools” to try which are all flexible and fun. My one qualm with it isn’t so much the light hearted and fun attitude it’s written in, maybe it’s more the feeling that this book isn’t talking to real couples with broken sexualities. It addresses the brokenness of the world’s view of sex and it certainly corrects misguided ideas… it blatantly says that sex addictions and trauma need to be addressed with a professional prior to continuing to the exercises… but kind of as an afterthought rather than the majority. More often than not, the person looking to do this work isn’t experiencing it casually or at all light heartedly. More often than not, I think the reader is experiencing a battle working towards redeeming this part of a marriage, even if it’s just to shift an expectation. Even putting that aside, it’s still very educational and definitely worthy of your night stand book collection.

[Kayla Chadwick Fojtasek · Rating 4 out of 5]

While sometimes it seemed a little too clear cut on some points, I think this is a great book to recommend to a heterosexual couple wanting to improve on their mutual intimacy and addresses all aspects of it: the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual side of intimacy. She also addresses sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape, and other difficult subjects in a way that takes them seriously and points towards getting help from a licensed counselor ( a huge win for a Christian book on sex in my mind as some I have read have not taken it as seriously as they should)

[Melissa Scruggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the author’s voice and writing style. She is organized and direct, yet has a humorous side. My husband and I’s anniversary was this month so we thought that plus the fact that December has 31 days, would be a perfect month for this book. I looked forward to reading this book every morning, it felt like opening another day of an advent calendar. It definitely enhanced our marriage.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Insight and Godly Perspective

I thought the book tackled real life scenarios. The writing was conversational and not judgmental. Mrs. Gregoire did not bite her tongue when sharing hard to discuss issues about sex.

[Tomi J · Rating 4 out of 5]

For married couples everywhere!

Need to give your sex life a boost or even a reboot? She does a great job helping couples reconnect in their sex lives.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wife and I throughly enjoyed this devotional. Biblically based. Very insightful

[Wen Zhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favourite book. But does help in exploring this topic further!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well rounded and well written. It’s also written in a way that just comes right out and says things explicitly instead of dumbing them down or trying to make it more generally appropriate.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my wife’s favorite relationship author.

This book is different from her blog and podcast in that in this book she works to teach us new ways of relating that will be more effective, more intimate, more exciting, more of a thrilling marriage than we had before. For maximum benefit, husband and wife should read this together.

I recommend her latest book:The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended which is more along the lines of what she covers in her podcast.

Contents:
…
Day
Days 1-7: Embracing Sex
1. Catch the vision
2. Challenging the lies we believe about sex.
3. Embrace the skin she’s in
4. Pucker up
5. Awaken her body
6. Awaken his body
7. Accommodating libido differences
Days 8-11: Laughter (Emotional Intimacy)
8. 14 ways to play as a couple
9. Preparing for sex throughout the day
10. Show affection
11. Flirt with your spouse!
Days 12-19: Igniting Fireworks (Physical Intimacy)
12. Getting her head into the game
13. Jump in!
14. Put the “Play” in foreplay!
15. Turn foreplay up a notch
16. Help her reach the big “O”
17. The pleasure center
18. Little changes that fee amazing for her
19. Little changes that fee amazing for him
Day 20-26: True Oneness in the Bedroom (Spiritual Intimacy)
20. Experiencing spiritual oneness when you make love
21. Be mentally present when you make love
22. Try new positions
23. Decide your sexual boundaries
24. 7 ways to spice things up
25. Quickies can be fun
26. Why you’ve got to initiate
Day 27-31: Keep the momentum going
27. Make sex a priority
28. Adults need bedtime too!
29. Sex after parenting
30. Celebrate
Appendix
Notes

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was part of a bundle of eBooks that I was given as a gift and I'm determined to read them all. I like 31 books like this where you read a section each day. Sheila has a great perspective on intimacy for real life and I love the way that she presents the spiritual as well as as the emotional and physical aspects. Highly recommend this book for all married couples.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheila Wray Gregoire, writing through a Christian lens, writes a great deal about sex. This book is exactly what you might expect. She seeks to help couples enhance their sexual intimacy. While technique does receive a little space, she desires that couples have a more holistic approach to improving their sexual relationship.

[Eady Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

These ideas for nurturing your sex life are excellent for heterosexual monogamous couples, particularly those who have been negatively impacted by purity culture and/or other harmful messages about sex. It is a little on the conservative side and is also more suited to Christians, but some of these ideas would be helpful more universally.

[Tiffany Ann]

Great book!!!

[Katie Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for Christian married couples to work through together. Even ones married for 10 years! :-)

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

AUDIO BOOK 🎧📖

Enjoyed - definitely beats any 31 day exercise challenge I’ve ever done!!

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun! Read e-book version when it first came out a while ago - totally recommend it.