Love Isn't Always the Answer

Psychopaths roam the world preying on their next victim, and falling in love with one can cost you everything. The story opens with the dramatic arrest of Shelley Levisay on the courthouse steps as she's leaving a hearing. The question on everyone's mind was how this intelligent conservative Christian woman ended up here. Shelley succeeded in everything in her life except with men and felt desperately alone. He sensed her vulnerability and pounced. She became obsessed with getting this man to love her at all costs and she nearly lost it all. He manipulated, belittled, and abused her into a shell of who she once was.This memoir details her home-life with him, including his threats to kill her with no witnesses to destruction of property and even sexual assault as a way to control her. She supported him financially and little did she know that while she worked defending criminal defendants and fighting custody battles all day, he was home smoking methamphetamine and creating mischief. Eventually, he ensnared her in his web of crimes, which caused her to become a convicted felon and altered her life.This winner of 2022 Oklahoma Writer's Federation Unpublished Nonfiction book of the year and 2021 WriterCon Memoir of the Year portrays the insidious penetration of domestic violence into all levels of society, but teaches that survivors can overcome the trauma be happy with or without a romantic partner.