Is lasting love magic, logic or luck?

Does it matter how a couple met? Contented Couples, a new guide to long-term relationships, features candid, intimate interviews with eighteen couples, based in the UK and USA. Each pair tell of how they met, how they formed a relationship and how they've thrived to become a truly happy union.

One couple met and married within a month, whilst another two were thrown together repeatedly by a matchmaker who refused to give up - and it is not only guy meets girl either. The couples speak from an array of circumstance, culture and sexual orientations, including arranged marriage, friends-to-lovers and dating apps.

In the pages, couples (or those still hoping to find lasting love), will find real-life anecdotes, testimony and wisdom on every stage of long-term love from each partner. From their first meet and transition through the 'love bubble' of dating to selection, attachment and commitment, and woven throughout are jargon-free explanations of how couples form a bond from renowned couple therapist and writer on attachment styles, Anne Power. The interviews even recount examples of how the couples handled fights, money, relatives and sex in a way that isn't shared normally outside of a therapy session.

Each chapter ends with questions which invite us all to reflect on our own relationships and learn by eavesdropping on contented couples in a way that, for most of us navigating long-term relationships, is rare. Contented Couples has been prepared for anyone seeking lasting love, greater insight into their own coupledom, or indeed anyone who works with couples regularly and could use some more context on how this type of relationship actually works.