A Well-Trained Wife is a memoir about writer Tia Levings’s life within fundamentalist Christianity and her decision to leave both her faith and her abusive marriage.

Tia Levings was a young Baptist church member in Florida with her family, then a teen bride, and eventually the isolated and abused wife of an increasingly controlling husband and fundamentalist church. Her struggle with being a good Christian, wife, and mother will resonate with many readers, along with the realization that she’s not safe in her marriage. Although Tia’s church and its doctrine aren’t representative of every religion, the reader can clearly see how the laws and interpretations benefit only men, leaving children and women vulnerable. As fundamentalist churches become more and more political, their impact on all American women is being felt, and it’s important to see the roots of their ideology for what they are.

I highly recommend this moving and intense memoir.