My Books & Reviews

Book Reviews

Love from Both Sides
A True Story of Soul Survival and Sacred Sexuality

From Creations Magazine – February/March 2010
By John Calabrese, Huntington, New York

Riseley’s mind-blowing account of communicating with her deceased husband is easily one of the most thought-provoking and irresistible books of our young century.

To write something this extraordinary, a person has to be exceptionally courageous—because there will be plenty of people who won’t believe them. But Riseley—and her husband, Dan—speak with such honesty and riveting detail that the reader is compelled to believe, and in doing so, is offered an incredible tapestry of hope for the enduring nature of love

In eloquent and ofter heart-breaking depth, Dan offers profound apologies for not thoroughly honoring his love for Stephanie while he was alive. Their dialogue will move you to tears but, more importantly, help you to powerfully understand the dangers of taking the “gift” of your partner’s life–and their presence in your life–for granted.

In a word, Love From Both Sides is comforting. Reminiscent of Dr. Brian Weiss’s Many Lives, Many Masters, it speaks to the infinite, eternal connection we all share, reassuring us that endings are not always what they appear to be, and lifetimes aren’t just physical.

Watch this now:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VXOV7cC00Y

From Amazon:
Powerful!, August 15, 2010
By LK “99Pancakes” (Bakersfield, California) – See all my reviews

This review is from: Love from Both Sides: A True Story of Soul Survival and Sacred Sexuality (Paperback)

This book is tightly written with a powerful, emotionally gripping story of the author’s deceased husband, Dan, returning from the dead to make amends. His after-life confessions and apologies go on for several months while Ms. Riseley works through her feelings of being cheated of a child, of gentle love, and of much deserved respect. How often do lovers get to have a conversation like this? Rarely? Never? I frankly have never heard of anyone’s dead beat husband returning from the grave to mend the grieving spouse’s wounded heart and soul. Better yet, he is able to have “energy sex” with her as well. Ms. Riseley’s unflinching willingness to bare all makes this book a page-turner. Highly recommended! A must read if you have any interest at all in life-after-death, reincarnation, and after-life marriage counseling (who knew that was possible?).

By Kathy W (Baltimore)
Amazon.com Top 500 Reviewer

WONDERFUL READING! (5 STARS!)

This is a very different book and one that I find remarkably interesting. To quote Stephanie, she was 42 and “terminally single” when she met 49 year-old Dan. They fell in love and married after a very short time. Twelve years later, she was saying goodbye, holding her hand over his heart to feel its final beat. Who knew that when he went into the hospital that Saturday for a routine treatment, that he would be “gone” that evening?

Though not the perfect marriage (show me one that is), she ached with grief, but this is only the beginning of the story! Although you will likely cry in spots as I did, you may be amazed to hear what Dan has to say as he “returns” to make amends for all the sorrow he caused Stephanie in life. That’s right, Dan returns and channels for most of the year after his passing. In the process, Dan and Stephanie write an absolutely beautiful and comforting book, one that allows him to apologize for all the time he wasted when he had so much and could have enjoyed life to the fullest. This is a book of a beautiful love, one that spanned time and space. It is also a book of healing the grief that transpires when you lose a loved one–from BOTH sides of the fence. Dan also tells us what the process is like for him as he reviews his past and prepares for his future.

Now, some may fault Stephanie for continuing mental conversations with Dan for so long, but I think most people in love, given the opportunity, would do just as she did. What grieving person does not want to hear the comfort of a loved one’s voice one more time after they have passed? Who doesn’t want to know that they are “ok”? And who doesn’t want to know what it’s like on the other side/the “in-between”?

And some may say that this is all Stephanie’s imagination. After all, she is obviously an educated and creative person. If so, then this could just be a story of how well she accessed her inner self to perpetuate her own healing. Personally, and for many reasons, I believe that she was able to fine tune her internal radio station until Dan came in clearly. And the things that Dan said about the “in-between” matched my beliefs.

Actually, the book cover is a perfect match to the contents. In Stephanie’s world, Dan is a blur, because he is only partly there. If you flip the pix, Dan becomes clear and Stephanie is a blur, because she is only partly in his world.

This is a book about love beyond physical death, about determination and perseverance, about grieving and about finally being able to let go. For those who are not saddled with a limiting belief system, this book could help them think beyond the finality of the material body and explore the energy of the soul and the power of the mind. Published in 2008 at 249 pages, I believe this book has the ability to comfort many who have lost a loved one.

The book is well written, interesting, and chronologically captures the channelling from Dan and a few other “guests”. Did we not love to cry at movies written about hearing from loved ones after their physical death? Why? Because it allows us to release our own grief, and that feels good. Because it lets us know they are “ok”. And because it perpetuates the hope that there is more to life than one shot on the earth plane.

I have been looking for a book to give a friend who lost her husband of many years, to help her deal with her sorrow. I think this is it!

Excellent job Stephanie! (You too, Dan, if you are still tuned in!)

Jayne Howarth
Books Editor,
The Birmingham Post

“Love From Both Sides is a deeply emotional journey centered on bereavement and despair. The unbearable pain and exhaustion that Riseley feels after the death of her husband echo emotions suffered by millions of people around the world.
But in the depths of grief she discovers that Dan is connecting and communicating directly with her beyond the physical life. It is an astonishingly moving process.
Unable to grieve properly, Riseley endures almost intolerable demands from Dan as she channels his words and feelings via the computer, leaving her simultaneously ecstatic at their continued relationship but utterly exhausted by the experience.
This is not a story, but the verbatim and contemporaneous account of Riseley’s passage from a deeply grieving widow who feels abandoned, confused and in debt to gaining the strength to let go and to move on, despite seemingly impossible obstacles.
With unmitigated, raw emotion and profoundly moving passages, it is fascinating for anyone with even the slightest interest in life beyond this world. It was quite a revelation for even a skeptic like me.”

Lew Hunter, Author of Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434

“Love From Both Sides” is as filling to the heart as any book ever written. My Pamela and I knew Stephanie and Dan when they were both on this side. We have never met a more special, loving couple on earth. To share their love from both sides will be one of the most heart filling experiences you, the reader, with ever have. Your own love with be enriched beyond measure when you have “Love From Both Sides.”

Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers

This clear-eyed account of how life and consciousness can persist after death should be read by anyone confronting the loss of a loved one. From the depths of a lover’s despair comes hope and a fountain of wisdom about what we are, why we love, and what happens when our lives continue after physical death.