Love, Intimacy and Sex in the Second Half by Kim Kimberling & Nancy Kimberling Review: A Faith-Based Guide for Long-Married Couples

Love, Intimacy and Sex in the Second Half targets a specific and often underserved reader: the married couple who has raised their children, seen the last one leave home, and now finds themselves asking what comes next — for their relationship, their intimacy, and their sex life. The book frames this transition not as a loss but as a distinct season worth preparing for. As its premise puts it, this is the moment when couples are "back to where you started: just the two of you." The authors acknowledge that the triggers for this season vary — an empty nest, a career change, approaching retirement, the emergence of new life goals — and address that variety directly rather than assuming a single path.

Dr. Kim Kimberling holds a Ph.D. And a Doctor of Ministry in Christian Counseling, along with master's degrees in Christian Ministry and Theological Studies, and brings over forty years of professional experience counseling couples and families. Nancy Kimberling co-authors from lived experience: the two met on a blind date in college and have been married for 53 years, raising two adult children and welcoming five grandchildren. Together, they co-founded Awesome Marriage, a ministry that reaches more than 300,000 people weekly through its podcast, YouTube channel, YouVersion reading plans, and online resources including Awesome Marriage University. That platform gives the book a clear context: it is written from a Christian worldview and draws on biblical principles, including direct engagement with what the Bible says about love in the second half of marriage.

The Kimberlings' core argument is that too many marriages grow stale or drift into disconnection as couples transition into later life — and that this outcome is neither inevitable nor acceptable. The book challenges couples to love better, grow in intimacy, and pursue what it describes as the best sex life they've ever had. Importantly, the authors write from personal candor: Dr. Kim has stated publicly that he is "open and honest about the struggles he has experienced in marriage" and uses those personal examples as teaching tools. The result is a guide that pairs professional counseling insight with the couple's own 53-year marriage as a lived reference point. The book is structured around helping couples articulate what they want this new season to look like and how their faith can orient those goals.

The book occupies a genuinely narrow niche. Most Christian marriage literature focuses on the early years — premarital preparation, newlywed adjustment, raising children together. Resources that address the post-parenting chapter with equal specificity, and that treat sexuality in later marriage as a real topic rather than one to avoid, are far less common. The Kimberlings address sex explicitly and unapologetically. For couples in faith communities where this conversation can feel taboo even within marriage, that willingness to name the topic plainly is meaningful. The dual-author structure — one partner a credentialed counselor, the other a lived voice in a 53-year marriage — also gives the book a rare balance between professional framework and personal witness.

Readers who do not share the book's Christian framework will find its approach difficult to translate, as the text is explicitly rooted in biblical teaching and the belief that God has a specific design for marriage. Faith is structural, not optional. The guide is also tightly scoped to the post-child-rearing years, which means couples still parenting, or those without children, may find the framing less directly applicable. Those seeking clinical depth beyond what a 215-page popular guide can offer should supplement with professional counseling. If you're a married couple in a Christian context navigating the empty nest or approaching retirement, and you want direct conversation about sex and intimacy in this season, this book earns its place — find it via the Amazon link in the sidebar.