"The Daily Beast" described the book as controversial, writing that "evangelicals of all stripes outraged ... from conservatives shocked by the graphic sex descriptions to liberals who hate its degrading of women." Christian author and blogger Rachel Held Evans wrote, "Grace [Driscoll is often cast as the damaged and sinful wife who withholds sex from her deserving husband, Mark the hero who is justified in leaving his wife but instead comes along to rescue her." Driscoll responded to criticism in a post to CNN's "Belief Blog", writing: "You try to write a book on marriage and sex with your wife and next thing you know there are a lot of ants crashing your picnic." He wrote that he and Grace anticipated criticism "from all sides" but felt it would be worthwhile anyway, because "we want to help marriages and single people aspiring to marry. ..."