Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like Book

This should be required reading for women, especially young professionals looking to settle down. Penfold does an amazing job of showing how even a strong, mature, independent, successful woman can fall victim to an abuser. She gives us astute insight into the psychology of an abused woman--the explaining away, the excusing, the denial, the defensiveness, the self doubt--and a very clear picture of what an abusive relationship looks like from the first date to the last goodbye.

Many of the panels in the book, she drew in the midst of the relationship as a way of journalling, not ready to really process what she was recording. Only in looking back through her secret stash of drawings, did she recognise the signs and patterns the pictures held. Now she's committed to teaching other women to recognise these red flags sooner through this book and her website:

Remember ladies, intensity is not intimacy!