The Stepmother by Carrie Adams
Release date: 2009 / 350 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): Bea kept her divorce from James amicable by burying past hurts. It cost her, but the pain was a small price to pay for her daughters’ happiness. Now there is a new woman in the picture, and everything is changing. But it’s not the children’s reactions that shock Bea — it’s her own.
First Line: I was surrounded by laughter but, for once, couldn’t even pretend to join in.
Review: I so loved this book that I dragged it out and savored it… until I could wait no longer and devoured the last 200 pages in an afternoon.
After reading the first few pages, I felt as if I had come closer to experiencing the complex currents that must constantly define motherhood. I want to try and include Adams’ own words since I am not a mother and hesitate to describe what must largely be indescribeable. The novel opens..
I was surrounded by laughter but, for once, couldn’t even pretend to join in. I wanted to place one of my daughters on my lap and hug her tightly, but I had taught myself not to do that. At eight, even my youngest considered herself too old for such public displays of affection. On our own at home was fine, but that wasn’t when I needed her protection…
I started at [my daughter], moving around the stage as easily as liquid, my brain leaping ahead to her next line before she’d finished delivering the one she was on. I was impressed, mesmerized, and terrified in equal measures…
Jimmy reached over our nine-year-old and gazed into my eyes. He squeezed my hand hard, but then our middle daughter took ownership of her father and placed his hand firmly in her lap. I looked down at mine and watched as the warmth slowly left my skin and my fingers returned to their perpetual cold.
Even this passage doesn’t quite do justice to Adams’ perception and intuition — and her ability to create a world that is so familiar even when it’s not. This novel is a great example of why I wish book jacket summaries could be banned. When I read the blurb, I assumed the plot would be a predictable case of sour grapes and a bit, well, trite.
Fortunately, Adams is not only adept at describing the emotional currents of motherhood, but her characters are so well-crafted that I wasn’t sure who, exactly, I was supposed to be ”rooting for” — if anyone — because I liked everyone so much. She tells the story from the perspective of both the ex-wife and the future wife – who are very different, but equally sympathetic characters, as are the children and the husband.
Here is a description of the ex-wife’s “free” weekends and, more importantly, how motherhood can morph an identity:
I used to dream of peace and quiet when I was married. I hated it now. I guess I had lived in the asylum too long. Open spaces and days that didn’t move at the pace of a machine gun freaked me out. On my weekends without the kids I would walk around in circles waiting to be asked to fetch something, mend something, stick something, hold something, wipe something, be something. Then stop. And realize nobody was asking anything of me and I was nobody without them.
Adams also shows the difficulty, but also the beauty, of extended families — of expanding families. And she really demonstrates how marriage is the hardest, yet sometimes the most important relationship of all. This is not a “pie-in-the-sky” romance where marriage is the ultimate goal but is never presented in a realistic light. In fact, Adams does a beautiful job plumbing the depths of just how much work a good marriage is — as well as how valuable that work can be. Here’s a bit of wisdom from “the stepmother’s” father:
‘I came to the realization… that ultimately we’re all responsible for one another. It was incredibly powerful, but peaceful too. I learned an important lesson. At eighty-four, that’s not so bad. If we take care of our world, our world will take care of our soulds. That’s happiness. That’s what we’re all searching for. Comes down to care.’
So, I find myself in a rare situation of not having anything to add that I would improve! I simply loved this novel and think most women would, too — whether happily married without children (like myself) — or confronted with the tricky business of step-parenting — or single and loving it. Adams’ writing transcends the need for commonalities and I’ve already requested her first novel, The Godmother, from my library!
Interested? Leave me a comment and I’ll soon choose a lucky winner!
Your review and Swapna’s review definitely make me want to read this book! Thanks for sharing!
look like a great read! please enter me in your drawing
thanks!
I am definitely interested, please enter me in your giveaway.
I hadn’t heard of this one until your review, but now I really want to read it. Thanks for sharing some passages from the book, and thanks for the great giveaway!
Sounds like a great read! I’d love to try it!
I would love to read this book! Please enter me in the giveaway. Thanks!
I just wanted to thank you for “Chosen by a Horse.” I don’t know much about horses but I read it in one day and loved it. There’s a short review on my blog and I plan to give it to my daugter-in-law who likes to ride and will probably enjoy it as well. Your giveaways introduce us to books we may never have picked up otherwise. Thanks.
Sounds like a great book, and I’ve enjoyed all your other suggestions, so please enter me in the giveaway!
sounds like an interesting read! I’d love to try for it:)
This doesn’t sound like a book I would have picked up on my own, but I trust your reviews. I’ll add it to my wishlist. Thanks for the chance to win!
I was thinking about what to order/download next in my Kindle… this review just made up my mind. Love to get the book for my mom though who is still recuperating from broken pelvis and reading a lot!
Thanks for the review.
Looking for a good spring break book to read.
Thanks for the chance to win.
No need to enter me in the contest, but this is a great review! I reviewed this book as well here: http://www.skrishnasbooks.com/2009/03/stepmother-carrie-adams.html
Thank you so much for the review! Sounds like a good one for our book club! Please pick me!Pick Me!:)
I’m so glad my love of this novel shone through!! I’ll choose a winner tomorrow!!
thanks for the interesting review. I’m a new mother and curious about on motherhood.
Your review makes me want to run out immediately and get this book! That’s what I always love about your reviews….
You said, “I simply loved this novel and think most women would, too — whether happily married without children (like myself) — or confronted with the tricky business of step-parenting — or single and loving it.” I bet someone like me, happily married with children, would also love it! I can’t wait to find out.
This sounds great, please enter me!
You won, Heather!! Congratulations!!
Enter me please. If I don’t win, I’ll have to run out and buy a copy. I’m so hungry for a good read right now!
quitecontrary1977@hotmail.com
Great Review!! Please enter me.
sharon54220@gmail.com
Please include me in your giveaway. Wow what a great review.
Thanks
Debbie
debdesk9@verizon.net
sounds awesome thanks for the giveaway minsthins(at)optonline(dot)net
The review is excellent. I really want to read this book now. Thank you.
Sounds like a fun read – please count me in and thanks
Boy, can I related to the “free weekend” part – but I got used to it pretty quickly lol. Thanks for writing such a clear review; it made me want to read the book.
This sounds like a very intuitively written book, I’d love to read it! Thanks for sharing.
Ok I want to read this now! Please enter me.
Thanks for the giveaway!
kimspam66(at)yahoo(dot)com
This sounds like an interesting read. I would love to have this.
Thanks
It sounds like a very interesting book to read.
hafner611{AT}gmail{DOT}com
Great review, makes me want to read the book!
Please enter me in this giveaway! Thanks!
I would love to read this!
looks great
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I would love to read this book. SAgil
This looks like a super book! Please sign me up!
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
Thanks for the chance to win the book!
Please enter me in your giveaway! I enjoyed the review.
Thanks!
Rebecca
rbooth43(AT)yahoo(dot0com
Wow – your review makes me want to really read this book! Please consider me for the drawing. thanks.