Customer Reviews

Mixed Blessings

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I checked this book out of the library. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it because at the time I was suffering through my own infertility. But once I started I was hooked. I could relate to Diana so easily, the heartache that occured at the same time each month, and the feeling that there was something wrong long before I went to any doctor. Like Diana, I too was able to overcome this problem, and now have two beautiful sons (our own biological children, too!) I didn't relate quite as well to the other couples, but did find their stories facinating as well. The research Danielle Steel did was very good except for one flaw - when Pillar had her miscarriage around New Year's she was back in getting another insemination done the next month -I also had this procedure done and doctors will not do this procedure for three months after a miscarriage. Also her discription of the procedure itself was a little different than mine. But excellent reading none the less!

"Mixed Blessings" follows couples who marry and face the question of whether they want to have children or not and how they overcome their infertility.

I really began to resent, and almost hate, Barbi. I thought that maybe Charlie hadn't really thought about the marriage completely before he married her, or perhaps he was hoping that she would settle down and change her mind.

However, I questioned why Pilar would want to have a child with Brad, considering that he is already 60. By the time the child graduates from high school, he would be pushing 80.

I think a lot of people will be able to relate to this book, considering 1 in 5 people will have difficulty conceiving. And I think that people can also relate to the characters on the basis of "What do I really want in life?"

This was a very poorly written book, reading more like a fertility manual than a novel. Danielle Steel leaves nothing for the readers imagination. We are told the same things over and over. Pilar doesn't want children, she never got along with her mother, she never had good family relationships, etc. In a very short period of time, she goes from being vehemently opposed to having children to going to a fertility specialist, receiving in vitro fertilization, miscarrying, repeating in vitro, becoming pregnant with twins, losing one baby, resolving conflicts with a step daughter, etc. Barb (Barbie, Barbara)does not want to have a child, her husband does, she is impregnated by some one else, tells Charlie after he has learned that he is sterile, divorces him, he finds a girl to marry who already has a child, and soon adopts a son from the same orphanage where he himself was raised. Diana and Andy are unable to conceive, miraculously adopt a baby available to them through an old aquaintance of Andy's, and immediately Diana becomes pregnant, and quickly repairs the dastardly relationship she has with her two sisters, who are walking baby factories.

While I am sure these problems present in any relationship would be major life events for most, there is no depth to any of the characters beyond these issues. They have no concern for anything other than their ability to produce babies. Their reactions to life events are consistently more dramatic than the average person in real life. Steel should spend time developing her characters and show us the real angst of couples who go through these challanging situations, rather than giving readers simplistic answers to very hard life events.

Danielle Steel created three couples that must make decisions of whether or not to have children, and how far they are willing to go to have, or not to have them. Each story has sacrifices they must make, and each sacrifice comes with it's own reward or problem. Danielle Steel is a wonderful writer, always providing unique conflicts and struggles, and not always the best ending. This story is a bit unusual, as the characters are more everyday people and dealing with their inner conflict of defining their family, whether it be with or without children, to determine their lifestyle. Very interesting and warm story.

Mixed Blessings *****

Ths story or should I say THESE stories were wonderful. DS discusses three diffirent families with one problem...getting babies. This book kept me on my toes. I must say that I liked the judge/loyer storyline best.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would.

This book was okay, but I thought Danielle Steel could do better. All three stories were too repetitive. They all had to do with people having babies and people being sterile. I also think that the story of Diana and Andy was too far fetched because she got pregnant even though she was presumably sterile and had a one in ten thousand chance of getting pregnant. I think D.S. fans should consider reading it though, because everyone has their own opinion.

I really dont know what you people are talking about when you say this is a poorly written book. I loved it so much, and I couldn't put it down. THe stuggles that the couples went through to get pregant were very encouraging to the people that really do have infertility problems. I loved it and i recmomend it to anyone.

I could not put this book down. I loved it. I loved how she mixed the characters up in this book, but i will have to say, that a lot of the book was pretty predictable. But i really did like it alot. I would read it again..

This is a really bad book.
Everything is blown out of proportion the characters are hysterical self-centered individuals who are either very bad or very good (according to the authors standards).
There is the guy who had asthma and nobody wanted to foster and he marries this bad bad girl who does not want to have family and children dumps him and then before finding the next perfect girl goes around thinking along the lines that he is sterile and he doesn't deserve to be married. Not even soap operas go that far...
As for the others, there is the drama of an ex neglected child now lawyer who decides to have a baby while her husband is over 60 (now the fact that when the kid will be twenty the guy will be definitely over eighty and probably dead is not of major concern to anybody). An interesting part is when the gal has a miscarriage and the doctor mentions something about "dead tissue" in which case she screams saying: "This is not dead tissue this is our baby" or something like that.
And last but not least we see the other couple who the woman gets completely bonkers because she hasn't got pregnant after twelve moths drives everybody crazy and finally adopts a baby whose parents miraculously look like herself and her husband and then gets pregnant herself. Of course coming from a family with two sisters baby breeding machines the hysteria is hardly surprising but things like the sister fight in Thanksgiving not only doesn't look as a hooligan fight (I presume the author has never attended any...) but is rather hilarious especially the dialogue.
So the message is: get marry early and breed early. Stay home produce as many babies as possible be as hysterical and egocentric as you can and live happily ever after.
As for the language it looks more like a 10 year old's essay rather than a novel.
This was the first and last book I will ever read from the author but I would expect a best selling author to do better than that.

This was the very first Danielle Steel book I read. Well for me since I'm 17 I didn't understand it much it was well written, it was sad, funny, romantic. I would reccommend this. Read this before getting married, or if you decide to have kids. I wouldn't reccomend this for young reader's cause of the content. Enjoy!