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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is for the sisterhood of stepmothers...., June 7, 2009
This review is from: The Package Deal: My (not-so) Glamorous Transition from Single Gal to Instant Mom (Paperback)
Izzy Rose has written a delightful book: The Package Deal about her journey from independent career woman to taking on an instant family with two teenage boys! The role she finds herself in is peppered with "Rules" she is learning along the way and some great recipes for coping - check out Gram's Rum Cake. Izzy combines warmth, humor and the hopes and dreams of most women who decide to take on this challenge for the man they love. From the time she makes her decision to move across the country, away from career, family and friends for love, you are in the struggle with her. The Rules that evolve along the way are rules so many in steplife learn, and usually the hard way: Rule #10: Surrender your expectations; Rule #12: When the Kids have a "tude, suck it up and don't take it personally; Rule #16: Compromise but don't sacrifice yourself. Wisdom she is gaining as she moves through the process. Hank and Izzy's relationship is what stands out though because with a good partnership, the bumps and grinds, stresses and hurts are bearable, even when they seem unbearable. Early on they developed their House Rules, which included the rules the whole family follows and the couples' expectations of the kids; the entire family signed it (kids and parents) and both parents enforced the rules, establishing themselves as the parental heads of the household. Hank is also a partner who realizes the sacrifice she is making to be with him and supports her; he pays attention to date nights, to showing appreciation and to letting her go when she needed to go . Their relationship is one of openness with another, an openness that allows for honest communication, honest expression of feelings and paying attention to one another's needs. So when the turbulence comes, which it always, always does, they are learning to navigate it together and to weather the storms. Wishing Izzy and Hank a long and happy marriage and I suggest that you pick up this book, laugh with her, cry with her, get yourself some good girlfriends (or at least l) who is a stepmom and poor your hearts out to one another. I know my girlfriends have helped me survive it all!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Hilarious, Brilliant, Awful Truth: The Package Deal, July 29, 2009
This review is from: The Package Deal: My (not-so) Glamorous Transition from Single Gal to Instant Mom (Paperback)
Attention everyone who has ever told a woman with stepkids, "You just need a sense of humor." Calling all those who presume that the whole problem for those of us having problems with stepkinder is that we just don't know how to laugh it off. Clearly you've never met Izzy Rose or read her book, The Package Deal. It's not easy to make stepmothering funny, because the difficulties can be so, well, aggravating, consuming, unremitting, and un-funny. Particularly in the first year or so, as the woman with stepkids endures everything from insults to her cooking from kids in a loyalty bind to the insult of stepfamily architecture in which she is the stuck outsider to all the persistent cultural dumbthink about stepmothering ("You'll get back whatever you give"; "All you need are good intentions," "Just love them and they'll come around," etc). In spite of all she's (and all stepmothers are) up against, Rose pulls of the seemingly impossible: she writes about the frequently bruising and brutal first year of going from single gal to insta-stepmom in a book that is hilarious, smart, and compulsively readable. Never one to feel sorry for herself, and always one to find the silver label lining in any bad situation (Izzy has a thing about adult beverages, bless her), she's more than just a wisecracking protagonist you root for and want to go shoe shopping with. Like a true friend, Izzy makes you laugh, it's true; but she'll also make you cry, make you think, and help you feel profoundly understood. Wednesday Martin, Ph.D. author, Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timeless love story re: a new stepfamily, May 26, 2009
This review is from: The Package Deal: My (not-so) Glamorous Transition from Single Gal to Instant Mom (Paperback)
Izzy Rose has given us a delightful story about being a new stepmother. She tells it like it is. She amuses us with her funny,and/or painfully honest stepfamily situations. It's from those stories the reader can gain valuable information and wisdom...as well as hope Hers is a timeless and touching tale. There's nothing like that shocking first year in a new stepfamily! Like many of us, Izzy was uprooted by love. She moved from an exciting career in a perfect locaton with built in best friends to WHAT? - a strange place with no friends, no family, and the expectation of raising someone else's half grown children. She goes back and forth from cocky confidence to feelings of failure and fear of being miserably stuck. My favorite part of The Package Deal is how beautifully she portrays the strong love between her and her fiance. It's that force that propels them to the next level of connection, communication and confidence that makes it all worthwhile. Thank you Izzy Rose for this great contribution to the latest stepmother and stepfamily literature. Your story is thoroughly enjoyable. Susan Wisdom, LPC Author of Stepcoupling
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