A First Class Read (The Stepmother - Carrie Adams)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	The Stepmother - Carrie Adams
Date:	10/09/08 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant story & Well developed characters.

Disadvantages: It ended!

I'm always on the look out for a good book but tend to find I loose interest in most of them before I even reach the halfway point. I don't really like the chick lit type books that are totally predictable and always end happily with the girl chasing the guy for the most part of the story and then ending up together. There's just no substance to many of them and I feel like once you've read one you've read them all. On a recent visit to my local library I selected five books in total, one of which I got board of after just three pages and I only ended up finishing two of them. There was however one which really stood out...

"The Stepmother" by Carrie Adams isn't normally the type of book I'd go for judging by the baby pink cover and the glossy writing on it. This to me normally signals another unoriginal chick lit type book which I could read in my sleep. However I decided to give it a go and found myself hooked after the first chapter! Carrie Adams has quite an unusual background in that she used to be a top flyer in the world of oil, however she's recently produced two books and now lives in London with her husband. She's the author of the 2006 released novel "The Godmother" and also "The Stepmother" which was released in 2008.

The Plot

"The Stepmother" is a tale of two halves; one of those by the mother of three children and one of those by the future stepmother of the same three children. First we meet Bea who is the mother of one teenager and two younger children and learn of her break up from her husband Jimmy. After a couple of chapters we are introduced to Tessa who is the new love of James (aka Jimmy) and the future stepmother.

The story is told by the two characters from their various viewpoints and follows them both from James introducing Tessa to the girls and Bea to their actual engagement party and beyond. During this time we learn of the trials and tribulations faced by both women - Bea's worry that Tessa will replace her as the main mother figure in her beloved girl's lives and Tessa's worry that she'll never live up to superwoman Bea.

The tale encompasses a huge amount of events that are both depicted from the viewpoint of the two women, and very often there are striking similarities. The events include Tessa trying to bribe the children to like her, Tessa's father dying and Amber (the eldest daughter) starting her periods. It's interesting to view the events from both sides and to see the conflicting emotions, each women jealous of the other one throughout.

The Characters

As the tale is told from the viewpoint of the two different women I thought it would be worthwhile to give you a small insight into them. Prior to her children Bea had a very successful career but gave it all up to devote her life to Jimmy and her girls. She's a truly devoted mother who is clearly battling fears of insecurity and insufficiency throughout the tale. She worries that her girls will prefer Tessa to her and also worries about her new found love for her ex husband and her desire to win him back.

She's a truly likeable character and one that any woman who has faced such a situation would be able to relate to. During the story she has a somewhat mid life crisis and turns to drink which didn't surprise me in the slightest, the revelations she makes throughout the book gave me a growing sense of sympathy for her. She's a truly remarkable character by the end of the story and has come through such a journey from where the book started, it's impossible not to like her and not to will her on through the tale.

Tessa King is a successful lawyer for a record company and seems to be everything that Bea isn't on the surface. She's reached this point in her life without any contact with children, except for a few godchildren, and has been largely independent. She finds it hard to accept James's commitment to his children and even feels envious of his eldest daughter Amber. In a similar sense to Bea, she worries that the children will never accept her how she is and that she will never manage to bond with them.

Although I did think I wouldn't like her after the story opened with Bea talking I found it impossible not to like her. She told her side of the tale in a really honest manner and the insecurities she felt would never have crossed my mind normally. She felt genuine concern and upset that the children would never accept her and she tries really hard throughout the novel to gain their acceptance. No matter how much I tried to hate it I found I was almost willing for her to win James by the end of the novel too!

My Opinion

I absolutely adored this novel and couldn't put it down; by the end I was so desperate to know which character won the man that I read the last eight chapters in one go! I really didn't think I was going to enjoy this novel but it was actually one of the best ones I've read this year. The author wrote with such compassion and honesty for the characters that it was hard not to become entrapped in what she was saying; I found them to both be so likeable that I was rooting for them both at the same time.

I prefer books that are set over a longer period of time rather than a week or so as I feel you don't really see any character development. From what I could tell this book was set over about six to eight months, maybe a year, and I felt that the characters really developed and progressed. The two main characters as well as some of the other characters went through significant journeys and I feel by sharing these with them the reader had the chance to really bond with the characters, which I certainly did I think.

As I've already mentioned I found it impossible not to like both characters, obviously one automatically presumes that the stepmother will be evil trying to steal the children away from the mother but this book gave a very refreshing and probably quite accurate description of what really goes on. The feelings and thoughts that Tessa had actually evoked a whole new realisation that very often it's not only the mother that worries about being replaced, the new woman never feels good enough either.

It touched on a number of quite controversial matters such as mother father custody issues and the issue of dangerous levels of drinking. What it did give me was an insight into some mothers that do drink, in this novel it was clear that Bea was really struggling with so much in her life, not to mention her growing anorexia and bulimia problem, but it also showed me that sometimes people can't help turning to drink even when they knows it's wrong and is upsetting harmless people around them.

What I also liked was that this book featured an epilogue so it gave the reader a chance to see things in the future after the main ending of the novel. Although in the last chapter it's quite clear what's going to happen I'm always left with a sense of wonder as to whether or not it really did happen. This book comes around full circle; it starts and ends at the children's school concert which I thought was quite a nice touch really. It left me to sleep soundly, knowing that the ending had continued and come true.

If you enjoy a bit of chick lit but prefer something with a bit more grit and a bit more substance to it then I'd suggest you check out this author. I really enjoyed this novel and found that I read it within about half a week, once you get to certain points you'll find that you've simply got to read on in order to find out what happens. It's one of those rare novels that actually managed to bring a tear to my eye as well towards the end.

After doing some research I've discovered that "The Godmother" actually involves Tessa King and her life as she meets her new man James, so it actually precedes the story that occurs in this book and gives it an introduction. Therefore my advice would be to try and read this one first as it's clear that "The Stepmother" is meant to follow on from this one. However it's certainly not going to stop me from going out and getting hold of "The Godmother," if it's only half as good as this one it'll still be a fantastic read!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A novel that looks at life from the side of the mother AND the stepmother.