The Stepfamily Life Bookstore

TheStepfamilyLife Bookstore
For Stepmoms

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Featured Selection
You're Not my Mom!
By Kali & Elizabeth Schnieders
Read our extensive interview

Books You Can Use: You're Not My Mom!

TheStepfamilyLife interviewed Kali Schnieders, co-author of You’re Not My Mom! with Elizabeth Schnieders. When I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down! Get an inside glimpse into this great book about stepfamily life which draws on the perspectives of both a stepmom (Kali) and her stepdaughter. Hear about their ten-year journey toward a positive and rewarding relationship - with all its ups and downs. One of this book’s key messages is that stepfamily relationships do not have to be terrible – there is hope that you can bond with your stepchild and have a positive relationship. This book can help not only stepmoms, but also anyone dealing with a difficult relationship. Read our extensive interview

Featured Selection
Ex-Wives & Ex-Lives: Survival Guide for the Next Wife
By Paula J. Egner

Books You Can Use: Ex-Wives and Ex-Lives: Survival Guide for the Next Wife

If you are a “next-wife” seeking validation for the assault of feelings that invade your sensibilities after saying “I do,” then “Ex-Wives and Ex-Lives: Survival Guide for the Next Wife” by Paula Egner offers a shoulder to lean on. At only 125-pages, this little manifesto for next wives packs a punch (and even features women in boxing gloves on its cover). It reviews some of the common weebie-jeebies next-wives face – dealing with the grandmother who has photos of your husband and his ex-wife all over the living room, the feelings common to stepparents, handling hostile in-laws, living in his ex-wife’s house, and managing the antagonistic ex who manipulates her children to spy on you and your spouse. Unfortunately it seemed like some of the anecdotes Egner drew from real step-couples had marriages ending in divorce – not a cheery thought indeed. Strategies for coping suggested here are minimal but helpful. If you have the stepmom-next-wife blues and need to hear a small voice to assure you that no, you are not losing it and your feelings are normal, this is the ticket.

A Stepmom's Book of Prayer. Seeking God, Growing Strong, Finding Peace
by Karon Goodman

A Stepmom's Book of Prayer: Seeking God,...

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Books You Can Use: A Stepmom’s Book of Prayer. Seeking God, Growing Strong, Finding Peace" Reviewed by Dawn Miller
In her latest book stepmom Karon Goodman discusses how stepmoms can find strength through prayer. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is divided into four sections – beginning, struggling, coping and growing. Each section reviews common five emotions felt by stepmoms, discusses Biblical scriptures relating to those emotions, and offers questions to stimulate thinking and prayer. Comments from real-life stepmoms reflecting on their spiritual insights, struggles and triumphs make the book down-to-earth and ground it in the reality stepmoms face. At a slim 132 pages, the book is a quick read. However, this is a lot to absorb, and readers may want to pace themselves through one emotional highlight per day as a devotional – in 20 days you will be through the entire book!

The Stepmom's Guide to Simplifying Your Life
By Karon Goodman

Books You Can Use - "The Stepmom's Guide to Simplifying Your Life" Reviewed by Dawn Miller
Karon Phillips Goodman’s sanity-saving “The Stepmom’s Guide to Simplifying Your Life,” reminds us that stepmotherhood is not a sprint – it’s a marathon. Stressed out from trying to engineer the “perfect family” immediately, Goodman realized that if she didn’t get her own expectations under control and simplify her life that she was going to sabotage both her marriage and family. She urges her readers to focus on what they can control and to toss the mythical expectations they brought into their marriages. Using her own life as an example, she advises stepmoms to set realistic goals and expectations, to simplify the obligations they accept and to remain doggedly goal-focused. Interspersed throughout the book, the “tales from the blender” stories highlight real stepmom insights and experiences. Goodman plunks these little vignettes strategically throughout the text for readers to ponder. This is a book written from the heart that speaks to the heart. As a stepmom balancing a chaotic life, I found Goodman’s single-minded clarity focusing on what only I, the stepmom can do, to be very helpful. I also took to heart her injunction to simplify or perish and to be goal-focused. So get on your track shoes everyone!

"The Courage to Be a Stepmom"
by Dawn Miller
I bought a copy of "The Courage to Be A Stepmom" after my husband and I began dating and found it to be very down-to-earth - although as a stepmom to be, I couldn't quite relate to everything in it just yet. Now with one year of marriage under my belt, I can say her appraisal of the situation was honest. Our first year of marriage was an emotional roller-coaster for me - I was surprised by the depth of my emotions and how they would just bubble out sometimes. If you'd like to hear someone else's take on the book, Sue Thoele (creator of the Second Wives Club) has a review online.

Stepmotherhood: How to Survive Without Feeling Frustrated, Left Out or Wicked

Stepothers and Stepdaughters: Relationships of Chance, Friendships for a Lifetime

Step-Wives: Ten Steps to Help Ex-Wives and Stepmothers End the Struggle and Put the Kids First

Women of Divorce: Mothers, Daugthers, Stepmothers. The New Triangle