As a reviewer, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that Stepmonster is as much about divorce as it is about 
step-mothering. It is difficult for me to accept the fact that marriage, fostering children, divorce, and subsequent remarriage have pretty much become an accepted way of life. Stepmonster states that 70 percent of such unions fail. Would a person hunting for a new automobile even consider a purchase if 70 percent of that model line of cars failed?
To me, marriage vows are very sacred. They are for life. Thus it is critical that partners really, really, r-e-a-l-l-y, know each other before they produce children because as Stepmonster points out, a second marriage can produce a lot of unquestionably hurtful feelings.
For those individuals considering a marriage where either partner or both already have children, this book and its wealth of wisdom about the importance of cooperative parenting is a must read. For husbands it is critical to understand that his children are exactly that — his offspring. They will remain his obligation after marriage and he must be the one to deal with the way they behave, the way they adjust to their new stepmother, the way they accept their own responsibilities.
For bewildered stepmothers, Stepmonster can ease your pain. It can show you ways of dealing with your husband’s children, even if it means excluding yourself from the household situation. You are not there to be abused. You are there to foster new relationships as a loving, concerned person, so long as you and your husband cooperatively work out family matters.
I would also recommend this book to readers who know little about stepmothers and the staggering problems they face with their new marriages. I must confess that I, probably like most people, simply assumed that a second marriage with children would work out because it worked out, often riotously, on the old TV show, The Brady Bunch. Wow! Stepmonster is a real eye-opener!
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