What makes stepmothering so hard? And why are we, as people and a culture, so hard on stepmothers? How can we make it easier?Stepmonster is a truly unique and groundbreaking book for women with stepchildren, men with kids who repartner, adult stepchildren, and anyone who cares about them. It is a comprehensive, cross-cultural, research-based reconsideration of stepfamily dynamics-from the perspective of the stepmother. How does she think, act, and...

A 'modern' young woman of the 16th century, Danielle is as independent and wise as she is beautiful and kind. Against remarkable odds, she stands up to her scheming stepmother and works miracles on the lives around her, including the prince of France.

"In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous reimagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella's "evil" stepmother. We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we? As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated...

Truman Capote's first novel is a story of almost supernatural intensity and inventiveness, an audacious foray into the mind of a sensitive boy as he seeks out the grown-up enigmas of love and death in the ghostly landscape of the deep South. At the age of twelve, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully's Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead...

A reimagining of the fairy tale Snow White recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity set in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. -- Provided by publisher. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty, the opposite of the life she's left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman....

"Cinderella's Prince Charming is divorced and at a dead end. The new owner of a bookstore, Charming has given up on women, royalty, and anything that smacks of a future. That is, until he meets up with Mellie... Mellie is sick and tired of stepmothers being misunderstood. Vampires have redeemed their reputation, why shouldn't stepmothers do the same? Then she runs into the handsomest, most charming man she's ever met and discovers she's going about...

"Here comes the bride!" The English Roses' number-one teacher, Miss Fluffernutter, is getting married--to Binah's father! Binah should be thrilled at the idea of having a stepmum as kind and generous as Miss F., but deep down, she's having doubts. Can the Roses help Binah welcome Miss Fluffernutter into her family and pull off the wedding of the century? Or will this walk down the aisle go completely haywire?

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. Cyril's son Danny and his older sister Maeve are exiled from...

Abandoned by their father and living in poverty with their heartless stepmother in Louisiana, two sisters from the Philippines, twelve-year-old Sol and six-year-old Ming, learn the true meaning of family.

"From the lighthouse sporting a huge wreath to the Christmas Stroll along its quaint streets, holidays on Nantucket are always magical. However, while the town might be aglow like a scene from Dickens tale, unfortunately for newly married island newcomer Nicole Somerset, Christmas means a dreaded visit from her step-daughter. Headstrong Kennedy brings with her a family of her own--husband Archer and adorable 3 year old son, Maddox--but Kennedy's yet...