Allreaders.com

Mixed Blessings Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Mixed Blessings


Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas assumed because they were young and healthy, having children would not be a problem. Unfortunately, that is not true. Charles Winwood is doing well professionally and wants to start a family with his wife, aspiring actress Barbie Mason. She hopes that her career will take off soon, and pregnancy would slow that down.
Click here to see the rest of this review...


Pilar Graham and her husband Brad Graham both have careers within the legal system and an agreement to be child-free. However, when she knows that her biological clock is nearing the point of no return, she begins to question her own feelings on motherhood.

Diana has watched her mother and sisters conceive with no effort, and when she doesn't, it skews her feelings towards her family, her husband and herself. When she discovers that an IUD she received in college did irreversible damage to her reproductive organs, her marriage starts to buckle. After considering and rejecting the options of surrogacy and adoption, she is emotionally distraught and separates from her husband.

They have a lengthy separation, where she was coming to terms with her infertility and learned to accept. Within hours of their reunion, they learn of a young couple who are in the hospital having a baby they cannot parent and they fly to them. They are able to adopt the baby and believe their lives are complete, except that Diana seems sick and exhausted. Preparing for the worst, they discover that without fertility treatments, they conceived a baby and soon they have two healthy, beautiful children who are only nine months apart.

Charles Winwood grew up in foster care, suffering from severe asthma and never knew what living in a real family is like. When met and married his beautiful wife, he hoped to rectify that by having his family to come home to every day. He cannot understand why the minor acting jobs that his wife gets are more important than becoming parents, so he attempts to get his wife pregnant by forgoing birth control when she is intoxicated.

When months go by and his best efforts fail, he sees a specialist on his own to rule out any fertility issues he might have. The test results are devastating, when he learns he is sterile and will never have any biological children of his own. Soon after receiving that news, Barbie comes home and tells him she is pregnant and he realizes it cannot be his child. She confesses to an affair and briefly leaves their home. When he finds her to tell her he will raise the baby with her, Barbie admits to an abortion and their marriage is over.

As his grief ends, he meets a single mom and her daughter. As they become closer, he realizes that they are the family he has always wanted. and after they marry, they adopt a little boy from an orphanage with the same challenges he had.   

Pilar Graham and her husband Brad tried to get pregnant without medical assistance and experience pregnancy loss. After receiving a number of fertility treatments, she conceives twins and spends much of the pregnancy on bed-rest. When she goes into labor, one of the babies has already died and they learn how challenging it is to lose someone before you knew them. Finally, despite medical opinions that say she cannot conceive again without assistance, breastfeeding and her age, she spontaneously conceives another baby.
Best part of story, including ending: It illustrated very clearly how infertility can not only change the way you feel about yourself, but your perceptions of others and they way they see you. Infertility has destroyed many relationships and even modern medicine cannot cure everything. It also clearly laid out the risks of late in life pregnancy.

Best scene in story: When Diana is at her mother's house on Thanksgiving, she is extremely pregnant. She doesn't want her mother to know she is sick, because she thinks it is food poisoning and doesn't want tu hurt her feelings. However, she is labor, has been in early labor for a day or more and very quickly gives birth within a few minutes of Thanksgiving dinner in her parent's home.

Opinion about the main character: I loved Charles Winwood. Having grown up in foster care, with asthma and a runny nose, the author described his desire for a family so clearly that I almost cried. Even with that, and the state of his marriage to Barbie, he still wanted to be a father and was a really great guy.

The review of this Book prepared by Roberta Still a Level 7 Marbled Godwit scholar

Mixed Blessings, adapted from a novel by Danielle Steel, concerns three couples who are each trying to have a baby. One couple is older and feels they are racing against time to become pregnant. A newlywed couple learns they have very different opinions about becoming parents. A third couple is financially successful and very happy together, but face a struggle when they have trouble conceiving.
The review of this Book prepared by wendy



Chapter Analysis of Mixed Blessings

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Pregnancy/Child rearing    -   Yes Major part of story:    -   dealing with unexpected pregnancy    -   artificial insemination (sex with robot?)    -   can't get pregnant

Main Character

Gender    -   Female Profession/status:    -   business executive    -   a lawyer creature Age:    -   20's-30's    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White (American)

Setting

How much descriptions of surroundings?    -   3 () United States    -   Yes

Writing Style

Sex in book?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   descript of kissing    -   touching of anatomy    -   impregnation/reproduction Amount of dialog    -   significantly more dialog than descript    -   significantly more descript than dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like Mixed Blessings

Danielle Steel Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
2 Ways to Search!
Or



Our Chief Librarian