Monday, July 7, 2008

Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily

This month for my real-life book club, we read Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily. I chose the book for us because it's a fun summer read so I was hoping more people would read it, and also because the publisher sent swag bags for everyone in my book club. Nothing like bribery to get me to read a book. The book wasn't free though. I checked it out from the library.

For those of you who haven't heard of Lisa Daily, she's a dating specialist and the founder of the Dreamgirl Academy, in which she teaches women to be their best selves so they can be better catches and find better men. She wrote the nonfiction dating guide book Stop Getting Dumped! which eventually became a bestseller. Fifteen Minutes of Shame is her first novel.

The book opens with Darby spotting her husband at a gas station down the street even though he's supposed to be on a business trip in Atlanta. From there we follow Darby through all of the freak-out modes any woman would go through if they find out they've been lied to about something that has sure signs of an affair. In the end her freak out appears to have been a big mistake. Everything seems to be in order, so she heads off on her previously-scheduled book tour...only to find out on the Today show that her husband has filed for divorce. Dating expert Darby Vaughn has just been broken up with on national television. In essence, the terribly public divorce ruins her carreer (albeit momentarily) and she is left depending on her girlfriends to help her figure out what went wrong as she navigates through the sea of divorce and strives to get custody of her stepchildren.

All in all, I really liked this book. It was a fun easy read and I loved that it didn't make "finding a man" the main point of the story. Most chick lit books irritate me because the women in them all seem to think they have no life, no matter how successful and powerful they are, if they don't have a man. In this book, we see Darby take the humiliation of a nationally televised breakup and work her way out of it within weeks. She shows strength of character and realizes that maybe all the advice she's been giving over the years (never take back a cheater, etc.) aren't quite as easy to follow when it's your own relationship on the line. The one part of the book that I didn't really buy into was her wanting to get the kids back because she loved them so much. There were a lot of touching moments with the kids in the beginning, but once they are gone with their dad and his ex-wife it seems like they're just thrown in haphazardly.

So, overall, I'd recommend this book. It's a great beach read and doesn't take too much concentration. And it had the added benefit of not making me feel completely vapid and empty after I read it.

5 comments:

Laura said...

Hmmm...this one sounds like a possible read for the chick lit challenge. I'm interested in the fact that you said you didn't feel "vapid" after reading it! :)

Becca said...

Laura: A lot of chick lit books make me feel really empty and terrible after I read them. I don't know why. This one didn't though and that alone gives it a thumbs up in my book. It's still silly and a just for fun read, but definitely better than a lot out there. What other books are you reading for the challenge?

melissa said...

I interviewed this chick for a story I wrote last summer! She sent me a copy of the book, too, but I never read it :( Maybe now I will ...

Becca said...

Melissa: Is that you M-Doll? You should read the book! What can it hurt if the book was free? One big reason I normally don't read chick lit is because I don't want to waste my money.

Kim L said...

I liked this one too. I thought it was a nice, quick read and pretty good especially for being a chick lit. I thought her descriptions of her freakouts funny and even though the eventual conclusion was a little predictable, overall I was glad I read it. I do not read much chick lit either.