Danielle Dufayet: Oh Momma!

Danibooks Publishing (Trade Paperback), ISBN 0-9701291-0-6

On the surface Oh Momma! sounds like a wonderful idea. As the husband of a single mother with children, I can understand the direction Danielle Dufayet attempts to pursue — a do-it-yourself guide to the traps and pitfalls of second time relationships that include children. Unfortunately I don’t think Oh Momma! quite fills the bill.

With 19 chapters covering such areas as a boyfriend’s intentions and dealing with emotions, children, sex and ex-husbands, Dufayet gives thoughtful comments on the best way to handle these situations.

However, Oh Momma! tends to provide a commentary instead of serving as a guide. Dufayet offers little more than obvious, common sense suggestions and observations. I guess some men may not realize they cannot take the place of a child’s real father, and that a single mother carries a depth of responsibility far beyond that of a single woman. Hopefully most men do appreciate these factors — if not, then this book renders a poor reflection on the intelligence of the average male.

The book lacks a lot in depth. For example, in the chapter that one would think would appeal to most men — “Sex (finally, what you’ve been waiting for)” — the author takes an entire chapter (all 345 words of it) to instruct readers to lock their bedroom doors. You would think that a topic so rife with possibilities for dialog and opportunities to smooth both sexes’ confused expectations would inspire more than: “Well, duh.”

I’d like to say more about Oh Momma! but I don’t want to give away all the secrets contained in this slim, 65-page booklet. Oh Momma! does give some honest insight and a vision of the relationship from the other side. Alas, priced at $9.95, it doesn’t provide enough of that kind of insight for this particular reader to recommend it.

Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith divides his talents between Webmastering, fiction writing and house keeping. Currently possessed by the Demon Comedic Muse, he is writing a comic fantasy entitled, Huw’s the Hero, an urban fantasy, vampire detective novel, Valencius Covers his Tracks. His science fiction romance Cyberius III was published in December 2005 by New Concepts Publishing under the pseudonym of S.J. Willing and he is working on the sequel, Poseidon VII. More information can be found at his normal website and at S.J. Willing’s webpage.