In this provocative collection of true stories of love, marriage, and divorce, prominent women--including Terry McMillan, Joyce Maynard, and Annie Echols--candidly discuss the good times, the bad times, and what makes or breaks a marriage.

Meet Izzy Rose–a hilarious and chic new stepmom trying to come to terms with the package deal. A single “middle-class socialite” living in San Francisco, Izzy loved her career as a successful, Emmy Award-winning TV producer and she was fine with the fact that she was unmarried and kid-less at thirty-five. But, then she fell in love with an irresistible Southern man named Hank and her Izzy-centric lifestyle turned upside down. In short order, Izzy finds herself saying I DO to becoming a wife and “instant mom” to Hank’s two sons and packing her bags for a new life in Austin, Texas. There, Izzy struggles to hold on to a bit of her professional identity while reinventing the stepmother role in her sassy, stylish, but also loving and vulnerable way. Honest and daring, The Package Deal is a toast to the richness of her new life and a tribute to any woman whose ever fallen in love and then asked, What exactly did I get myself into?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Three signs you need this book: 1) Chicken fingers qualify as adventurous. (Hey, they’re not nuggets.) 2) You live in fear of the white stuff touching the green stuff. 3) Family dinner? What’s family dinner? When Jenny Rosenstrach’s kids were little, her dinner rotation looked like this: Pasta, Pizza, Pasta, Burgers, Pasta. It made her crazy—not only because of the mind-numbing repetition, but because she loved to cook and missed her prekid, ketchup-free dinners. Her solution? A family adventure: She and her husband, Andy, would cook thirty new dishes in a single month—and her kids would try them all. Was it nuts for two working parents to take on this challenge? Yes. But did it transform family dinner from stressful grind to happy ritual? Completely. Here, Rosenstrach—creator of the beloved blog and book Dinner: A Love Story—shares her story, offering weekly meal plans, tons of organizing tips, and eighty-plus super-simple, kid-vetted recipes. Stuck in a rut? Ready to reboot dinner? Whether you’ve never turned on a stove or you’re just starved for inspiration, this book is your secret weapon. Praise for Dinner: The Playbook “Your hard-to-please crew will wolf down these inventive ways to introduce ‘fancy’ foods. Jenny Rosenstrach created them for her family, and she swears you’ll be shocked by the clean plates. . . . Dinner: The Playbook mixes ‘You can do this’ inspiration, practical planning, and easy recipes [with] hard-earned wisdom for getting a kid-pleasing meal on the table, night after night.”—Redbook “The master of simple, low-stress cooking. You might know her from her blog, Dinner, A Love Story; her new book, Dinner: The Playbook, is full of the same secret strategies for busy women.”—Glamour “Families and novice cooks who accept Rosenstrach’s challenge will definitely find a few ‘keepers’ here.”—Library Journal “Jenny Rosenstrach has truly mastered the art of the happy family dinner. This is the most sensible advice on cooking for kids I’ve ever seen: no gimmicks, no tricks, just practical advice for working parents. I wish this book had been around when my son was small.”—Ruth Reichl “This book is for anyone who loves the promise of a home-cooked dinner but gets bogged down by the day-to-day reality of it: picky kids, picky spouses, the extinction of the nine-to-five workday, and the pressure—oh, the pressure—to get it on the table before everyone collapses into a hangry (hungry + angry) meltdown. Which is to say that this book is for me, me, me. And I bet it’s for you too.”—Deb Perelman, author of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook “Well, Jenny Rosenstrach, on the behalf of my whole family, thanks for the most practical—and yet still inspired—cookbook on our shelf. You are singularly responsible for my return to the kitchen.”—Kelly Corrigan, author of Glitter and Glue “Jenny Rosenstrach is warm, wise and a genius when it comes to dinners.”—Joanna Goddard, blogger, A Cup of Jo

When the Honeymoon is over Kelly comes home from a trip only to be blindsided by a note left on the coffee table from her husband saying he is no longer interested in being married to her. She fights the emotional roller coaster most relationships experience. Jada loves her life, her husband, and daughter but craves the attention from her man to give her the business like he use to when they first said I do however, her boss Cole dont mind giving her the attention she desires putting everything she believes in at risk. Madison hides behind her I can do bad by myself attitude by pushing the one man she loved out of her life only to do it again while going to school raising her only son and finding herself truly alone and broken. Kobe is a man, who believes in working hard and providing for his family, but his wife is a selfish She Devil that provides him grief on daily basis, his daughter is the only reason he remains in this mess of a marriage. He simply doesnt know how much more he can take. Jalen loves Reagan and couldnt ask for a better woman, shes everything a black man could ever want fine, smart, and supportive but why he didnt want to put a ring on it was something he had to figure out for himself. Cory the super model is finding himself picking up the pieces of his life after starting over from a relationship that went sour and could affect his future dramatically. Honeymoon happy and peacock proud is how this all begin but when the honeymoon is over and the dust settle and reality comes in like a flood will they remain or face the most challenging situations life throws their way.

„Often we find ourselves in difficult situations, And faced with important decisions which lead us to question our purpose in life, But after weighing the options We quickly realize sometimes our start in life is the ending and how We finish in life is just the beginning.‰