Book Review: Daisy Dooley Does Divorce

By Sandy Amazeen Nov 20, 2007, 1:57 GMT

At thirty-nine self-help addict Daisy Dooley finds herself divorced and living at home with her mother, a dachshund breeder. Not the sort of life Daisy envisioned for herself when she walked down the aisle three years earlier and the idea of having to reenter the dating scene is enough to turn her into a quivering bowl of jelly. Daisy’s inner turmoil is compounded when an ill advised one night stand resulted in the soul searching that comes with an unexpected pregnancy. As Daisy struggles to come to terms with the discovery that her ex is anticipating the birth of his first child, she realizes that through the years, there has only been one man that has generated the spark she longs for, Julius. The problem is, Julius is already married and although he is interested in Daisy to the extent that he is happy to give her a baby, has no interest in leaving his wife. Daisy must decide what is important to her and develop the guts to take what she wants while realizing Lucy and Jess may not have the perfect lives either.

Daisy does midlife crisis would be more apt as she remains steadfastly whiney, blaming her ex for not fighting for her, her father for choosing not to fight for his family and generally absolving herself from taking responsibility for her decisions. She fails to learn anything from a dreadful one-night stand, repeating the experience without regard for pregnancy or STD’s. While she is more then willing to lean upon her best friends Lucy and Jess, Daisy is typically too self-absorbed to recognize when they are in need of support. By the time Daisy finally grows up and takes charge of her life, readers may have lost interest as the humor falls short of carrying the storyline.