The Bottom Line
I Heart My Inlaws is a funny read geared towards women maneuvering the lifelong relationship with their male partner's family. From "Meet the Baggage" to "The Holiday Scramble" to "Sharing Your Bundle of Joy" and everything in between, Poch offers a cinematographic view of what its like to meet and love the family you'll marry into, one joke at a time.
Pros
- Laugh out loud funny in places.
- Relationship milestones are easily found through well outlined chapters.
Cons
- Flops as a how-to book with little insight other than the obvious.
- For those who like and/or get along with their inlaws, this isn't the book to read.
Description
Author: Dina Koutas Poch
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
ISBN: 0-8050-8279-4
Published: June 2007
Price: $15.00 USD
Book Details: Paperback, 240 pages, no illustrations, charts.
Guide Review - I Heart My Inlaws by Dina Koutas Poch
I must admit I was leary to read I Heart My Inlaws. Of the few long term relationships I've had where I've met my partners' parents, all have gone over well. There are no horror stories, jokes or strange happenings to be shared, and some of the in law friendships have far outlasted the relationships themselves.
Still, I would have appreciated a book that offered up advice on how to make the first meeting less stressful for everyone involved, as well as how to maneuver some of the more challenging of situations - such as what kinds of gifts are appropriate and how to tactfully answer difficult questions. I Heart My Inlaws attempts to offer this kind of advice, but unfortunately falls short in order to get the reader laughing at some of the absurd situations compiled.
Such as? In a chapter entitled, "Know Thy Enemy," Poch asks, "True or false: My uncle-in-law is shopping for himself in Wal-Mart's women's lingerie department right now." And in "For Better, For Worse and Forever," Poch states that your mother-in-law will judge you based on the cost of your wedding dress by thinking something along the lines of, "You're a financial floozy and will piss away paychecks."
At times I Heart My Inlaws was confusing and disorienting, moving quickly between well-intentioned advice and slapstick jokes at lightning speed. The advice, although straightforward, isn't as interesting or as unusual as the comedy however, and a reader can't help but wonder just what the book was supposed to be: how-to or humor.
In the end, I Heart My Inlaws would be a fun gift for a newly engaged woman who'd rather laugh at her situation than receive practical advice on how to deal with her inlaws. If you can purchase I Heart My Inlaws knowing it isn't meant as a serious relationship advice book, it will serve well as a humorous companion to a normally stressful situation.
