It’s the Most Controversial Subject in Family Law.

Should stepparents get custody after a divorce?

Millions of American women wind up being the primary caregivers of someone else’s children.

A new novel, Fifteen Minutes of Shame (Plume/Penguin, April 2008) shines a light on the most hotly-debated topic in family law today: stepparents rights. 

The main character in Fifteen Minutes of Shame, Darby Vaughn, is a celebrity relationships guru who goes through a very public divorce, and hopes to claim custody of her stepchildren, whom she has grown to love.   This is an issue affecting millions of stepparents across the country, and while some states are beginning to recognize the rights of stepparents as ”psychological parents”, most states give stepparents no rights at all.

Fast fact: 23% of children in the U.S. are being raised by a stepparent. (19.4 million)

Fifteen Minutes of Shame author Lisa Daily and celebrity divorce attorney John Mayoue provide commentary and insight on this hot topic that affects millions of families in the US.

About the author: Lisa Daily is a real-life TV relationships expert, author of the bestselling dating advice book Stop Getting Dumped!  and a popular media guest and source seen everywhere from the New York Times to iVillage Live. Fifteen Minutes of Shame  is her first novel.  For more, visit www.lisadaily.com

More great angles for reviewers & feature writers - Fifteen Minutes of Shame

Review Fifteen Minutes of Shame
It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s the perfect spring read. Lisa Daily’s debut novel is pegged to be the hit of the summer:  what happens when America’s favorite dating expert finds out her husband is cheating?

Don’t Call Me Cute.
Fifteen Minutes of Shame is funny and feminine and decked out in the mandatory pastel cover, but it’s also smart with emotional depth. It’s a question that has many women’s fiction writers up in arms: Is it worse to be perceived as a stuffy literary author, and then have the reader be shocked to find that you’re funny?  Or worse to be perceived as funny but shallow, and have the reader be surprised to find that you’re smart? Why lots of women’s fiction authors can’t stand cute.

Reality Lit
Bad-boss books such as The Devil Wears Prada, The Second Assistant and The Nanny Diaries have given readers a peek into the real-life worlds of fashion, Hollywood, and Park Avenue mommies. Now, Fifteen Minutes of Shame gives an insider’s look of the coaches and gurus who have proliferated popular culture in the last decade, offering advice in every area of our lives from finance to romance. Why readers are so fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes.

New Trend in Fiction: Hybrid Lit
Fifteen Minutes of Shame is a dating advice book within a novel. Lisa Daily is leading the pack in the emerging trend of Hybrid Lit  (a non-fiction and fiction blend).  She talks about why reality is seeping into our fiction, with a crop of new novels that offer everything from writing instruction to recipes.