First we meet life-of-the-party Julia who is obsessed
with having a baby. She
is unhappily involved with a sweet, but not-her-type, guy and is
convinced that having a baby will make it all better.
Only she is having problems getting pregnant.
As she spends hundreds on pregnancy tests and sinks into a
funk where she is barely recognizable to friends and co-workers, a
girlfriend snaps her out of it by suggesting she take a break and
join her in New York for awhile.
Next there is independent, commitment allergic, Maeve
who considers motherhood the last thing on her agenda.
But life is fully of irony, and after a passionate
one-night-stand she finds herself pregnant.
Her life is thrown into a tailspin as she struggles with the
decision of whether to keep the baby.
It doesn’t help matters that her mother is dying for a
grandchild and hopes that Maeve marries the father and lives
happily ever after.
And then there is the more traditional, get married
first and then have a baby, Sam who is obsessed with being the
perfect mother that her own mother was not. Sam
is overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being her version of
the perfect mother and has channeled her resentment and frustration
toward her husband who does not know what to do to get his fun
loving, full-of-life, wife back.
Meanwhile, Sam is convinced that she married the wrong man
and having an affair with a friend’s husband is the answer.
Don’t want to tell you how these women’s lives
intertwine because that would give away too much of the story, but
this is a fun read that will give you food for thought (or craving)
whether you are mommy-bound or not.
It is sprinkled with good reasons not to have a baby, lots
of great reasons to long for a bundle of joy, and even temptations
to have another for those of us who already belong to the
motherhood club. And
it is able to realistically portray, within the realms of fiction,
the joys and frustrations of early motherhood.
About the author: Jane Green worked for many years as a journalist, with occasional forays into public relations for film, television and the odd celebrity. The author of five other novels, including Straight Talking, Jemima J, Mr. Maybe, Bookends, and Spellbound, she lives outside New York City with her husband and children.
