Thursday, August 28, 2014

Expecting by Ann Lewis Hamilton

4 Star

A mom, a dad, a baby...and another dad.

Laurie and Alan are expecting, again. After two miscarriages, Laurie was afraid they'd never be able to have a child. Now she's cautiously optimistic -- the fertility treatment worked, and things seem to be different this time around. But she doesn't yet know how different.

Jack can't seem to catch a break -- his parents are on his case about graduating from college, he's somehow dating two girls at once, and he has to find a way to pay back the money he borrowed from his fraternity's party fund. The only jobs he is qualified for barely pay enough to keep him in beer money, but an ad for the local sperm bank gives Jack an idea.

Laurie and Alan's joy is shattered when their doctor reveals that Laurie was accidentally impregnated by sperm from a donor rather than her husband. Who is Donor 296. And how will their family change now that Donor 296 is inarguably part of it?


Sabrina-Kate - 4 Star

Being a newer mom, anything involving babies and having them seems to be on my mind. Obviously then, a story about a pregnancy appealed to me from the beginning- I guess because I feel like I am now part of a larger community who share a common experience. That being said, I cannot fathom the heartbreak that would ensue if I found out that my husband or partner was not the actual father of the child we had tried so hard to have. Having a child is definitely miraculous no matter how it comes about but the turmoil this would cause was just something I don’t know if any couple could survive.

The story was a very interesting one and I am quite sure that « accidents » of this type have happened before and I wondered what happened in those cases?  The thought that something of this magnitude could happen unintentionally was staggering so as soon as I saw the book and read what it was about, I knew I had to read it, without question!

Expecting had a lot of humourous moments which helped ease the tense topic and make it a fun yet serious read. I also very much enjoyed the alternating points of view that were given throughout the book. I find that it helped make the story a much fuller and well rounded one as the feelings of all three of the main characters were so vastly different that I can’t imagine it being portrayed otherwise.

This was an interesting topic for a book and I couldn’t help but wonder how the author decided to write a story about something of this nature. I also wondering how she researched it (or if she researched it at all) I don’t know much about artificial insemination and how it works or the legalities of something of this kind occuring, but I am pretty sure the author addressed these details realistically.

The only thing that I found hard to believe was that Expecting was a novel from a first time author as it showed depth and talent so I cannot recommend it enough as long as you are willing to explore a sometimes uneasy subject matter.


Thank you to Sourcebooks for our review copy. All opinions are our own.

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