What would you do if you were suddenly told that things you had planned out for later in life just weren’t going to work?
Dee thinks that she has everything sorted, well, not really. She’s about to turn 35, she works for a company that sometimes pays her in food and lives as a lodger in a colleague’s one-bedroom flat. Oh, and her sometime boyfriend Nat isn’t quite ready to make any sort of commitment.
Apart from that, everything is going great.
And then she finds out that as far as fertility goes she’s living on borrowed time. She’s about to go into early menopause – like her Mum, and that’ll be it, any chance at having children, done!
So, she does what any sensible woman in her 30s does, she turns to her friends for advice. There’s sensible Roo the anaesthetist who is desperately trying to get pregnant, and then there’s Minnie, slightly flighty and not even contemplating parenthood. Their advice? Roo sends her to a fertility specialist and Minnie recommends something she saw on Reddit…a co-parenting deal where she has a baby with someone who wants to be a father but doesn’t want the complications of a relationship.
Sounds sensible, right? Of course!
Terrified for her future, not only the prospect of having to have a baby now, but also the fact that she’s not really ready…she jumps into things with both feet and then she meets chef Andy who is just out of a disastrous relationship and though he wants children he doesn’t want to get involved with anyone. He’s perfect, but for the fact that they don’t actually hit it off right away.
This story wasn’t quite what I expected. The cover and the summary made it seem as though I was going to get something very romantic comedy in style. While that was the core of the story, there were definitely elements that felt more like I was reading something with a more Rachel’s Holiday by Marion Keyes vibe. It was more dramedy than outright belly laughs. I have to admit, that I actually liked this. What is comedy without a few tears or ‘OMG” moments thrown in for balance?
This book includes some very sensitive topics including, but not limited to: abortion, fertility, cheating, parental abandonment, attempted suicide, mental health issues.
Through the actions of her friends, family and herself, Dee grows as a person and seems to realise that while there is a clock on certain things that she has to listen to, her whole life plan isn’t to be dictated by it.
Pros
- Strong friendships
- Doesn’t gloss over the importance of the more sensitive subjects
Cons
- I would have liked a bit more romance
