Meternity
Fiction
Harlequin
April 26, 2016
Paperback
368
Publisher via BookSparks
Not quite knocked up... Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she's plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers. Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses--boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave. By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade...and hide it from the guy who might just be The One? As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted--and exhilarated--by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant...about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.
My review:
Whoa.....imagine my surprise when I went to get the amazon link-up for this book and saw the vitriol it has inspired! It's interesting to note that when I looked it up on Goodreads (a place where it's more common to have actually read the book before reviewing it), there seemed to be a more even distribution of opinions. Where do I fall? I liked this book! The number one fact that I was aware of when reading it is that it is a work of FICTION (come on, all of you screaming on amazon, you do know that means it's made up right?). Maybe because I'm old, and maybe because I worked for 16 years before having kids, and maybe because I did not re-enter the workplace until said kids were in school, but I GOT where this protagonist was coming from. I thought the story flowed well, I was dying to find out what was going to happen once the "baby" came, and it was a pleasure to read. I loved the main character, who just got caught up in a situation she didn't know how to get out of. I never got the feeling that Liz thought those on maternity leave had it easy, she just wanted time to work on her life goals, and saw this as a way out of her overwhelming work responsibilities. I'm not going to say that it was a literary masterpiece, but with all the horrid responses this poor author is getting, I almost want to give it 5 stars just to up the ratings.
A cute book, but you may want to read through some reviews to see if it's for you. My advice is to read it as a work of fiction, and lighten up 🙂
Thanks to BookSparks books of spring for allowing me to review this. As always my opinions are my own.
I love it when a book might spark a little controversial conversation (not drama, just good book conversation with opinions). I like your warning to take it as a work of fiction and lighten up. A lot of things can be taken too seriously, but this one has me curious after your review. I love coming here because I always find a new book that sparks my interest!