Rating: 
Summary: A Little Help from an Editor
Review: Though I'd read the reviews that warned that the main character, Shelby, was an unlikable shrew, I wasn't scared off. When handled right, an unsympathetic main character can be great fun. That is not the case here. It's hard when you're rooting against the main character.There wasn't a soul to like in this book. Shelby's portrayed as an appearance-obsessed, impatient and somewhat hateful self-centered witch and yet we're supposed to be cheering her on. Her sister Lauren is almost as selfish as Shelby herself. Minor characters are marched in and out only when it's conveneient for moving the plot along. And there are inconsistencies in the plot that ask too much of even an accepting reader. This book needed some help from a red pen. The device of the mother's intervention from above--a fun premise--was not used to great effect, the coincidences pulled me right out of the story, and my happiness when it was over was not for its fake-feeling ending, but for finally being able to toss the book.
Rating: 
Summary: An independant woman's nightmare
Review: Well the book itself is more or less readable. The "mom intervening from above" idea is sort of interesting but doesn't quite work out. Just like the one-too-many coincidences in the story. Actually the story is the maine thing in this book that literally DISTURBS me.
I, just like some other of the reviewers picked this book up because i thought that it might be a relaxing light read. Boy, was i wrong.. I don't think i have ever been this angry at the contents of a book, even while reading Hitler's "Mein Kampf. There is so much unfairness in the whole story. Most of the reviewers think that the main problem of the novel is Shelby and her attitude but i thoroughly disagree. So alright, she is selfish and conceited but she is a smart and accomplished woman! And why is the fact that she chose not to have children considered a sin against mankind and the ultimate act of selfishness?! What ever happened to democracy and the concept of a thing called choice? Nobody seems to take into consideration that her childhood was a mess, she lost her mother when she was ten, her father banished all material evidence of her ever existing and forbade the girl to mourn. Not to mention the fact that he was sleeping with his dying wife's sister while she lay in hospital. And almost immediately after her leaving this world, he goes off and merries his daughters' aunt who (by total coincidence, of course) is pregnant from him! Shelby has every right to be angry with him! But in the book, everything that the other characters do and say is directed against her, no one even contemplates the idea that maybe she has a good reason for her attitude. Which i think she does.
And the character of her sister Lauren. She is even more egoistical than Shelby herself, not to mention that she is about as mentally stable as Jell-O. Of course, the fact that she can't have children makes her extremely unfortunate but she has absolutely no right whatsoever to ask her sister to be a surrogate mother! Well, alright, she does have a right to ask, but not a right to MAKE her do it! Shelby was against the idea right from the start and Lauren should have accepted that! But no! The little brat of a sister brings on the mental black-mail! And when Shelby still refuses to carry a child for Lauren, once again, everyone starts treating her like the witch of the century! Sisterly love or no sisterly love a woman has a right to chose not to have children! Besides, Lauren pruposed not to use her own eggs but Shelby's which means that, basically, Shelby would just have to give away her own child. To make the picture chrystal clear- Shelby has to get pregnant from Lauren's sexually harassing stallion of a husband whom she can't stand, ignore her own life for about a year and then give Lauren her FIRSTBORN! First of all, that is too much to as of a woman and second of all it is beyond unfair not to aknowledge her right to refuse.
I haven't yet finished reading the book but i just can't wait till i do. it will be a nice change to read something that is not utterly against human rights.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Read!!!
Review: Where has this author been for so long? This is a great book that you don't want to put down until you finish reading it!! Saralee Rosenberg does an excellent job with her writing ability. It is a must read for everyone. I can't wait for her next book!!!
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