Title: Dear Thing
Author: Julie Cohen
Publisher: Raincoast Canada
Publication date: March 29, 2016
Genre(s): Adult contemporary
Source: Publisher
Pages: 432
After years of watching her best friends Ben and Claire try for a baby, Romily has offered to give them the one thing that they want most.
Romily expects it will be easy to be a surrogate. She's already a single mother, and she has no desire for any more children. But Romily isn't prepared for the overwhelming feelings that have taken hold of her and which threaten to ruin her friendship with Ben and Claire-and even destroy their marriage.
Now there are three friends, two mothers and only one baby, and an impossible decision to make...
Dear Thing was a recipe for drama and I was very excited to start reading it. My only concern was that there would be cheating involved which is something I can't stomach in my books but I needn't have worried. Romily and Ben have been best friends for years.. Ben is married to Claire while Romily has a seven year old kid, and is in love with Ben. Yikes indeed. What's even more messy is that Romily offered to be the surrogate for the couple because Claire can't get pregnant. Recipe for drama? check.
The general story sounded very interesting however the execution was a bit lacking for me. The story dragged on and it felt that the story could be congested in 200 pages or so. I felt several times the plot was dragging and I would skim through paragraphs of descriptions on repeated thought processes. However the plot was very heartfelt, and it really showed the struggle of both Claire, who viewed herself as a failure for not being able to get pregnant, and Romily, who seems to get into this surrogacy for all the wrong reasons. I feel the slow developing friendship between both women was very important and gave us insight on how each viewed the other and also the prejudices accompanying that judgement and how they were able to finally understand each other.
This is definitely not a romance book. It is more about relationships.. between friends, strangers, long lost fathers, misunderstood people, mothers, and daughters. I liked that all the characters were flawed and also they also tried their best to become better versions of themselves. Humans are messy, and this book shows us that in a very realistic way (even if the suggestion of surrogacy by Romily was highly unrealistic). I would recommend it to adult fiction fans who like a little drama and realistic plot lines in their stories.
The general story sounded very interesting however the execution was a bit lacking for me. The story dragged on and it felt that the story could be congested in 200 pages or so. I felt several times the plot was dragging and I would skim through paragraphs of descriptions on repeated thought processes. However the plot was very heartfelt, and it really showed the struggle of both Claire, who viewed herself as a failure for not being able to get pregnant, and Romily, who seems to get into this surrogacy for all the wrong reasons. I feel the slow developing friendship between both women was very important and gave us insight on how each viewed the other and also the prejudices accompanying that judgement and how they were able to finally understand each other.
This is definitely not a romance book. It is more about relationships.. between friends, strangers, long lost fathers, misunderstood people, mothers, and daughters. I liked that all the characters were flawed and also they also tried their best to become better versions of themselves. Humans are messy, and this book shows us that in a very realistic way (even if the suggestion of surrogacy by Romily was highly unrealistic). I would recommend it to adult fiction fans who like a little drama and realistic plot lines in their stories.
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