Julie's Review: Baby Proof

Summary: The bestselling author of Something Borrowed and Something Blue tells the story of what happens after the "I do"s. As a successful editor at a Manhattan publishing house, Claudia Parr counts herself fortunate to meet and marry Ben, a man who claims to be a nonbreeding career-firster like she is. The couple's early married years go smoothly, but then Ben's biological clock starts to tick. A baby's a deal breaker for Claudia, so she moves out and bunks with her college roommate Jess (a 35-year-old blonde goddess stuck in a series of dead-end relationships) while the wheels of divorce crank into action. Even after the divorce is finalized and Claudia embarks on a steamy love affair with her colleague Richard, she begins to doubt her decision when she suspects Ben has found a smart, young and beautiful woman willing to bear his children. Standard fare as far as chick lit goes, but there are strong subplots involving Claudia's sisters (one is coping with infertility, the other with a cheating spouse) and the childless-by-choice plot line produces above-average tension. - Publishers Weekly

Review: I've read Emily Giffin's other two books, Something Borrowed and Something Blue enjoyed both of them emensly so I'm not sure why this sat on my shelf for over a year (too many books, too little time?!) but I'm glad that I finally read it. I was engaged in the story within the first few pages and was immediately drawn to the main character, Claudia. I enjoyed how the story was told from her point of view and she didn't really hold any punches about how she felt. All of the characters in the book were very vivid and real to me except Ben. For some reason, even though he's an integral part of the story, he felt a bit cartoonish to me. I seriously doubt that's how Emily wanted him to come off but he at least did too me.

I disagree with Publishers Weekly in the fact that this is standard Chick-Lit fare because of the subject matters that it deals with, some might call them social taboos and I don't think they've been addressed in any other "chick-lit" book that I've read before. While the ending was good and seemed to fit within the story, I am a bit disappointed that the author chose the route she did. While I enjoyed the point-of-view from Claudia, I do think it would have been equally as enriching to perhaps have thrown Ben's POV in during the course of the book too. Although in doing that you would have lost some of the twists thrown in at the end of the book.

I enjoyed all the supporting characters in this book. There were many different subplots going on but yet you didn't feel like there was too much going on that you couldn't follow it. Ms. Griffin did a very nice job of blending all the plots together.

I will continue to look for Ms. Griffin's work in the future, she's an excellent storyteller.

Final Take: 4/5