Positively Yours

by Amanda Hearty

[Leah]

Beth Prendergast has fallen in love with her boss Tom and he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man – until she falls pregnant and Tom issues Beth with an ultimatum: him or the baby. Years ago Grace Miller fell in love with American, Ethan and they made a life together in San Diego. Now though Ethan is being transferred to Dublin for a year but is Grace ready to go back to Dublin or is the pressure just too much? Erin Delaney is happily married to husband John but her life lacks one thing: a baby. Will the pressure of Erin’s obsession with getting pregnant end up completely wrecking her marriage? As each of the three women come to terms with some unexpected surprises, how much are each of the women willing to sacrifice for their hearts desires?

Last year I read and relatively enjoyed Amanda Hearty’s debut novel Are You Ready? and when I knew she was having a second novel published I was looking forward to reading it. I got a copy months ago but decided to wait until the paperback was being released before reading it so I could review it at a prime time so people could go out and buy it had they enjoyed the sound of my review! The book is out in early April so I finally made myself pick this up and settled back for another good read.

I have to admit that for the first 50 or so pages I thought it was exactly the same as her debut novel. Not in the style of plot, but in the way in which the book was written. Are You Ready? was written in short and snappy chapters, had an overuse of exclamation marks (!!!!) and tended to lack contractions (it is rather than it’s). I found it mildly irritating first time around and was forever editing the sentences in my head before re-reading them and, for the first 50 pages of Positively Yours, nothing had changed. Thankfully though as the book progressed, the chapters became a little bit longer (48 chapters in Positively Yours compared to the 119 of Are You Ready?) and the lack of exclamation marks and the use of contractions made for a much better read.

The plot of Positively Yours is very baby-centric which didn’t really thrill me at first. I’m a little young to know the pressures of what it is and takes to have a baby (not that you would know it when you see so many teenagers on Jeremy Kyle). However I felt Hearty dealt with the pressures very well and it has slightly opened up my eyes as to just how hard some people find conceiving. The plot is quite good with all of the different women suffering different emotions when it comes to finding out they’re pregnant/trying to get pregnant. I have to admit that I failed to see the connection between the three women and I did begin to wonder if they would ever actually meet or if the entire book was just three separate stories about three women who are unknowingly all pregnant – or trying to get pregnant – at the same time.

As far as characters go, I quite liked Beth and Grace. Both women seemed really sweet and they were quite similar despite Grace having a loving husband and Beth having to deal with her pregnancy alone. The shock they felt when they realised they were pregnant was obvious and their reactions were pretty much the same. I couldn’t really understand Erin. She was incredibly driven when it came to getting pregnant and she was almost machine-like in her attempts to get herself pregnant. For most of the book she was really unpleasant and took her anger at failing to get pregnant out on everybody around her rather than realising she herself could have been the problem. She was like a baby-obsessed monster – criticising those who are pregnant at not feeling lucky enough and lecturing people on what they should/shouldn’t do while pregnant. I could see the strain it was putting on her marriage to John but Erin was oblivious. I also quite liked Ethan and John, Grace and Erin’s husbands, they were much much nicer than Beth’s sorta-boyfriend/boss Tom whom I really disliked.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, for the first 50 pages Hearty’s writing was the same as her debut which I didn’t like at all. However it did get better and I did find myself enjoying the book a whole lot more. The chapters are still relatively short but we seemed to spend more time with each character before flitting off to the next character. I could definitely see an improvement in writing which made the book 10 times better. However there’s still only so much you can do with a plot centered around babies and while I did enjoy the book for the most part I did find it a bit boring. I’m certainly not the books target age – I think the book is aimed more at those in their late 20’s/early 30’s and I’m a little way off as I said above.

Positively Yours, overall, was an enjoyable read and is worth perservering over. I did enjoy it, don’t get me wrong but I know when I’m not the age-group its intended for and there’s only so much baby talk I can deal with and an entire book centered on babies really doesn’t hold my attention. It is definitely worth a read though particularly if you’re in the age-group it was intended for. Someone who knows what it is to struggle to have children may have more sympathy for Erin than I did!