Babymoon

by Melanie La'Brooy

[Leah]

Babymoon tells the story of Isabelle Beckett, who thought that she would never have children having never been the maternal type. But after she and boyfriend Jack discuss the idea, Isabelle is suddenly excited about becoming a family and quickly falls pregnant. Pregnancy is nothing like Isabelle would have imagined, and she has absolutely no idea what is happening to her and to her body. As her pregnancy progresses Isabelle gets more and more worried about giving birth and matters aren't helped when her relationship with Jack begins to suffer, in part due to the fact ex-boyfriend Charlie is suddenly on the scene again. Has Isabelle gotten over Charlie for good, or is she still hankering after her ex, despite being pregnant with someone else's child? And what of Dr Jack, how does Isabelle really feel about him and their baby?

I've heard such good things about Melanie La'Brooy's Babymoon, but I must admit I was a little disappointed with the audio-book. It was a fairly easy listen, don't get me wrong, and for a while there I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Isabelle, Jack and their friends as well as their baby. OK, so Isabelle was hardly likely to win Mastermind on the topic of pregnancies (in fact she would fail miserably), I thought Babymoon was a fairly realistic version of a first pregnancy despite having no previous experience myself. Because, truth is, how much does any person give to what it's like to be pregnant without truly knowing? TV and movies can only tell you so much so I liked Isabelle's naivety on the topic. However after a while, even I began to get annoyed with Isabelle because she just couldn't grasp the fact that whether she liked it or not, she would have to give birth eventually.

The really kicker though was when Charlie re-entered stage left. We know early on he and Belle has an acrimonious beak-up, but she got over it and ended up with Jack but when he comes back into her life - pregnant girlfriend in tow no less - she seems to just lose any respect I had for her, by having secret meetings with him and lying to Jack even though her relationship with Jack is already struggling. Overall though, Babymoon was a so-so read. I enjoyed it for the most part and found it hugely amusing, even laughing out loud at times, but there were a few niggles that stopped it from being a fantastic read.