Miss Conceived

by Emma Hannigan

[Leah]

Serena Doyle lives a content life. She has a wonderful husband, Paul, she lives the life she’s always dreamed of, and she is the epitome of sophistication and glamour. But Serena has a dark secret, and when she realises just how much she wants a baby, she’s going to have to confront that secret once and for all. Ruby White is just sixteen when she finds out she’s pregnant. Her parents hit the roof and refuse to listen to her, telling her they’ll raise the baby themselves, but her parents forget to ask what Ruby wants. Angie Breen welcomes in her forties realising that her life hasn’t exactly panned out the way she expected. Instead of having a husband and baby right now, the only thing she has is a job and a meal-for-one. When she finds herself pregnant unexpectedly it could be the answer to her prayers. As Serena, Ruby and Angie find themselves on the road to having a baby, will they get everything they ever dreamed of, or will it turn out to be an unmitigated disaster?

Emma Hannigan first came to my attention back in 2009 when I heard of her debut novel Designer Genes, the title alone made me interested to read the book but it took me a while before I managed to get myself a copy and I actually still haven’t managed to read it. I then got chatting to Emma during 2010 and she said she would send me a copy of Miss Conceived, her new book, and because I am planning to interview Emma I decided to read it as soon as it arrived, and I wasn’t disappointed with the book.

The plot for Miss Conceived is fairly simple as Serena, Ruby and Angie find themselves knee deep in baby-related dramas. Serena wants a baby whereas both Ruby and Angie find themselves pregnant unexpectedly. At first glance it seems the girls lives are entirely separate but Serena and Ruby are related, Auntie and niece respectively and Angie meets Ruby at one of her doctor’s appointments. I like little aspects like that, where the characters are actually connected despite seeming not to be. I also liked the main plot itself, because instead of just focusing on one woman’s bid to get pregnant, or one unexpected pregnancy, it focuses on three very different women’s lives and the impact pregnancy (or lack of it) has on them. Emma Hannigan had all possibilities covered: teen pregnancy, unexpected pregnancy at 40 and the hardship some women face to become pregnant so there was definitely something for everyone there.

Each of the three girls were very different. There’s the cool, calm, unruffled Serena who I took to immediately. She is a bit full-on when it comes to how she lives her life and how she sees others as beneath her, but under it all I saw something there that made her likeable. Ruby is the closest to me in age, and I really felt for her going through that at 16. Being pregnant is obviously hard at any age but at 15/16 it must be really really difficult. I did think she was a bit naive with her views and things, but on the whole I really did feel for her and want to protect her from her parents who although were doing their best, or trying to, they did just come across as over-bearing and controlling. I think I probably liked Angie best. I don’t particularly know why, but she seemed to speak to me the most which was surprising. We also meet the families connected to the girls but for the majority of the book it is just about them three. We also meet a man named Damo and the less said about him the better, quite frankly.

Miss Conceived is written in the third-person, switching from Serena to Ruby to Angie to Damo, and it proves an interesting one as we get to see the girls as they progress through their troubles. There are also Tweets at the beginning of each chapter, which were OK but I wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t there, let’s put it that way. They didn’t particularly add much to the chapter. Miss Conceived isn’t a particularly easy read, because the only one happy with her life is Angie and Serena and Ruby’s lives just aren’t how they expected it to be. However I really liked the book. It took me a few days to finish, mainly down to my own inexplicable tiredness, but once I got reading I did find it hard to stop as the short chapters made it very easy for me to “just read one more”. I would definitely recommend the book, and I look forward to going back to read Designer Genes as well as Emma’s new book which will be released in the Summer.