Book Review: The Baby Trail by Sinead Moriarty

I'm not going to spoil the entire book like I did with the last review, but I will tell you something I wish I knew before I started reading Sinead Moriarty's The Baby Trail. This is book one of a trilogy. This will become more important when you get to the end of the book and it ends very abruptly.

For some reason the second installment is called The Right Fit in its Kindle edition, but Perfect Match in paperback. Thankfully, this prevented me from immediately downloading it, enough time for me to read the reviews of the last book in the series, From Here to Maternity. Not only is the last volume not available for Kindle, it's supposedly not even that good. So do I want to devote twenty more dollars and even wait for a paper tome to arrive via United Parcel Service just for the sake of closure?

The answer: I don't know yet. I still have oodles of other TTC books to read and review before I get that desperate. But maybe. I hate not knowing the end. George G.R.R. Martin is my worst enemy.

That being said, it's a cute book. It kept my attention for a couple of hours. Narrated by a very cliched Bridget Jones clone named Emma, The Baby Trail follows the journey of an Irish makeup artist and her husband, an English rugby coach named James. Of course, Emma barely even likes kids and worries about missing nights out at the pub and losing her figure. She starts out her TTC journey very optimistic (don't we all?). She assumes she will get knocked up immediately. I hear ya, Sister.

Then comes buying ovulation predictor kits. Then comes seeing her doctor. Then comes frustration. Then comes Clomid. Then comes IVF. Emma is fun and a little neurotic just like your favorite chick lit heroines. She races to her husband's office to demand sex when she learns she is ovulating. She gets jealous of another woman's follicles in a waiting room.

The side stories about her single friend's love life, her husband's rugby team and her brother who lives abroad were a little empty and also unresolved at the end. Have I mentioned I hate cliffhangers?

So it wasn't a great read, but it did satisfy my desire to read about another woman trying to get pregnant. Even though I hope to never have to experience some of what Emma goes through (side effects from medication, preparing for IVF) I definitely could relate to her tales of being assaulted by the dildo camera and scheduling sex.