cover image The Stork Reality

The Stork Reality

Malena Lott, . . Making It, $6.99 (338pp) ISBN 978-0-8439-5725-9

Taylor Montgomery never intended to get pregnant—she's got too much invested as a creative director at a top Dallas advertising company. Her husband, equally ambitious Jake, is a lawyer who shares Taylor's priorities: "[w]ork, sex, travel," is their happy routine. After those fateful pink lines appear on a test strip, it threatens everything: prenatal pressure drives Jake away, threatens Taylor's job and leaves her an emotional wreck. The next several months follow the couple rediscovering their value to each other, developing more intimacy and honesty, and embracing their new lives. Unfortunately, the story does only what you expect it to, conflicts are easily smoothed over and supporting characters are strictly of the heart-of-gold variety—even the ultracompetitive lawyers at Jake's firm and the vain womanizer Taylor works with. Lott's attempt to engage the ambivalent "reality" of impending parenthood is too pat to carry any weight—the novel proves so sweet, you'll end up craving a pickle whether you're pregnant or not, just to add a little edge. (June)