The Baby Plan

Women’s lit fans in search of highly relatable characters need look no further than Rorick’s contemporary about three pregnancies that intersect in often uproarious ways. Hyper-organized Los Angeles high school English teacher Nathalie Kneller is finally pregnant at age 33 after years of trying. She and her husband, David, are getting everything pulled together to make the big announcement at Thanksgiving dinner. Her dad, stepmother, kid sister Lyndi, and Lyndi’s roommate will all be there. It will be perfect. But moments before Nathalie can break the exciting news, Lyndi broadcasts her unplanned pregnancy by suddenly spewing her breakfast into the holiday centerpiece. Amid the ensuing chaos, Nathalie can only meekly utter, “Um, I am too.” As the sisters’ already complicated relationship takes on new dimensions, they meet Sophia Nunez, the mom of one of Nathalie’s students, who’s also unexpectedly expecting and at a crossroads in her life. Rorick takes full tragicomic advantage of life’s little—and big—ironies as these women deal with the magnitude and the minutia of bringing new life into the world. Agent: Annalise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)