When You Least Expect It

May 3, 2010
A 30-something science fiction writer and his photographer wife endure the rigors of adoption in Gaskell’s latest easy-gaited look at contemporary women’s lives (after Mommy Tracked). Following more fertility treatments than they can afford, India and Jeremy Halloway plunge into the treacherous process of adoption. Through an attorney, the couple meet Lainey Walker, a manicurist who hopes to find fame on reality TV once she deals with her inconvenient pregnancy. After she moves into the Halloways’ guest house, an uneasy friendship ensues, while India and Jeremy juggle finances, their relationship, helpful friends, and sometimes less-than-helpful relatives. Gaskell walks her likably vanilla characters through the required emotional paces, and while the story won’t win an award for originality, it’s competently done and appropriately affirmative.

June 1, 2010
After several years of expensive fertility treatments, India and Jeremy decide to adopt. Shes a photographer; hes a fairly successful sci-fi writer, and they own a cozy home complete with a pool and a small guesthouse that Jeremy uses as an office in the historic district of West Palm Beach. They write up a profile for a lawyer who handles adoptions, and presto, they have a mother. Lainey, a 20-year-old nail technician who grew up with an alcoholic mother, does not want her baby; she has dreams of becoming a reality star. The father is a steroid-using bodybuilder who wants her to get an abortion. She decides on adoption, figuring she can make more money for the future. India and Jeremy offer her the guesthouse, and once the awkwardness of getting to know each other is over, this disparate group somehow comes together. So what can go wrong? Anything and everything. Gaskell presents a poignant, funny, and involving tale of adoption from both sides of the equation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)