The Baby Trail by Sinead Moriarty

The Baby Trail by Sinéad Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 320

Publisher - Atria

Source - Friend gave me it

Blurb from Goodreads

Makeup artist Emma Hamilton is thirty-three when she and her husband James decide it's time to start a family. She has it all mapped out: Go off the pill in December, have sex, get pregnant by January, have the baby in September. With the help of a personal trainer, she figures she'll be back to her fighting weight in time for Christmas. But when three months of candle-scented sex fails to produce the desired result, Emma decides that maybe Mother Nature needs a helping hand.

Soon her life is a roller coaster of post-coital handstands (you can't argue with gravity), hormone-inducing (sanity-reducing!) drugs, and a veritable army of probing specialists (torturers, more like). It's out with alcohol and spontaneous sex, in with green tea and ovulation kits. Emma and James try everything from fertility drugs to in vitro, but all their carefully laid plans seem to go south -- along with Emma's rapidly plummeting self-esteem.

The members of her support team are unquestionably loyal, but distracted by their own personal dramas. There's Babs, her younger sister, who prescribes Emma half an Ecstasy pill to treat her depression. Her friend Jess is pregnant with her second child and gives Emma an earful about the downside of motherhood. The glamorous Lucy, Emma's closest pal, fears she might be stuck in her "single rut" forever -- that is, until she meets Donal, a rough-around-the-edges rugby player who passes out on their first date but quickly proves that he is worth a second chance. And last, but certainly not least, is James, Emma's rugby coach husband, who quite unhelpfully manages to give himself a groin injury just when she is ovulating.

But just when Emma feels as if her obsession may have alienated all of her loved ones, including James, events take a ninety-degree turn that will have unforeseen consequences for everyone.


My Review

Meet Emma, thirty three, Irish, happily married to an English guy and the time is right to have a baby. All seems straight forward but as the months go by and still no pregnancy Emma gets more erratic and obsessed. Her bestie is desperate for a date, her other pal has a baby and healthy sex life and Emma is getting it from all areas as her biological clock is ticking as folk like to keep pointing out.

I can't say I loved Emma, she is funny and God knows I felt heart sorry for her as she goes longer and longer unable to get pregnant. Before hormones take over and everything else she does say and do some questionable stuff. I did laugh out loud at some of her besties experiences with the rugby player and their date(s) and or aftermath.

The book deals with emotive and serious subjects infused with humour and showing just how much a woman goes through when conceiving doesn't come naturally. Easy enough for a wee poolside read, I think this was my first time reading this author, it wouldn't be the last. I think if you have struggled with pregnancy/conceiving this book with either resonate or maybe just be a wee bit too close to home, 3/5 from us.

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