When You Least Expect It: A Novel (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Young professionals India and Jeremy are struggling with infertility. After several IVF and other infertility treatments, they have finally given up their hopes of having their own natural-born child. They begin to consider adoption as a viable alternative.Enter Lainey, a shallow, selfish, and damaged 20-year-old who is the daughter of an alcoholic mom and runaway father. She gets pregnant by her dumb jock boyfriend and decides to give her baby up for adoption so she can land a fortune to fund her trip to Los Angeles (to star in a reality show). Being a generous, magnanimous soul, India invites Lainey to move into their guest house because Lainey doesn't have a place to live. (Her boyfriend has kicked her out.) This awkward, unconventional arrangement inevitably has its hiccups, but India and Lainey form a tenuous friendship of sorts.My favorite scene was when Jeremy's clueless, insensitive brother and his wife--who are pregnant--come for dinner. Stacey (and Jeremy's mother) represent all the completely self-obsessed pregnant women I have ever known. She not only blathers on about being pregnant, but she also constantly pokes digs at the fact that India could not possibly understand what it is to be pregnant and makes insensitive comments such as "I wish I could pay someone else to be pregnant for me." And it gave me great satisfaction when they got their comeuppance!Gaskell sensitively portrayed the desperation of infertility and the hopelessness of being young, single, and pregnant, combined with the great difficulty of giving up a child for adoption. She treats each of her characters with great respect and gives them depth and character. I enjoyed this book. WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT started out lukewarm and never really heated up. The premise, an infertile couple finds a down-on-her-luck pregnant woman and takes her in with the intention of adopting her baby, is one that should provide a treasure trove of issues to deal with. Instead, however, the conflict presented here was easily resolved.What detracted most from the story, for me, was the cast of characters. From India to Jeremy to Lainey to Jeremy’s brother and sister-in-law, I found them all one-dimensional and unbelievable. I couldn’t understand why Lainey would be so willing to give her baby up for adoption, though I realize it’s a choice women make daily. I don’t judge her for her choice—I just didn’t understand why she made that choice. I also found Jeremy’s brother and sister-in-law to be beyond annoying, though I suspect they were deliberately crafted that way. I never warmed up to any of the characters, and as a result, I didn’t really care about the outcome.Had this been written by a lesser author, I might have been willing to give the story more of a pass, but Gaskell’s previous books have all been homeruns, while I feel like this one was just phoned in. WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT was a real disappointment and much less than I have come to expect from Whitney Gaskell.Originally posted on romancereaderatheart.com
What do You think about When You Least Expect It: A Novel (2010)?
Another great read from Whitney Gaskell. Highly recommend!
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