Blog Tour: Baby! Baby? Baby!? by Holly Kerr - Review & Excerpt

Welcome to my stop on the Baby! Baby? Baby!? blog tour, hosted by Samantha at CLP Blog Tours!  Today I have a review and excerpt for you.  Thanks for stopping by! :)

Title: Baby! Baby? Baby!?
Author: Holly Kerr
Published: August 31, 2012

Thirty-five-year old kindergarten teacher Casey Samms has always dreamed about having her own baby. With her copy of A Young Woman's Guide to the Joy of Impending Motherhood on her bedside table, Casey has been steadily wading through the pool of eligible bachelors for years-with absolutely no luck. Now as she bids farewell to a cheating boyfriend and to dating in general, Casey just needs to figure out how to get pregnant without having a man in her life.

Casey immediately discounts her male friends as potential fathers and decides to pursue having a baby the artificial way, even though her sister and friends do their best to try to talk her out of it. But Casey is determined to see her dream come to fruition and begins looking at every male as a potential donor. Just when she is beginning to give the word desperate an entirely new meaning, an old ex-boyfriend, David Mason, saunters back into her life. All Casey has to do now is try to convince him that he is the one who can help her become a mother.

As Casey prepares to realize her lifelong dream, she is about to get the surprise of her life-a surprise that changes everything.

Okay... so let me begin by saying I may have a small obsession with pregnancy... and books about pregnancy... and babies... etc.  So when I saw this blog tour, I just had to sign up for it.  I can't say my obsession with pregnancy and babies is anywhere near Casey's obsession in this story, but I just really enjoy reading about it.  :)

Casey is obsessed - totally, over-the-top obsessed - with the idea of having a baby.  She hears her biological clock ticking loudly in her ears, and it scares the bejezus out of her.  She thought for sure at the age of 35 she would have already been married with a family... but to her dismay, that's just not the way life fell into place.  She begins to consider alternate ways of having a baby, such as artificial insemination from an anonymous doner, or finding someone who might be willing to "take one for the team" and help her make a baby.

Baby! Baby? Baby!? is an adorable story.  I loved it!  Casey, so clumsy and silly, really touched me.  I related to her completely.  Though I wouldn't act the way she did, and I didn't understand fully why she did some of the things she did, I did relate quickly to her strive to get what she wanted... no matter what the cost.  The cast of characters were wonderful and immediately likable.  Except for Casey's supposed BFF Brit... I really just wanted to punch her through my Kindle.  Talk about a Bridezilla!!  Holy cow!! She definitely got on my last nerve, and I really wish Casey would have stood up to her right away.  Casey's other BFF Morgan was great, and a classic good friend if you ask me.  She was there when Casey needed her, yet she wasn't perfect and had her own faults.  Then Casey's roommates Coop, Emma and B.J... LOVED them!!  I was finding myself wishing I could go live in their house too.  A gourmet meal daily by chef roommates... yes, please! :)

I loved the way each chapter started with a caption from a book Casey received from her mother.  This book was written in the 40's, and some of the things are just hilarious!!  And a bit scary, if you really think about them.  I really liked that added touch to the story.

I would definitely recommend Baby! Baby? Baby!?  It was delightful, funny and entertaining.  I look forward to seeing what Holly has in store for us next!  I would love to see a story about Casey's roommates, Cooper & Emma.  (Hint hint, Holly... :D)

Chapter One

A woman’s prime period of fertility occurs between the years of twenty-two and twenty-eight, with each year decreasing the chance of a happy and healthy conception. After the age of thirty-seven, a woman should not attempt to conceive.

A Young Woman’s Guide to the Joy of Impending Motherhood
Dr. Francine Pascal Reid (1941)

Bullshit, I know.

But for some reason that passage has stuck with me for years. You know what it’s like to have one of those repetitive songs stuck in your head? A couple of summers ago, it was that “Umbrella” song—not that it was a bad song; in fact it was a pretty good song for a while, but at the end of August when I was still silently singing “ella, ella,” it got a little tiring. If you think having a song stuck in your head is bad, imagine silently repeating to yourself again and again, “After the age of thirty-seven, a woman should not attempt to conceive.”
Most of me will agree I’m being silly in taking the words of a long-dead doctor to heart, but an itty-bitty part of me is still listening and using my fingers to count the months on the calendar until I hit the De-Fertility Zone. Silly, I know, but I can’t seem to help it.

Yes, I am fully aware that in this day and age there are countless women over thirty-seven who conceive and successfully deliver happy and healthy babies. I know that. You can’t pick up an issue of People magazine without knowing that. But for me, thirty-seven has been something of a deadline, and it’s looming ever closer these days. Here I am already at thirty-five, pushing headlong into thirty-six, which will inevitably lead to thirty-seven, the age when Dr. Francine Pascal Reid tells me I shouldn’t attempt to conceive. So how am I supposed to have a baby?

Going to a wedding yesterday certainly didn’t help.

Yesterday marked the seventeenth wedding I’ve been to in the last five years, and the ninth in which I’ve played the role of a bridesmaid. I remember reading something long ago, some old wives’ tale about three times a bridesmaid, never a bride. I guess I’m screwed three times over then.

To make things worse, it turned out that the entire bridal party—other than me, that is—were all pregnant. Of course, being basically a nice person, I was sincerely happy for them, but can you imagine how my own desire to have a baby might make me a tad resentful? The anticipation I had felt toward being part of the wedding dimmed a little as I was forced to listen to all the little baby comments and pregnancy stories, not to mention names and dates and crib styles. I had had just about enough when Darcy’s aunt Fran popped her head into the room where the five of us had just finished getting into our dresses (horrible green with, yes, a big butt bow). Once she’d cooed over us all, Aunt Fran announced that she thought it was just hilarious how Darcy had picked an entire bridal party of pregnant girls, assuming I was as pregnant as the others.

I live in Toronto with my husband, 3 amazing kids, and cat Sebastian, who has a supporting role in every book I write. Since Baby! Baby? Baby?! has been published, I’ve focused on writing more and have started two blogs; one about my views on books, writing and other stuff, and one on my observations of Bethany, a small town in Ontario. I’ve been busy working on a new chick lit novel and hope to see it published by the spring. I also volunteer at my children’s school by helping put out their newspaper and encouraging kids to write has become one of my favourite pastimes! I also love hanging out at the cottage with family and friends in the summer, all things Star Wars related and opening the pages of a brand new book.

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