Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.
By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?
As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted and exhilarated by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.
A few months ago I requested a review copy of Meghann Foye's novel 'Meternity' via NetGalley and was quite excited when I found out the request had been approved by the publisher. The great quote from Emily Giffin on the book cover had made me curious, but it wasn't until I did a bit of research on the Internet that I noticed all the hype around this novel. The topic of the book and the author's ideas on motherhood and pregnancy leave have apparently caused a bit of controversy, and I noticed it also resulted in quite a number of bad book reviews. Needless to say, I looked forward to checking out the book myself and see how I would end up feeling about it!
Thirty-something Liz Buckley works as an editor at Paddy Cakes, a baby magazine, in New York City, but can't help but feel as if she isn't completely part of the in-crowd simply because she is still single and doesn't have any children. Getting sick of constantly picking up the slack and not getting anything in return, Liz all of a sudden finds herself pretending to be pregnant and planning her own 'meternity' leave. With the help of some fake foam bellies Liz manages to convince everyone of her pregnancy, but all the lying comes with a toll. Will Lizz really be able to pull this off or will the guilt and life in general catch up with her and force her to come clean...?
Only after having read 'Meternity' I stumbled upon author Meghann Foye's article for the New York Post which focuses on the quite controversial idea of women wanting the perks of maternity leave without actually having kids. This is exactly the topic of this novel and apparently one that caused quite a bit of discussion. I have to admit I was immediately intrigued by the idea behind 'Meternity' and looked forward to checking out the novel and seeing what the author had done with the story. While protagonist Liz is quite selfish at times, I could also understand her thoughts at times and was both fascinated and curious enough to keep on reading to see what would eventually happen to her.
While I liked that there was a main storyline focusing on Liz and her work and a romance storyline that was really promising, I did feel the novel included too much description and not enough dialogue and action. The book is quite a quick read with roughly 250 pages, but in my opinion more could have happened in those 250 pages to make the story even more captivating. I'm not going to decide whether I'm pro or anti 'meternity' in this review because I'm here to share my thoughts on this novel which I really quite enjoyed. I think it shows some balls to tackle this topic and I'm glad Meghann Foye did just that, and she has made me curious to see what she will come up with next. Overall, 'Meternity' is an interesting, fast-paced, and entertaining women's fiction novel that deals with a slightly controversial issue in a fascinating and challenging way and I'm glad I got the chance to read and review it.
Rating:
8,5/10
8,5/10
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