WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

Author: Whitney Gaskell ISBN: 9780553386271 6/2010 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BANTAM

India and Jeremy Halloway are happily married, have creative careers, and live in a remodeled bohemian cottage in a historic West Palm Beach neighborhood. The only thing missing from their charmed life is the baby they both desperately want. After two years of failed fertility treatments, they are cash-strapped and no closer to parenthood.  That’s when they decide it’s time to look into adoption.  Lainey Walker’s unexpected pregnancy threatens to derail her dream of moving to Los Angeles and becoming a reality-TV star. She also finds herself homeless and alone when her unsupportive gym-rat boyfriend kicks her out of their apartment. When the Halloways and Lainey are matched up through an adoption agency, India proposes an unorthodox solution that just might solve all their problems. But as these three are about to discover, a baby changes everything.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

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.

Jilian Vallade