Since I found myself quite enjoying Did The Earth Move?, when I saw this on offer at half price a couple of months back I thought I'd treat myself.

The back blurb:
Bella Browning is attractive, successful and ambitious. She works hard, plays hard and adores her journalist husband Don (even though she doesn't always behave as well as she should). But deep down she knows there's something missing... a baby. Don is terrified by the prospect but after all, Bella's a top Management Consultant turning around multi-million pound corporations... she can handle this! Can't she?
In between bouts of morning sickness, raging hormones and a few indiscretions with gorgeous Chris from the office, she quickly discovers how very hard it is to be the perfect, working modern mother with the sex appeal of a Grecian goddess. But Bella is a woman of many talents and she's not about to be beaten...

Bella does come across as a smug control freak, so it's difficult to warm to her for some time.
But the graphic detail of her late pregnancy is enough to bring any woman around to feeling sympathetic to her - and if there was ever a contraceptive in book form, this is it. The description of Bella's labour is a good few chapters long and extremely gruesome!
Then we're back into standard new-mum-chick-lit as she tries to juggle the life she once had with the life she wants - with a couple of neat little twists thrown in.

It's strange how I'm drawn to Carmen Reid's books despite myself, but she *is* a good author, even if sometimes this book felt a little disjointed. It's almost like someone took a large chunk to edit, and didn't consult with whoever was responsible for the rest of the manuscript. It leaves you feeling a bit bewildered, but get past that and you're in for a good read.

RELEASE NOTES:

In the BBC Club, on the 'books for swapping' shelf