Book Review - Then Came You

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Lovely portrayal of the multiple women involved in bringing one small child into the world. There is the fresh-faced college student, selling her eggs to try to save someone she loves. There is the struggling military wife and mother, desperately trying to make ends meet by agreeing to leasing her womb as a temporary home for the child. There is the wealthy trophy wife, who waited too long and perhaps starved herself too much to be able to carry a child of her own but who, having quite by surprise fallen in love with her older husband, fiercely wants to have his child. And there is that older husband's daughter by his starter wife, having to come to terms with the ways her family has changed without her desire or consent.

There are several things which charmed me about this book, not the least of which is Jules - the egg donor - and her relationship with her girlfriend Kimmie, which blossomed sweetly and naturally out of a friendship, awkward at times, uncertain, but full of affection and love. It was handled both with a delicacy that lesbian relationships are sometimes not granted but also with a dose of reality, including Jules dealing with her own emotions about being attracted to a woman.

At it's heart, this is a book about women, how we relate to one another, and how we can both tear one another down and lift one another up like nothing else. It is about how children can tie us together, and how they can cause rifts in families even deeper than those caused by divorce. It is about the choices we make and how they affect us, as women, and our futures. Marriage? College? A job? A child? They profoundly affect our lives, more so - except for college - than they do for men, as is pointed out here.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.



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