Loosely based on personal experience, Joanna Butler’s first novel Emma: Desperately Seeking Baby follows the hilarious (and heart-breaking) story of a young couple dealing with life and infertility.
Newly married and crazy in love, Emma Sanders and her gorgeous hubby Jeff have decided to start a family. Have sex = make a few babies. What could be simpler?
Except life has a funny knack of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it…
What begins as an exciting bedroom marathon, quickly turns into months of strictly enforced and military-timed sex rules, fertility-boosting foods and an increasing addiction to conception chat rooms. And while Emma’s head becomes completely crammed full of tips and tricks to fall pregnant, her uterus remains resolutely, stubbornly and devastatingly empty.
As yet another woman in her office just has to fart and ‘bingo’ they’re up the duff, her close group of girlfriends would rather drink shots than settle down and everyone else in the world doles out unwanted advice every chance they get, Emma starts to feel more and more isolated from her colleagues, friends and family.
Acknowledging that this whole baby-making lark isn’t quite panning out as planned, Emma and Jeff turn to a local fertility clinic for help. A shock diagnosis throws the once carefree couple into the confusing world of ‘infertility’, where their penis and vagina are suddenly redundant and medical intervention is the only option.
Letting infertility and IVF take over her life, emotions and imagination, Emma slips on the cloak of a hormonally-crazed lunatic – shouting at old ladies in supermarkets and wishing a gruesome death on every pregnant woman she meets.
Such an all-consuming obsession with having a baby can only lead to the exclusion of everything else in her life, including her husband.
And sometimes, when you lose sight of what’s really important, you risk losing everything.
Short excerpt from Emma: Desperately Seeking Baby
'Hey, Emma – how are you doing?' Teresa asked, as she sat down beside Emma with a cup of tea in her hand.
Teresa didn't look as if she had come in to read, and Emma had no choice but to answer – though she suspected exactly where this conversation was headed and immediately wanted to throw a chair (or herself) out the nearest window.
Teresa had three young children of her own, and was forever regaling everyone with stories of how wonderful and talented and endearingly naughty they were, and how much she loved being a mum and how, 'I couldn't possibly stay for staff drinks after work, my kids come first. You know me, all about my family – I have to leave on time so I'm not late for my real job at home,' and so on.
She made Emma want to tear out her uterus, slap it down on Teresa's desk and tell her women were more than baby-makers and mothers. Except Emma was really hoping her uterus was going to come in handy one of these days, and there was no point cutting off her nose to spite her face.
Is this the book for you?
If you like a good belly laugh and a compelling read, and you enjoy connecting with a main character who has a warm and flawed personality (and at times a potty mouth), then this is the novel for you! Both funny and informative, you don't need to be facing fertility challenges or going through IVF to thoroughly enjoy it.
Newly married and crazy in love, Emma Sanders and her gorgeous hubby Jeff have decided to start a family. Have sex = make a few babies. What could be simpler?
Except life has a funny knack of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it…
What begins as an exciting bedroom marathon, quickly turns into months of strictly enforced and military-timed sex rules, fertility-boosting foods and an increasing addiction to conception chat rooms. And while Emma’s head becomes completely crammed full of tips and tricks to fall pregnant, her uterus remains resolutely, stubbornly and devastatingly empty.
As yet another woman in her office just has to fart and ‘bingo’ they’re up the duff, her close group of girlfriends would rather drink shots than settle down and everyone else in the world doles out unwanted advice every chance they get, Emma starts to feel more and more isolated from her colleagues, friends and family.
Acknowledging that this whole baby-making lark isn’t quite panning out as planned, Emma and Jeff turn to a local fertility clinic for help. A shock diagnosis throws the once carefree couple into the confusing world of ‘infertility’, where their penis and vagina are suddenly redundant and medical intervention is the only option.
Letting infertility and IVF take over her life, emotions and imagination, Emma slips on the cloak of a hormonally-crazed lunatic – shouting at old ladies in supermarkets and wishing a gruesome death on every pregnant woman she meets.
Such an all-consuming obsession with having a baby can only lead to the exclusion of everything else in her life, including her husband.
And sometimes, when you lose sight of what’s really important, you risk losing everything.
Short excerpt from Emma: Desperately Seeking Baby
'Hey, Emma – how are you doing?' Teresa asked, as she sat down beside Emma with a cup of tea in her hand.
Teresa didn't look as if she had come in to read, and Emma had no choice but to answer – though she suspected exactly where this conversation was headed and immediately wanted to throw a chair (or herself) out the nearest window.
Teresa had three young children of her own, and was forever regaling everyone with stories of how wonderful and talented and endearingly naughty they were, and how much she loved being a mum and how, 'I couldn't possibly stay for staff drinks after work, my kids come first. You know me, all about my family – I have to leave on time so I'm not late for my real job at home,' and so on.
She made Emma want to tear out her uterus, slap it down on Teresa's desk and tell her women were more than baby-makers and mothers. Except Emma was really hoping her uterus was going to come in handy one of these days, and there was no point cutting off her nose to spite her face.
Is this the book for you?
If you like a good belly laugh and a compelling read, and you enjoy connecting with a main character who has a warm and flawed personality (and at times a potty mouth), then this is the novel for you! Both funny and informative, you don't need to be facing fertility challenges or going through IVF to thoroughly enjoy it.
