Book fourteen: The Pregnancy Test

The Pregnancy Test* (2005)
Erin McCarthy

Rating: 2.25/5

This was fairly funny and entertaining.

I was surprised to realise that McCarthy’s first book wasn’t published until 2004, which means she’s done well in terms of sales these past few years. Actually, I just read on her website that she sold her first book to Kensington Brava through a website contest (Lori Foster's) in 2002 and has since sold twenty-four books. Crap. She has done very, very well. I wonder how many of these were already written? Hopefully a few. It would be disappointing to see a decline in quality due to overproduction.

I like the way she writes. She’s funny and very easy to read. Although I’m sometimes disappointed that she doesn’t push the boundaries a bit more.

That said, I thought this book had an aright premise. It was slightly different and the characters were likable. Actually, it has some of the same characters as one of her more recent novels I’d read previously – You Don’t Know Jack – but I think this was better. Seemingly less formulaic than that effort.

Although, to be honest I could have done without the dead wife here. I think McCarthy may have taken the easy out with that. I suppose it is a realistic motivation for the character, but I think the way she developed this was lazy. [spoiler] Its like she couldn’t be bothered to work through him being okay with the death of his wife – you know, I’m ready to love again, dramatic sigh – so instead she made him come to the realisation that his wife wasn’t really all that great. But its okay, this view was supported by the other characters who knew her, including her parents (huh?), so it must be true! [end spoiler]

The other problem I had with this book is the same one I’ve had with 99 per cent of the romance novels I have read. I never really, truly believe that they are in love. Or that they will still be in this ‘love’ in a month’s time. I don’t know if I’m too pessimistic for it all, but I don’t think you can really fall in love with someone in a few days. Or even a week. Sorry.

But I guess I do manage to suspend my disbelief and just go with it, or I wouldn’t keep reading them. And I can’t blame this book for a problem with the whole genre.

I do wonder if someone did a study of the propensity for certain things in romance novels, what they would come up with. Are there certain traits that are always present in the hero? The heroine? The situation? And are these things what the readers want in real life, or are they what we expect in a novel? What’s the interaction between the two, which is effecting the other more?

Take a trait from this book – the brooding, misunderstood hero (he’s a nice guy, underneath it all, you just have to look past his pain. No, really). Is this a prevalent character type because this is what the public want to believe in real life? Do we want to think that underneath every overbearing asshole we encounter, is a nice sensitive guy? Or do we just want to read about it?

And how much of a disconnect is there between what we read and what is actually going on in the big bad world?

I’ve just realised that having three days off work, proves how much working damages my brain. I’m starting to think this could be a good thing – after all, I’ve just used the words “propensity,” “disconnect,” and “prevalent character type” in the same post. And I wasn’t even joking.

Pretentious much?

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* Read on Monday, 19/3.