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Finally!

Got my eyes on the latest novel by Houston-based writer, Katherine Center!

"latest" = published in 2010

(notice how I used the modifier "finally" to explain that I know this book isn't exactly "new" anymore)

But in the grand world of the written, it doesn't always matter when you come to a book -- but that you found your way in the first place...

Here is an excerpt from the FIRST CHAPTER.

It took no less than a day to finish (take that former-slow-reading-self)!

Here is a mini-synopsis via Publishers Weekly:

"Sarah Harper is on the New York fast track at a top advertising agency until she grows a conscience overnight and sends out a companywide e-mail debunking her popular bra campaign. Fired, she flies home to Houston, where she crashes with her older sister, Mackie, and Mackie's husband, Clive. Turns out Mackie has problems of her own: after years of trying to have a baby, she announces she's done. In an effort to do something good for a change, Sarah offers herself up as a surrogate."

Interested? My favorite parts include Sarah's struggles (what?) after the deed is done. There is turmoil and sincere doubt/fears, which lesser writers would've glossed over. It's not a traditional fairytale ending...

Or maybe it is? While carrying her sister's child, Sarah gets involved with saving "The Love Library" (bibliophile alert! bibliophile alert!). This aspect of the novel seemed to take center stage for a bit, and since I enjoyed it--I wasn't bothered.

Could a reader more interested in the "surrogate part" get upset?

I started wondering if Sarah Harper would've been a fantastic character to carry through in a format closer to a dozen related short stories as opposed to a novel. But that's just my own instincts talking (since the short story is my preferred method of madness).

OR I could see Sarah as a sitcom: drama with a sprinkling of comedy. She is someone I seem to know now, a friend. I want more of her!

All of Katherine Center's heroines do this to me, they come alive on the page!

~~J

related: Everyone is Beautiful from 2009 (also by Center)