Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Book #24: Meg's Melody (Whitney Book #6)

Meg's MelodyTitle: Meg's Melody
Author: Kaylee Baldwin

When I was in the hospital after delivering Bryce, I remember that my obstetrician's partner came in to check on me during rounds. He was a guy in his late forties or fifties, but I'll never forget how neatly pressed his shirt was and how nicely his butt filled out his khaki pants. I'll blame my brief lusting after the obstetrician on the post-delivery hormonal soup raging through my body, but it was never more than a look, and a little fantasy. And in talking to other moms, I know I'm not alone, many of us have had brief crushes on our obstetricians, but nobody I know has ever taken the next step and dated him.

In the opening pages of Meg's Melody, poor Meg Sanders gets dumped by Austin, her husband of six months. It turns out that he wants a quickie divorce, and six weeks later, when Meg tries to reach him to tell him she's carrying his baby, he's already married to another woman (note to Baldwin: Arizona law states that a divorce cannot be finalized until 60 days after the papers have been delivered to the other spouse). Even though Meg's feeling sick and dejected and uncertain about her future, men start coming out of the woodwork. At one point, Meg has three men who want her hot, pregnant body. One of them, Johnny, is just as cruel and one-dimensional as Austin, but then there's Matt, the poor, widowed, hot obstetrician.

And here's where the story stops working for me. For all the details Baldwin gives, Matt could be Meg's guidance counselor. Sure, he encourages her to eat a little more and gives her a prescription for anti-nausea medication, but think about how much more awkward things would be if he were giving her a pelvic or a breast examination? That's what I wanted to read about. And for several months after he knows that his relationship with Meg is no longer strictly doctor-patient, he continues to keep her as a patient, which feels a little ick to me (eventually he does dump her off to his partner, which makes Meg feel rejected). The whole premise of pregnant woman dating her doctor while other men tried to win her away felt so laughable to me that I couldn't stop telling people about this book I was reading.

Perhaps the most realistic thing about Meg's Melody came in the last 30 pages, when Meg and Matt finally stopped being proud and misunderstood and dumb and decided they loved each other. It was predictable and sappy, and yes, also a little sweet.

1 comment:

bluestocking mama said...

thanks for the laugh. this was a funny review.