Special Delivery

by Zoë Barnes

Ally is happily married to Luke, but she and her sister Miranda couldn't be more different. While Ally has four children and a cosy home life, Miranda is child-free, married to a millionaire and lives in a show home that wouldn't be out of place in the pages of HOUSE & GARDEN. Ally gave up trying to compete years ago. But she is shocked when Miranda asks her if she'll help provide the one thing that is missing from her perfect a baby. Ally has every sympathy for Miranda's infertility problems, but can she really have a baby and hand it over to someone else? Especially if that someone else is Miranda.

Genres: Chick Lit

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Did you know ...?
Zoë was born near Liverpool, but is a real mixed bag! Her mum is Manx and her dad is from Yorkshire. She now lives in Cheltenham, where her novels are set.
She is also a French translator, and translates novels by Christian Jacq (author of the Ramses series) under the pen-name of Sue Dyson.
She was named 'Secretary of the Year' in 1987, although she wasn't actually working as a secretary at the time!
When not writing or translating, she works as a singer.
At the moment she has three cats: Domino, Pizza and Jupiter. Unfortunately, Jupiter's favourite foods are Sellotape and glue, and he enjoys chewing the corners off library books.
The only animals she really doesn't like are cockroaches. And it's not their fault they're creepy.
She loves chocolate, but it makes her ill. Sadly, green vegetables are perfectly safe. There is no justice.
There is no such thing as a Javanese Yellow Skunk. But there ought to be.

Zoë died on October 30th 2009 after taking an overdose.

Reviews

[Melanie Slack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did manage to read through to the end but I had to force myself. I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters and the plot was thin. Cant imagine a family woman would have a baby for a spoilt sister whom she clearly had a strained relationship with. Both guys were utterly annoying. Gavin running off at the drop of a hat and Luke treating his wife like she had the plague all because of the baby that he talked her into. The decision was made too lightly for me and the attempt at making Miranda seem like less of a spoilt brat after she once again got exactly what she wanted failed. There were things included that seemed irrelevant so the story went off on a tangent and I definitely struggled with the names Psyche and Cosmo. Saw the whole pre eclampsia part coming a mile off having suffered from it quite severely myself and whilst the initial emergency was written OK, the after birth part was not. It wasn't so easy to recover from and having a preemie in special care was more scary than this book indicated and don't get me started on the parents who treated Ally as the inferior daughter before the surrogacy and then like a Queen afterwards. I'd have told them right where to go!

On the whole I'm not sure if it was the style of writing, the subject, the characters or what but something was definitely missing for me. I will try more by Zoe Barnes in the future. I never write an author off just because I didn't enjoy one book.

[talluna al kakhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty good, it starts with “mom I can’t find my pants” and ends with it. I feel like it took a special turn on Gavin because i thought he might get with Ally at the end and leave Miranda but he left Miranda for his ex and wanted to move with her and she just changed her mind and wanted to give her husband a second chance. I feel like Zee really found his soulmate and Miranda turned out to be someone completely different from what we thought at the start. Really loved the book but there were some really extra events that were not needed Really good book though and definitely deserves 4 stars!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This chick-lit book had an okay direction but it didn't execute it too well. Girl has a happy marriage with kids and her husband but then one thing comes up out of the blue and her older selfish sister wants is a baby which she can't have with her equally selfish husband, whom the Girl has always sort of flirted with. It all seem to come out of nowhere. And for some reason, the Girl and her husband decide they want the Girl to carry the baby, who biologically will be the selfish husbands and the Girls. SO WEIRD!!!!! The Girls husband, whom originally agreed to this, gets sort of weirded out (duh!) and their marriage suffers. And the selfish sister becomes like super motherly, which is weird too and her marriage suffers as the Girl and the selfish husband start to meet in secret. Nothing happens in the end and everyone ends up all happy. But the one story plot that annoyed me tons was that the Girl and her husband were like sooo annoyed with the selfish sister, saying she always gets everything she wants and then they just up and give her this too! Like they are just playing right into her little plot. But luckily it does work out okay in the end.

Grade: C

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A romantic comedy dealing with a serious issue. I'm not a fan of chick lit but the subject appealed to me: surrogate pregnancy. Gaining insight into the minds of the two female characters at the centre of the story made me think about the issues in a different way.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this author did justice to the very delicate subject matter. Her characters are complex and believable...I'll be looking for more of her books to read.

[Kelly Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice easy read, throughly enjoyed this book from start to finish.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

another of those books that didnt turn out how I expected but was a really good read.I liked most of the characters and the way it was written.All good from my point of view!!