The Book Blawg

Bed Rest: A Novel by Sarah Bilston

The back cover proclaims, "Sarah Bilston reads like Sophie Kinsella's big sister – a bit more serious, a little wiser, just as irresistible." Since I loved, loved, loved Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess, (a novel about a London attorney who accidentally takes a job as a housekeeper), no surprise that I liked this book as well. Our heroine, "Q", a British lawyer married to an American lawyer and living in New York City, is put on bed rest half way through her pregnancy. She has to deal with the emotional turmoil of her bed rest, her husband’s workaholic, just-about-to-come-up-for-partnership lifestyle, and her quirky family. What I would have liked a little more of is to see what Qs life as a lawyer was like before the bedrest. Also, I found it a little unrealistic that she could drop her work so quickly – I know pregnant female lawyers who put in more than a few billable hours while on bedrest, even while in the hospital. Sad, but true.