I picked up The Stork Reality because the premise – a young, married professional woman dealing with an unexpected pregnancy – was intriguing to me. I admit that I was a little afraid that it would suffer from what my husband and I jokingly call the “Newsweek covering the baby boomers” phenomenon; or in other words, oblivious, self-congratulatory preoccupation (You know. Covers proclaiming, “We’re turning sixty!” as if no generation before has achieved such a feat). Happily, this book avoids that bent and focuses on the challenges and questions that pregnant women face.

Taylor Montgomery is in her late twenties and living her dream. She’s a creative director at an advertising agency, a high-powered, demanding job that she loves. Her husband Jake is a hot, young attorney who just made junior partner. They enjoy power work-outs, great vacations, and steamy sex. Everything in their life is going according to plan, and kids are not part of that plan. Not yet, and maybe not ever.

That changes with Taylor’s surprise pregnancy – the result of a bad combination of birth control pills and antibiotics. Taylor is so taken aback by her pregnancy that she can’t even bring herself to tell Jake for two months, and when she does tell him, it goes badly. They have a couple of months where they barely communicate, and he even flirts with the idea of a workplace affair. Gradually, both of them adjust. And that’s basically the plot of the book; adjusting to the reality of pregnancy and impending motherhood. Taylor and Jake have to wrestle with the idea of becoming parents, which prompts them to both examine their own childhoods. Taylor lost both her parents when she was a teenager. Jake grew up as an only child in a wealthy home and was more or less raised by his nanny. They wonder if they are equipped to be good parents, and whether they will be up for the challenges.

Taylor is fortunate in that she has a really good support network in her “bridge ladies,” a group of women who meet monthly for dinner and bridge, with generous doses of gossip and advice. Most of them have preceded her in parenthood, and she uses them as a resource. She also has a close colleague at work – a single man who doesn’t have much advice to offer about pregnancy, but who has her back when her demanding boss interferes. Jake eventually becomes supportive as well, once he gets over his own existential crisis.

I really enjoyed this book, in no small part because Taylor was an engaging and sympathetic heroine. Her response to pregnancy is authentic. Her concerns about topics like work, sex, and her changing body are concerns to which any woman who has ever had a child can relate. She’s not super-mom, super-wife, or super-employee. And as she solicits advice from friends and co-workers, she realizes that there is no such thing. At first surprised to discover that a former competitor has been changed by motherhood, she herself changes as well. Taylor also realizes that her relationship with Jake has been superficial in many ways. As they approach the changes in their life together, they open up to each other more. It’s scary, but it brings them closer.

The Stork Reality also does an excellent job of showcasing the drama and excitement of pregnancy. Not in the Hollywood mad-dash-to-the-delivery-room sense, but in the quiet, everyday sense. Let’s face it; it’s a huge life change. An old friend of mine likens deciding to have a child to jumping off a cliff. You can’t go back, and your life changes forever. That doesn’t mean it changes in a bad way, but there’s no question that it’s different. The experience also presents women with many decisions and choices, some of which are unanticipated. Taylor’s major decision is what to do about her career, and as her pregnancy progresses she is presented with several alternatives. Again, it’s a situation with which most mothers can identify.

In nearly every instance, I found the information in the book to be accurate. Most women who have been pregnant will find themselves nodding with agreement at times. The author has three children herself, so she has plenty of experience, and it shows. Naturally, no two pregnancies are the same, and we see this when Taylor’s friends share their stories. The only thing I took issue with at all was part of Taylor’s delivery, when she discovers mid-labor that her baby is breech. In the book, turning the baby is more or less presented as simple, quick, and not a big deal. I guess it’s possible that things have changed considerably in the last nine years, but when I was in this exact situation it was definitely a big deal, involving drugs to slow labor and three doctors, including a specialist. It was also very painful, and I say that as a person with a high pain threshold who had four kids and no epidural. Taylor breezes right through it, and I just didn’t buy it. However, that was absolutely the only part of the book which struck me as inauthentic.

Overall, this was an entertaining and thoughtful read. I’d recommend it for women who’ve had kids and want to take a walk down memory lane, but I think it also might be fun for women who want kids in the future and would like to know what they’re in for. The answer? Everything you are expecting – and more.