One of my fave books, has been reread several times.. But honestly the h annoyed me at first, her attitude but not to give anything away! It was well written and simply amazing all round! ( )

One of my fave books, has been reread several times.. But honestly the h annoyed me at first, her attitude but not to give anything away! It was well written and simply amazing all round! ( )

The Family Plan is a great combination of highly-unlikely events, even more so than usual for Mills & Boon, in very much the modern world (there's even reference to Facebook!). We have IVF babies, a rare blood disorder that requires a bone marrow match; and a rare complication of pregnancy that requires the mother to spend the last 3 months in bed to ensure the second baby stays in the womb to term. This of course presents at just the right time for the donor father to provide a home and give the parents-through-technology a chance to get to know each other in person.

What I found interesting was the very limited discussion, from anyone in the story, of the moral questions around the use of IVF and screening technology to provide a bone marrow match: is it ok to create a sibling "just" to save the first child? Is it ok to screen and discard the embryos that won't help? For Amelia, the mother in this book, the answer is clearly yes. I think there's about 2 paragraphs where the possibility people disagree with her is raised, and promptly disposed of. I happen to agree with Amelia, but I can see the grey areas and I've had fairly intense discussions with people on the morality of creating "saviour siblings"; I'm surprised that in the US, of all places, there is simply no discussion of the parallels between the morning-after pill and discarding the embryos that don't match.

The author does pull off telling this story convincingly and giving a real sense of the emotional roller-coasters involved in parenting a very ill teenager, and carrying a risky pregnancy. The pregnancy complications mean that the romance developed over the course of the book is fairly unphysical, but I don't think this detracts from the intimacy or the attraction developed. I noted in passing that the book handles consent very well: she says "let go of me", he lets go immediately.

http://rmc28.dreamwidth.org/414174.html ( )

Not too bad, as series romances go. Likeable and engaging main characters, though, oddly, I found myself liking the supporting cast more than the primaries. Heart-tugging storyline with sick daughter Jordan, and the medical crisis for Amelia leads to a certain lack of the traditional physical contact that's a staple for this type of novel.

But, overall, a pleasant enough read...and one that I both started and finished all in the same evening. ( )