Book Reviews
A pregnancy pact between three teenaged girls puts their mothers' love to the ultimate test in this explosive new novel from Barbara Delinsky, “a first- rate storyteller who creates characters as familiar as your neighbors.
Boston Globe
In her new family drama, Barbara Delinsky examines the roles people unconsciously play in families. This is fast-paced, commercial entertainment.
USA Today
Provocative.... Delinsky is interested in how the lies we tell for love can destroy us instead—and she lays out this particular deception so painstakingly that even the most honest reader will sympathize.
People
Thought-provoking tale of three smart, popular teenage girls who make a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. Lily, Mary Kate, and Jess also happen to be the daughters of best friends Susan, Kate, and Sunny, and the mothers are thrown into a tailspin by this unexpected news.... Susan, the principal of the town's high school, has the most to lose, when the schools superintendent and editor of the local newspaper question her abilities as a leader and mother.... Timely, fresh, and true-to-life, this novel explores multiple layers of motherhood and tackles tough questions.
Publishers Weekly
Popular author Delinsky [tackles] tough issues...balances out the emotional angst [with] an absorbing story that will appeal to the author's substantial fan base.... Teen girls will [also] be drawn in by this accessible novel's focus on mother-daughter relationships and pact behavior.
Booklist
Three high-school seniors form a pact to become pregnant.... But Lily, Mary Kate and Jess are the top girls, academically, athletically and socially, in the Maine coastal village of Zaganack. Boasting old roots and rigid values, this company town for an upscale retailer is scandalized. Most of the scandal comes from the fact that Lily's mother Susan is the high-school principal. The old men on the school board are outraged at the example the three girls have set, and all fingers are pointing in Susan's direction.... Delinsky has a knack for exploring the battlefields of contemporary life, and this emotionally intelligent, though formulaic, new novel offers her fans what they want—high drama and romantic realism.
Kirkus Reviews