Promising idea, but the writing lets it down
343212
Two women whose lives would never intersect find themselves on perpendicular paths. One desperately wants to have a baby. The other volunteers to be the surrogate. Both will undergo an experience that will change their lives and bind them to one another. Author Amulya Malladi highlights the industry of surrogate mothers and the effects it has on women and families in the uneven halting novel A House for Happy Mothers.

Priya and her husband, Madhu, live and work in Silicon Valley. They possess everything a young couple would want: a nice home and burgeoning careers. One of Priyas desires remains unfulfilled, however: she cant conceive and carry a baby to term. She and Madhu have experienced several miscarriages, and those lost babies have tried their relationship. Still, Priya remains persistent. She wants a baby, and she thinks shes found a solution when a friend tells her about surrogacy.

Her research leads her to Dr. Swati and the Happy Mothers clinic in Hyderabad, India. With Dr. Swatis guidance Priya and Madhu choose Asha as their surrogate. Asha has never been a surrogate before, but the husband and wife remain undeterred. Their instincts tell them that Asha, despite her inexperience, is the right choice.

The idea of surrogacy doesnt exactly sit well with Asha, but financial need drives her. Her husband, Pratap, works as a painter and doesnt have a steady income. Blessed with an academically gifted son, Asha knows he needs a stellar education. Stellar educations in small villages are hard to come by and astronomically expensive for their family, however, and when Asha and Pratap find out how much their sister-in-law got paid to be a surrogate the solution seems tailor-made for them.

Asha has her doubts, but she also doesnt see where she has much of a choice. With the utmost of reluctance, she volunteers to carry the baby of a stranger. For the next nine months, on different sides of the world, both Asha and Priya will deal with their misgivings, their families, and a variety of social and cultural issues as they wait for the major event that will tie them to one another for life.

Author Amulya Malladi delves into her subject matter with enthusiasm bordering on abandon. She alternates between Priya and Asha as point-of-view characters, allowing both enough time to share their experiences. In terms of character involvement, Malladi keeps it straightforward. For the most part Priya and Asha drive the story.

The trouble comes with writing mechanics. Malladi deals head on with the tension created by the situation, and she offers a variety of situations where the tension affects the characters in full force. The story lacks any major conflict, however. There is no significant obstacle in the way of either main character. They both set out on an objective and proceed to achieve that objective. Family and friends question their actions, they spend time second-guessing themselves, and they do their best to stay within societal expectations. But the book doesnt contain a single event where readers might have to wonder whether Asha would carry the baby to full term or whether Priya and Madhus relationship will ride out the emotional challenges of surrogacy.

As characters, too, Priya and Asha come across as flat in many places. The narration steamrolls over them, keeping them from sharing their story on an intimate level. As a result readers will feel like someone is telling them this story secondhand instead of feeling like they're experiencing it in real time with the characters.

Issues of minor head hopping and even a few changes from third person limited point of view to second person will jar readers out of the story for a minute or two. Ultimately Malladis subject may keep some readers going to the end, but others may elect to drop the book before it comes to its logical conclusion.  I recommend readers Bypass A House for Happy Mothers.

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
953176
This book is written at a mid-level, maybe for middle schoolers or young high schoolers? That wasn't apparent to me when I first bought it. The concept is really interesting, and I enjoy seeing the worldbuilding unfold, but the writing kept putting me off. It's not bad if you skim, but that means I read like 20% of the entire book in 15 minutes.
4114414
Lots of unrealized potential here.  The story concept is good, but the writing is not.

Story issues:
So little description that one never knows what the characters look like, except for the three friends.
Why does a "mansion" only appear to have three bedrooms, requiring all the women to double up?
A "mansion" and its estate have no outbuildings?  No old stable/garage?  No description of Julius' workshop?

Writing issues:
I give it an F for exceedingly poor punctuation, but a B for grammar.
E-book formatting had quotation marks missing from the end of a sentence and transported to the beginning of the next sentence/paragraph.
Too much telling, not enough showing through dialog or description.  It led to choppy sentences, abrupt subject changes, and a sense of reading a 9th grade composition.
Skipping between points of view every few paragraphs only confuses the reader.  While the multiple points of view may seem original, it takes away from the alleged main character so much that she appears to be more a supporting character.  I thought Gustavia was more of a main character than Julie.  If the plan was to not have a true main character, but have an ensemble cast, it failed -- works fine in a movie, doesn't work in a book.

The best thing this author could do for herself is to get a good editor and proofreader.  She really, really needs help to get her excellent story ideas whipped into shape.

I borrowed the book through Kindle Unlimited.
2004388
In general, I liked this story. It had a lot going on in the plot and great subplots. The general idea was good and I think I get the concept of where the author wanted to go with this, but I also think it fell short of achieving that goal.

First, the writing is a little weak, and the book could use a really good developmental and line edit. Getting a good developmental editor on this good concept could have made all the difference in the world. There were instances of misspelled words, missing words, duplicated words, lots of run-on sentences and more. I am not a stickler for perfect grammar, either, but grammar should be good enough to ease the ability to read the book. The grammar sometimes made this a difficult read.

I enjoyed the adventures the two main characters embarked upon, and I liked the premise of the story--the problem is, I think the book started in the wrong place and put too much focus on the wrong things, so that at the end, we have no conclusions. Is this supposed to be a part of a series? If so, then I see no evidence of that. And yet, the sub-plots were not tied up at all. What happened with the children? Why were they chosen? How are so few going to be able to do anything major to change the world? Who were their parents? I'm assuming high-ranking families, people with some power or political pull? THAT was the story... but instead, we are given some conspiracy theories by an ex-employee while the read story--and the perpetrator--hides in the shadows and we're never shown that. Then at the end, we get sort of thrown into a sub-story of the man in the wilderness with his sick daughter, and it ends on a complete cliffhanger. Why?

It doesn't feel complete. There's no real ending to it, but I see no evidence this is a series. So I'm left, instead of feeling satisfied by a good story come to an end, feeling quite confused.

I really wanted to like this book, because I really liked the premise of the 'advertised' plot, but the book didn't really give me that plot--it didn't fulfill its promise--so instead I'm left with a lot of questions and feeling slightly frustrated at the way it ended.

And what frustrates me even more is that it had so much potential... it could have been and should have been so good.

All that said, I do like the author's voice (with the need of better editing), and I like the tone of the story. The characters were mostly believable and authentic, though I'd like to see them developed more. I think point of view is really weak but I do like seeing the story from several different angles. The locations in the story were a nice bonus too, woven in between the plot.

Overall, it's a good effort, a decent book. But it took me a while to get into the story, because of the difficulties expressed above. In the end, I'm glad I read it and don't feel like it wasted my time. I think it's worth the read--but if you're expected a hard-core sci-fi, this isn't it. If you're expecting a Christian book, this isn't it either. But it's a good action/adventure genre, with a futuristic bent to it.
3728712
I was really looking forward to this book after reading so many positive reviews. Unfortunately does not live up to the hype, slow, slow and very slow.
The concept and idea is fantastic, but the writing is slow an lethargic.
2209138
The idea of the book has great merit, but the writing is muddled and inconsistent. Scenes are poorly described and developed. Tries to be smart, but comes off as pretentious.
831880
The premise of the book is excellent, but the writing doesn't live up to the promise. Too much repetitive dialogue yet not enough detail in other areas to give an in depth sense of things. I have to admit I began to skim through some parts of it.
4593526
This is a great idea for a book - two-tracking the history of a significant book through the present day restorer and the historical figures who caused the changes in the book that she researches.

BUT unfortunately the present day life story is cliched (mother-daughter tension, approach-avoidance with overly perfect man, discovery of hidden personal history, etc) and the past-day stuff is not well written.

The book's history as imagined could be riveting.  If it were written as well as the present-day stuff and the goopy/butch modern character were made more individual.  Or get rid of the present day stuff.

A disappointment from a good author.
2159292
I wanted to like this book, it started out very promising. One of the problems with Amish books is that the characters are bland; they're Amish, and that's their main personality trait. In this book, however, the characters are much more defined. Rhoda is kind but eccentric, Samuel is a bit of a pill, Leah is filled with self-loathing, and Catherine is overemotional and insecure. The beginning of the book sets up a lot of potentially interesting conflicts, but then--they all stand around a field discussing the ins and outs of an apple canning business. Should they merge Rhoda's canning business with Samuel's orchard? Where will they do the canning? Is it financially feasible? Should they all just move to Maine? They have these discussions with a lot of stilted, badly-written dialogue that tries to weave in too much backstory in the awkward sentences. You can see a minor example of this in the excerpt, when Landon mentions how they've been working together in that basement for so long. There's a lot of that type of conversation, and it slows the book way down in the middle.

All this conversation is for naught, because the decisions about the farm are made by two tremendous coincidences, breaking several rules of good fiction writing. Maybe it's different in Christian fiction, where God can come in and show someone his will, but it just looks lazy to me.

Cindy Woodsmall has a lot of talent and is arguably the best of the Amish writers. This book had a lot of promise, but fell apart somewhere in the middle. I will still read the sequel, however, because the characters were interesting.
1662309
I'm pretty sure I read an early iteration of this many years ago posted as an unfinished online diary.

I love the concept, unfortunately the execution is weak. The writing is poor and clunky in places, there are a lot of English mistakes and it desperately needed proofreading before publishing. The non-science fiction parts of the plot are not believable and full of holes, everything is way too convenient and often venturing into ludicrous. The author tries to bend the real world around where he wants the story to go without any consideration that, as it is based in the real world, those parts of the story should be vaguely realistic. The story would be much better if, as readers, we could believe the story was taking place in the world we live in.

That being said I still enjoyed it because I really like the concept. It's one of those stories that I've occasionally thought about years after reading the original online diary and I've always wanted to read more so I was quite excited to find a book. If more parts come out I'll still buy and read them because I'm interested to see where it's going but it may be better if the author returned to it after developing their writing skills to start from scratch with the concept.
4070339
I really wanted to like this. I really tried... but I couldn't get more than 15% into the book. The story was intriguing enough but the writing is just too poor/amateurish. I do not mean to sound like a snob, and I mean no offense to the writer. If you read it, I suspect you'll see what I mean. I share the author's love of submarines--and the 688/Los Angeles class, in particular. The fact that the story centers on a first-gen 688 is enough to make me want to keep pushing through.

I purchased this book on my Kindle and had no problems with the formatting.
3180733
I'm surprised none of the reviews talk about the writing in this book. The number of grammatical problems is sufficient to make the book difficult to read.  Commas, are added whenever and wherever (as in this sentence).  Sentence fragments and run-on sentences are extremely common.  Passive voice dominates.  Verbs switch between past tense and present tense with no discernible logic. Noun/verb agreements (singular/plural) are incorrect.  All of this is unfortunate because the premise of the story is interesting.  The survivors make their way to a fish hatchery and begin to build up supplies and manpower with the ultimate intent of retaking the surrounding region from Zombies.  Good idea poorly executed.  I agree with other reviews.  Women are cast in subservient roles.  The emergence of the protagonist(Vin)as leader is a bit hard to accept, especially when other obvious leaders abound.  None of the reviews, however, mention the under-development of the role played by the fish hatchery.  Here is an incredible source of food, something acknowledged by Vin as a reason for migrating to the hatchery.  Yet virtually all the food eaten comes from scavenging the surrounding areas.  Again, the author has skills in developing interesting ideas, but he should invest in a talented editor before continuuing in this series.
2782554
The underlying premise of the book is an interesting, new take on the ramifications of time travel. Unfortunately though, the writing really limited my enjoyment of the story. The dialogue between the characters is often forced and unnatural, and the author spends far too much time explaining, in detail, how clever certain characters are. I prefer to see how clever the characters are through their actions, instead of having that opinion preformed and forced upon me again and again.
4562355
It was an interesting concept, however the writing really put me off.  I did manage to read the entire book, but more out of stubbornness than enjoyment.  I was also curious to see how correct the story was to proven historical fact, and found that there a few inconsistencies.  I am assuming these inconsistencies were made to further the storyline, but if a story is interesting enough that shouldn't be needed.
1946626
The idea is fantastic - tracking two young Amish sisters in Rumspringe. Unfortunately the writing is repetitive, disjointed, and trite. The presentation lacked the impact it could have had if both stories presented simultaneously. The second story was much stronger than the first. I would have enjoyed it more if some of these weaknesses were addressed.
3706563
This book is based on an intriguing concept. The first part of the book contained the best writing. I was completely in the character's mind for the first 20 minutes. After that, I kept on reading, but honestly was surprised by the cheesiness and convenience of the romance, as well as the amazing amount of forced coincidences -- so many that my relatively elastic suspense of disbelief snapped.

Halfway through the book, I decided to look up the author's bio. Sure enough, when you read the author's outlook on herself as "fiercely independent" you realize that the female protagonist is simply a hollow mouth-piece for the author's disillusioned perspective on feminism, sexuality, independence, love and relationships.

I'm a 25 year old girl, so this book should have been right up my alley. It wasn't. However, the best thing to take away from this book is its ability to open up discussions. Since it's targeted at young people, there are plenty of opportunities for them to explore the themes propelled in this book and decide if they think the conclusions and consequences are realistic (NOT, IMHO), as well as if the reasons behind the main characters' decisions were legitimate (I'd call them short-sighted and selfish).

Not every book has to be perfect or morally sound, but it should have some level of reality. This one did not in my opinion. Everything was too easy for the characters and the sacrifices made were pretty boring. The romance just happened in a bland and blatant way, not too mention CHEESY. What should have been the climax of the story was pretty anti-climactic. What could have been a fascinating concept was put on the back-burner to the author's agenda. Too bad. I'd been looking forward to reading this book for months since I'd read the reviews.
2798404
I read somewhere that a poorly researched and edited manuscript leads to a distracted and frustrated reader, who then abandons the book. I felt this applied perfectly in this book's case. The premise and the plot are promising enough, but the writing style with its confusion of tenses and heavyhanded setup makes this book a chore even to a voracious reader such as myself. The awkward and blunt recitation of facts about Mont St Michel and its history does not make for a sufficient book research- the writing style itself and the dialogues also make a difference. The book ends with a cliffhanger, but even though I sort of want to know what happens next, I don't think I can bring myself to go through another book in this series. Two stars for the generally good plot and the premise, deducted stars for the reasons above.