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NetGalley Review of Baby Bank

Posted on June 26, 2023June 21, 2023 by caritagardiner
Screenshot 2023-06-21 at 5.37.57 PM

title: Baby Bank

author: Sarah Robinson

publisher: books by Sarah Robinson

publication date: September 19, 2023

pages: 320

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings:

  • talk of nausea
  • talk of past sexual assault and maternal death

summary: Mila, current lawyer and up-and-coming stand-up comic decides to use an app to find a donor so that she can become pregnant. At the same time, journalist Ari is hounding her about revealing information about a hypocritical, evil, anti-choice senator her firm represents. Too late for her not to already have caught feelings for the journalist, Mila discovers that the journalist is the sperm donor's sister.

tropes:

  • funny, domineering mothers
  • repeated chance encounters
  • doing what's right and paying the consequences
  • found family

what I liked:

  • The main characters both had to get over a lot and learn about themselves.
  • Pro-queer messages and cast of characters
  • funny side characters
  • supportive family

what I didn’t like:

  • The two main characters aren't on-page enough for me to believe their relationship

overall rating: 3 (of 5 stars)

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WHAT I DO

I serve as a class dean and teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. I’ve earned a Bachelor of Arts (Amherst College), an Education Master in Learning and Teaching (Harvard University Graduate School of Education), a Master of Arts in English (Bread Loaf School of English), and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a certificate in the online teaching of writing (Southern New Hampshire University).

As a writer, I hope to capture the complexity and joy of life in the New England boarding school world. On this site, I share what I know about trying to write fiction while deaning, teaching English, coaching, and doing the other tasks associated with helping to raise over six hundred other people’s children.

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