The Book Hammock (Eleanor)

Took me about 24 hours to stew with my thoughts on this story.I'll start by saying it's a damn good one. Lowenthal took a pretty straightforward and predictable premise and threw us a curveball.Pat and Stu, a gay couple struggling with their commitment to each other decide they want to have a baby. The magic solution to married life, right? Well, no. Their motives behind wanting a child are somewhat touching and understandable, but not necessarily right. I guess that's subjective, though.They lead a somewhat open relationship where Pat is the faithful one while Stu tends to stray but always come back to Pat. When they start looking for a surrogate to carry their child, Pat and Debora, the surrogate chosen develop a special bond. Things go a step or two too far and that's when the story picks up. Lowenthal's writing is very unique. He links the past and present in a very compelling way, that gets the reader deeply involved in the story.The only thing that bothered me is that for almost the entire first half of the book I felt that the story is lagging. It started picking up midway through the reading and then rushed through the end. A more evenly distributed pace might have been better. All in all, a story I very much enjoyed.Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.