The Baby Group by Jade Lee Wright

 

Darcy and her fiancé Alex have moved from the hustle bustle of London to a more peaceful life in Cornwall.  Darcy's would be mother-in-law suggests that she join an antenatal class to keep herself occupied. She should go about her life, she suggested, rather than constantly being behind Alex to give her company. It was good to have your own set of friends. 

Reluctantly, Darcy looks up for antenatal classes and finds one close by, which she convinces Alex about. It sounds all harmless, good and supportive to be part of these classes where every member has the same set of problems or learning. Darcy meets a whole bunch of women in the class and soon forges a good friendship with each of them. The husbands bond too, which is quite good. Each of these women came from affluent families, often making Darcy feel a little low about her financial status. Keeping that aside, she gels well with everyone. 

Do you see how I am dragging this one point? You must wonder why I can't go ahead with the rest of review/story. This is how exactly I felt in many parts of the storyline. 

All the couples soon get along. But, Darcy is riddled with fears of the past and also insecurities best known to her. Pregnancy hormones aren't helping either. And truth be damned, women can get b*tchy. As the days go, there is some problem or the other. Some misunderstanding or the other. While I understand and sometimes empathize with Darcy's state of mind, I also understand what Alex would have gone through to constantly remind Darcy that he was on her side and she had to put her insecurities to rest. But his words were not matching his actions. 

Middle of the book describes a lot of what goes on in antenatal classes. There is some character development which links to the rest of the story. 

Finally, Darcy goes into labour and a difficult one at that. But suddenly the whole story topples over when one mother from the baby group Lucy, snatches Darcy's new born baby and makes for the run. In a tussel, Lucy stabs Darcy a couple of times to incapacitate her. Darcy is exhausted, bleeding, broken and shocked. Why was her baby taken? Where is Alex when he should be there supporting her? And most importantly, where is her baby? What on Earth was going on?

I picked up this book because it was free on audible. I sometimes could not make out if the story was a "psychological" thriller or "kidnapping" mystery. The narrator, Tamaryn Payne was alright. Many times I thought she was sighing a little too much and when you listen to the story in a quiet environment, you can hear every single breath during narration. But, I guess, she sounded like that as the character was pregnant and sighing is a natural instinct.

I think I have reached a new zen - unless I have run out of patience and tolerance, I don't DNF a book. But there is only that much niceness in me towards authors. 

Overall, you would not miss much if you didn't pick this book up but to be fair, I only liked the ending. If you can be tolerant of the first part of the book, and nothing else on your TBR, [which is highly impossible of us readers!] you could listen to this one. Else, give it a miss. It was not horrible, it was not good either.