The world is a kinder, gentler place for pregnant women, or so discovers Jane Taylor, the heroine of Baratz-Logsted's debut novel, upon learning that she's expecting. So when her pregnancy turns out to be a false alarm, Jane impulsively decides to keep up the ruse. She invents details about her OB-GYN and fakes a growing stomach, among other increasingly inventive tricks. Jane is single (her live-in boyfriend didn't appreciate her deception), almost 30, an editor and British. Sound familiar? Baratz-Logsted is refreshingly self-conscious about following the chick-lit trend. As Jane laments, "Sometimes it felt as though you could no longer turn around in a bookshop or at an editorial meeting without being confronted with yet another pink-covered book whose pages told about the wacky adventures of yet another 20-something Londoner who labored in publishing." Jane's own adventures are more daring than many of her fellow single-female heroines, and Baratz-Logsted's premise is hilarious and original. Soon Jane's pregnancy threatens to ruin a budding romance and a project at work. She wishes she could come clean, but she's been offered a book contract about her farce by a colleague who catches her in the act.

I don't know if I'll ever be too old to enjoy these!