Customer Reviews

The Surrogate: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There were times when this book read like a script for Lifetime Television for Women movie. A couple of over-the-top characters and some far-fetched plot devices caused me to roll my eyes more than a few times.

Having said that I must admit, I was totally suckered into this story. There were times I couldn't put this book down. The author does a great job drawing the reader into the story. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Some readers will most likely not care for this, as the Christians in this book are not portrayed in a good light. However, it's still a very entertaining book, great for a summer beach read. Enjoy!

I am writing this review moments after finishing this book. THE SURROGATE was a very interesting novel and kept me guessing throughout, which is the type of book I find very entertaining. The problems I had though are with the author's insistant use of profanity and sexual scenes. The profanity was way to graphic and completly useless. It seemed as though she through them in for shock value which did nothing to help the story. Especially the scene where the lawyer described sex with his wife. What did that accomplish in moving the story forward?! Absolutely positively NOTHING! Also, the sexual scenes between Jamie and Joe weren't needed either. The author successfully painted a picture of a couple very much in love but the sex scenes just made it sound tawdry and immature. "His [...] was amazing". Stupid wording. Let their love have meaning. Let it mean more and leave a lot more to the reader's imagination. We will thank you for it later.

To a penniless twenty-year-old like Jamie Long, surrogate motherhood seemed both an act of altruism and a financial opportunity. But once pregnant and under contract to Amanda Hartmann, the head of a famous evangelical family, Jamie realizes that she's getting more than she bargained for. Whisked away to the vast, isolated family ranch, she's closely supervised and carefully cut off from the outside world. She learns the family's dark secrets -- and sees the enormity of their ruthlessness. When Jamie hears Amanda's plan to claim the baby as her natural-born child, she begins to suspect that her own life is in danger and resolves to flee.
Alone with a tiny newborn, she calls on the one man in the world she can trust -- her high school crush, Joe Brammer. Their love unites them in a struggle to escape, and soon enough their flight becomes a fight for their lives.

Brilliantly weaving some of today's most controversial social issues into a captivating page-turner, The Surrogate is Judith Henry Wall's greatest triumph to date.

The Surrogate is a story of a young woman with financial problems contracting with a rich family as a surrogate mother to produce a baby. She finds that there are deeper mysteries and hidden motivations during the pregnancy, hightails it away from the isolation she agreed to, and tries to escape the family's wrath, baby in tow.

It is intense, a well-paced story, and a believable rendition of a frantic surrogate on the run.

The bad guy, however, is the classic ultra-rich, orders people killed, has hitmen always around to do his bidding, women on command, government in his pocket, et cetera, kind of guy. In other words, he is hard to escape. Use an ATM or make a phone call? You are located. Stay too long at one place? The black vans show up.

This is a nifty story about the concerns and trials of a surrogate working with a very weird family. The weirdness of the family detracts from the story. Consider this book briefly entertaining.

Try as I might, I still can't stifle my perpetual yawn having read Judith Henry Wall's THE SURROGATE. Excited to see an Oklahoma author with a Simon & Schuster trade paperback title, I began this book with great expectations. Yet I was instantly disappointed by writing that was trite, uninspired, and one-dimensional--prose as flat as the Texas panhandle where much of this novel is based. And what makes matters worse is this tired prose tries to tell the story of a young mother on the run from some nasty Bible thumpers; and the implausible ending is an absolute howler.

As to her villains, Ms. Wall unimaginatively perpetuates the stereotype of evil evangelicals--abusive hypocrites who wield their power over the masses by influencing elections and presidents. The result is one series of contrived cliches after another--trite storytelling that is literally agonizing to read. And the dialogue? How's this as a corny and hapless example?

"You are my hero. And you are the only man that I've ever loved and ever plan to love."

"And you are the love of my life. We are going to get through this, Jamie. We have to."

Quick. Give me some gravel to gargle so I can get the icky taste out of my mouth. But alas, such is the myopic nature of this alleged romantic thriller. And as an observation to lend credibility to the story, no one will ever find a Gen Xer named Joe or Lester; nor will any young 21st Century mother name her infant Sally Ann. Such is the annoying nature of the reading experience THE SURROGATE so aptly provides.
--D. Mikels, Author, THE RECKONING

With a bit more research, this book could have been a political thriller; with a bit less, it could have been a romance novel. As it is, it has a mostly-implausible plot which needs far too much coincidence to save the day. The villans are given some depth, which I appreciate, but the main characters are so good and clever (and lucky) that they are not terribly interesting. The political and religious commentary was heavy-handed.

This book worked for me as a sick-day read (from the library), but overall I was unhappy with it.

I loved this book and couldn't put it down! It was the cause of a couple of late nights, that's for sure. I loved the characters, they were very diverse and creative. The author makes Christian leaders seem a little like nuts, and maybe that's the only problem I had with this book, but for the content of the story it was needed. It was just a really good book and will keep you reading just to find out how it finally ends. Definite five star!

The book starts off alittle slow, but picks up very fast. it was so hard to put it down, i always wanted to find out what was happening next. i just finished today, and i love the book. i highly recommend this book. Jamie Long the main character in the book is a brave girl.

I stayed in my seat and read until it was okay to breathe. This is one of those books that I remember all the details. That was 4 years ago!

Okay, the ending is implausible, but the steps leading to it are entirely believable and scary in a conspiracy-theory kind of way. The evangelical preacher type who really seems to believe what she is saying (and has blinders on when it comes to the real-world evil her family is capable of), the smart, yet naive young girl and her emotional ride through a surrogacy, the evil governmental puppet-master...well his story (especially the ending) is the part where you kind of question the story. Still, it was a very entertaining story for a day home in bed and sick.