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Published: Nov. 22, 2011
Words: 85,161 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465864819
Short description
Does a man really need a woman to have a child? Tristan Sheppard wants a child, but he doesn't want a mother. After approaching ex-girlfriends, lovers and even strangers, he decides to hire the services of Marie McDonald, a single mother from the wrong side of the tracks. But little does he realize what he has let himself in for...Extended description
Tristan Sheppard hates weddings. From the little tissue paper invites that came floating through his door to the personalized polo shirts he was forced to wear on stag nights. Unfortunately for Tristan, he was of an age where weddings dominated his social calendar. In his thirties, single and relatively wealthy, Tristan prefers the playboy lifestyle he has adopted. Others however, have plans for him.Tired of being set up by his 'friend' Stuart Robinson and with an unhealthy infatuation with Stuart's wife Emily, Tristan grows tired of being told to settle down. Tristan believes that the only true love is between a parent and child, which gives him the idea of becoming a father. The only problem is, he doesn't want a mother.
After approaching ex-girlfriends and lovers, Tristan sees the solution to his problem is to pay Marie McDonald, a single mother from a poor estate in Edinburgh, to be his surrogate. But little does he realize what he has let himself in for...
Tags
comedy, chick lit, single mother, single dad, comedy drama, comedy romance, comedy fiction, men and woman relationships, single life versus married lifeAvailable ebook reading formats
Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.| Format | Full Book | Sample First 30% |
|---|---|---|
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| Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps) | Buy | Download sample |
| Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others) | Buy | Download sample |
| PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing) | Buy | No sample available |
| RTF (readable on most word processors) | Buy | No sample available |
| LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub) | Buy | Download sample |
| Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices) | Buy | Download sample |
| Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting) | Buy | No sample available |
| Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page) | Buy | No sample available |
Reviews
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Review by:
Everett Powers
on Jan. 12, 2012 :
Please don't tell anyone I read a book in the chick-lit category, but I enjoyed reading The Surrogate. The characterization was great, the pacing face, and there were enough surprises to keep me guessing. I was eager to pick my iPad to keep reading; to me, this says it all.
An interesting, fun read.
(reviewed long after purchase)
Review by:
Craig Gelling
on Nov. 28, 2011 :
I bought the book because I had read the first three chapters that were offered up as a sample and wanted to find out what happened at the end of the book. I wasn't disappointed.
The story revolves around wealthy thirty-something bachelor Tristan Sheppard and his relationships with both his peer group of career minded socialites and the lower-class inhabitants of a run-down block of flats in Sighthill in Edinburgh. Evans injects a lot of comedy into the language of the Sighthill residents and that is what makes the story tick. Although a lot of the dialogue is in Scots dialect, you pick it up as you go along and the quick one-liners and the cultural misunderstandings between Tristan and Marie are some of the funnier moments in the book.
Although billed as a comedy, there are some dramatic moments. Tristan's relationships fail and falter at almost every turn and as the story is partly told through flash-backs the reader gets to see just why the protagonist is so afraid of commitment. The plot is easy to follow, but has some dramatic twists and turns and towards the end the reader is left reeling from a number of sucker punches that weren't expected.
Evans has written a well paced book that is hard to put down. There is little in the way of filler in the book, with descriptions and first person asides kept to a minimum.It sometimes seems as if there are less than the 85,000 words or thirty chapters, but that is to Evans' credit as nine months in the life of Tristan Sheppard contains more than enough incident to fill two books of the same size. Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this book, even though it doesn't sit comfortably in any particular genre. Too masculine to be chick-lit, but too bizarre in places to be literary, it's best to just say this is a good book that may make you think, could make you cry, but will certainly make you laugh.
(reviewed the day of purchase)