REVIEW for What Came First

A huge thank you to the wonderul Carol Snow for sending me a copy of her book!


TITLE:           What Came First

AUTHOR:     Carol Snow

GENRE:        Chick Lit (YEAH!!!!!)

RATING:      4 Stars

I discovered Carol Snow a few years ago and loved her book so much that I immediately ordered all of her backlist. Which brings me to her most recent entry - What Came First.

I am so thrilled that Snow continues to write chick lit and does it so well. While other authors have chosen to get off the genre, Snow has consistently written entertaining and completely engrossing novels that I simply adore and What Came First is no exception.

You can easily see, by the cover that this book is about children - having them, dealing with them, as well as dealing with the lack of them. In fact, Snow has cleverly intertwined her story of 3 women - who are all quite different (boy! are they!) but the two things they have in common is that they all are dealing with children issues AND they all are dealing with relationship issues (although this is definitely secondary for the most part).

Vanessa, Wendy and Laura find themselves caught up in their own lives - Vanessa is desperately hoping for a child, Wendy has two (from a sperm bank) who appear to be more than she can handle and Laura seems to have the perfect son (also from the sperm bank). Except that absolutely none of the women are happy - they are all busy wishing for something more and throughout the novel, we will discover that each woman learns a life lesson - watch what you ask for, you might get it.

I found the storyline and the characters very engaging. Snow writes for me, with characters that are flawed but also likeable - who deal with their lives the best way they can. Usually, the males in her stories are secondary and while Eric does play a fairly important role in the story, it is still the women who dominate.

This book is entertaining, all the while showing us that life definitely has its ups and downs. Snow also intertwines the life of her characters in a way that I never saw coming - but really "buckles" up the storyline.

The only negatives I have - the relationship between Laura and her son was a tad annoying. Laura went to ridiculous lengths to please her son and this touched a wrong chord with me. The other issue I had was that I found the Wendy and the Vanessa a bit whiny. I would have liked for them to have a bit more backbone. The Eric character was perfectly written - exactly the way I expected him to be.

I loved, loved this story and I can't wait to read the next book.