A Moment in Time

Mairead O’Driscoll

We meet sensible Laura, who’s happily married to Barry. Happy, except for one thing. They can’t have children and have suffered repeated failed courses of IVF. There’s Donal, two years younger, who changes his girlfriend almost as often as he changes his socks. Why can’t he settle and start to take life seriously?

Laura and Donal are close. And they’re united in their exasperation with their adopted younger sister, Orla. Naturally bossy, the mum of twins is constantly criticising the older two. But is her affluent existence and her marriage to Gavin really as perfect as she likes to believe?

O’Driscoll throws various spanners into the works of all her characters. Between them they endure infidelity, an accident, and an incident that brings back unbearable past pain. And for one of them, there’s a great recession-fuelled reality check. They’re all left reeling.

And then, during a much vaunted family celebration, the truth of that past secret blows the characters sky high. Where will they land? Well, on their feet, of course. Because this is classic chick lit, where a happy ending is de rigueur.

The author was a midwife and now works as a public health nurse. She’s suffered infertility, but has now been blessed with a son. She takes the reader through the mechanics and the emotion of couples undergoing invasive fertility treatment. That the characters come through their difficulties with apparent ease is less than realistic. But the book contains all the elements required for successful chick lit.