Almost Perfect

Australian author Blacklock (Wife for Hire) proves that modern romance isn't necessarily the stuff of chipper escapism in this lukewarm tale about infidelity and infertility. The shopworn plot tracks how the unhappy marriage of corporate attorney William ""Mac"" and Anna MacMullen is slowly destroyed by Anna's obsession with getting pregnant, which Mac inadvertently counters by impregnating his new mistress after one blazing session of unprotected sex. The mistress, Georgie Reading, is an endlessly compassionate bookseller and a chronic loser in love for whom family means everything. Mac tries to keep Georgie in the dark about his marriage (going so far as to use a different name with her: Liam-one precious letter away from liar), but secrets, Mac learns, are hard to keep. As the novel predictably plays out, Blacklock spends many pages documenting Anna's in vitro-related depression, though Georgie's rigid ethical core is refreshingly realized.