Then Came You

By: Jennifer Weiner

Narrated by: Karen Ziemba, Aya Cash, Jenni Barber, Annalynne McCord

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

An unexpected love story…

Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she's ashamed to invite to Parents' Weekend. With the income she'll receive from donating her "pedigree" eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband's salary, she thinks she's found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus' daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems.…

With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women's lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.

©2011 Jennifer Weiner (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Great story

It took me a while to get invested and I found one of the main characters in particular unlikeable, but about a 3rd of the way in I got into it and ended up really loving the book. The book is told from the perspective of 3 different women, and though each of their chapters is prefaced by their name, the 3 narrators were different enough that I had no trouble telling them apart even if I couldn’t remember who’s part of the book I was in (say after a break, or if I fell asleep listening).
The story is interesting and the 3 women who tell it sucked me in in the end and I found the ending especially great and would recommend this book to a friend.

Full of interesting surprises!

A good Saturday book full of interesting twists and turns. In the end, a real feel good book.

Seemed abridged

This book started out great, lots of characters with as many story lines & I guess not enough time to fully developed them all. I was disappointed.

Jennifer Weiner Fan!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you are a Jennifer Weiner fan, you will enjoy this book.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes, I would see it.

Great Listen if you are a Jennifer Weiner book

If you could sum up Then Came You in three words, what would they be?

Captivating, entertaining, predictable

What other book might you compare Then Came You to and why?

Any of Weiner's other works!

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

India

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it was too much

Any additional comments?

I found the book predictable at parts which made it less than a 5 star for me!

A nice brainless novel

An easy listen with engaging characters. Characters lacked some depth but ended up surprising me in the end. Good plot line that had me wanting to know what was going to happen next.

A little slow starting off, but overall very good!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Entertaining, with some twists and turns you don't expect, along with some heart felt moments. Overall, a good read. :)

End redeems it

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No I probably wouldn't - I love several Jennifer Weiner books, but in this one, I struggled with not relating to any of the characters. I seldom put down books, and this one that I did. Eventually I picked it back up and was glad I did, but still.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I liked the ending. It was realistic and resolved well.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

The four different voices were nice.

Easy listening...

Well produced and read (multiple characters), easy to follow, a great book to listen to while going about mundane tasks like cleaning, walking the dog, etc. A good story, if not a bit light on topics that could use a bit more depth (though it is Jennifer Weiner, so I did know this going in!).

Moving story about complicated decisions

Then Came You is a story that entwines several women and each one's impact in the making of a child. Weiner does an excellent job of crafting each woman's tale and then weaving them together. Having different voices for each woman helps distinguish them to the listener and adds to the overall quality of the performance. I truly enjoyed this book, which was at times heartbreaking and endearing at others.