Dorothy Koomson – Goodnight Beautiful

Nova Kumalisi would do anything for her closest friend, Mal Wacken. She owes him her life. So, when he asked her to be the surrogate mother for him and his wife, in spite of her fears about how it would alter their friendship, Nova agreed. Eight years later, Nova is bringing up their son alone, and she and Mal don't speak. Months into the pregnancy, Mal's wife changed her mind about the surrogacy agreement. Already suspicious of how close Nova and Mal were, Stephanie realised her strained marriage was in serious trouble when she found a text from her husband to Nova, saying, 'Goodnight, Beautiful'. She asked Mal to cut all ties with his closest friend and unborn child. Now, seven-year-old Leo is critically ill and Nova, despite her anger and hurt, wants Mal to have the chance to know his son before it's too late. Will it take a tragedy to remind them how much they mean to each other?

Why read – I have read all of her previous books, and she is a brilliant author, and this is the latest one of her collection.

I'm not sure if I was having an off moment when I started this book, but it was one of those I could only read briefly before giving up. I think that may have been me, because the plot was interesting and it probably should have gripped me better. However I do think this story had a bit of a slow start, and maybe its one of those books that grows on you over time instead of pulling you in all the way through.

Such an interesting idea for a plot line, and the way its told. Despite the fact its about the surrogacy, this a small fraction of the overall picture and instead Koomson took the time to explain how they got to that point in time, and then jumps to seven years later and the conclusion of what happens.

What I loved most about this story was the characters were very distinct. In most stories personalty's become blurred and characters enter stereotypical plot lines to make that fairytale ending. What Koomson did well was keep each character individual, and this made the story very warming and heartfelt. Also the story never felt rushed and everything you could understand why they made the choices they did reflective of the type of character they were. This also made the ending and build up to the ending very realistic, and so much better than most stories. As the ending reflected very well the characters she was portraying, as oppose to sticking to the airy 'fairytale ending' to wrap everything up.

This story was beautiful, although sad, and very well written. The sense of belonging to the characters and their individuality makes this a great gem of its genre. She is a fantastic writer an really can make her characters unique. Koomson definitely did not disappoint with this story.