Book Review: The Surrogate by Judith Henry Wall

A novel by the author of A Good Man

From the acclaimed author of The Girlfriends Club, a heart-pounding tale of surrogate motherhood gone wrong - and the desperate measures people will take in the name of love, family, and religion.

To a penniless twenty-year old like Jamie Long, surrogate motherhood seemed both an act of altruism and a financial opportunity. But once pregnant and under contract to Amanda Hartmann, the head of a famous evangelical family, Jamie realizes that she's getting more than she bargained for. Whisked away to the vast, isolated family ranch, she's closely supervised and carefully cut off from the outside world. She learns the family's dark secrets - and sees the enormity of their ruthlessness. When Jamie hears Amanda's plan to claim the baby as her natural-born child, she begins to suspect that her own life is in danger and resolves to flee.

Alone with a tiny newborn, she calls on the one man in the world she can trust - her high school crush, Joe Brammer. Their love unites them in a struggle to escape, and soon enough their flight becomes a fight for their lives.

Brilliantly weaving some of today's most controversial issues into a captivating page-turner, The Surrogate is Judith Henry Wall's greatest triumph to date.

Lyrical and emotionally riveting, The Surrogate provides pulse-pounding suspense, tender devotion, and passionate desire as a desperate young mother fights for her baby and her life.

Judith Henry Wall is the author of several previous novels, including A Good Man, The Girlfriends Club, My Mother's Daughter, If Lover Were All, Mother Love, and Blood Sisters. She lives in Norman Oklahoma.