Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan

Title: Pregnant Pause

Author: Han Nolan

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Release Date: September 20, 2011

Source: From Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Eleanor Crowe has a mind of her own, and nobody gets away with bossing her around. She usually makes decisions based on who she can piss off most, although that hans't always worked out so well. Now she's pregnant and sixteen--and her opinion doesn't seem to matter to everyone who's trying to tell her what to do.

But as Elly's delivery date approaches, she has more questions than answers. Is she being punished for being such a rotten daughter? Does she really love this by she married? And what's she going to do with this baby? Being headstrong got her into this mess...maybe now it can get her out of it. But is that what she really wants?

As of late, I've been reading more contemporary books than I'm normally used to. They are just such a refreshing change from dystopian and paranormal reads. And Pregnant Pause was the perfect contemporary book. I loved reading every page of it and it even surprised me how much I ended up enjoying the book.

Elly ignored the fact that she was pregnant until it was too late to do something about it, in the hope that it would go away. And now, as her delivery date approaches, Elly is still not sure what she wants to do once the baby comes. Now Elly is working at a weigh-loss camp owned by her new parents-in-law and living in a cabin on a mountain with her new husband. Basically, things are just going great, and in her typical fashion, Elly won't do or listen to what anyone says. Because what would be the fun in that? As the summer goes by, Elly discovers that maybe she doesn't have to give away her baby and that she's actually pretty good with children. But as Elly discovers this about herself, she finds out that while she may be ready for a kid, there are other people around her that may not be.

I haven't read all that many books about teenage pregnancy but every time there is something different about the story. In Pregnant Pause, Han Nolan takes the idea of teenage pregnancy and makes it her own. The story she told was an interesting one and it really took me by surprise. I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I originally thought I would, to the point that  had trouble putting the book down. Han Nolan really didn't hold back and said things the way they are and a big part of that was the voice she gave Elly as the narrator.

I loved Elly a lot more than I first thought I would. And I'll admit that at first I didn't really like Elly and didn't really understand her. In all honesty, she even kind of annoyed me because it just felt like she didn't really care about anything. But then she started caring and acting like a real person and I found myself liking her more and more. As for the boys in this book there were very few decent ones. And of those few decent ones, half of them turned out to be jerks in the end. In any other book that probably would have really annoyed me to no end, but this case it just made sense with the story. And my favorite was probably Leo, not just because he was one of the few decent ones, but also because you could tell he genuinely cared about Elly and didn't expect anything in return.

Overall, Pregnant Pause was a great contemporary read, one that I enjoyed reading a lot more than I thought I would. I highly recommend it!