Review – Milked by Lisa Doyle

By and large, Amanda Keane makes pretty good decisions. Okay, she might not have the best taste in men, but she’s got great friends, a good job, and an independent spirit. That is, until her 30th birthday ushers in a whirlwind romance with a sexy Irish musician who leaves her, not at the altar as she imagined, but accidentally pregnant. And when he disappears, she’s downsized out of a job, her apartment is robbed, and lapsed health insurance coverage leaves her with a C-section to pay for, Amanda is launched headfirst into the life of a broke single mom. But her friend and uber successful ob-gyn, Joy, clues her in to an unlikely temp position with one of Chicago’s celebrity elite that just may be the answer to all her woes. Or could it be just the beginning?

It’s with serious trepidation that Amanda embarks on her surprisingly lucrative new career: underground wet nurse to the offspring of Chi-town’s rich and famous. Amanda must quickly understand how to live at the whims and mercy of the one percent as she deals with the irony of nursing – and loving – someone else’s child, while still making ends meet for her own daughter. And then there’s Cute Daycare Dad (aka Dan), who’s obviously interested in her. But can she afford to tell him what she really does for a living? Is her new job (something she thought went out with the 19th century) a shameful thing? Just another way of selling her body? Or does it have something to teach her after all?

Publisher – Simon & Fig

Date Published – 21st November 2014

Pages – 308 pages

Format – Ebook / Kindle Edition

Category – Adult Fiction / Chick Lit

Source – I was sent a digital copy of this book by the wonderful Kim Nash in exchange for an honest review.  This does not affect my review or my opinions in any way.  Thank you Kim and thank you to the publisher Simon & Fig.

I would also like to thank Kim for inviting me on this blog tour for Milked – thank you for having me!

** Please note Tales Of Yesterday Reviews are written as spoiler free as possible**

Back in November a few days after this book was released I featured this book in a Debut Author Spotlight post on Tales Of Yesterday and I am honoured to have been asked to be part of the blog tour for this wonderful book.

Milked is a modern mommy tale with a twist and centres around the witty character of Amanda Keane.  The story begins around Amanda’s 30th birthday in an Irish bar where she falls for a smouldering Irish accent (who wouldn’t?) in the form of a hot Irish barman.  They soon begin a 3 month fling before his visa runs out and upon his return to Ireland Amanda finds herself with an unexpected pregnancy and to top it all off her career in publishing hits a stumbling block.  A single mother looking for a job and who wants to provide a roof over their heads, security and love for her child her friend Joy suggests the theory of becoming a wet nurse for some elite famous people.  Amanda agrees and this opens up a whole new world of babies, feeding, diapers, day-care, celebrity and a bit of love thrown into the mix too.  Amanda finds that life doesn’t always play fair.

Straight from the off set at the start of this book I loved the narration style and Amanda’s character which was often witty and laugh out loud funny with the narration quite Bridget Jonesy in style with some side talking directly to the reader which for me made Amanda feel such a realistic down to earth character.  The whole romance between Amanda and the gorgeous sounding Irish barman Eamonn, (who stole my heart as a reader by being able to play U2 on demand of his violin (fiddle)), is built up beautifully and did not come across as insta-love but like a whirlwind romance.  There is a fantastic hilarious reference that Amanda uses  – 50 Shade Of Irish – Fantastic!  Amanda’s friends also are a great bunch of characters often bouncing off each other when they are together and then there’s Dan…..*slips off into a dreamy place where there are lots of Dan’s running around*.

The whole pregnancy and birth stories all rang very true and tell the truth without sugar coating things often being quite to the point.  The same goes for the great descriptions of motherhood and what motherhood can bring both the good and the bad including unconditional love, struggles, worries, fun times, tired times, friendship and doing anything for your child or someone else’s child and includes a great incident at day care where Amanda summed up exactly how she felt about the incident perfectly and having been in that same situation when my son was younger Lisa Doyle writes the perfect thought process in Amanda’s mind and to the reader about this which is portrayed hilariously.

Lisa Doyle has also created a great unique twist on a mommy’s tale introducing the idea of a wet nurse which I was not aware still goes on if I am honest and is how Amanda in the story finds work again.  Is this even legal nowadays?  Does this still happen in todays day and age?  I looked this up on the internet and found this article from the Daily Mail which indicates that it does.

Some of the people that hire Amanda to work as a wet nurse for them in the book are either high profile people, people struggling with their new-borns or wanting that extra help.  I have to say the most annoying character (written that way) for me was Alexandra Lang a workaholic with newborn twins who Amanda has past history with.  Lisa Doyle creates a character who made me keep imagining Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada!

All in all this book is a wonderful debut by Lisa Doyle for the chick lit genre.  I cannot wait to read more from Lisa in the future.

 I award this book 4 out of 5 Tales Of Yesterday Books

You can buy this book here

For more about this debut author Lisa Doyle, please visit her website.

On why not follow Lisa on twitter – @bylisadoyle  or find her on her Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/bylisadoyle.

Happy Reading