The Continuity Girl

This was a great story and gives you a glimpse behind the scenes of a continuity girl - she's the person that makes sure that scenes match up in movies. She ensures fluidity from one take to the next and our heroine, Meredith Moore, is good at her job. She keeps everything in place and discovers at the age of thirty-five that although she's single, what she really wants most of all is to have a baby, so she decides to become a "sperm-bandit" - someone that gets pregnant secretly without having any expectations from the "father", other than a little DNA. The story starts out while Meredith walks off the set of a movie production, never to return after some scathing remarks from the director of the film. She's lucky to have a mother living in the UK that has an "old friend" with a job opportunity for Meredith and her mom offers her a place to stay. Meredith's Mom is a free spirit and although she seems to be a lot of fun, she spends a lot of time embarrassing Meredith. Meredith has a friend that also wants to become pregnant and since, she too, is unattached, she decides on fertility treatments with the help of her roommate. Once Meredith moves to London to join her Mom and begin work on a new film, she meets a whole cast of characters that fill out the novel, giving it depth and, well...continuity! Along with the production details, Leah McLaren paints a nice backdrop by giving details on London and Toronto - this was a little different than Brit chick lit and it was fun to learn a little more about the Canadian culture. I really enjoyed this novel, as it gave a little bit of everything - romance, sex, film production, searching for a "baby-daddy" and learning something new about your own - it was a fine mixture of topics and I liked the fact that although Meredith wanted a baby, she wasn't overly obsessed, as some characters in her position have been portrayed in other novels. I really liked this story and I will look for more novels by Leah McLaren.

If you're looking for fun, lightweight reading matter but are sick of reading about social climbing Manhattanites and their two-dimensional "friends," this is the book for you. It's a quick, enjoyable read, but a little edgier than most books of its ilk. Also, it was so refreshing to read a book that takes place in several interesting cities, not one of which was in the U.S.! Yummy and frothy; highly recommended.

As a 33-year-old woman, I bought this book, thinking it would resonate with some of the life events that my peers and I are starting to experience. While that is not exactly the case, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. The details and characters in it are very rich, and there are some great twists-- made even better by the fact that they were somewhat believable twists in relation to the plot. The heroine's mother is absolutely eccentric and hilarious, and there is a nice little mystery (who is the heroine's real father?) that is carried successfully throughout the story. Also, I actually learned a lot about the unglamorous side of filmmaking!

Quippy, sensual, intriguing and humorous, this is a book about a 35-year-old Continuity Girl. She works on films and makes sure that all the pieces of a film are seen correctly when they go into production. But she becomes a raging sperm bandit when she realizes her eggs are getting older, as is she, and she may never find someone to donate their sperm for the benefit of producing a child. Meredith Moore grew up in bizarre circumstances. Initially they seem pretty normal. Her mother, an accoladed poet from the '60s and '70s, had a one-night stand and became pregnant. Moore attended a prestigious boarding school in Toronto, even though her mother stayed in London. Never questioning where the money came to send her to this elite school, she forges ahead with her life until she goes to see her gynecologist, who is away on stress leave. Therefore she has to see the very handsome and dashing Dr. Joe Veil. She likes him, but he's wearing a wedding ring so is off limits. After quitting her job in Toronto because of a pompous, arrogant director, she is drawn to London because her mother has a film job for her. Moore journeys to London and discovers things about herself that she never knew. She actually seems dim-witted, because everyone else seems to know her dossier--except her. McLaren knows her stuff, she not only writes well about films and all the intricacies of it, but of falconing, and other nuggets that move the book along at a great pace. The author's descriptions of London and its environs are spot on. This book is a bit Bridget Jones-ish with lots of great detail and a super-smart protagonist. Armchair Interviews says: A fantastic book where you learn a lot about film and other things. A great read for any woman, especially ones trying to get pregnant--or who just want a good laugh.

Reviewed by Stephanie Rollins for Reader Views (2/07) Meredith is a continuity girl. What is that? She explains, "She was the error-catcher. The needle-in-the-haystack finder." She made sure that movie clips flowed correctly. Did he have ice in his glass in the last clip? Did she have her hair up in the last scene? These were the details Meredith fussed over. Meredith's fertility is foremost on her mind. She turns 35, and she thinks, "My eggs are thirty-five today." She even goes to prenatal yoga, and she is not pregnant. She is not even having sex. She does not even have a boyfriend. However, she is on a mission to change all of that. She has given up on love. She just wants a baby; therefore, she starts to see men as sacks of sperm. As her gynecologist explains, "Meredith, babies grow out of stem cells. The love part comes later." Surely she can find a guy to have a one-night stand with. The problem is that the guy has to have desirable DNA. She is "gene shopping." Meredith's friend describes a possible guy, "I mean, Mere, he seems perfect--tall, good skin, lots of hair. He's a doctor, so he can't be dumb." So, does Meredith find the right sperm bag? Does she end of pregnant? You have to read "The Continuity Girl" to figure this out. The answer will surprise you. "The Continuity Girl" is hilarious. It is the kind of book you want to immediately tell your friends about. McLaren writes scenes in a way that makes you think you are there with the characters. In one part of the book, Meredith's mother pours Jack Daniel's down her body and down her unmentionables in a dramatic act of foreplay. She then jumps up. She is in pain. "Before she knew it she was up and running around the room, clutching her crotch and howling like a woman on fire (which in a sense, she was)." The author's style reminds me of "The Nanny Diaries" by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus. The humor reminds me of Janet Ivanovich, author of the "Stephanie Plum" novels. I have already called my friends to tell them of "The Continuity Girl." Read and recommend to your friends.