Judith Henry Wall (1938–2021)

Review :The Surrogate by Judith Henry Wall.

This was a captivating story and educating. I didn’t want to put the book down because it was well written, well developed characters and plenty of suspense throughout the story. I always wonder how a woman can be a surrogate mother and hand her baby to strangers without emotions bring her down. This story gave me all my answers and I should have predicted what a mother would do.

The story starts with a struggling collage girl Jamie Long that has know means of finding money to go on with her collage studies. She was brought up by her grandmother who recently died and she had no money to leave for Jamie. She couldn’t think of anyone to offer any suggestions on financial opportunities. There was one person she could think of and that was a neighbor who befriended her who lived behind her grandmother’s place.
His name was Joe Brammer who stayed her friend but he was a few years older than she was, plus now he had moved away. Unknown to him Jamie had fallen in love with him but he never showed anything to her but friendship.

Soon after Jamie thought of a way to make the kind of money she needed was to become a surrogate mother. Jamie made a few calls and finally someone returned her call and told her about a couple who would do anything to have a child. It didn’t take long for the contract to be worked out but she was still a little hesitant with all the rules and putting her schooling away for a year. The couple was a well known in the religious and political circles. One main rule was that she was not to tell one person of what she was agreeing to and she had to live on their ranch completely alone, no privacy, no phone, no computer, no direct mail, and no connection with the staff.

Well it wasn’t long before Jamie was on her journey of nine months of pregnancy. The story was captivating and some times predictable but full of suspense.… (more)