This story follows five woman during their two week wait from ovulation to the point they can take a pregnancy test.

This story brought me back to 4-5 years ago. I had a hard time getting pregnant (and staying pregnant) and that two week waiting period to find out if you’re pregnant is real and emotional.

Lewis did a lovely job putting infertility on paper and showcasing how everybody’s journey to parenthood is different. It was also very real and relatable (online mom-shamers, symptom spotting, stress).

Though I related to this story on so many levels, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I also wish that if we’re touching a topic such as infertility, that miscarriages were also brought up in this book. Statically speaking the chances are that at least one of these women would have had one.

Overall though, it was an interesting read that I enjoyed and I wish I had this book five years ago.

For those that don't know, the two week wait is the waiting period from ovulating to pregnancy test and it can be a loooooooooong wait.

I've never cried at a book before... until this one. Without going into too much detail, this hit a spot. I found this so relatable and realistic. It was quick a read and I wish it was longer. I want to know more about the women, their lives and trying to conceive journeys. I felt like it was just getting started when it ended!

Some conditions are briefly discussed such as endometriosis and PCOS. The line of 'if this was a male disease there would be a cure by now' was a particularly favourite! These are conditions that are not widely discussed but are so common and are effecting women every

This book may not be for everyone though. I approached it with caution and was very aware of how I may respond to it. So please be prepared for that.

But I will absolutely be coming back to this book. It has brought me some comfort at a time when I needed it.

⭐ 4/5 stars

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a nice read this was, good storyline and good characters. I really enjoyed it.

The Two Week Wait was an inspiring and emotional read about five very different women who are brought together by wanting a baby. Jane, who has been suffering from infertility issues for 20 years starts a forum for those waiting in the dreaded two week wait. Four other women join the forum and together they discuss their emotions, relationships, and fertility issues. As someone who is going through infertility issues, this was a very emotional and relatable read but one that deeply moved me. I loved how each of the characters were all so different but going through the same thing, and I loved learning each of their stories and seeing how the two week wait affected each of them. I also loved that the feelings of their significant others/families were addressed throughout the story as well. I don’t want to give away too much so I’m choosing to keep this review relatively short. I will say though that the book finished with a perfect ending and left me feeling very hopeful and inspired. Thank you to Netgalley and The Book Guild for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Two Week Wait by Lucy J Lewis

This book follows five women who are trying to conceive. They connect on an online forum one day and decide to go through the two week wait together for support. The writing goes between their chats on the forum to diving deeper into each character’s backstory. The heartbreak, loss, waiting and excitement were all told in great detail. I enjoyed the fast pace of this book. Each woman had their own relationship depicted. The stress and strain fertility issues can place on someone was eye opening. I felt for these women and found myself wanting to know what path each of them were lead down.

Just finished this heart wrenching story about the two week wait that women with fertility issues go through between the time of ovulation and taking their pregnancy tests.

It was truly eye opening and I recommend for anyone who knows someone that is going through this, or has/is going through it themselves.

The story is set based on five women that talk on forum for support as they go through the process. I truly enjoyed the book and found myself fully invested in the journey of each woman

First off, this book has really good intentions and the storyline is really great focusing on 5 women who are all having fertility issues, a very upsetting topic. I really liked the way the author wrote this book with a simple and easy writing style and this shows by me finishing it the same day I started, I liked how there were inserts of the ‘TWW’ forum that were put between days of the two weeks period as well as having inserts of diary entries from each person.

However, I did struggle to keep up with the amount of characters and information for each of them and it did get confusing at times. Some points I didn’t realise who I was reading about and at the end I was still getting a bit muddled with each of them. I also felt that there was a huge perception on how it is believed that women need men, yet there was so much focus on the other halves being horrible to the women whilst they were going through this two week wait, which is clearly shown that it is incredibly tough and heartbreaking when you just desire one thing and that is for a positive test. Although not all partners were like this and some were incredibly nice and supportive, Keith being one of them. Jane was one of my favourite characters and one I would believe to be most relatable to those reading who are suffering with the same issues.

It does show that there has been a high amount of research put into this book. Overall, this book was an easy read and would recommend to those who want to fly through a book but I would obviously bare in mind the upsetting topics as I imagine it would be a difficult read to those going through the same thing. I would recommend to those who want to learn more about the topic and understand what it is like for those people having struggles when trying to conceive. As a younger reader I didn’t relate to the topics discussed so I don’t feel I can comment on whether those who are struggling with the same thing would confide in reading this book or whether it would make them feel worse.

Five women, coming from very different backgrounds, meet on line in a forum chat during their two week wait, that is those 14 days of the month during which you don't know whether you've conceived or not and you can only wait to test.
I really liked the outline of the book, part prose, part forum posts, it made the reading very easy, entertaining and quick, even though a bit ripetitive.
The theme of infertility is treated lightly, with a right amount of humour.
It was good to follow these women, so different, in age, background and motivation, during their 14 days journey, getting to know each other and getting to understand each other's motivation, doubts, hopes and struggles.
I also liked the ending and would like to know, from someone who has read the book, who your guess is on in the last post :-)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a very interesting insight into the mindset of those trying to conceive and waiting for what could be the happiest time of their life. I must say I enjoyed the writing style as it was an easy read, and I imagine it would be very comforting for women going through the same situation as Jane and the other women featured in the book.

I will say, this was a difficult read in terms of the formatting of the ebook I received from Netgalley. I do not know if this was simply an issue with just my copy or if it was an issue with the formatting in general, but the actual prose sections had few paragraph breaks, and the sections featuring posts from the main characters had the tags of who posted what with inconsistent line breaks. I think this would be a 3.5 without the formatting issues but this one is a 2.5 for me with the formatting -- it just makes it very difficult to get through.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC. This is a story of infertility where a group of women finding solace on an online forum during their "two week wait". I liked how all the characters bonded since they were all going through it together. Each of the characters came from different backgrounds and had a different life but all wanted one thing, to have a baby. I was real rooting for the characters by the end. Overall would recommend.

I really wanted to like this because I remember when I was ttc I would often peruse forums with other women. But something about this story overall made it hard for me to get into it. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Thank you to Net Galley and The Book Guild for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this book a great deal. Several women, hoping to be moms, enter the "two week wait," when they believe they might be expecting, but it's not yet time to take the test. They meet online, with very different backgrounds, expectations, ages and hopes. They grow, and they support each other. The ending was very clever.

Book Review for The Two Week Wait by Lucy J. Lewis.

Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

Lucy J Lewis’s novel follows five women as they suffer the agonising “two week wait” to find out if they are pregnant, sharing their experiences on an online fertility discussion forum.

Having experienced fertility “issues”, I’m no stranger to the horrors of the two week wait, although it’s all thankfully a number of years in the past now. I’ve also done my share of posting on online forums on the subject, and in fact had the idea at one point of writing a novel based on the forum chat. Well, it turns out that’s what Lucy J Lewis has done (though it’s not entirely forum chat). It was interesting and nostalgic, kind of, to be reminded of the jargon – TTC, BFP, and the rest, and the endless and usually fruitless symptom-spotting, and definitely brought back some memories, not necessarily good ones!

The writing feels a fraction heavy handed at times and there’s rather too much information dumping towards the beginning. Within a few lines of meeting Fern, for instance, we’ve learned that she has a Rolex (that’s in the first sentence), a Smythson notebook and a Fendi bag. Ok, we get it, she’s rich. Once the story settles down, though, I did enjoy it (and the brand-dropping thankfully ceases).

There are a lot of characters – I was expecting three, maybe four, so by the time it got to 5 I was wondering how on earth I was going to keep track of them all. In fact it wasn’t difficult, as Jane, Becks, Fern, Mandi and Star (who’s an “Instagram influencer” - I’m afraid I did roll my eyes at that) are very different, varying widely in age, situation and general attitude, from twenty-year TTC veteran Jane, to Fern who is not even sure she wants a baby. I didn’t hugely identify with any of them, but that’s not a problem, and I did appreciate the diversity.

I think women who have had or are having difficulty conceiving will definitely relate to a lot in this story - the author clearly writes from experience and it all rings true. (Online fertility forums clearly haven’t changed much, as I recognised everything here.)

The focus is very much on the women’s pregnancy aspirations, although relationships - good and bad - also get a look in (and certain people’s behaviour had me fuming at times.) Fern seems to be the only one, though, with a job she actually cares about, and apart from the fact that she works in TV we didn’t really learn anything about it. (By the way, I hadn’t realised anyone still used the surely outdated term “career woman”! Who ever heard of a career man?) On reflection, I think Fern was probably my favourite of the five women.

An enjoyable read which will resonate with many. And I do want to know who the little nameless bit at the end refers to!... my money’s on Fern... Do let me know, Lucy, if you read this!

I loved this book! It was heartwarming and strong. It was exactly what I needed with everything going on in the world! A happy little escape!

The two week wait was an interesting read for me as I’ve never experienced fertility issues so was enlightening to read about the issues other couples experience whilst trying to get pregnant!
A group of women who are trying to get pregnant but are having issues get together in an online forum to provide a support network to each other and in doing so develop a friendship although they are all very different in age, outlook, circumstances etc!
An easy read that makes you appreciate your own fertility.
Thank you net galley for this early read.

Jane has been desperate to have a baby for what feels like forever – twenty years to be exact. Her and her husband Keith have spent most of their married life wishing for their own children; while enduring heartache, expensive rounds of IVF, BFNs (big fat negatives) and countless TWWs, the acronym for the agonising two week wait between ovulation and the start of a woman’s period. Monday 1st of February, after a lunch with her sister Annie and her children, Jane gets ready to begin another agonising two week wait to see if she will be welcoming any of her own. She signs in, for the twentieth time, to a TWW forum and creates a new chat. “The big wait starts today, anyone fancy sitting it out with me?”, she asks.

The replies come in from four other women, all at different stages of their lives and fertility journeys. Becks, already a mum to one-year-old Hunter; Fern, a determined, glass-door-smashing career woman, who has her doubts on how a child will impact her career; twenty-one-year-old Mandi, who is married to a much older man and is desperate to become a mother, if only in part to appease her pushy mother-in-law; and Star, or Stacey as she’s known to her parents, an Insta-influencer, who is looking to do motherhood on her own. The reader is invited along with the five women as they support each other through their closed forum, discussing insensitive partners, old wife’s tales, and their infertility struggles on the fourteen torturous days that stand between them and potential motherhood.

I finished this little gem of a book very quickly and it was an enjoyable read. I think the author tackled a very sensitive subject with the right amount of tact that kept this book light and hopeful, while carefully considering how the subject of infertility can affect lots of women and their partners. I thoroughly enjoyed that the author included switching POVs from a wide range of characters and that we got to delve deep into the lives of very different women on their fertility journeys. It was nice to read how the experiences of the women varied and I think it will help tackle stereotypes for other readers and show how anyone can face fertility struggles, regardless of their age. I do think the topic of fertility remains very taboo and it wasn’t something I was too familiar with before reading this book. I haven’t ever read a book on this topic before, and this really sets this book apart from others, and I believe it will be an interesting read to women from all walks of life as a result of the diverse perspectives covered.

While I enjoyed this book, there were aspects which I enjoyed less. I did like the switching between the message board format, and the prose as this helped us learn more about the characters, however, I do feel like some characters received more exposure throughout the story. I know it’s completely natural to have favourite characters, but I found myself wanting to know more about some more than others, and I think the style of the novel prevented us from learning more. I also know that the book was focused on the experiences of the women and less so on their partners, despite touching on the idea throughout the novel that the two week wait affects men too, but I found some of the partners to be one-dimensional characters. It appeared that they were either good, or bad, and there wasn’t much space for development of these men beyond how they fitted in to what their partner shared about them in the forum.

I also HATED how the women were constantly at odds with each other in what was supposed to be a supportive forum. I appreciate that their tensions and hormones were all over the place, but as I really felt for Becks and her experiences of being a stay-at-home mum, with a difficult partner (kudos to the author; Mike was one of the best developed partner characters, I found myself both hating him and wanting him to get better), I despised seeing the women jump on her all the time and diminishing her experiences and feelings, just because she already had a child. It made them come across as very jealous and bitter, and I just can’t see why Becks would have remained in the group. I understand the novel needed some tension, but it just wasn’t a realistic plot point in the manner it was played out, especially when there was tension between the women and their partners, or family members. I also could have read a whole book just about Becks and her story.

To summarise my final thoughts, this was not a book I thought would appeal to me. I am a single, career-focused, twenty-four-year-old with not a smidgen of maternal instinct (maybe I’ll be a Fern in ten years’ time), but I did find myself enjoying it. As I said earlier, I do think it would appeal to a range of women but would err on the side of caution suggesting it to those who may be struggling with infertility. I did find it hopeful and light, but I appreciate that I cannot speak for women experiencing the heartache of longing for a child but seemingly being unable to conceive one.

An interesting topic is derailed by an excessive amount of characters vying to be the main character. Pick one, maybe two. It's tiring as a reader to get to know so many of them in a half dozen introductory chapters. This tiresome exercise was then followed by the characters repeating these introductions to each other in the online format. It's give a "Groundhog's Day" feeing without the charm of that movie, just the exhaustion. Finally, the characters overshare in a completely not credible manner in the online forum...people would do this saying "my husband" or DH rather than using actual names. I think editors needed a role here.

Jane has been trying to get pregnant for twenty long years and this month decides to go through the dreaded two week wait with others going through the same thing. She puts a forum post online and soon four women respond to it saying they are going through the same thing. While all very different women in very different circumstances, the women all connect through their shared experience... will they all get their happy endings?

A fantastic book that is perfect for anyone who has been through that awful two week wait countless times. It gives you hope but even more than this is shows that you aren't alone. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

3.5 Stars

Having never had fertility issues this book was an eye-opener to me. How agonizingly sad to have to go through this. I am one-hundred percent feminist and believe a woman doesn't have to have children, or a man, to be complete...BUT if it is something you truly desire it must be devastatingly painful to have your heart broken month after month.

This was an easy read, with simplified dialogue and multiple narrators. It is sort of an epistolary style book as a lot of it is simple chat-room dialogue and there are some journal entries as well. I don't usually go for that but it worked here for some reason.

While the overly-simple writing style drove me nuts at times, I did like the intent of the story. The somewhat contrived parts were too convenient but the overall theme was interesting and, in the end, hopeful.

P.S.
I rounded up because the book has such a low rating and I don't think it deserves it simply because the author didn't have the same struggle as some readers. It does say in the blurb I read that Lucy J Lewis based the story on her own experiences.