Goodreads Synopsis: When a virus makes everyone over the age of 18 infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.
Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody's doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job. Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she's running from.
When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls' lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, and that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.
My Confession: I'm going to make this short and sweet: no. Just no. And I'm so disappointed. I'm still struggling to comprehend that the woman who wrote the Jessica Darling series, a 5-book phenom that pretty much taught my angsty adolescent self everything I needed to know about life, could also write this thing. And I know I sound awful and harsh, but this story was just terribly flat. I should have known when I opened the first page and discovered the twins were named Melody and Harmony. Now, this could have been ironic and sarcastic, but it just wasn't. The story reeked of corny, and I just didn't buy that this kind of society would exist in 25 years. There was something weird and wrong in imaging teen girls getting paid to have sex and then give away their babies. Melody is wishy-washy at best; even by the end of the book, I had no idea who she was or what she really wanted. Her relationship with Zen had a lot of potential, but that too was under-utilized. His height (5'7'' which, if I'm not mistaken, doesn't make for an obscenely short man) seemed to be the only thing I knew about his character. And when [SPOILER ALERT!] he and Melody kiss at the end, I wasn't buying it. Neither of them seemed remotely attracted to the other. There's no Romeo and Juliet thing going on here, no deep attraction that's forbidden because of Melody's contract. She never even seems to contemplate what "bumping" with Zen would be like. That whole plot line just never appeared. Zen's presence ended up feeling convenient, a hook to get me to read the story. Not cool.
And Harmony? Far from some Bible-thumping freak. She too had zero personality, and her big "secret?" My Lord, it was lame. Flat, flat, flat. The twin sisters are portrayed as not being able to stand one another, and for the duration of the entire book, they're actually in the same room together once or twice. We hear both their voices, but we never actually watch them interact and grow together. By the end, I didn't see what they shared besides DNA. As far as I'm concerned, that is all they shared. And the big identity-mix-up plot twist? So predictable, I should have bet my life savings on it. I hate knowing where a book is headed before it begins, and I hate even more when that predictable plot does absolutely nothing for the story. I already knew what was going to happen. And I kept thinking how many different avenues this story could have gone down and actually portrayed a creepy-yet-possible future. But it never did.
Recommendation: If you haven't, don't. Megan McCafferty's pride and joy rests in the Jessica Darling series. Read those, I beg of you. I may have to just to wash the sour taste of this novel from my mouth.
Rating: 1/5
323 pages, published by Balzer + Bray (April 26, 2011)
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