The rest of the book follows with Jane trying to figure out how to look pregnant and act pregnant, and running into a snag when she falls in love with a man who doesn’t know her secret. This still seemed a little silly to me, but somehow it seemed better then faking her pregnancy just for the dumb boyfriend. Jane confesses all to the colleague, who has a great idea: why not continue faking through the entire nine-month period, and write a book about her experiences? Since they both work for a publishing company, Jane agrees to do this and gets a great advance. The jerk boyfriend discovers her ruse and leaves her, then a work colleague finds her out when she sees her in a bar pounding back a few. I despaired when it appeared that she would carry it out to the bitter end, but resolved to soldier on through the book anyway. I confess that at this point I thought she was a complete idiot, and I peeked ahead to the end (something I almost never do) to see just how long she would continue this ridiculous charade. This doesn’t go so well, and a few months later, she finds herself with a fake pregnancy and a whole host of people – including work associates and family – who are expecting her to produce a real baby. She presents the “evidence” to her less-than-ecstatic boyfriend, and proceeds to try to get pregnant in earnest. When her period comes a few days later, she decides to buy a pregnancy test and a pink magic marker (so she can draw the telltale line that shows everyone a happy event is on the way). She gets the idea when she is a few days late and believes that she actually is pregnant. The basic premise of the book is this: heroine Jane Taylor fakes a pregnancy, hoping to convince her live-in boyfriend to propose. By the time I got to the improbable ending, I wasn’t really sure what I thought of her anymore. Then I decided she was quite funny, and less appalling than I had originally believed. Then I decided she was appalling, but occasionally funny. At first I found the heroine simply appalling.

Reading The Thin Pink Line was something of a roller coaster ride.

The thin pink line book