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Times x Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made    by Kristen Henderson & Sarah Ellis Amazon.com order for
Times x Two
by Kristen Henderson
Order:  USA  Can
Simon & Schuster, 2011 (2011)
Hardcover, e-Book

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* *   Reviewed by Rheta Van Winkle

Times x Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made is about a non-traditional family with two mommies. The really unusual part of their story, though, is that each of the moms gave birth to a baby, and the babies were conceived on the same day.

Kristen Henderson is a musician who founded and plays bass guitar in a female rock band called Antigone Rising. Sarah Kate Ellis is vice president of marketing for Real Simple magazine. They met several years before falling in love, while both were involved with other people. But when they finally got together it didn't take them long to decide that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and raise a family.

For me, the most interesting part of this book begins once they start to try to have a baby. At first Sarah was the one who attempted artificial insemination. Because both women were in their late thirties, conceiving turned out to be more difficult than either of them had thought it would be. The story of how they find a donor and how both of them find themselves pregnant at the same time is the story of all women who reach their late thirties wanting a baby and either losing it early on or not even getting to a positive pregnancy test. It becomes an agonizing experience, but their persistence pays off, with unusual but probably predictable results when they are both going through this interesting experience at the same time.

The point of view alternates between Sarah and Kristen, and there are numerous friends and relatives mentioned for each of them, which made the first part of the book somewhat confusing. When I read a book with a lot of characters, I make lists of who's who and which other characters they're related to or friends with, and this would definitely help to keep everyone straight in Times x Two. There are some very funny scenes, though, and Kristen and Sarah come off as loving, kind people who will make great mothers. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their family.

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