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oh baby baby

Bridget Jones is back, and she’s not alone.

A Singleton once again, Bridget spends her days as a producer at Sit Up, Britain and her nights with her London Singleton besties, Sharon (Shazzer), Tom, and co-worker Miranda (Jude is living in New York for this one). And then at yet another christening, another of Magda and Jeremy’s babies, where Bridget is once again a godmother, she comes face to face with the baby’s godfather, none other than Mark Darcy.

They hadn’t seen each other for a while. After a sudden breakup after their engagement party, Mark married someone else and moved to America. But now he’s back and recently divorced. Now he’s back in England, and there is plenty of alcohol flowing at the hotel where they find themselves for the christening, and things have happened. But the next morning, Mark realizes that he’s too raw from his marriage to get into a relationship and drops back out of sight.

Back in London, Bridget finds herself at a literary awards evening, remembering how it felt back when she worked in publishing, all the way down to being groped by none other than Daniel Cleaver. His fairy tale marriage didn’t work out, and he’s back in town to finish his novel. Again there is an open bar, and again there are . . . happenings. And again, there is Daniel with his emotional immaturity.

Fast forward three months, and Bridget finds herself putting on weight and missing her periods. Convinced she’s perimenopausal, she hides at home, but her friends come to find her and give her the news—she may be pregnant instead. A quick trip to the shops, and she’s ready to take the test. And it’s positive.

But who is the father?

Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries is a love letter that Bridget writes to her son, to tell the story of how she became a mother, and how she came to be a part of a true family. As she struggles at work and tries to juggle all her friends and their many challenges, Bridget learns what it takes to be a mother and figures out, finally, how to be in a good relationship.

I’ve been a big Bridget fan since the first film came out years ago. While this was made into a movie, there were changes made to the story, for Hollywood reasons. I like the movie, and I liked this book the first time I read it. But for the second year in a row I’ve ended one year/started another year by rereading Bridget Jones books, and when you read them in order like that, then this fits right in with the rest of her story. From that perspective, I liked this better than the movie, and while it may be a little predictable, it’s predictable in all the best ways. And I loved every page!