A very well written book exploring motherhood, femininity and the treatment of women in the workforce (STEM specifically). While I found it a bit depressing overall it was an interesting perspective.

This is a strongly written story about a woman who is determined to fight for satisfaction in her life. She’s happily married to her second husband. Despite the nay-sayers she fought to become a medical lab tech. It is the 1950 and she became pregnant at 16, the father of her child is one of the biggest obstacles in her quest for self-confidence and self-worth. It’s a no-hold barred account and includes a lot about her carnal desires. If you are put off by this, it’s not your book. If you want to root for a woman who is out to get what she wants, you’ll cheer for Lottie.

An unusual tale of a woman- Lottie- who revels in science and motherhood. And sex. Lottie marries her high school boyfriend Charlie, who is a football player. He becomes depressed when he can no longer play but she finds herself not only as a mom but also in the lab. Know that there's animal experimentation (not pretty btw but realistic). Moving back and forth in time a bit over the period of the 1940s through the 1970s, it reflects how women were viewed and viewed themselves. Heyman has packed a lot into a relatively slim volume but her writing carries the day. Thanks to the publisher for the arc. For fans of literary fiction.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This story follows a biologist named Lottie throughout her adolescence, marriage, parenthood, and everything else that falls in between. While, Lottie is an interesting character, I just didn’t love the story as a whole. Maybe too much detail? I found myself drifting from the story line many times. This review is brief because I just don’t have much to say. I didn’t hate it, it just wasn’t for me.

In this age of MeToo and awareness of pay inequality, Arlene Heyman's first novel offers keen insight into what it's like to be a female scientist. Lottie Hart, PhD, is a researcher. She uses rats to promote her theory that the salivary glands of male rates licking a female rat's vagina causes her to ovulate and conceive. If what you've read so far bothers you, then this book is not for you. There are graphic descriptions of sex acts and a violent rape scene.

That said, this is an unusual and gripping novel that takes place in the sixties and seventies, while beginning and ending in the nineties. Lottie is first a young child with a controlling and angry father and a distant mother who reads and smokes cigarettes. Later, she and her football player boyfriend, whom she marries after college, have a loving and close relationship until they don't and divorce. Lottie gives birth to Evelyn and goes back to school, finally moving away and becoming a single mother. Heyman, a psychiatrist, has keen insights into both relationships, parent-child and husband-wife. She also knows and shares quite a bit about sex.

The story of Lottie, her growth and experience, puts us back in the dark ages before women expected equal treatment. Seen through the lens of today, we begin to understand how this was tolerated and accepted. Ultimately, and this is not a spoiler, Lottie meets and falls in love with a man who seems to be an early feminist.

Moving between academe, laboratory and life, this novel may have taken on too much for just one book. But it was done in a way that made all those factors fit together and I found all of it fascinating reading. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review.