*4.5 STAR REVIEW*

Speaking as someone who is a huuuuge fan of anything that involves androids/artificial intelligence (cough cough Detroit: Become Human cough cough), I was immediately sucked into the plot of this book from the very first chapter. I love seeing how different creators worldbuild around the very real threat of our technology advancing to the point of hindering our lives, and this author definitely came up with a very fresh take!!

Speaking as someone who has a background in biomedical science, the concept of experimental genetics and designer babies hasn't been new to me for a long time. That being said, the early explanation of how the process works and its overarching societal effects in Ember and Thorne's world was simple but fascinating.

The plot was well paced! I felt like the switching between each character was done very tastefully, and I was rarely, if ever, confused about it. I got invested in the storyline (& eventual crossing over) of each character we were introduced to. My only critique would be that I wish the author had delved into the worldbuilding a little more enthusiastically -- there's a lot of nuance when it comes to the intersection of marginalized communities and surrogacy/genetic manipulation that would have been interesting to see discussed further.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy. This book kept me enthralled with the story from beginning until end. It’s perfect for fans of John Marrs and his speculative thrillers. Baby X is set in the near future where any biological matter can create life. It follows the perspectives of Ember, Quinn, and Lily. They are all entwined somehow and it was a thrill to see the storyline progress. I am for sure going to read more of Kira Peikoff’s books in the future!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Baby X by Kira Peikoff was different. And I mean - different.
First of all this book is set up in the future. It's the year 2052 and in line to have a baby you don't need an egg and sperm - you need any genetic material with your DNA. Simple as that. And if in some cases that would make people's lives easy, it can be complicated if you are rich or famous!

In some parts, I struggled to follow who was who and what was going on but then everything went smoothly. There is definitely a lot going on and I didn't see that twist coming.

A recent college graduate Lilly is after the story about DNA and not just that.
Famous musician Thorne must hire bio-security guard Ember to keep himself safe.
Quinn, a woman Trace never met before is heavily pregnant and claims he is the dad.
Why and how this is the question.
For a while was hard to understand how Thorne, Quinn, Ember, and Lilly fit in one story but as the story slowly unfolded all the questions were answered and left the reader with an open mouth!

Thank you to The Quick Brown Fox & CO, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for this advance copy!

wow. talk about a believable futuristic read. always remember WITH ADVANCES, COME NEW THREATS. i was blown away by this one.

Science Fiction thriller about a future time when parents can select their babies based on talent, academic ability and many other characteristics ensuring everyone is a 'superior' person. The dark side of this technology is the people who want to have a child born from the cells of a famous person and only need a piece of hair or a bit of saliva to achieve this. The author does a good job of describing this future world where everyone wears smart lenses instead of using phones, all cars drive themselves and meals can be 3D printed. I think fans of author John Marrs will also enjoy this novel.

The three alternating characters are Ember, who runs a company trying to keep celebrities safe from someone poaching their DNA, Lily a recent college graduate who is interning at a magazine and is eager to write a story about DNA selection, and Quinn a young surrogate who is concerned about the baby she is carrying for a recent widower. How these characters come together was a huge surprise for me and I thought it unfolded in a fun, twisty way. I appreciated the world building in this novel and the way human emotions will remain the same despite the technology. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

I was hoping my 500th NetGalley review would be for a MEMORABLE book-AND IT WAS!

Fast forward about 25 years from now, when any two people in the USA can make a baby because of a technological breakthrough called IVG-in vitro gametogenesis.

Any biological matter from a person can be used to create life-saliva, an eyelash or hair follicle or matter from a discarded tissue-but usually a cheek cell swab is combined with either sperm or an egg-the embryo grown in a test tube, and then analyzed for future traits and health concerns. On “Conception Day” prospective parents get to choose which one to implant.

Very few parents choose to conceive a baby the old fashioned way-these “unforeseen children” are such a gamble-no predicting how he or she will turn out.

BUT WITH ADVANCES, COME NEW THREATS

Celebrities like famous singer, Trace Thorne are targeted by “The Vault”-a black market site devoted to stealing DNA from “desirable” parents and selling it to the highest bidder-which often is the celebrity himself.

Buy it back or risk meeting a biological child you never conceived.

So when a new service becomes available, Thorne hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to protect his DNA. She knows all of “The Vaults” tricks, so when they are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, Ember thinks it’s impossible.

But, is it?

Lily, an “unforeseen” child and budding journalist who wants to expose the bias of “selection clinics” and make a name for herself by doing so.

The narratives of Ember, Quinn and Lily alternate in “round robin” fashion until the SURPRISING conclusion!

It took a few chapters from each to set up the story, but I REALLY enjoyed how they came together in the end!

If you enjoy SPECULATIVE fiction, or John Marrs, this book is a MUST for your TBR list!
AVAILABLE March 5, 2024.

Thank You to Crooked Lane Books for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Baby X is a thrilling journey into the realm of speculative fiction, seamlessly blending bioethics and edge-of-your-seat storytelling. Peikoff, with a background in journalism and bioethics, crafts a novel that is as intellectually stimulating as it is gripping.

The story unfolds in a near-future world where the revolutionary technology of in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) redefines a society where any misplaced tissue could foster life if it fell in the wrong hands. As a science nerd, I loved Peikoff's skillful handling of complex scientific concepts, making them accessible without bogging the reader down in details.

Peikoff's bioethics expertise shines through in the realistic portrayal of scientific advancements and their potential implications. Her talent for weaving intricate scientific themes into an engaging narrative is impressive, transforming Baby X into more than just a novel—it's a thought-provoking exploration of what the future might hold.

Baby X kept me hooked from start to finish, offering both thrills and a profound commentary on the future of science and ethics.

John Marrs and Blake Crouch fans will love this book. I am typically not a sci-fi fan , but really enjoyed this! This book makes you think about modern age conception and the complexities of what makes you, YOU!

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley

Baby X by is a speculative thriller that asks the question ‘what happens when we can make babies with anyone’s DNA, even if they don’t consent or you never met them?’

Age has become just a number in a lot of ways, with people becoming parents in their seventies and eighties and AFAB individuals no longer feeling pressured to have children before forty. Quinn is a young woman who works as a surrogate mother and is hired to carry the child of a recent widower, Lily is an aspiring journalist whose mother is in her sixties and getting ready to get pregnant again, and Ember is a security guard whose job it is to guard her famous singer employer/boyfriend’s DNA from people who want to use it to have children of their own without his permission.

The novel goes into topics like consent and women having more time to have children being a positive thing while asking questions about technology and how far it can go in regard to reproduction and the knowledge of all parents involved in regards to their DNA.

The pacing felt very strong; the book was incredibly hard to put down and the switching between POVs slowly revealed information. I would have liked a little more exploration of how this topic impacts marginalized individuals, but I feel that the book made a strong point that protections for the most vulnerable need to be put in place as soon as possible when technology advances and considered early.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a novel focusing on social ramifications for how our technology could move forward with speculative pacing and a variety of characters who are affected differently by that technology. I would not recommend this to readers looking for slower pacing or to focus more on the technology aspects of the ideas.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- {BABY X - Kira Peikoff}

So glad I got the chance to read this ARC from Netgalley. It was addicting and the science and technology behind it made it frighteningly realistic! It seems totally plausible that 25 years from now people could be stealing DNA from celebrities or brilliant prodigies and using it to create “perfect” embryos in a lab somewhere, then selling them on the black market to the highest bidder. It was fast paced and well written. Totally worth it for thriller fans!

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a page turner and very quick read for me. good twists and turns and def all thriller.

I find this interesting because to be able to choose your babies due to genetics is so fascinating to me. in this story you will find a guard, a surrogate and a young woman trying to understand and i very much was invested in this book.

The character and the relationships fell flat for me and seemed rushed. I would recommend the book but this book had the characters been good could have been a 5 star read.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Let’s start off with how OBSESSED I am with this idea, the plot, the mix of science fiction and thriller. There’s nothing I love more than some grounded science fiction and this hit all the right notes. Although the focus was on the aspect of “selecting” your child from embryos and picking the ideal child based on these factors, there was a lot more intermingled that I thoroughly enjoyed. The average lifespan being in the 100s, the technology just being in this city, the retinal drones, all scratched my science fiction itch. But there were definitely a few things that made this go from a possible 4-5 star to a 3 star and that starts with the actual writing. Although I was able to eventually get past it, it felt very amateurish and clunky. I wish the editor (if they had one) focused a bit more on blending the sentences to feel less choppy. If I had picked this up and read the first chapter in any other circumstance, this may have lost me. I was able to eventually tune out from it but I do expect a little higher quality especially when dealing with science fiction, I want it to be a little more intelligent. It did read more like a thriller in this aspect but I did enjoy the combination of genres. The ending and “kidnapping” started toeing the line of unbelievable to me when everything else was so grounded and I absolutely hated Lily as a character. Coming from 3 different female perspectives, it took a while to identify them separately as they all sounded exactly the same when it came to voice. They all looked very different and that was the easiest way to tell them apart until Lily became so unbearable that she was easy to pinpoint from the others. I know those are some heavy negatives but the plot and story really did balance out those enough that I still enjoyed reading this and devoured it pretty quickly. I would definitely give this authour another shot in the future and am looking forward to how they grow as a writer.

On one hand, this was a super quick read and I always wanted to turn the page. It’s 100% a thriller. There were good twists and the premise was truly excellent: in a future where babies can be selected based on their genetic profile, celebrities have to guard their genetic material so it’s not stolen to create children. This is the interwoven story of a bio-security guard, a surrogate, and a young woman trying to understand her past. I was totally sold.

However, there were also some ridiculous plot holes that I had a hard time getting over. On top of that, the relationships between characters weren’t developed: we just jumped into them, being told that they were now in love or now best friends or what have you. Because of these factors, I found myself skimming just to find out what was going to happen next rather that being totally immersed in the story.

On the whole, while I wouldn’t *not* recommend this book, I do wish it were tightened up just a bit because this easily could’ve been great.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books!

This was an interesting futuristic premise. It is a time when parents can have their DNA expertly mixed and analyzed and grown into embryos that can be evaluated for everything from genetic diseases to personality traits, and then choose their “Selected” offspring to be born. However, just as in the real world, for every benefit, there is a darkness. This technology also opens the door for people to buy, sell and steal DNA samples from people with the most desirable traits.

The story revolves around 3 women, A surrogate, a bio-security expert and a 20-something, all part of this scientific path to family, but all with very different places on that path.

The writing didn’t always flow well, some scenes just too outlandish and others just a bit too drawn out, with no real purpose. The characters weren’t easy to connect with, and their backstory and motivations didn’t seem to come into play until the last 50 or so pages, which made for a more thriller type ending but made the rest of the writing feel a little flat.

I loved the more futuristic, technical side of things. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep the story interesting. I especially enjoyed the writer’s use of current cultural experiences extrapolated into what the future may hold, including lenses, blinks, DNA databases, and a few other.

I think people that enjoy John Marrs style of writing what the future may hold will enjoy this one as well.

In the not-so-distant future, embryos can be created from the DNA of any two people with something as simple as a saliva sample. Most pregnancies begin with the selection of an embryo with optimal genetics. But there’s a new kind of crime happening - stealing DNA from celebrities to have their genetic offspring without their permission.

Baby X follows three women who are connected to embryo selection: Quinn, a surrogate mother; Ember, who is working to protect the DNA of a famous musician; and Lily, an aspiring journalist whose mother is going through the selection process, but Lily feels inferior for being conceived the traditional way. At first it took me bit to feel acquainted with each character since they are going through different experiences, but I quickly grew to like all of them. I enjoyed the various side characters as well, and even the more villainous were interesting - I loved to hate them.

The book has a fast pace to it. Split into four parts, the first part takes place in the span of a year, and the plot gets more complicated as things continue. I’ll admit, I had a hunch about some parts a while before they were actually revealed, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. Things were complicated enough that there were still plenty of surprises along the way.

Overall this was a really interesting book to read. It felt like a future that could very well happen and was an interesting take on genetics and how future generations could be affected. It was different, thrilling, and satisfying.

Thank you to The Quick Brown Fox & CO, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the free advance copy of Baby X. My review is voluntary, and all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and The Quick Brown Fox & CO, Crooked Lane Books for the copy of Baby X by Kira Peikoff. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but I really enjoyed how it was incorporated into this book because so many things really seemed feasible and a little spooky. It was interesting that some issues that are hot topics now weren’t incorporated in the DNA analysis or story, and the use of some modern slang seemed out of place too. The three separate stories took me a while to get used to and sometimes I got the characters mixed up at first. I really liked how there were a number of huge reveals that I didn’t see coming, and the final one really blew me away. If you’re looking for a clever and intriguing book, Baby X is the book you’re looking for! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Baby X by Kira Peikoff was a really interesting and unique story.
I thought the writing was truly fascinating and very well done.

Thank You NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

From start to finish this book is sleep deprivation inducing spectacular. A total must read.
5 stars!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC

In the near future, people eat synthetic food and travel in autonomous vehicles. The common hairstyle for older women is ringlets. People try to steal celebrities’ DNA in order to make babies….. “like getting away with murder, except getting away with births.” This is a wonderful book that reminds me of novels by John Marrs and Blake Crouch.

At the 70% mark, I said to myself, “Oh, OH, this happened……..”. I love it when I figure things out.

Highly recommended. I plan to look for other books by Peikoff. Thanks to Netgalley.

This futuristic thriller takes you on a wild ride where stolen celebrity DNA becomes the hot commodity for those craving the perfect genes. The narrative unfolds through three unique perspectives, shedding light on the dark side of a seemingly utopian reproductive solution.

Quinn, a career surrogate, Lily, an accidentally conceived child, and Ember, a bio-security guard, give you such diverse angles on the ethical dilemmas this world presents. The author brilliantly explores the consequences of a society obsessed with creating genetically superior offspring, and let me tell you, it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

What hit me hard was the realistic portrayal of parents choosing embryos based on specific talents, sacrificing their children's well-being for societal expectations. The author weaves these complex issues seamlessly into a plot filled with unexpected twists and turns.

As someone not big on sci-fi, I was hooked from the get-go. And that ending?! Totally blindsided me!

This book challenges you to ponder the ethical implications of advanced reproductive technology while serving up a gripping and thought-provoking storyline.

Honestly, I can't recommend BABY X enough! Can't wait to dive into more of Peikoff's work!