All You Have to Do Is Call by Kerri Maher

All You Have to Do Is Call by Kerri Maher

Title:  All You Have to Do Is Call

Author: Kerri Maher
Publisher:  Berkley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Format:  Kindle
No. of Pages: 364
Date of Publication: 19 September, 2023
My Rating:  5 Stars

My Thoughts 

Excellent and engaging historical fiction.

I could not put this down - the author wrote this so well and engagingly that the reader cares about these characters and their decisions and plights. The women in this novel became real and I wanted, needed, to know how they fared. 

All You have to Do Is Call is, unfortunately, relevant again today which makes this title very timely. Ms. Maher's research and writing brings the reader a fictionalized glimpse of the Jane Collective, a real women's rights group that sourced safe abortions for those in need. 

I was born in 1973 and grew up not knowing, or truly understanding, any other time than one with legal abortion. Now as a mother of daughters in a more conservative state, safe reproductive health care  access is very very important to me. This isn’t light and fluffy reading but it's definitely an important read and one I'm glad I did (my ignorance ran so deep regarding this that I hadn't previously been aware of the Jane Collective).

Recommended. 

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the DRC!

Description

A dramatic and inspiring novel based on the true story of the Jane Collective and the brave women who fought for our right to choose, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller.

Chicago, early 1970s: Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane.

The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground women’s health organization composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to live lives free from the expectations of society by offering reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions. Veronica, Jane’s founder, prides herself on the services she has provided to thousands of women, yet the price of others’ freedom is that she leads a double life. When she’s not at Jane, Veronica plays the role of a conventional housewife—which becomes even more difficult during her own high-risk pregnancy.

Two more women in Veronica’s neighborhood are grappling with similar disconnects. Margaret, a young professor at the University of Chicago, secretly volunteers at Jane as she falls in love with a man whose attitude toward his ex-wife increasingly disturbs her. Patty, who’s long been content as a devoted wife and mother, has begun to sense that something essential is missing from her life. When her runaway younger sister Eliza shows up unexpectedly, Patty is forced to come to terms with what it really means to love and support a sister.

In this historic moment when the personal was nothing if not political, when television, movies, and commercials told women they’d “come a long way, baby,” Veronica, Margaret, and Patty must make choices that will change the course of their lives forever.