You Were Meant For Me by Yona Zeldis McDonough

• Title:  You Were Meant For Me
• Author:  Yona Zeldis McDonough
• Genre:  Contemporary/Women’s Fiction
• Published:  October 2014 – NAL Trade
• Source:  Publisher

Synopsis:  What do you do when you have to give up the person you love most?

Thirty-five-year-old Miranda is not an impulsive person. She’s been at Domestic Goddess magazine for eight years, she has great friends, and she’s finally moving on after a breakup. Having a baby isn’t even on her radar—until the day she discovers an abandoned newborn on the platform of a Brooklyn subway station. Rushing the little girl to the closest police station, Miranda hopes and prays she’ll be all right and that a loving family will step forward to take her.

Yet Miranda can’t seem to get the baby off her mind and keeps coming up with excuses to go check on her, until finally a family court judge asks whether she’d like to be the baby’s foster parent—maybe even adopt her. To her own surprise, Miranda jumps at the chance. But nothing could have prepared her for the ecstasy of new-mother love—or the heartbreak she faces when the baby’s father surfaces….  (publisher)

My take:  You Were Meant For Me is a fast-paced novel about love – love of a child, a partner, a parent, good friends. The novel starts out with the probable suicide of the baby’s mother. Lucky for the baby, Miranda discovers her on a subway platform and makes sure the baby is taken to the authorities. Over the next few months Miranda steps forward to foster and then adopt the baby. A local writer interviews Miranda for a newspaper column which starts a chain reaction of events that will upend Miranda’s plans and happiness.

I thought it was an interesting premise and overall I enjoyed the novel. I liked it but had a tough time with almost every adult character’s self-centeredness at one time or another. Even Miranda dropped the ball a time or two. However, the author brought everything together at the end and I felt a bit better about the growth some of the characters experienced. I especially liked the direction Miranda’s life was headed.

This would be a good book to take on vacation. It’s a page turner, has attractive and affluent characters and some romance. I would definitely read more books by the author (this is my first). Included at the end are a Conversation with the Author as well as Discussion Questions.