Dnf at 37%
Sorry but this whole Ian thing just wasn’t it for me. Josh’s name is in the title for a reason and I swear it was like I was getting way more Ian than Josh. I really enjoyed it up until it seemed like Ian was never going to go away. I’d still say maybe give it a try if you’re really interested because I know a lot of people did enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’m DNFing this one. I’m barely through chapter 3 and I am sick of Gemma and her haughty judgmental attitude toward everyone who she deems is not good enough for her. (Which is most people.) She and her mother both are awful, constantly making snide comments about people’s appearances and writing them off because of their age, their name, their clothing. I’m not reading any further.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby was a rollercoaster from start to finish, with (admittedly predictable, but still decidedly entertaining) twists and turns. The premise of the book was unique and promising, and I was looking forward to a fluffy romance with two people navigating pregnancy and parenthood and managing the unexpected feelings that came along with it. Parenthood and infertility is very uncommon to find in the romance genre, and I was really looking forward to seeing how the book managed to balance romance and co-parenthood— unfortunately, very few of these expectations were fully realized. I am normally quite good at managing and adjusting my expectations for a book when I realize that I am going into it with a mindset that puts it at a disadvantage, however the synopsis, title, cover, and much of the marketing all seemed to allude to not only the process of IVF and the struggles of infertility, but properly seeing Josh and Gemma have and raise their baby. I was hoping for some cute pregnancy fluff!! For a book with so much focus on the MC’s desire to conceive and love a child, there was very little of the latter, which was what I was looking forward to. So, should this be a title that interests you, go into it with that in mind. While the romance was undeniably cute when it was given the spotlight, this was far from fluffy and took on an unexpectedly serious tone with some mild humour strewn about that sometimes missed the landing. Don’t get me wrong— I don’t mind a more serious romance. However, I do want a good balance, and unfortunately I didn’t personally find there was enough focus on the development of their relationship for it to feel all that believable, let alone make me invested in it. In fact, for the vast majority of the book, Gemma is in an increasingly serious relationship with someone else.
I did love most of the more dramatic, confrontational scenes, although they did sometimes border into absurd and difficult to take seriously. That being said, the author wrote dramatic tension very well when humour was not attempted to be brought in, and this was definitely a book that I had fun with despite my complaints.
While the book did have sexual scenes, I would decidedly not go into the book for said scenes. Again, they did occasionally feel a bit ridiculous and it took away from the experience.
This book was a slowburn in all areas. Romance, character development, and the titular plot point— having a baby— all felt like minor and slow moving side plots that were cast aside for other matters. Which, again, I likely would not have minded had I known that that was what the book was about. I think what it comes down to is a large issue here is that the book is not what it is trying to be, or rather claiming to be, and while what it is is not terrible by any means it just isn’t enough for me to want to make excuses for it. It had all the makings of a good romance, even if it did lay a little heavy into some cliches. Despite not being the most creative set up and execution, these characters and plot points were not done poorly, they just weren’t anything special. I don’t think I could see myself rereading this one, but I’m glad to have read it. Josh was a fun and complex character who I really loved as a male lead and it was frustrating to see him be so misunderstood and disregarded because I really did feel for him as a character. Many of the side characters had interesting storylines of their own (Carly and Theo novella when?? I would read tf out of their romance) and others brought in some enjoyable humour (Brook supremacy) and I rejoiced when there were some (mostly.. iykyk) supportive female friendships brought into the mix!
I did hope for more representation. There were no queer characters, and any mention of POC was either brief enough for me to have forgotten it or nonexistent, but according to the author’s instagram there side characters were black or mixed. 🤷‍♀️ I digress. Relatedly, there is mention that Gemma is plus sized (or “chubby”) however this is often/always brought up in a negative context, and there is no sign of her being even remotely plus sized on the cover, so there is little reference point for that fact despite the best consistent shaming she receives, which is a shame.
The narrator of this audiobook expressed the emotions of the scenes and the book overall incredibly well, and her commendable performance made for a very immersive experience that elevated my enjoyment throughly.
Overall, this book earned a 3/5 ⭐️ from me, but while I may not have been the biggest fan of it for my own reasons, I am still intrigued by the author and am curious about her other published and upcoming books!

Gemma has reached the point in her life where she's ready to be a mom but infertility and single life stand in her way. When she asks her brothers best friend to be her sperm donor, she's shocked when he agrees!

If only it were all the simple. Lots of ups and downs, and a lot of laughs along the way. This rom com had me laughing, swooning and I may have even cried...twice!

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This was a fun, quick read that was just what I wanted this time of year. A romance to cuddle up with, but with depth too.

Thank you to Netgalley, Swift & Lewis Publishing, and Sarah Ready for an advanced e-ARC and audio-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book filled me with so much joy. 🥰 I absolutely LOVED it! Gemma is so relatable, and Josh is perfection too. I truly loved every second of this book.
This is perfect read for the month of February too! 💞 I would not hesitate to highly recommend this book to all the romance lovers out there. Gemma and Josh are definitely a couple who deserve a place with the best of the best!

I also had the opportunity to listen to the audio of this book as well. I thought the narrative did a fantastic job. If audio is your jam, than this is a great audiobook to add this month!

Josh and Gemma Make A Baby was SO cute. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but mark this one under the wins column anyway. If you are a friends to lovers or second chance romance fan, give this one a shot. Without spoiling too much, I was such a fan of the subplot. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars.

I loved this story. I loved that Gemma didn't depend on Josh or try to put expectations on him. Gemma's struggles with infertility were heartbreaking to listen to. As heart-wrenching as this story was, it was also funny! I laughed out loud a lot while listening to this audiobook. I would have liked some smut though. Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC for an ALC of this novel in exchange for my honest review!

DNFing at 13%. Audio e-ARC via NetGalley.

The main character and her family have really toxic attitudes to dating. Gemma is also thoroughly incompetent with technology for someone employed as a social media manager. However, the deal-breaker for me was the conversation between our two leads that should've started the plot.

Gemma has endometriosis, which could've been good representation. She wants to have a baby, which isn't the attitude of my friends with this condition but I can believe some people are like that. She asks her brother's best friend to be her sperm-donor and he makes out that she's the villain and is objectifying him. Even if he was going to say 'no', I would've expected someone in that situation to be compassionate and acknowledge how vulnerable she had made herself in asking. I'm sure it's true-to-life that some guys would act that way but he can't be the romantic hero, he ought to be the cad.

Gemma is a single woman taking the reins of her life and decides that she wants a baby. And she refuses to let her infertility diagnosis get in her way. So IVF it is! But she doesn’t want the baby of a stranger so she asks her brother’s best friend Josh for assistance.
This book was so cute! I’m such a sucker for a romcom throw in the bothers best friend trope and I’m in HEAVEN!
Gemma was such a quirky character with her constantly spewing inspirational quotes at everyone and her weird girl way of dressing. But i loved her!
Josh is so sweet. So so sweet. His i can laugh at anything attitude did really well at keeping the mood light.
Their relationship going from somewhat friends to actual friends to lovers was such a fun little journey to go on. And the comic convention scene was hilarious!
The IVF support group was so sweet and super important to the story. Infertility is such a hard thing to go through and to see the different versions of it made my heart ache. Those ladies were all so so strong!
Some of the writing felt a bit repetitive but overall i really enjoyed the story, rooted for the characters HEA, and was satisfied with the ending especially since it included little updates with her friends.

4 out if 5 stars and 1 out if 5 chili peppers for spice.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. Josh and Gemma Make a Baby was the book I didn’t know I needed.

It was a slow burn, but oh so worth it. Josh L is thoughtful and nerdy. Gemma is honest and powerful.

Infertility is so difficult, raw and real. It’s a subject not talked about enough. Sarah Ready used this book to capture the devastating nuances of trying to conceive.

I really enjoyed this book. It was funny and the characters were likeable. It was a sweet story with a happy ending.

I really enjoyed the narrator of the audio book. Erin Mallon did a great job.

Gemma is basically a 32 year old loser who wants to have a baby but has to do it through IVF. She has her brothers best friend Josh be the donor while simultaneously starting a romantic relationship with her boss. This book was intriguing enough that I kept wanting to come back and I really liked the characters. There was a depth to the story that I didn't know was going to be there, but was so glad it was. Also, the narrator, Erin Mallon, is amazing.

A cute little rom-com that occasionally leans too heavily into the comedy for me (I don’t love when there are lots of high jinks, and this has many). Overall, though, this is a sweet story that handles its infinity story with delicacy.

I loved everything about this book! It had everything you would want in a romcom. I was laughing out loud but also pulled at your heartstrings. It even made me tear up. I instantly fell in love with the characters, Gemma was relatable and funny and you could feel the connection between her and Josh.

Was it predictable? Sure. BUT I enjoy my romcoms to be tied up in a nice, neat bow and this one did exactly that. I LOVED it. 5 stars!

This very entertaining rom-com did exactly what it was meant to do, make me laugh and fall in love (with the characters and a series of hilarious events!). For anyone who loves Christina Lauren, Emily Henry or Ali Hazelwood, you will eat this book up!
This book is filled with characters that I would love to meet. I need to start by saying, I listened to the audio book version which was perfectly narrated by Erin Mallon.

Our voluptuous Main character, Gemma, is ready to live the life she envisions for herself. Of course, just like every best-laid plan, nothing goes as planned. Enter long time family friend, Josh (sigh). Gemma plans to propose a simple "business" transaction, but really, how simple can it be when you are dealing with the handsome, witty, smart and Sexy Josh? This book is filled with comedic relief, Romance that gives you that butterflies in your stomach feeling, and that feeling of impatience while you wait for all the pieces to fall in to place.
It was nice to see several serious issues addressed in what would usually be considered a light-hearted genre. I do think this book could be a bit of a trigger for some dealing with infertility.

This is my first time reading Sarah Ready and I can honestly say, I can't wait to read her other books.

I knew what I was getting into with this one, I've never been the right person for Erin Mallon's narrations. Her male voices are swoon worthy, but female characters, especially her reading of Gemma wasn't for me. Mostly because too many sentences ended like a question. I preferred reading the ebook version of this one.

I really struggled with this book on many levels, but instead of going into detail on all of the things that didn't sit well with me (fat shaming, fertility shaming, only loving a guy once you realize he's rich and famous) I'd really like to talk about the one thing that I loved about this book: the way this book handled fertility treatments.

I appreciated the level of detail and attention that was given to this aspect of the story. And while there were some things that did not sit well with me (Gemma's fear of being turned on by the painful and not even remotely sexy ultra sound probe, for one) there were lots of aspects of Gemma's fertility journey that I did appreciate. I appreciated that things were hard, that Gemma was afraid, even though it was what she wanted, that she felt the joy of a successful implant and felt the pain of losing that child, because that is a very real part of fertility. I really wish the author hadn't taken Josh out of the picture during Gemma's loss. I think the moments that they could have shared together could have been really beautiful and given their relationship arc something to cling to that wasn't so surface-level. Josh could have supported Gemma and that could have been what made her fall for him, and maybe that was the case, but with the way the story presented it, it just kind of felt like Gemma was only falling for Josh after she found out he wasn't a loser like she (unfairly) thought he was and it really didn't have anything to do with the emotional connection they shared.

Stories like this one are important. But this one tried to do too much and the truly beautiful aspects suffered as a result.

What a delight! I knew within a couple of minutes of listening to this audio book that it was going to be so much fun!
This book is worth every single star. It had me laughing out loud quite a few times from the first visit to the reproductive office and on and the whole plot and character development was just hilarious. I loved Josh and Gemma. I loved how Gemma rose above the negativity in some instances. I highly recommend this book! Definitely worth the read!

It is rare for me to say that a book I listened to would have worked better for me if I had read it. It is rare because the narrators nowadays do a phenomenal job bringing the characters to life.
Gemma was tough to get along with, from what I heard. The narrator was really good at the emotions, but the pacing was off. If I played it at normal speed, it was too slow for the emotions involved, and the next speed was a bit too fast.
I picked this book to see how the process of Gemma dealing with her body's limitations was presented here. The time window is a little too short for reality, but I guess that is to be expected given the genre. That said, the process itself and the variety of experiences different women went through felt very real to me, unlike one or two other books that just label the entire situation under one large infertility umbrella.
Gemma is unable to have a child naturally; this fact was discovered quite early in some ways and late in others, given that she had a hidden issue all along. This news then spreads through her entire town, and it becomes her identity! Fast forward a few years, and she loves her job, crushing on her boss and staving off her mother's well-meaning (but frankly ridiculous) blind dates. She decides that she needs to do something drastic to shake up her life and decides on having a baby by herself. She ropes her brother's best friend into helping her, and a love story (obviously) follows. Josh is an excellent sensible foil to Gemma's obliviousness. Her mother's behaviour felt too off to me!
For anyone curious about the different stages of the investigation that might go into figuring out the fertility of a woman, this might actually help (As the entire book revolves around it). It is packaged in a rom-com for easier consumption, between some bad behaviour on Gemma's part where she is literally blind to reality. However, this provides a satisfying learning curve for it all. I liked the book, the narrator and the overall love story (there are one or two graphic scenes, but not enough to bother me- but one should know what to expect), but as I mentioned earlier, the pacing threw me off.
I did not enjoy the mother's behaviour or the obsession with quotes. If they were different ones each time, I might have been fine, but a select few are repeated once too often. Something we could have done without. I enjoyed the ending and would still recommend this to those people looking for a cozy story with some hard-hitting background.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

👍

This was my first experience with @sarahreadyauthor and BOY OH BOY was I not ready. I can't tell you the last time I laugh so much in a book. I knew within 5 minutes of starting this that I knew this was going to be good. It was real, snarky and sarcastic and so much fun. The longer I listened, the more I enjoyed the ride.

Gemma is over 30, divorced and unattached. Because this is no longer the 1950s she has decided she doesn't need a man to start a family so she has decided to see reproductive specialist and start IVF. When pressured for the name of her donor and not loving the idea of using a random name from a list, she blurts out the name of her brother's best friend who just happens to be the boy who took her virginity so many years ago. He'd be game, right?

Shockingly, after an extremely uncomfortable conversation, he is. He's super supportive, though a bit secretive and they start the process of making a baby (not the old-fashioned way). The first time Josh and Gemma visit the reproductive office have me seriously laughing out loud. I am sure I looked like a crazy person since no one else could hear what I was hearing but it was so unbelievably funny and excruciatingly awkward that it made for great entertainment.

A+. Would recommend. This book definitely put the "com" in RomCom.

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