Gemma wants to have a baby. At 32, she’s been divorced for 7 years after an infertility diagnosis (she has stage 4 endometriosis). But first, she needs a sperm donor for IVF. In comes Josh, her brother’s lifelong best friend. Gemma asks Josh to be her donor and they quickly find out there is more to things than Josh being “just” a donor.

I have gone through 8 cycles of IVF to have a baby. I have my daughter from one round and the other 7 were failures. I usually get very scared when IVF is brought up in a book because it’s never written well - the character goes to the doctor and is impregnated a week later. And of course it worked and everything is perfect. I absolutely LOVED how IVF was written in this story. *SPOILERS* from Gemma’s chemical pregnancy (which I also experienced) to the fertility group ladies’ repeated trials and failures, to actual terms being used (I had flashbacks when the doctor described how he was inserting the catheter - it must be pretty standard!). I was frustrated with Gemma, though - she was not a good friend and she needed to gain confidence. I was also frustrated with Josh, who did this because he *SPOILER* was in love with Gemma but couldn’t tell her. Also I think this book has one of the most annoying characters ever written in Gemma’s boss!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to like this book based on the premise, but the combination of flat characters and boring, repetitive storytelling made it a drag to get through. I'll start with the positive: I am always happy when endometriosis and fertility issues are addressed, as this is something so many women and families experience and it's great for those topics to get more coverage. I also liked Gemma's friends who she meets through her fertility support group; women supporting other women is also something I can always get behind.

A major qualm I had while reading was Gemma, our narrator and protagonist, beating the reader over the head with information — repeating Sarah's status as her sister over and over, for example, or passages like this:

"'Okay, of course, Mr. Berners-Lee. Thanks for calling, I'll talk to you soon,' I said, attempting to cut my mom short."

I get that Gemma is trying to cut off her mom here. As the reader, I don't need that spelled out for me — it's taking an opportunity for "showing" and cramming it into a box of "telling," and this happens countless times throughout the story. Another example: "My sister claims that Ian is about as real as the mannequin. Meaning, he's as fake as they come." That second sentence is completely unnecessary, and it quickly became tiring to read this style.

Regarding the flat characterization of pretty much everyone Gemma interacts with, this was the biggest aspect that made me want to DNF this book. Gemma's mom, for instance, is constantly criticizing her looks and relationship status, and while she sort of redeems herself, this relationship is clearly used to show how mean everyone around Gemma is to her (in a frankly overblown way) and doesn't have much depth in its resolution.

The dialogue, in particular, was not realistic — take this diatribe from one-dimensional jerk "Greg Butkis" (even the name tells me right away that I'm never supposed to root for this character):

'"I already told you, the last thing I want to do is go out with Dimmy Gimmy. Jimmy told me the surgeon said the inside of her abdomen looks like a grenade went off. Apparently, the medical resident fainted when he saw that. Plus, Gimmy dresses like a slob, eats like a hoover, and has no self-respect. The divorce wrecked her. She's second-hand goods.'"

No one talks like this! Even aside from the overdone cruelty, the dialogue is stilted and fails to accomplish what I assume is its goal of building sympathy for Gemma.

Finally, the inspirational quotes — cheesy, unoriginal, and made me lose respect for Gemma for being so into them.

If you're looking for a lighthearted read without too much thinking involved, this book is not a bad option, but it was not for me.

I loved this book – but it made me cry ... and I don't tend to cry from books I read. This story was sweet and eye-opening, teaching readers (and characters) how important it is not to judge people based on assumptions and stereotypes, but rather to take the time to get to know others. As much as I loved this one, please be aware of the trigger warnings: infertility, miscarriages, cheating.

This was so fun! I love that Josh and Gemma did not have any unnecessary drama, and I loved Gemma's infertility support group. I immediately looked into Sarah Ready's backlist after I finished this book and bought and read Hero Ever After. I'm definitely a new fan!

This was my first read from this author and I enjoyed it. I went in expecting a light read due to the blurb and cute cover but it was more than that.

It’s a slow burn romance with great characters, dealing with some difficult issues who both change over the course of the story. Josh and Gemma made me want to hug them and shake them in equal parts.

"I was judging based on the tiniest glimpse of a person, not what was inside."

Gemma wants to have a child, but with relationships seeming hopeless she seeks to have a child through the process of IVF. The topic of IVF in a romance book and the discussion of infertility issues was something that seemed interesting. Infertility is a struggle for some women that might feel isolating to deal with. Josh decides to help Gemma in her journey of IVF and along the way they become closer.

The use of inspirational quotes was a cute aspect of the novel at the beginning of each chapter. Although as it went on it and continually became used, the enjoyment of it waned.

Spoiler:
I did not enjoy the inclusion of Ian and I found the romance between him and Gemma was uncompelling. The romance between them felt stale and her fascination with him ruined it for me.

Towards the end, I was glad about the romance between John and Gemma, but I wish there had been more between them throughout the book and not concentrated more towards the end. It dealt with some tough subject matter such as going through the process of IVF and miscarriage which made it feel like a more realistic story. People struggle with relationships, fertility, and other issues which can be glazed over for the sake of having a purely happy story.

It was a good romance with some things that I didn't like such as a particular scene in the park, but besides that, I quickly read through it and ultimately enjoyed it.

This book was read thanks to NetGalley.

I really liked this book, I liked how collected the character were because they always knew themselves and what where their goals, so i enjoyed that and I really liked their story,. Highly recommended for those who enjoy the baby by a pact.

I devoured this book in just a few days. Gemma and Josh have known each other since they were children, but when they reunite as adults, Josh has a promising career and Gemma has decided to go forward with the IVF plan to start a family as a single mother. Although there is a rocky start to rebuilding their friendship, Gemma and Josh might discover something about one another that heals the past and allows them to look forward to a bright future.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel.

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this novel as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will start off by saying the premise of this novel sounded initially very interesting with the potential to be quite the heart-warming romantic comedy, especially because Older Brother's Best Friend is one of my favorite tropes. Unfortunately, it fell really flat in a number of areas. The writing itself is not bad, but it felt stunted and repetitive so many times. I'm a visual reader, so I quite literally <b>see</b> the visuals as if I'm watching a movie. Unfortunately, I rarely saw the visuals aside from some emotional end book moments.

Characters and their established relationships to our heroine Gemma were constantly repeated as if the reader would suddenly forget who her siblings or friends were. (Seriously I stopped counting how many times I had to be reminded about "Leah, my sister" or "my sister, Leah". We get it. Leah. Sister. The sister).
And since the entire novel is told through Gemma POV, we don't really get a well rounded idea that this is actually how Gemma *thinks* and not simply a lack of more professional prose on the part of the author. Furthermore, the book is called <u><b>JOSH & GEMMA</u> Make A Baby</b>, so I would have expected to actually have dual points of view considering that they've known each other for 24 years.

Regarding the secondary characters, my biggest frustration is how many of them felt like one dimensional 90's-era stereotypes that were either completely clueless (but evidently well intentioned?) or just plain mean. And when I say mean, I mean <i>mean</I>. (Does the author even *like* her heroine? We're constantly reminded by every woman around her how terrible she dresses)

One the earliest things that made me start to doubt the book (besides all the fat shaming) is that our heroine suffers from stage four endometriosis, and the "inside of her abdomen looks like a grenade went off" and her tubes are completely blocked... yet she never had any pain and hasn't experienced any severe secondary issues from it in nearly 20 years. Every woman I know that has had to deal with endometriosis has had even a modicum of symptoms that make themselves known early and often.

The second thing that really started to grind my gears was how unbearably self-deprecating Gemma was. It wasn't even funny really and with the amount of side characters making snide comments (or any comments) about her weight it just started to feel like one big, uncomfortable "See?? Fat girls with fertility problems really do get the Hot Guy and the Happily Ever After" which is in all honestly a fine type of story to tell, but the execution of this novel was just downright... embarrassing.

Now the romance.
Is this a romance novel? Because Josh and Gemma don't really interact all that often and when they do their dialogue is so...boring...that my eyelids felt heavy and I had to constantly shift in my seat in order to pay attention. Even the slapstick bits (which make ZERO sense bc if anyone acted like that in a fertility clinic they would obviously be barred from returning--and they do return for more shenanigans). But yes, it is a romance novel that earns it HEA at the end...though with some struggle.

And when you *surprise surprise* discover that Josh has had feelings for Gemma all this time, for one, are not shocked, but also two, again this novel is only in Gemma's POV, to which she's terribly unreliable for most of the first half. We're supposed to believe that Josh has been pining away all these years, writing a comic book about how much he pines for her and yet we really don't feel any of that emotion throughout the first 70% of the book. At that point we get a sex scene...which is really the first time in the book that I felt there was any <i>real</i>emotion written on page, it was the first time I actually saw the book in my mind tbh.

Now the *twist*, the big reveal of our Villain.
I kept thinking to myself <i>'this reminds me of a movie I've seen. Just what was it called...?'</I>
<B>The Waterboy</b>
Yes, you read that right. The twist in this book reminded me of the same twist in the Waterboy. You know which one I'm talking about. With the notebook? Yeah. So needless to say, that was probably the more humorous thing about this novel. But at the same time, it felt uneventful. The drawing in the chapters are cute, and I get they supposed to allude to Josh being an artist, and the quotes everywhere, but it didn't truly connect well throughout the story.

Anyways, the only reason I gave it an extra star is because it only starts to pick up once you hit the conflict and the climax (and epilogue). The writing takes a distinctive turn that feels like the author wrote this part first and then tried to figure it out from there. Which, there's nothing wrong with that, but the tone is not the same in the first and second act and even with the slapstick comedy moments, it doesn't match up. Even if I stop and visually look at the length of the paragraphs, it differs hugely to the beginning where so much was just short and basically written which I guess an attempt to "show" the story, but largely failed as it most just told us what was the story. I completely understand why some DNF'd this so soon, bc I would have too had I not felt obligated to review it.

Ideally, the author needs to tone down so much of the side character action (Carly and Theo can stay though, the rest really aren't worth so much screen time) and work on the relationship between Josh and Gemma, because when they are together, they <b>shine</b> but everyone else, especially so many people being so rude to Gemma so often diminish that. And quite frankly we deserve to be in Josh's head. He's a good guy. This book has so much potential but many of the scenes and storytelling need to be revisited. As a romance lover I can appreciate the end (and the entire ridiculous convention scene) but as a whole, it didn't feel like much of that scene was earned in comparison to the rest of the book

boooooooy, do i love the friends to lovers/childhood friends to lovers trope. it just hits me in all my feels 🥰🥺 and it's a brother's best friend? AND the love interest is a sweet boy? SOLD

Gemma, i love you, you sweet, oblivious (so friiiiiigggggggin oblivious) girl. although there were plenty of times that i wanted to throttle her, she learned to not be such a judgey and unaware individual. HOW CAN YOU BE SO BLIND???? like dude, you don't know your brother's best friend is famous? get out of here. also the quotes. i wanted to chuck this book at one point or another because dear god, she just could not stop quoting that dweeb, Ian. if you can get past all the quotes in the first 80% of the book, i promise they make sense at the end and it's actually adorable. which brings me to my next topic ...

Josh. i love you, more. i would have seen and known that you loved me that whole time if you could just give me a chance instead. his whole comic with Grim and Jewel. okay 😭 just be more precious honestly. and selfless. he's everything a book boyfriend should be.

i love how this book talks about infertility and sheds some light on the topic!

TRIGGER WARNINGS for miscarriages (in detail). infertility and body shaming.

side characters. i loved the whole friend dynamic between Gem, Brook, Hannah and Carly. if Carly could get her own book with Theo, that would be *chef's kiss*

did this book have a bunch of situations that wouldn't happen to one individual in a year? yes. did i enjoy this book anyway? yes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher & the author for kindly sharing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75🌟 thank you netgalley & swift & Lewis publishing for this eARC! a fun, fast paced read for rom-com lovers! I loved the premise of this book; a woman who wants to take charge of her life and not wait for her happily ever after to come to her.

in the beginning, I had trouble believing that Gemma’s family and the people surrounding her spoke so negatively about her. i really preferred the second half of the book, where we got to explore the relationship between Josh and Gemma, whether it was a friendship or more. there are quite a few twists and turns along the way, and i think ultimately, Gemma learned from her past to be better.

cute & fun read overall!

When romcoms manage to hit my 5 star rating it always means they will now be on my mind for the next month. Josh and Gemma Make a Baby deserves 5 million stars! I loved this story so so much! I haven’t laughed out loud this much while reading in a long time! This was such a sweet ,warming, heartfelt story. The infertility awareness was beautifully handled. I’m obsessed with Josh’s comic book. I loved that Gemma was curvy. This was just a perfect romcom!

I loved that this book tackled the current struggles that people go through to make a baby in modern times. However, I feel like this book isn't for someone who is currently struggling with infertility, miscarriages, or any type of fertility issues. I thought this book handled the balance of the emotional heaviness with the silly scenes very well. Gemma was definitely a flawed character and was a bit annoying....however she felt like SUCH a work in progress. I thought this book had more depth than originally shown. Overall- a solid read!

4🌟 valentines day is upon us so let me review a romantic comedy.

Gemma wants a baby and has decided to do ivf. Josh is her brothers best friend and has all the attributes Gemma is looking for in a sperm donor. As he finally agrees to be her donor, the toad to parenthood isn't that smooth.

I honestly liked this book how it managed to incorporate the grief of infertility and the longing for a child with so much humour. I honestly have no idea. This was one of those books I picked to read after a lot of serial killer based novels, but it just surpassed my expectations. Gemma is our protagonist and what a character she was. I went from laughing at her plight to crying my eyes out completely. She's the kind of character I instantly imagined fitting into my social group in real life. He relationship with her family is written so well, even her mum trying to pimp her outvyo old rich men she feels her mother has no faith in her but u feel its her mother's lack of faith in others.

Infertility is a tricky subject to bring humour to, and honestly, if I hadn't read it myself, I wouldn't believe it. Even her appointments at the clinic are hilarious, especially a certain comment about the toilets in the lobby. I'll leave that one there.
If you do find this subject triggering, I would skip this one. Even though it is a light read, its core story is about the struggle to get pregnant.

The description of laces and people is done so well. As a scene nearer the end of the book, I felt like I was in the room! I truly am in oar of the author and their amazing power of the written words
The prose in general is so well constructed. I honestly couldn't fault it. I opened the book and closed it several hours later. I was so engrossed I honestly love a captivating book. Plus Josh's storyline was as interesting and engaging as Gemma's, as well as super funny. his motivation if any and why would he risk his relationship with his beat friend, I found myself tearing up alot when it was appropriate also.

In conclusion I moved this book it's a typical room romcom style we have girl we have boy, there's an obvious love story and predictable in the direction the book takes . I was a great book and worth 4 stars . Just be mindful if you have had any fertility problems this may be triggered by reading so please read with care.

Thank you to the Author, the publisher and Netgalley for the digital advanced copy in exchange for my fair and honest opinions.

Perfectly binge-able read! I am a sucker for friends-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers books that I can listen to while I am at work, on a run, or cleaning the house. Josh and Gemma's quirky relationship totally did it for me. I found myself rooting for them from the beginning (assuming what was to come). I am a sucker for finding out how the obvious character matchup will unfold, especially on Valentine's Day.

What a truly lovely Romcom of a book.

The story is all from Gemma pov as she navigates being divorced, and single and assessing what she wants next in life. The male lead Josh seems so likeable and the chemistry sparks across the page. I loved the friend group and having a story centred around a topic that affects so many couples. It has a classic line of romcom moments, missed moments, comedy accidents, interfering parents, the sleezy boss and a this one a love of lime.

I loved the unravelling and realisation in a the end. Really enjoyed this frothy romance.

Book was via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book and the characters. If your looking for a light but cute read this is definitely for you!

Loved the dynamic between the main characters, it was such a cute, fun, romcom read. Recommend if you need something to kick you out of a book hangover!

This is such a cute read! If you want something light to read, or you're in a book hangover and don't know what to read next, pick this one up. You won't regret it! Its a super cute book for.sure!

3.5-4 stars -- Enjoyed this light-hearted, relatively low-angst read. I could definitely identify with the premise of the story and Gemma's predicament with infertility. It was easy to root for her and Josh throughout the book and I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop from long-time acquaintances to more. There were several times I wish I had gotten Josh's POV so I better understood his actions. I don't mind single POV books but in this one it felt like pieces were missing because of it and it really would have enhanced the storyline to have a dual POV narrative. There were also moments where the pacing felt a little slow, more so in the first half of the book. Overall I enjoyed this and am looking forward to future books from this author.