Valentine's Day is almost upon us and here is a unique kind of love story! Josh and Gemma Make A Baby by Sarah Ready follows Gemma, who is single and unable to get pregnant the normal way because of endometriosis. She really wants a baby and there's the option of IVF; now all she needs is a willing sperm donor.

Enter Josh Lewenthal, her brother's best friend, who's always been around in Gemma's life and is a decent persom as far as she knows. Instead of a random stranger, Gemma wants someone she trusts, so who better than Josh, who is healthy, intelligent and funny, to be her donor?

What ensues is a mixture of hilarity and seriousness, with a few dozen inspirational quotes thrown in. Gemma's character leaps off the pages and wraps itself around your heart. She's full of life and laugh out loud funny, and her chemistry with Josh is undeniable.

I also liked how delicately Ready deals with the issues of pregnancy, infertility, and motherhood in it's different forms. The inability to conceive children is often looked down upon in women, which strikes me as just wrong. Ready also deals with the questions of single motherhood and how strong people are for going through that, whether intentionally or not. A parent is a parent, and it's up to them how they raise their child.

Another great thing about the book is the side characters. I loved the women in Gemma's support group and how they're portrayed. They're not 2D characters fulfilling small roles, but real people who actually help Gemma while having stories of their own.

Josh is, of course, a lovable goof and I think he and Gemma have revolutionised the meaning of 'phone sex' 😆 He's supportive of Gemma in all the ways that count and is your regular dreamboat. I would not have minded a chapter or two from his perspective 👀

(slight spoilers)
Content Warnings- infertility, loss of a child, fat shaming, loss of a parent.

I was given a copy of this book for my honest opinion.
While I like the tropes of Brother’s Best Friend and Friends-to-lovers and Romance Comedy, I was more interested in seeing the inclusion of being an older woman with endometriosis looking to have IVF to finally have a baby. And, while I understand that there’s a lot more involved with getting IVF, and this is a story, it felt like things happened really fast for Gemma. I also felt that Gemma was a little too judgmental when it came to Josh, even as she felt upset about family, and others, judging her.
However, there were the times when Gemma and Josh were having fun that I was all “Awwwww!” about their interactions. Even though I wish that they had had more time to actually get to know each other better, what they did learn about one another was good. And as far as Ian, I agreed when he was called a “Ken doll”, because at the first description of him I shivered with an out loud “Ew”.
In conclusion, I am giving this a 4 star rating only because of the information that was shared about endometriosis and IVF, the fun parts, and the HEA.

I would have given this a higher rating, but you know shits happen. It's great that it tackles topics about IVF and fertility issues. But yeah, I personally think it was not good, and I did not like the writing style of the author. Another reason is because the protagonists were written so poorly; I mean, where is the romance? There was so much nonsense going on in the book that the protagonists didn't get the character development I wanted. Besides that, can we also talk about the phone vibrator scene? It was disturbing and cringing to read, and I kept thinking, "Oh my god, what the actual fuck am I reading right now?". This book was damaging to my mental health. On a more positive note, I liked the ending.

This was such a fun, quick read. (I actually listened to the audio and really enjoyed it!) Perfect for this time of year when I want to cuddle up with a romance that is charming but with depth too.

I tried to like this book. I really did. I wish that Gemma wasn't so much of the quicky girl protagonist that is seen in so many other rom coms because I genuinely think the book would have been better if it hadn't been that way. I loved Josh as a character but I felt like Gemma and Josh lacked significant chemistry because he was honestly hardly in it. I wish there was in general MORE. This book is marketed as a pregnancy romance but the pregnancy is honestly so little of it.

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. I both read this one, as well as listened to the audiobook and you can't go wrong with either. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars.

Ready tackled sensitive topics with humor, respect and information.

What really worked for me: Such a sweet story. Even though it could trigger a few readers, Sarah Ready managed to explore the topic in such sensible way. whether you have experienced infertility or not, Sarah makes you understand what Gemma is going through. Not only her struggles with having a baby, but with love to herself and her fear of rejection. I really liked that there were different factors in Gemma’s life such as her romantic, professional, familiar one and even see her social (friendship). We get to see how she got support from a few factors, or others that impulsed her to grow. There was a good distribution of each factor, as in, we got to see a complete view of Gemma and her interactions with different people and situations.

I really liked the writing. It was simple, easy to follow and entertaining. Though the story contains sensitive topics, the overall mood is light-hearted and funny. I actually laughed out loud in a lot of parts. The sweet quotes in each chapter made the story sweet and inspirational.

Characters are well-crafted, full of strengths and weaknesses, allowing space to grow, that we got to see as the story progressed.


What I wished was different: a few situations such as boy-toy scenes were a bit ridiculous. I know it was with the intent of making the story funny, however, I didn’t find it as such, but as unrealistic.

I recieved an eARC from NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC, Independent Book Publishers Association in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!!

Gemma's received hit after hit in her personal life, cheating husband, divorce, infertility, a pesky mom who won't stop trying to set her up with old man. When everything's feeling down Gemma realizes something, why can't she just get everything she wants for herself, why does she need a man for love? For a child? She doesn't and so with that in mind Gemma makes the biggest decision of all, she's going to have a baby on her own but even that requires a donor and who should it be none other than her older brother's best friend.

I'll admit, I picked this book up because the title reminded me of Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating and it was gonna be about pregnancy, I'm not ashamed to admit that. This book had everything I was looking for, oblivious main character, a man who is so clearly in love with her, banter, heartbreak, babies, friendship. Josh and Gemma had this relationship where they knew each other, had grown up with each other but Gemma didn't really know Josh, so you as the reader get to learn little bits about Josh and are able to see how oblivious Gemma is and are just begging her to figure everything out so you can as well.

Throughout the novel there are little drawings that will have little quotes under them and every single one made my heart just squeeze with love and joy, they were little moments of Josh and Gemma's relationship growing and swelling and when you see what's written at the end of the book your heart will swell to limits of it near breaking.

Well there are good things in this novel there are of course critiques. Gemma's mom is.. less than fantastic, the way she talks about her daughter and then just comes around to saying she loved her the entire time felt... icky, Gemma could be so obtuse sometimes it hurt but none of that really took away from the overall story.

Overall, Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a fun, sweet, heart swelling novel that makes you laugh, weep and grin brighter than you ever might. If you love Christina Lauren then I think this will be your biggest cup of tea.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is Sarah Ready’s latest romantic comedy. Gemma is a 32-year-old divorcee who realizes that it’s now or never if she wants to try to have a baby. Her marriage fell apart 10 years earlier after she had surgery for endometriosis and the surgeon said she would be unable to get pregnant. For seven years she has had a crush on her boss, Ian Fortune, a self-help guru. Ian seems unaware of her attraction until she accidentally exposes her breasts on a Zoom call and then he starts pursing her. Gemma’s interactions with her irritating co-worker, Lavinia, are funny.

Gemma hasn’t had a boyfriend since her divorce. She let herself go by gaining weight and wearing bulky sweaters and unattractive clothes. Her mother tries to set her up with older bald men, and even they reject her. Gemma’s family antics are funny.

Enter Josh Lewenthal, Gemma’s childhood neighbor and her brother’s best friend, who is a cartoonist. Gemma lost her virginity to him at Josh’s high school graduation party and then she didn’t see him for six years. She refers to him as the panty-stealer. He has been at the periphery of her life for at least 25 years and is a regular at family gatherings. Since Josh is single and living in his father’s basement, Gemma asks him to donate sperm so she can pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF).

This story gives many details on the IVF process and quite a few scenes occur in the reproductive specialist’s office. Dr. Ingraham recommends a Fertility Support Group for Gemma, and she becomes friends with the other three attendees. The fertility clinic and support group scenes are humorous.

Ultimately Gemma must decide if she wants to pursue a relationship with Ian, Josh, or remain single. I won’t reveal any more so as not to spoil the story. The author sets out many clues so that the reader can predict what will happen well before Gemma figures things out. Overall Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a great story. Although this is a romantic comedy, there is a serious theme of infertility experienced by four women.

Given that I am only 23 years old, one would not think that the idea of two friends falling in love while making a baby via IVF would appeal to me in both a romantic and a comedic way but it did.

I loved that the author decided to shine a spotlight on infertility, the challenges of the process and how it can affect either current relationships or the potential for new relationships. I also love that the main character decided to move forward with the process of having a child while still single. I have a few female role models in my life who have gone about having kids this way so I was cool to read about.

The characters were fun, I had a little bit of trouble relating to the main character but I am young, very single and not at all trying to have a child so I think that is definitely a me thing and not due to lack of relatability.
Also loved how the book highlighted success in more "modern" job settings? I feel like I read a lot about cooperate jobs and sometimes it feels like that's the only path to success for happiness and fulfillment so it was a nice change to read about.

I would have liked to see more character development on Gemma's part and actually see her falling in love with Josh a bit more. When I read about romance in books, I always try to pinpoint the moment when the character falls in love with their love interest but doesn't know it yet (even though there are usually multiple of these moments). Their relationship was still cute but from Gemma's POV it felt like her and Josh were friends until they weren't and I think I would have just liked to see her struggle with understanding her feelings a bit more.

There were also a few moments that just felt very unrealistic to me. Obviously, situations like this are unlikely to happen in the first place (which I think is why we all love to read about them), but there were a few things that just felt so over the top ridiculous and sorta ended up ruining the magic of the moment.

Overall, the plot to this was really intriguing and the book definitely had some fun characters and some great moments. The flow didn't always flow for me, but I found it didn't take away from the story at all.

If you like a cheesy, friends to lovers romance with some ridiculous comedic points or are a very plot-centered reader, I think this is for sure a story you would enjoy.

This was a fun and swooney romance that incorporates heavy subject matter ( infertility/miscarriage) overall it was an interesting and entertaining read. Josh was a great character, the chemistry was on point.

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.

Thank you to Swift & Lewis Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “Josh and Gemma Make a Baby” by Sarah Ready. All opinions are my own.

Where do I even begin with this book? Josh Lewenthal has stolen my heart. 😫

This book was such a cute rom-com and I can already imagine it as a movie in the future. The story was well developed and I loved the ending!!

Gemma's professional life is going swimmingly. She has a job she loves working for a man she idolizes- self-help guru Ian. But her personal life... well, she's divorced and considered undateable by all of the men in her hometown. After yet another disastrous set-up by her mother, Gemma decides that she doesn't need a husband to get what she wants most- a baby. So she turns to Josh, her brother's best friend who has been a presence in her life since childhood. He seems like a safe option for a sperm donor, even if she once had a major crush on him and they slept together before he left for college. Making a baby may bring them closer then ever, and rekindle some feelings she hasn't felt in a while.

This is a slow burn romance. Gemma is dating someone else for a good first half of the book. But the friendship between Gemma and Josh during this time is cute and definitely flirty. And while I loved the relationship between Gemma and Josh, I loved Gemma's relationships with the other characters just as much, if not more. This book is about Gemma figuring out who she is and what she wants just as much as it is about making a baby with her brother's best friend. The friends she makes on her journey are great.

One aspect of Gemma's journey is her infertility. After having surgery in her twenties, Gemma is unable to naturally conceive a baby and is undergoing IVF during the book. So if infertility is a trigger for you, I would definitely avoid this book. The author treats the topic appropriately, and posts necessary trigger warnings at the beginning of the book.

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, infertility shaming, only loving a guy once you realize he's rich and famous basically) 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.

3/5 fast read, I love the friends before romance aspect of this novel and the support that Josh showed.
I did think it took too long but than all of sudden sped up the at I had no clue I was already at the end of the book. Also I could do without the graphics between paragraphs.

This was a heartwarming romance that tackled a sensitive subject (endometriosis, IVF and miscarriages). It had funny moments but also some pretty heartbreaking ones too. Josh was the real star of this book however! Overall I found this to be a sweet and charming read!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking for a quick read, a frilly story and some light humour and got ... some of it. I also got basically a repeat of the entire Bridget Jones plot and, do we need to tell Helen Fielding?

This was ... not the one. In essence, the story was fun and had the light rom com approach I was looking for: Gemma is divorced and alone and decides she wants a baby, so starts researching IVF and can't think of anyone better than her brother's best friend to become her sperm donor. Gentle romance and misunderstandings ensue in Gemma's quest to become pregnant.

However, alongside this, Gemma also works for a self-help guru (whose entire ethos appears to be cheesey and uncomfortable one liners that go on posters with kittens - are we supposed to admire this man??). She has been obsessed with him for years, and he's finally begun to notice her - can she have her brother's best friend as her sperm donor and her perfect office romance?

Of course not. And there are multiple reasons why Gemma should not. For one, after a miserable family Christmas party (a la Bridget Jones Turkey Curry party), she decides she wants a baby, and awkwardly approaches the only decent single man in the room about it, whom she had sex with years before. Are we really allowing a woman who is trying to fill a lonely void in her life with a baby to go through with this?

Gemma also knows nothing about IVF (or its expense, and can get an appoint at a clinic the same day). And apparently has no friends until she starts going to an IVF support group, where all of her new friends have been struggling for years to have a baby (guess how long it takes Gemma ...). I know it's light and frilly, and it touches somewhat about the challenges of IVF and the potential toll on relationships - but it's all on Gemma's group, and a lot less on Gemma. The main thing that was piled on Gemma was that apparently her entire town knew that she is now infertile and seems to think it's appropriate to bring it up in casual conversation.

It's really not a positive story about a woman finding her own version of family (and romance alongside it) when the woman in question is being shamed for being infertile.

The story is one thing, I can let a lot slide for the genre. But it was also a literal rehashing of Bridget Jones' Diary. Including the body-shaming family, strange outfits, themed dinners, childhood vs workplace romantic interest, men being cads, the cheating ex (although this time it was Gemma who walked in on her husband "at it like rabbits"), fisticuffs, inappropriate office flirting after seeing Gemma in a bra (rather than the see-through blouse and short skirt), a carbon-copy of posh and snippy office-mate Perpetua, guess-what-the-boss-is-an-ass, and the classic cheating followed by "I thought you said she was thin."

Has Bridget Jones just fallen out of pop culture enough that no one is picking up on this? I almost fell off my spin bike in shock.

To be honest, I kept reading to see how close the story could get. And I didn't entirely hate reading it. But let's just say Helen Fielding should be getting some royalties.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is an enjoyable rom-com with a unique premise. I found myself really rooting for the couple by the end of the book.

A few things kept me from fully enjoying this book:
-The motivational quotes were pretty insufferable. That was maybe the point, but made one of the later twists in the book fall a bit flat
-Although Gemma grows during the book, it’s quite hard to watch the way she treats her friends and family and then still be invested in her happiness.
-A few grammatical and spelling errors that were distracting.