Josh and Gemma Make a Baby has all the aspects you’d look for in a Rom Com. Though tackling a tough topic in infertility, the author manages to weave in comedic scenes and glimpses at Josh and Gemma falling in love. Overall, it was a quick read and I did enjoy the book, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I was hoping to. I personally enjoy when you really see the two characters fall in love on the page and I felt like I was told a bit more than shown. The supporting characters also left a sour taste in my mouth, most being downright hateful to Gemma and not offering much support or substance to the book. If you enjoy rom-coms, it’s worth a read, but I won’t find myself re-reading.

A cute fun read that sheds light into real life issues in a realistic way. Josh and Gemma make a fun couple.

4.5 Stars

Gemma's got a relatively decent life, she's motivated, she lives in Manhattan, her family may be crazy but they support her, and she has her dream job working for self-help guru Ian Fortune, the man who helped turn her life around after her divorce. She's got everything she wants, except for one thing, a baby.

After her infertility diagnosis, her divorce, and even more disastrous dating history, Gemma doesn't want Mr. Right, she just wants a baby, and all she needs is some sperm and she can do IVF.

Enter Josh Lewenthal, Gemma's complete opposite. But, she's known him for twenty years, so there's a bit of trust there. He's laid back, always looking for the humor in life, he's nice, funny, her brother’s best friend. He's attractive, from what she knows, healthy. To Gemma, he's perfect, for her very businesslike, no commitment or attachments arrangement. To her surprise, he agrees. What's the worst that could happen.

Josh and Gemma Make A Baby was an emotional story, with moments of humor throughout. The cast of side characters allowed for moments of relief from the heavier topics involved in the story. This was not the rom-com I thought it was going to be, but it is a strong worth reading. Beautiful story and beautifully written.

Please check trigger warnings before reading, this will not be a book for everyone based on the subject matter involved.

3,5 stars

meet gemma. because of surgary that she had to undergo at 24, she is unable to have baby since then. now, she is in her 30's and single. she decides that she will still have a baby and start looking for other options.

meet josh. your typical brother's best friend. sweet and kind. always ready to help.

together they make a deal about making one baby and thats all.

i don't have any personal experience with infertility itself, but i think people should go for this book with reminder that its still romcom and it has that perfectish feeling. its not realistic and its okay. just be aware of it.

the developing romance was cute, even tho once a time i wanted to scream at all the characters for what they are doing tho ha ha.

Thank you to Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

josh and gemma make a baby by sarah ready!!

TW: infertility, miscarriage, IVF.

summary: gemma wants a baby but is single and has also been deemed infertile. she decided she’s going to ask her best friends brother, josh, to donate his sperm so she can have a baby on her own.

review: characters were genuinely so cute. i loved gemma’s family and josh was so fun all the time. he was so sweet to gemma and so supportive in the ivf journey through the whole process. the support group had me cackling plenty and this was overall a very fun read, but touches on topics of infertility, miscarriage, and ivf which are considered taboo subjects until it happens to you so i really appreciated the authors take on those subjects. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow this book was so much fun. I loved Sarah Ready’s writing style and how the chapters were short enough to fly through. Josh and Gemma’s relationship was very cute. I also fell in love with the friends she made along her infertility journey. Would recommend to anyone looking for a quick romance read.

As a thirty five year old divorcee who is contemplating IVF to become a mother this book was the perfect read. Gemma is so so relatable, with her love of lime included, and her attitude for getting what she wants is inspiring. I just wish I had a lifelong friend that she has.

really enjoyed this book. The author has cleverly managed to mix a heart warming romance book with the hard hitting topic of infertility. I liked the main characters in the book but did get slightly frustrated at some of the coincidences in the book (randomly meeting each other in the street, having the same couple in the fertility clinic twice).

Josh and Gemma are definitely goals and Sarah ready does a great job of giving us fully realized people going through the struggles of their thirties. Gemma wants a baby and whether she knows it or now Josh has always been the guy she can't forget. Josh is not just her brother's best friend.
What killed me about this book is both Gemma and Josh's inability to have a conversation about why they actually want this. It was a book of partial truths and it was irritating because even the readers don't know why they are doing this together.
It was heartbreaking to watch them struggle when a conversation wouldn't have solved the problem completely, but it would've been a little better of a slow build instead of getting all the information in the 11th hour.

I literally lost count of how many times I laughed or smiled while reading this. My cheeks ached! It was so lovely and an easy read. I couldn’t put it down and found myself staying up to read into the early hours (not so great when I have early morning meetings ha!). Love love love

Same as the audiobook
The comments about what makes her unlovable shouldn’t be in rom-com anymore.
The fight with the friends was not necessary

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Something about Gemma really reads Bridget Jones to me; maybe it’s the overwhelming “Turkey Curry Buffet” feeling of her family’s New Year’s party, or the relentless self deprecation, or perhaps the way Gemma is on the wrong side of the feud between her skeevy boss and her budding love interest.

Regardless, I didn’t mind the Bridget Jones similarities, and quite liked this book. The fertility group was fantastic, the banter was pretty amusing, and I liked the romance. It was also a great portrayal of the struggles of infertility and IVF, especially among a group of fairly young women. Gemma herself was told at 22 that she wouldn’t be able to have children, and after 10 years finally decides to try anyways.

One thing I could not get behind was the gratuitous mentions of oversized sack sweaters, and lime jello. We get it, girl loves lime jello, let’s move on. (The one redeeming facet was the eventual tie in of lime jello with Josh’s comic book character, as a nod to Gemma.)

Overall a fun read, with a sweet love story.

What a great read on unrequitted love and infertility. I loved the characters and the dialogue this was a funny unique romance one of my favorite reads of 2022.

Had a great time reading this as an audio book as well. Made it even more enjoyable. Sent my review in the audiobook but all in all cute and beautiful.

With its quirky title, this book seems like your ordinary romcom. But no. This book gets in DEEP.

As the title and synopsis imply, this story revolves around Gemma, a woman struggling with fertility and her hopes of becoming a mother. She enlists the help of her brother's best friend Josh as her sperm donor and along the way, she realizes a great deal about friendships, her relationship with her family, her views on herself, and of course, love.

I applaud this book for openly talking about infertility through a unique, albeit fictional, female experience. This is the first time I've seen and read a book that approached this topic in a hard-hitting, romcom type of way. It had its funny moments as well as moments where you just want to put the book down and have a good, long cry for 30 minutes straight...which I did.

I listened to this one on audio most of time but I switched to the ebook when I had time to actually sit and read. The narrator did great job in bringing Gemma and her thoughts to life. I must admit that I think my tears were mostly brought on by her delivery.

I also appreciated the cute little illustrations included in the ebook drawn by our hero Josh, who effortlessly climbed his way up my book boyfriends list. That man??? I have no words. He is a gift.

I think it's quit obvious that I highly recommend this book. If you're looking for book that's a perfect blend of women's fiction and romance, this is it. It's so good that I'm now also interested in checking out this author's backlist!

This book was so stinking cute! I really got into it and I was able to read this one almost straight through!

Gemma is a survivor and she knows what she wants. She hasn't always had the best luck with men- she found her ex hubby cheating on their dining room table- but she is able to bounce back. She landed a job that makes her feel purposeful, she loves her family and she likes her life in general. But Gemma begins to feel that one thing is missing: a baby. So she comes up with a plan to make that happen.

Her plan includes her brother's best friend Josh who also happened to take her virginity many moons ago. Gemma thinks Josh would be a good sperm donor because he's attractive, smart and familiar. After a little convincing, Josh agrees to donate and the baby making fun begins.

I loved Gemma's character for so many reasons. She wasn't perfect and she accepted that she wasn't perfect. She's a little chubby and that makes her relatable and real which I think is fabulous. Gemma is a good human. She tries to be uplifting and positive. She values family and friends.

Gemma's relationship with Josh is a little bit of a roller coaster. They went from not talking to each other for years to making a baby together pretty quickly. It is so sweet how Josh treats her and appreciates all of her quirks. She doesn't initially think that he would be able to be anything other than a sperm donor but she later comes to see his heart.

This was an almost strangers to lovers trope that I haven't really read before. It was refreshingly different. I also appreciate how the author includes a short note about fertility struggles. This book had several messages in it even though it was a light-hearted story on the surface.

Thank you to #netgalley and #swiftandlewispublishing for the #arc of this book! This review will be published today on Goodreads, Amazon and my bookstagram.

A romcom that makes you fall in love with the characters as you’re reading along, I finished this one in two days. Starting February right with romcom, what I loved more about the book was the topic it highlighted and the way the author brought forward the message. Infertility - most often when any one of us hears this word, it’s got a negative connotation. But in a world, where celebrities and well know personalities are choosing alternate options to be parents, why is it that we, as a society, still associate it with a negative connotation.

The story is quite straightforward. Gemma wants to have a baby and due to her infertility diagnosis she’s not able to have one through the normal route. Josh, her brother’s best friend since school is a laid back guy who finds humor in small things. Gemma is ready to start her family but no longer looking for a Mr Right. Gemma thinks Josh is the perfect choice as her baby’s donor. The rest is the story. It’s a cute friends to lover trope filled with quotes, so if you’re a quote loving/highlighting reader like me, you’ll have plenty of highlights by the end of this book.

I loved the concept of starting each chapter with a quote. To add, the illustrations! They just make you smile as you’re reading. It’s like getting small encouraging and happy chits when you open your lunch box. That’s the feeling I got when I was reading through this. What made me give this a 4 star was as the climax was nearing, the author did not rush the story or make it unrealistic. It’s a love story that any one of us could have been witness too and that for me deserves the 4 stars. Overall, a great start to February with the romance genre!

Meet Gemma Jacobs, a divorced 38 year old who because of her endometriosis diagnosis is unable to have a baby without IVF. All she wants is a no-strings attached, sperm donor to make her dreams of having a baby come true.

In comes Josh, Gemma's brother's BFF, who has known the Jacobs' family for as long as he can remember. With Josh being recently forced to move back in to his Dad's basement, what could go wrong for Gemma? Josh seems like the perfect no-strings attached sperm donor. He's healthy, fit, nice, and a dependable person. It should be way easier than using some random person on the internet.

This book was so different than any other I have read. I love how it touched on the important topic of infertility. Josh and Gemma had great banter and their relationship and growth was so fun to watch.

However, I did not feel as connected to their story and did not enjoy the fat shaming and immaturity of the main character Gemma. Overall, I did enjoy this read and found it quick and easy to get through.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The writer did a great job with the "rom-com" feel, while also discussing serious topics such as parental death and infertility.

While I appreciated the accuracy of her descriptions around the infertility and IVF process, it felt at times that there was a lot of information for the length of the book. The information, plus getting to know the characters and Gemma's relationships with them, felt a little heavy at times. I loved her infertility group friends, but would have liked to get to know them better, for example. Also, the end of the book and the realization of Josh's comics and who they were about felt rushed - it was an adorable idea, but it felt out of nowhere, a bit.

I appreciated Gemma's self realization journey at the end of the book, as well! She faced her mistakes, and asked for forgiveness, which was so refreshing.

I give this book 3.5 stars.

I had to put this down, it's extremely offensive and problematic and the representation should have gone through sensitivity readers.