woahhhh did i finish this book in 2 hours? yes, yes I did.
that’s how addicting and easy this book was to read. gemma was such a funny character , i truly enjoyed reading about her. topics about infertility are always so hard to read about because it’s a struggle that a lot of women face and it truly hurts, so check out some of the trigger warnings before you read this! overall this book was lighthearted and just great. it made me laugh but also got me in my feels. i recommend if you’re looking for a easy read to pass time!

A slow burn love story where the boy falls first.

And I can’t be the only one who hated Ian from the moment he was introduced, surely?!

Gemma and Josh’s love story is one for the ages and it hit me in places I never realised existed.

Gem’s story of infertility was her own and it was lovely to see this from someone else’s perspective.

Sarah captured love, loss and heartache so well.

5/5 stars

TW: Infertility, Miscarriage

This was such a cute and heartfelt story. I originally started the book because I love the cover and Erin Mallon was solo narrating, all told from Gemma's POV.

Gemma wants a baby. After finding she needs medical help, she turns to IVF. Instead of using an anonymous doner, she asks her childhood next door neighbor, Josh. Josh agrees and the two start the process together.

This was such a different kind of friends to lovers and pregnancy trope. It wasn't an accidental pregnancy and the two hadn't been longing after each for years and years. I loved how it was a modern approach to how a lot of families are now started. It's a fun and sweet story that certainly bring out all kinds of emotions. Josh is so dreamy and the perfect baby daddy for Gemma. Josh and Gemma are so sweet together and I loved this story so much.

I really enjoyed this super cute rom com and thought it was very charming! However, if you are going through infertility or have struggled with infertility I would be cautious going into this book because it does discuss a lot of heavy topics. But overall it was a delightful book that romance lovers will enjoy! Thank you NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC for a free copy of this book via Kindle in return for an honest review.

Sarah Ready is a new to me author. I thought this book was well written. The characters were well developed. This book, while dealing with some heavy issues such as infertility, miscarriages, and infidelity, did not feel heavy. I loved the women in Gemma’s infertility group that she attended. I liked the chemistry between Gemma and Josh. I laughed out loud a few times. I read this book in less than 24 hours. I found it quite enjoyable.

"That's right. I disturbed a doctor that trained as a gynecologist and has probably seen and heard some of the weirdest stuff on the planet."

Overall, I enjoyed Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. It had a fairly predictable storyline, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. Lots of humour, wholesome moments, and a good representation of infertility struggles. Josh and Gemma's relationship was the obviously best part of the book, but coming in close second was the fertility support group - those ladies had dimensions!
I will say the inspirational quotes throughout were quite cringy, and it was widely accepted by all the characters as being completely normal which was ... weird. I thought it was going to be Gemma's quirk, but it truly became the basis for the whole novel.

Gemma is 32, single and sick of waiting for the perfect man to show up so she can have the family she’s always dreamed of. After all, she’s already been married and divorced, and the men her mother keeps trying to set her up with are duds. But one day Gemma realises that she doesn’t need a husband to have a family – she just needs a man and a sperm donation. Gemma approaches Josh Lewenthal, her brother’s best friend. They’ve known each other almost their whole lives; he’s good-looking, athletic and smart – the perfect guy to make a baby with. Together, Josh and Gemma embark on an IVF journey that challenges everything they think they know about each other and maybe even leads to love.

I burned through this book in the final days of 2021. It was easy and fun; the perfect book for days when you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to engage with anything too strenuous. It’s an odd tone for a book that deals so heavily with a subject as heavy as infertility, but the humour helped ease what could have been a very difficult read. This is the second book I read in 2021 that has infertility as a central theme and it makes me wonder if we’ll see this as a trend for romance and contemporary women’s fiction in the next few years. It’s something I would embrace. Women’s fiction, and romance novels in particular, still have a reputation for being frivolous and lacking depth. Of course, that’s not true, but seeing these topics explored more openly has the potential to take the genre in a new direction.

There was a strong cast of characters in this book and I liked them all. My main character issue is that Josh felt a bit too perfect. Part of the point of this story is that Gemma has all these unfounded ideas about what kind of person Josh is, so she makes assumptions about him, but even when she didn’t think that highly of him, we didn’t really see any of his flaws. The male characters in the novel feel less fleshed out and more 2-dimensional than the women. Josh is set up as the perfect guy, the one Gemma should really be interested in, and Ian (her self-help guru boss and boyfriend) is clearly modelled as the sleazy guy she should steer clear of. I would have liked more nuance for them. The female characters are much more fully realised and complex. They have conflicting emotions and desires, they make mistakes, and they do bad things for good reasons. Ready might have done this deliberately, to put the focus on the women and their relationships, but when most of the story revolves around the relationship between Gemma and Josh, it doesn’t make for the most interesting reading experience when one of the characters lacks the characteristics that would make him interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. It was funny and heart-warming, and I enjoyed seeing women supporting each other, even when they were struggling with their own lives. It got a bit overly earnest towards the end, when Gemma was learning the lessons that would help her grow, and that made me cringe, but some people like that sort of thing. I just prefer when the moral of the story isn’t being explicitly told to me. If you’re looking for an easy read to fill some time or get you out of a slump, Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a great book to pick up.

CW: miscarriage, infertility, death of a parent

This book follows main character, Gemma, a woman in her 30’s who can’t have children. As her New Year’s resolution, she decides that she wants to have a baby. She just got out of a bad relationship, so she is not looking to start a new one, she just wants a baby. Then comes in Josh. Josh is Gemma’s brother’s best friend who Gemma reconnects with at her mother’s New Year’s party. When Gemma goes in to get IVF, she is allowed to choose a anonymous donor or have a partner that donates. Gemma decides that she does not want a random donor, and ends up offering Josh’s name as the donor. To Gemma’s surprise, Josh actually agrees to go through with it, leading to many other events along the way.

This book was everything I could have hoped it would be. It was funny, cute, and emotional all in one. I found the characters to both be very likeable. Another thing I appreciated was that it didn’t feel too rushed but the book wasn’t extremely long either. I find that sometimes when romance books aren’t super long they can feel a bit rushed, but the pacing of this book was perfect. I loved the author’s writing style, it definitely made me want to check out more of their books. I also enjoyed the fact that other side characters were well developed. I was just as invested in some of Gemma’s friends’s lives as I was hers. As for Josh, he was the perfect male lead. He was funny and sweet, not to mention him and Gemma had a history which just made everything all the more interesting. I did have a few doubts going into this book as I’m not always a fan of the pregnancy trope, but I think think that this one executed it very well.

I don’t have many criticisms for this book, it kept me interested all throughout, I enjoyed the characters, I found the writing style easy to read. This being the first book I read by Sarah Ready definitely makes me want to read more of her books in the future.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with this E-ARC.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a lighthearted fluffy romcom that touches on heavier topics, such as infertility. Gemma is an interesting main character, she’s obsessed with positivity but shows that she’s actually fairly judgemental. Josh comes across as the perfect romance boyfriend to be.
The story focuses on the relationships in Gemma’s life. The meddling of her mother in her dating life, how her IVF support group interact with each other and their different situations, the budding relationship with her boss, and the effects of the IVF journey with Josh.
Altogether this was an enjoyable and easy read for me I was a little unable to put it down, however there were some trickier bits which may not be suitable for all readers, topics surrounding infertility and miscarriage are dealt with due to the plot of this book. Some parts of the story I wish were more fleshed out, such as Gemma’s divorce and the backstory with Josh. We learn some things but never why they didn’t see each other for six years, especially with him being a close friend of her family.
Overall this was a 3.5 star read and I would recommend to readers who enjoy a cute romance based around mid thirties protagonists.

This made me realize how a simple quote can change or destroy someone's life. It can change a life because that is its purpose right? to inspire. But sometimes quotes really have a negative in our life. One quote can lead us to live our life according to it to the point where it became toxic. I think that is what happened in this book. Gemma lived her life according to the inspirational quotes from her boss (spoiler: it's not her boss's word) and look where it lead her? She became a judgmental coward person. She fears that someone would not be able to live on to her values. She changed though, and I love that for her.

This isn't actually an emotional (maybe just a little) one but a witty and heartwarming book. I love love the vibes of this book. After reading mystery/thriller for weeks I am glad I pick up this one because this is just exactly what I need. It's so cozy, heartwarming, funny, and the romance, omfg its immaculate. I also love that Josh and Gemma's romance isn't perfect. They faced some struggles throughout the book, and I am glad that they resolved them. I rarely feel this on characters but I think Josh and Gemma are soulmates.

Honestly, this almost has all the tropes that I hate. The pregnancy trope, love triangle, and miscommunication (they did not communicate at all). Surprisingly I liked it, more than I expected I would. I think this book should get more hype. Definitely recommend this book if you want a cozy, witty, and heartwarming book.

“I know it’s not a modern sentiment, that I should be happy with my career, my single life, my autonomy, but darn it, can’t I be a successful, modern woman and still want someone to love? A family to love?”

This quote sums up what I thought this romance would be about: the balance between being a modern woman and being someone who wants love. What I got turned out to be so much more.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a tender and funny romance that takes on infertility, modern feminism, and toxic positivity. Of all of these, I was most pleasantly surprised with how Ready handled toxic positivity.

Gemma reminded me of a childhood friend I had, one who always tried to look on the bright side of things. This in itself was refreshing–I’ve never read a heroine exactly like this. But then as the story goes on, Gemma realizes the over-generalized optimism of her disgusting boss’s ignores what it’s actually like to be human sometimes. I just loved the use of quotes and their breakdown by the end.

Josh was a sweetheart. I haven’t read many “brother’s best friend” tropes, but this one did not disappoint. His care-free attitude with the occasional sincere breakthrough contrasted the toxic positivity of Ian so nicely. The only thing I wish for this book is a few more sweet moments with him and Gemma and maybe one more of the two with his dad to really solidify our attachment to the characters.

That being said, I adored the discussion of IVF and infertility along with the friends Gemma makes at her support group. I don’t hear many discussions of how hard infertility is for those with uteruses, so it was very refreshing to have this representation here.

At times, the writing felt cheesy, but I think it worked for this book. This romance falls into many tropes that romance readers are familiar with and by all means is not trying to do anything new with the genre, but something new is not what I need from a romance. This novel is a solid romance. It is definitely better than a lot of the more popular romances from the past year.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a sweet story. But also it involves women struggles, infertiliy, IVF and it makes it more realistic. I honestly love these powerful stories most. I read this author's Romeo series too, so when I see this book is on netgalley I requested immediately. and I'm very glad I did it. If you are looking for sweet and emotional story, you should try this.

Sarah is a positive thinker with great career. Her life is perfect and wonderful, except for one thing. She wanted to have a baby.
Tired of waiting for Mr. Right to come for her, she decided to go through with IVF. All she need is a willing sperm donor for it and she thought her brother's best friend, Josh is the perfect candidate for it.
So Gemma makes a deal to make a baby with Josh and surprisingly he agreed. But, the thing with making baby it was hard not to get emotional and attached in the process.

This book really surprised me because I didn't expect to finish it in one sitting and stayed up late until 3 AM even with the annoying characters in it😂

The story is well written, well crafted and well paced. The writing style is also easy to understand with all the medical terms about the IVF.
This story is a full roller coaster of emotions, I laughed and I cried while reading this.

This book did well on portraying and bringing awareness about infertility and IVF process. IVF is not easy, it's a hard and long process to follow.
I admire Gemma and her friends in the IVF support group. I love how strong they are to endure every process even when the result is not what they hope for. I love how they support each other in this journey so they don't have to feel alone while doing it.

Despite all of that, I have to admit I didn't really like Gemma's character. She's too judgemental and inconsiderate to other people's feelings especially toward Josh. Her family is also the same as her which annoyed me, especially Gemma's mom😤
Even though she annoyed me most of the time, there were times I did feel sad for her.

Josh and Gemma's friends are my favorite characters in this story. Josh is a sweet, caring, selfless and absolutely romantic man! It's official, Josh just made it to the list of my book boyfriends now😍
To be honest, he's too good for Gemma since she like to judge him and take him for granted most of the time.

Overall, the story is filled with a lot of heart warming moments and yet there are heart breaking moments in it too. Even though there are some things I didn't fully agree on, I'm still able to fully enjoy the story and I'm satisfied with how things turn out in the end.
I'm looking forward to read other books from this author!

Make sure to check the trigger warning first since the characters are dealing with infertility and miscarriage.

Actual rating: 3.5⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Ready and Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Note: Will be posted on Instagram at Jan 24th

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is heartwarming, cute and frustrating all at once. In it, we meet Gemma Jacobs. She's a 32-year-old divorcee who works for a self-help "guru" and who, despite an earlier infertility diagnosis, has her heart set on just one thing. Having a baby.

Preferably by her brother's best friend, the guy who's been to pretty much every one of her family events over the past 20 odd years, Josh Lewenthal.

So she makes it her New Year's Resolution to convince Josh to give her some sperm to make all her baby-making dreams come true.

But the thing is... Gemma doesn't really know Josh at all. She describes him as a houseplant, for goodness sakes! "Always there but never noticed." And she's kinda sorta definitely in love with her boss, who - in her eyes - can do no wrong.

We learn pretty quickly that Gemma is actually really self-centered, naive and... I hate to say it, but... pretty ignorant. But despite her flaws, I found it hard not to like her.

She manages to convince Josh to donate sperm to her IVF journey, and I found the inclusion of the fertility process really important but also difficult to read because it's a fear of mine too, not being able to have a baby.

There's a whole bunch of cliché quotes throughout the novel and there are things the reader notices early on that it takes Gemma forever to realise, which made the story quite frustrating in many ways.

Also! Gemma's family insistence that she's frumpy, middle-aged and desperate for a man is so strange. She's 32! 32 is not middle-aged! Given that the novel gives a modern take on so many issues, the fact that it was so old school about that was a really weird choice.

But overall, the friendship that blooms between Josh and Gemma is beautiful and the novel is the perfect mix of warm and fluffy and deep and serious, with a little bit of steamy and a whole bunch of funny, and I really enjoyed it.

This story will make you laugh, cry, and leave you deeply invested in the characters.
Gemma decides she’s tired of waiting for a husband and takes a nontraditional route to motherhood. For anyone who has gone the IVF route, this will be a laugh out loud journey through the highs and lows of that process.
I read this in one day and will now be looking for other books by this author. She keeps the story moving along at a good pace. While the book naturally has a happy ending, it wasn't a cookie cutter romance. I like the way the author handled the pain of IVF and addresses the feelings of inadequacy women feel when they make the tough decision.
Would strongly recommend this to fellow readers.

This book was a fluffy romance with some serious topics. I enjoyed the romance even if I felt like it could have been more fleshed out. Why didn’t she see Josh for six years after he graduated high school, for instance?

Also, I knew going into it that there would be discussions of infertility. However, I was kind of blindsided by some of the heavier scenes. I also felt like there was not enough information about endometriosis other than that it caused the infertility. I’m sure every case is different but it felt like the heroine was given that diagnosis to cover why she was infertile but otherwise it had no effect on her life or even her menstrual cycle. That just seemed a little unrealistic for me.

(Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

I’ll preface my review by acknowledging that I may not be the target audience for this book. I tend to prefer romances with more spice and/or simmering sexual tension, both of which are mostly absent from this squeaky-clean rom-com. I also don’t actively seek out romances based on parenthood, pregnancy, etc. due to personal preference, but I will never write off a book entirely for these reasons alone.

Readers who DO enjoy these themes, however, will likely enjoy this book. Gemma, a divorcée in her early thirties, decides she’s done waiting for Mr. Right and resolves to start a family of her own. But due to a diagnosis in her early twenties preventing her from conceiving a child the natural way, she goes to a fertility clinic to begin IVF treatments. And she doesn’t want just any donor from the clinic’s database: she wants the genetic material of Josh Lewenthal, her brother’s handsome and charming best friend since childhood, and she enlists him to aid her in the task. As they experience the highs and lows of the fertilization process together, their mutual attraction becomes harder and harder to deny.

One of my main issues with this book was that, for a novel marketed in the romance genre, there just wasn’t very much... romance. There was a far greater focus on Gemma’s desire to be pregnant, her infatuation with her problematic boss, and her relationships with her new friends than there was on her attraction to Josh. For that matter, Josh’s attraction to Gemma was mystifying — Gemma came across as highly judgmental, self-absorbed, and “not like other girls” (a trope that needs to vanish yesterday). We never saw Gemma through Josh’s eyes, so we never really got to see any of her redeeming qualities.

The “inspirational quotes” didn’t work for me, either. First of all, they read more like generic platitudes than anything original and inspiring, and certainly not substantial enough for an entire self-help business to exist solely because of them. Their appearance at the beginning of each chapter read as highly cliché and immediately took me out of the story. The little illustrations peppered throughout the book also took some time to make sense; their sudden appearance almost seemed like a mistake to me. If they had been introduced earlier in the novel and with more consistency (or possibly even in place of the quotes?), their link to Josh’s career would have come across as much more intentional.

Another thing that irks me, especially in hindsight: on the book cover, Gemma is wearing a strapless dress with flip-flops. But 95% of the book takes place in January and February with pivotal scenes taking place around New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, and in various locations around New York in the dead of winter. This is possibly a trivial issue, but it seems like a pretty massive oversight to me — as though the cover designer hadn’t even read the book. You would never guess this was a winter romance from looking at that cover.

All of that said, there were some redeeming factors to this story. It was enlightening to read a novel that discussed infertility so frankly and openly, and I appreciated the author’s comments on the subject at the end of the book. There were some touching moments along the way, to be sure, especially when Gemma’s infertility plotline intersected with that of another tragedy later in the book.

I would recommend this book for readers who are specifically looking for a lighthearted, quick, and clean romance that is family-oriented. It may not be for readers who dislike pregnancy/parenthood-themed romances or who prefer more spice in their romance. Content warnings include: discussions of infertility, pregnancy loss, and the death of a family member.

arc received from netgalley.

loved this from beginning to end. i loved josh! see, heroes can be swoony without being alpha-like and sexist. i could relate to gemma, really. she has judgmental tendencies and i find that really relatable. her redemption arc was satisfying to see. made me laugh more than a few times, which is kinda rare. could see the minor twist coming from when the comics were first mentioned, but was heartwarming, nonetheless.

overall, it was a worthwhile read.

Bruh. Is Gemma 32 or 22? I just…I can’t…I’m just….Gemma you should wait until you’re maybe 42 to go for that baby. I mean :imagine me pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation: I’m just so frustrated with this character. Gemma, you’re a social media coordinator for some inspiration guru dude who uses recycled self-help jargon and you basically use his stolen quotes to make the equivalent of the “hang in there” posters for the internet and you seriously do this and celebs share it because this is valid and true in the Gemma and Josh make a baby universe? In the year of our Iced Venti savior, you are letting your mother hook you up with 50 year old losers because you’re divorced and unable to conceive???? BRUHHHHH. You have ZERO idea how IVF works. Fat shaming is acceptable. I just :throws hands in the air: You know what. If you pretend that no advancements in women’s rights have been made since 1950 BUT we can talk openly about infertility and get treatment for it then this book will work for you dear reader. Ignore the real world and hop into this universe and enjoy the heck out of it. Somebody should.

I will be the first to say, I usually hate the pregnancy trope. That being said, this cover is so adorable and the premise is cute that I knew I had to at least give it a try and I am so glad I did!

Gemma is a divorced 32-year-old woman who has been told she is infertile because of her endometriosis, something that caused her husband to cheat on her. Gemma has found joy in other parts of her life including as an aunt and as a social media manager for a famous self-help guru. But she still has always wanted a baby, so she makes her new year's resolution to be to have one. With her brother's best friend. Though he rejects the idea at first, cartoonist Josh embarks on this emotional and heartwarming journey with Gemma.

Gemma is a character to root for. You can feel how badly she wants to be a mom and I just wanted her to have her dream so badly. I fought with her every step of the way.

I'll admit I think picking a friend to be your donor that you aren't really that close to is a strange decision, but I immediately loved the pairing of the two. The practical and logical Gemma and spontaneous and creative Josh. They complement each other in such a way that made them as a whole better. Their quest to have a baby was not an easy one and it left me near tears at some points.

I do wish we saw a little more of what Josh loved about Gemma since that part was a little lacking. I also thought the whole inspirational quotes thing was dumb. I dislike pithy bandaid quotes that really do nothing for anyone.

Overall, even if this isn't your normal book, give it a try, it might be the one for you.