Would it really be me if I wasn't writing a review for a book not releasing for another 4 months while I have two-year-old arcs gathering dust and ghosted emails from publishers?

I love a good story of single parenthood and resilience, and while this one isn't quite along those same lines, it's deeply impactful and emotional. Ben is gay, but he wanted to ~make sure~ before coming out. The end result? His best friend got pregnant.

This is a YA book about teen pregnancy told from the father's POV, and I think it was done beautifully.

TW: anxiety, panic attacks, vomiting, toxic parents (not MC’s), on-page blood, queerphobia (challenged)
CW: teen pregnancy, adoption process, custody battle, past death of a parent (war), discussion of abortion, divorce

Pitched as Juno meets Heartstopper (which is a perfect comp, BTW) the main core of UNEXPECTING is becoming a teenage parent and the realities of that decision. It's not always easy to read, but it was also refreshing to be in the head of a father who genuinely wants the kid and adores them. So often in stories (and real life) the father is the one who abandons; Ben fought hard for custody.

However, Maxie isn't written off at all. She's given a full arc and agency in the story as the mother, and I loved her. She and Ben are in robotics club, which does play a significant role in the story (unlike most YA books where the hobbies only play a part at the very beginning or end), and there's plenty of angst. It's YA angst, but it's about tricky, adult topics, so I think adult readers would still enjoy the drama and heart of the story.

This book does not meander into its plot and uses each one of its pages meaningfully. There's a romance subplot that is interesting, but doesn't pull too much focus from the main plot. I definitely think Ben is neurodivergent, something I wish the author leaned into a bit more. He has anxiety and panic attacks, but some of the ways he approaches life remind me of myself, someone who is extremely neurodivergent lol. Also, some other reviews point it out too!

I honestly don't remember what didn't exactly work for me, but there was definitely something. I just took bad notes (re: I took zero notes besides content warnings), hence the 4 stars instead of 5. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to Jenn Bailey's future books because I believe this is a debut!

Sad this book seems to have such a low average rating months before release (3.68), because I think it'll turn off many readers. But then again, I am rare in that I love emotional, heavy, angsty YA books by under the radar and/or debut authors. Those tend to be downplayed on Goodreads.

Rep: gay MC, bisexual MC, Black lesbian sc

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Thanks NetGalley for the preview!!

I loved this book! It just kept getting better and better. The characters were complex and interesting, the narration was honest and refreshing, and the ending was sweet. Ben and Maxie had such different experiences but Ben truly tried to see things from her perspective. I loved Gio and his wise advice.

First off, thank you to the publishers for sending me this ARC through NetGalley!
This didn't work for me! None of the characters really felt like they had personalities, and I didn't think that there was anything particularly special about the ways that the themes of pregnancy, family, or queerness were treated.
Maxie's experiences throughout the book are traumatizing and very shallowly explored. Within the story, she is treated as a womb holding Ben's child, and as such is continually dismissed.
The entire journey of the book was about shifting Ben's perspective on parenting and family, there was some strange gender essentialism happening in this, and the way it all resolved felt very clean and strange given the actual events of the book.
I also did not love that the romance (which wasn't actually very romantic) in this book borrowed from the Clueless (1995) school of love interests.
Pregnancy should be addressed in YA because it is an experience that teens have! But, I don't feel like this had much to offer aside from having a gay main character. This just didn't land!

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley. I did not read a synopsis before beginning the book, so I had no idea what I was getting into.
I loved it. Ben and Maxie made a decision that will have lasting consequences for them, and we get to follow along as they make the decisions on how to handle the situation. An unexpected baby conceived out of an experiment of curiosity between friends leads to two teenagers being faced with a tough decision: being a single, gay teen parent for Ben or choosing adoption for the baby.
This book brought out so many emotions in me. I laughed, I gasped, I cried. There were parts of the book that I was angry at the main character, Ben, because of how immature he was acting, but then I remembers that he is a child and should be immature in his decisions. Maxie seemed to be an afterthought for much of the book, which I didn't love because she is dealing with just as much as Ben. She deserved to be cared for better by Ben and her family.

I had some trouble getting into this book. I'm not really sure how to review this, so here are some one liners:
The foreshadowing in this book was so strong that I knew exactly how the ending was going to play out. (now THAT made me smile)
This book would've THRIVED on dual perspective.
Ben and Gio...cute but also weird?
There's a whole lot of talking around and at Ben, but not a lot of explaining.
Someone please, for the love of Pete, just sit Ben down and break down the financial cost of everything happening to him instead of just telling him no.
For knowing so many connections, it really didn't seem like Ben's mom was a help at all.
I just wanted to give Maxie so much love and support through this whole book...

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

I loved this book!

I didn’t read the description before I chose it but it didn’t disappoint. I loved getting the father’s perspective on a teen pregnancy, it was refreshing and definitely something you don’t see often.

I myself am adopted and when they were exploring that option I cried and it felt so realistic. I have met my birth father and he described similar feelings to what our main character Ben described.

Major thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:

Bailey understands what it's like to be young and go through so much. Though elevated at high stakes, she perfectly captures the very pressures of being a senior in high school. SAT's, mounting tasks too much for a small little body, the overthinking, the friendships we create and destroy as we Sisyphus our way out towards some kind of freedom.

Bailey manages to create a loving cast of characters that make us think we actually have it good. There is someone in my circle that loves me. And maybe I should thank them for being there for me.

Every chapter comes with a fun little jest that makes it completely bingeable in a Netflix kind of way. With the right balance of humor and drama, Bailey captures the resilience of our high school selves. I couldn't help but think of my own high school motto:

Perseverance always wins!!!

For a book titled “Unexpecting,” I expected just about every plot point of this story. Nothing about it was surprising, and I felt like everything that happened was just a given in one way or another. I did appreciate that this book focused on teen parenthood and sexuality with an intersection that I’ve never seen explored.

As for the characters, I quite frankly did not like the main character, Ben. There are multiple times throughout the book where people tell him that if anyone could be a teen parent, it would be him. I just feel like that’s a blatant lie. This is the least put together kid I’ve ever seen. I think he’d be an awful parent. I appreciated that the author was trying to show how someone with Ben’s drive and ambition could step up and become a better person for his child, but I think he just had too many faults. It felt like the cons list was way longer than the pros and it made rooting for him difficult.

I did not like how Maxie was pretty much discarded until she served a greater purpose in Ben’s growth as a character. I think she was treated very poorly and it left me with a strong distaste for the narrative.

Lastly, I just thought it was weird that Ben’s love interest was his former step-brother. It was odd and I didn’t enjoy it.

Needless to say, this was not my favorite book.

I liked this book. I often find that teenagers in books are very naive but there it's not the case. There were some very good point made on why we do what we do and what does it mean to be a good parent. The process of the main character was slow as it often is in this type of decision. And the ending was pretty good.
A good one even if you are not a fan of robotic !

Oh boy...Let's start from the beginning....In the synopsis it states its Juno meets Heartstopper. No, absolutely not. There is one part that could say Juno but it's nothing like Heartstopper. I've read Heartstopper.

I'm not the biggest contemporary fan but I will give a book a try. Sometimes I do find some I like. This one was not one of those. I believe this is Jen Bailey's debut novel. At least that's what it looks like on Goodreads. You can tell. The story line is not unique. I didn't care for any of the characters. They were very flat and boring. The story line seems like it jumped in some spots with no good transition. It was like one minute there was a conversation happening and then it would end and jump somewhere else and I feel like there was no conclusion to the conversation that was happening. I knew how this was going to end barely 50% in. But it does have a pretty cover. Some people may like this but it was not for me.

3.25 stars
Don’t take my rating too harshly. I’m not so much into YA anymore so that is the reason for the rating. However, I can see enjoyers of YA rating this higher.
This is a pretty good debut novel. I was happy to find that there wasn’t any cringey dialogue or writing overall. Bailey wasn’t trying to be trendy or go beyond their knowledge of teenagers.
I wouldn’t take the comparison to Heartstopper serious because Ben’s interactions with Gio are primarily friendly (because having a baby as a teenager is overwhelming so who has time to date). I really appreciated that the author didn’t just put them together because it would’ve hindered Ben’s progression in the story.
This story mostly centers around Ben, the absence in not having a biological dad or lasting father figure, his mom, and his step dad. It’s about how their family relationship changes and strengthens.
The ending is smart. It ends how it should. This novel is surprisingly pretty mature considering all the drama I’ve read in YA previously. That’s why I think this author is one to remember.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for a free and honest review.

1.5/5 stars

This book follows Ben who recently came out as gay. Ben and Maxine had sex a couple months ago and Maxine got pregnant because of that. Ben did this because he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t attracted to women and Maxine did this because she wanted to examine how virginity is a social construct. Maxine sends Ben a letter asking him to agree to set the baby up for adoption and Ben disagrees with this. This starts the journey of Ben fighting for his “rights” as a dad.

What I liked:

Gay parenthood
When it’s revealed that Ben is the one who got Maxine pregnant his peers act weird about it. This is because Ben is gay. I thought this was an interesting thing in the book because in real life when queer people do get pregnant or impregnate someone else cishet people tend to make a show of it. I do wish that there was more intersectionality with this topic in the book, but it did seem realistic for someone in Ben’s position

Ben and the candidates for adoption
Although Ben got on my nerves, when he met with potential parents for the bay he asked good questions. There was one couple that talked about the importance of family values and Ben recognized that as being a phrase that conservatives say. He asked them what they would do if the child came out as gay and the couple did turn out to be homophobic. I thought this was good and liked how Ben asked these questions even though it made the situation more awkward.

What I disliked

How Maxine is handled:
It is revealed early on in the book that adoption is not Maxine’s choice. She doesn’t get much of a say in this at all. Unfortunately this is something that a lot teenage girls who get pregnant have to deal with. Ben doesn’t understand this. People in Ben’s life try to explain to him that Maxine is going through more difficult stuff than him, but Ben stays ignorant. When Ben does figure this out, Maxine says something to him that implies that she would get an abortion if she could. Ben expresses sadness for this because that’s his baby. Basically Ben is only thinking about what he wants and Maxine is always a second thought.

Ben’s rights:
This book talks about paternal rights in pregnancy. If you’re going to examine paternal rights, then you have to acknowledge why people who can get pregnant are expected to do everything in terms of parenthood. Most single parents are mothers, not because they choose to be but because the father has the right to not be the parent. Unless the mother gets an abortion (which not all people have access to) or she sets the child up for adoption, she is required to fulfill her parental role. The book doesn’t acknowledge that this is why Ben has no say over what happens to Maxine’s baby.

Misogyny:
Ben is dismissive at the beginning towards Maxine’s ideas about virginity. Maxine agrees to have sex with Ben because she wants to show how virginity is a social construct and how it hurts women. Ben acts like this a dumb idea. I’m just gonna list some of the things Ben does because it’s a lot.
- Implies that he’s going through just as much difficulty as Maxine
- Maxine snaps at Ben and Ben gets accuses her of being “exasperated” even though she’s pregnant
- When they go to an ultrasound together, Ben makes a big deal about how pregnant Maxine is
- When they go to a birthing class a video is shown of a women giving birth naked. Ben complains about this because he doesn’t wanna see anyone’s boobs and then complains when the camera shows her vagina dilating because she’s giving birth. Ben acts like this is disgusting
- Ben plans to give Maxine meal plans to lose weight once she’s given birth
Ok that’s all the misogyny that I remember.

Incest:
I’m not gonna linger on this, but Ben’s love interest is a boy named Gio. Gio was once Ben’s step-brother. I know they are not related by blood, but there are lines about them being family. Therefore I think it’s weird that they ended up dating

Overall I wouldn’t recommend this book and I need to be paid money for reading this sober. Hope y’all enjoyed the review

When someone in the marketing department reached out about this back in December, I wasn't I was going to read it as I'd had a very stressful fall with a new puppy and school and work, but the blurb stayed in my mind, and after a couple of days deliberation I finally said yes.* I mean I had months to read it so may as well say yes and then plan around my schedule.

Unexpecting was unexpectedly (hardy har har) charming. Was it perfect? No, but that's okay. It was a fun easy-to-read debut with unique and memorable characters (main and supporting). The book brought a lot of emotions out of me from hating and then understanding Maxie's parents to my wanting to shake some sense into Ben but also wanting to give him a big hug for trying so hard and finally seeing reality. It was definitely a whirlwind.

Bailey did a great job of really getting into Ben's mind and these two quotes were big for me because I feel like most of us go through some sort of phase for the first. Seriously though, like WTF: coming out, orientation, top, bottom, queer, all these fun words that are assigned/prescribed and we just sort of have to exist in them unless we break the paradigms or dualities (oh hey gender queer friends!). And the second one she NAILED overstimulation in one paragraph. I mean I feel like there's usually a lot more you're hearing and feeling that you can't even describe. Also the use of tennis shoes - I've never felt more seen!

Orientation. I hate that word. It makes me feel like a compass or map or something that can be twisted or turned to point in the right direction. Like I'm something that needs to be altered to follow the right path. Or maybe I'm overthinking meaningless details in an attempt to avoid the bigger issue. (Chapter 1)

It takes me longer to swap out my books between classes than it should because the jumbled thoughts seem to jumble everything else too. Colors don't make sense, and letters swirl and morph on the book covers. Every bang of lockers around me, every squeak of tennis shoes on polished floors, every raucous burst of laughter grates on my nerves. Even the soft cotton of my T-shirt feels gritty and rough. It's something that happens when I'm stressed, this getting sucked into sensory overload on all fronts. (Chapter 7)

My biggest problem with the book wasn't the perceived casual misogyny or unintentional patronization of Maxie, by Ben and so many other characters,  but the lack of her voice and agency in the entire story. I know the story is told from Ben's point of view, but everything we know about Maxie says she wouldn't just sit there and take it. And I get that Bailey wrote this as a massive thing and Maxie changes because of it, but for some reason, it just really bothered me that she went from this bad-ass science personality to meek and weak and not invested in anything. There are moments where she breaks out of it, but for the most part, I was just sad at how she was portrayed

The thing is, Maxie was always the one to keep us on track, pushing the KISS principle. Somehow, without her involvement, we forgot about the 'Keep It Simple, Stupid!' approach. (Chapter 11)

The love story aspect was adorable, especially because Gio was trying his best to protect Ben and work with him to support him. This was all happening even while Ben was convinced he was going to do everything he could to raise the baby on his own. If that's not a deeper love than childhood love then I'm not sure what is. And then there was the love of Ben's stepfamily I think both times they surprised Ben I was almost in tears because it was just so wonderfully perfect and well written and Bailey again nailed Ben's emotions perfectly.

I've never understood the idea of bittersweet as an emotion before. Like, how can something be painful and comforting at the same time? But that's exactly what this moment is. Bittersweet. Because, while I hate—absolutely hate—that Gio is one more sacrifice I have to make, the fact he's promising to be my friend forever fills me with sunshine and cotton candy. I can't tell Gio any of that, so I say, 'Good.' (Chapter 19)

The above quote was the beginning of the end. At that point, he started to truly understand everything he would be giving up over the next few chapters. He also FINALLY connected the dots of who could adopt the baby (not a surprise for me, but if you read it fast you might miss it). It all led to his personal growth and maturation and understanding that what he wants and thinks is required isn't necessarily what's best for everyone.

Recommendation: 100% worth the read. I enjoyed reading it and there were so many great characters and scenes. Ben's growth and his journey to acceptance and understanding is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster but I was there for it and glad he finally came around and everything was wrapped up so neatly and perfectly.  I'm not sure I really get the Heartstopper reference, but hey you gotta do what you've gotta do for marketing right?

*I received a copy of Unexpecting via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was so excited to dive into this book. The premise of a teen pregnancy told by the perspective of the father was very intriguing, and the likeness to Heartstopper was promising to me.

In reality, this book was a difficult one for me to rate. On one hand, it has a lot of heart – the ending especially is a happy-tear-jerker – but other parts left me entirely frustrated.

Perhaps what was most frustrating for me is Ben himself. His reasoning for wanting to keep the baby rather than give it up for adoption (“I didn’t have a father growing up so I don’t want to do that to my child”) is selfish at best. The fact his mother encourages this throughout the book is irresponsible to say the least. When Ben gets upset he’ll have to skip a super special summer camp because he’ll be looking after a child? Really? What did you think was going to happen if you agreed to raising the baby?

What was also disappointing to me was Maxie, the mother of the child. It felt like she was really just used as a vessel to carry Ben’s baby throughout the book. I felt so awful for her – no one ever asks her what she wants. On one hand, Ben is telling her he wants to keep the baby, and on the other hand, her parents are saying they’ll put it up for adoption. But we never really know what Maxie herself truly wants. I wish this book had been told from a dual perspective so we’d know what she was thinking, because Ben certainly didn’t care.

Something that really grossed me out about this book – that I don’t see many people talking about – is that Ben’s love interest is his former step-brother, Gio. EW. There are passages where Ben talks about when his Mother and former step-father had custody of Gio, and knowing that they were formerly step-brothers and STILL remember that time makes their love story very uncomfortable to me.

The ending was entirely predictable, but that didn’t take away from how sweet it was. It was nice to see Ben act mature and responsible with the final decision he makes.

ARC review

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the description of this book I thought I would like it a lot. After all I liked Juno and Heartstopper, but it definitely didn’t have the same magic for me. In part I think it’s because I don’t like Ben all that much. Not because he was written poorly but because I think he acts very much how a 16-year-old boy would in this situation. It’s not charming, but it doesn’t make it disingenuous. The one thing that didn’t ring true was the budding romance between Gio and Ben. Since I didn’t like Ben much I suppose I don’t know what Gio sees in him.

I’m glad with how the book turned out, even got a bit choked up! Ben grew a lot and I think it was a natural progression of the story and character.

I was really excited to see the synopsis of this book, and doubly excited to get the opportunity to read it.

Some aspects of the main character, Ben, were hard to connect to and understand. For having seemingly good communication with his mom, I couldn't get behind how much he held back from her for 90% of the book.

What I really loved was watching Ben's family weave together before our eyes. He was slow to see it, but I enjoyed the connections as they were built.

I thought this was a great take on accidental teenage pregnancy. I feel like this is not talked about enough in YA spaces. It's especially rare to see a book from a male perspective. I really liked that Jen Bailey was able to balance the stress of a pregnancy with the regular demands of being a teenager. The MMC was able to realistically be a teenager, which can be frustrating to watch as an adult, but felt very true to life. I will definitely be adding this to my classroom library when it is released!

This book was a look at what makes a family, the pressures that press on all teens, and the ones that get added when summer choices turn into high school pregnancy.
Jen Bailey did a great job characterizing all the players and exploring the experience of a gay high schooler who got his best friend pregnant. Ben has to figure out how to navigate his oldest friendships, how to juggle highschool course work, robotics club and a job, and face the big changes that come along with being a parent.
Ultimately Ben has to figure out what it means to be a good parent and Bailey does an excellent job with his story.

Disclaimer: I was given a free ARC of this book by Wednesday Books in exchange for a review.

I was so excited to get to read Unexpecting by Jen Bailey. I feel like there aren’t an awful lot of books about queer characters that aren’t either Traumatic or Romantic. Unexpecting centers around seventeen year-old Ben who, two months after coming out to his friends and family, finds himself hitting them with another big conversation: he’s going to be a father. Maxie, his best friend, robotics club team mate, and now the mother of his child, wants to put the baby up for adoption at the urging of her family, but Ben wants to keep him/her. His family supports him, but working to become a father comes with unexpected pressures and sacrifices. Being a parent, he is learning, is all about hard choices. Can he make the right ones?

Unexpecting has done incredibly strong characters. Each of them had very clear voices and motivations. Ben, as our narrator, in particularly was very well-realized. Unfortunately, Ben is a well-realized seventeen year-old boy who lacks a lot of emotional intelligence or self-awareness, so spending the entire book in his head was really frustrating at times. In particular, I had a really hard time understanding what Ben’s motivations were for wanting to take on being a single teen father. There were mentions of it being tied up with a lack of a father figure, first from the death of his biological father, followed by a succession of step-fathers, but the emotional core of his motivation wasn’t very clear. It almost sounded like he was angry with his father for dying, which while that is totally a way that people grieve, didn’t feel emotionally real coming from Ben. There was also lip service to feeling a sense of abandonment from his step-fathers, but I wasn’t clear on that either. He holds his current stepfather at such a distance, I wasn’t clear if that was his relationship with his other step-fathers, or if they had been close and then left, or what. Overall, Ben felt a little self-centered and superficial, which is an exceptional characterization of a teenage boy, but not necessarily a character who I enjoyed living in his head for 304 pages.

That said, the other characters in the book make it very clear that Ben is an unreliable narrator. It makes it easier to be frustrated with a character when another character is calling them out for that exact thing on the next page. I especially liked Gio, Ben’s former step-brother and current crush. Gio was dealing with his own struggles, but still kind to Ben. Even when calling him on his bullshit. Which he did a lot, which may have been why I liked him so much; I knew when Gio showed up there was going to be a reality check.

Maybe the best thing about this book, though, was what felt like the queerest thing about it: the emphasis on chosen family. Ben has a supportive mom, this isn’t about being rejected by your family because you are LGBTQIA+, but he is also surrounded by his own non-biological family the entire book. I had been very worried that, for a book whose synopsis centers around fighting the adoption of a child, chosen family and kinship ties would be overlooked, despite their very real importance to a lot of people, but especially in the queer community.

If you need your narrators/main characters to be likable, this might not be the book for you, but if you want a book where the characters feel true-to-life in all their messiness, I’d definitely suggest this one. The world needs more stories about LGBTQIA+ people in all their facets, that allows them to have all manner of joys and struggles in full, well-realized lives, and I hope this book will be the first of many that do just that.

Jen Bailey does a phenomenal job of portraying her characters in this book. The book pulls on your heartstrings while making you smile all in a chapter. I really hope this becomes a series of books because I want to live in this world over and over again. I would rate this book a 5/5 stars. This is a must read for summer!