A unique narrative approach to address teen sexuality, bodily autonomy, and pregnancy. Students often research these topics, but rarely from the father's point of view. I could see many students being interested in this book.

I DNF'ed this because it really wasn't at all what I was expecting (pardon the pun). I thought from the blurb that maybe the protagonist or whoever got pregnant was trans, and that was why this pregnancy was so unexpected, but it turns out it was just because the protagonist was experimenting? Fine with me, but I didn't feel compelled to finish it.

Unexpecting was such an enjoyable read. The characters are written in a way that made me want what’s best for them. As a mother of a teenager I sympathized with the parents, and remembered what it’s like to be a teenager so I sympathized with the kids as well. Jen Baileys writing style is great, i didnt want to stop reading once I got to the meat of the story. While a little predictable, the ending is what everyone wants, what’s better than a feel good story? Would love to read more from Jen Bailey in the future.

For such a serious topic, this book was really cute! Ben and Gio were really cute together, and I loved how their relationship blossomed. I also really liked Ben and Maxie’s relationship, although I wish Ben had considered Maxie’s feelings a bit more. I totally knew how the book would end, I called it right from the beginning. It would’ve been nice to have a surprise, but I do agree that that was the best possible ending.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone.

This was the first time I’ve read a book about teen pregnancy that is told through the lens of the expectant father. Adding in the fact the expectant father has come out and is struggling with his own issues regarding his parents. The importance of navigating his changing responsibilities while trying to decide what is best for his future child and for himself. Was well told. This story dies a great job of showing this unique experience without feeling heavy handed.

Ben is in his junior year at high school, navigating SATs, college applications, and getting his driver’s license.
An experiment at science camp with his best friend Maxie was able to prove that he is in fact gay, however, he’s now going to be a father.
Ben can’t seem to keep his head above water, preparing for a baby, taking parenting classes, getting a job, participating in the robotics club, and maintaining his GPA.

I think this book is important for young adult readers because it has something everyone can relate to. The sacrifices and consequences that follow actions, and how rapidly expectations and plans can change. Along with the interworking of friendships, relationships, and what being a family whether blood or found really means.

There were times when I shook my kindle and just wanted Ben to communicate more openly. This book took me through several emotions — giddiness, laughing at one moment, and ready to cry at how tender other moments were. The author was able to weave topics that can often be heavy into this story with grace.

I would recommend this book to individuals who enjoy LGBTQIA+ young adult novels.

Ben is gay, but he’s about to have a baby with his best friend, Maxie, after an experiment at camp. Ben learns valuable lessons about what makes a family and what sacrifices people have to make for their kids, even when they don’t want to.

I absolutely adored this story. Ben, while frustrating, is relatable to me with his inquisitiveness and dedication. While very book smart, he wasn’t very emotionally intelligent and he knew it. With help from his friends and family he gains a new perspective on life and learns how to be more mindful of others.

Overall, this was a beautiful story of how blood is not the only thing that makes people family.

I requested this book on a whim and I didn't know what to expect. It's being compared to both Heartstopper and Juno, Heartstopper, I assume for the LGBT+ story and Juno for the unexpected pregnancy story? However, I think that's where the comparison stops.

1) Reading this as an adult and not a teen makes me think about this differently but he really does come across as really childish and immature, and I do think there is some growth by the end of the novel but mostly he is written as very incapable of thinking of his kid as a real kid? Does he have anxiety, because it seems like it's written that way, but never really addressed.
2) this book is not a romcom, don't know why it's being sold as one
3) heartstopper has a whole thing of trying to understand your identity, but I don't think that's present in here at all so it shouldn't really be compared to it
4) as the Juno comparison would entail, Ben (who is 17, and gay) gets his best friend Maxie pregnant (they "experiment" at camp). Ben wants to keep the baby, while Maxie/her parents want to give it up for adoption. Ben has dad issues.
5) the book is only told from Ben's POV which is certainly unique, but I felt Maxie didn't get a say in anything and it was a sort of frustrating read because of that

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

I was really excited to read this because the concept seemed promising. A single gay teen dad, and it was compared to Heartstopper, which I really don’t get… there were no similarities at all.

This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but as the plot picked up, it got really predictable. I have mixed feelings about Ben because at times he was acting so stupid and immature. Yes he’s young, yes he’s basically a child, but come on man. He didn’t care about Maxie for majority of the book. “I’m going into this whole parenthood thing with my eyes wide open.” boy no you’re not. I’m glad he realized it at the end but his attitude really pissed me off. And Mo… he was so dense too. The best characters were Eliza and Roger, his mom and his step dad. And Maxie, god I felt SO bad for her the entire time until the very end. She deserved so much better and I am so mad about it. “We created that life, Maxie, but that baby isn’t ours. I don’t think she ever has been.” What the hell. Truly, what the fuck. Not one person bothered to ask her what SHE actually wants. Not one person seemed to care enough to LISTEN to her. Yes, Ben did ask her once, but even then, she couldn’t open up and he definitely should’ve tried harder. Adoption is a controversial topic as it is, and Maxie not truly having a say in what happens to her baby made everything worse. The whole time it was about Ben and Maxie's parents, but what about Maxie??? You could really tell she was unhappy at the end. The last 20% of the book just infuriated me so much and I didn’t like the direction it took at all.

I appreciated the development that the characters went through and the realistic and thoughtful resolution. While predictable, it made for a comfortable story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but the cover and description immediately caught my attention. The first quarter of the book felt as though it dragged a bit, but after that, I was sucked in and couldn't stop reading it.

For starters, I would just like to say that for a guidance counselor, Eliza is terrible at realizing that her son needs mass amounts of therapy. My goodness. That poor boy. But it was nice to watch Ben's growth from the beginning of the book to the end of it. I'm not sure if the author intended him to be written neurodivergent but I caught more than one hint at it, particularly in regard to some of his anxieties as well as some of his issues with social cues.

This book was a unique perspective. We don't typically get to see stories like this from the father's point of view. I quite enjoyed that. But even as I felt for Ben and everything he was going through, my heart also broke for Maxie. Because her parents, particularly her father, were quite awful to her especially in the beginning (making her deliver the papers at school to punish her; how terrible), and her feelings and desires were completely swept under the rug like she didn't even matter.

This was a really lovely book. What starts out as a bit of a quirky premise is really brought to life by Bailey with a rich cast of characters.

Ben decides to conduct an experiment to determine if he's really gay and accidentally gets his best friend Maxie pregnant. Maxies parents want the baby to be put up for adoption, but Ben wants to take care of the baby.

Ben's growth through this book is definitely one of the highlights for me. He's very scientifically minded and really learns a lot about the human aspect of parenthood. The book also grapples with the definition of family, what it means to be a parent and what love looks like.

Definitely worth a read!

Absolutely worth the read, particularly for fans of LGBTQIAP+ & YA lit. An emotional story about what it truly means to be family and a parent, with a dash of young love. You won’t regret it.

2/5 stars. This book was an emotional rollercoaster, but I'm not sure if it was in a good way or not. Some of my emotions were how stupid Ben acts over and over again, and this weird leaning into generational trauma instead of healing from it. It honestly gave me the ick. I think the idea was good, but the result didn't work for me.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

This is a review of an ARC graciously provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

I struggled with this one a bit, I won't lie. When I review YA ARCs, I try to do it with my high school teacher's hat firmly in place. After all, I am not the audience for YA books, at least, I do not believe I should be.

Any full-grown adult, especially any full-grown adult with children of their own, will likely struggle a bit with this one. So if you are an adult YA reader, I would strongly advise you to leave this alone. It's not very cute; in fact it's kind of infuriating.

I also think that the comparisons to Juno + Heartstopper are a bit overstated. Heartstopper is, essentially, a romance. This book is not a romance. There is a vaguely romantic subplot, which is mostly sidelined (understandably so) in favor of the bigger pregnancy plot. So if you're looking for a romcom, look elsewhere. There is also very little exploration of queer identity. That's not a mark against it, but again, given the comparison to Heartstopper, which is very much about a boy discovering his identity and coming out to his peers, experiencing his first romance with another guy, that's just not here. Again, not every queer book needs to be a coming-out story, or focus on identity issues, but the comparison doesn't hold up. The comparison to Juno doesn't really hold up either because for all that the book is about a teen pregnancy, the pregnant teen in question is almost completely sidelined, in a way that is kind of uncomfortable to read (more on that further on).

The basic plot of Unexpecting is a seventeen-year-old gay boy, Ben, gets his best friend, Maxie, pregnant while they're "experimenting" at summer camp. Due to his own unresolved issues around his birth dad, who is out of the picture, Ben decides he wants to keep the baby, even though Maxie (or rather her parents) have decided to give it up for adoption.

My two main issues with this book are Ben and Maxie themselves. Ben's utter obliviousness with regards to what his decision means is very frustrating to read. Admittedly, I struggled with this one, because while teenagers like Ben obviously do exist, Ben's refusal to even conceptualize his child as a human being and the way he is so weirdly disengaged from Maxie as a person are extremely off-putting. Ben is clearly written as having some kind of social anxiety (or possibly autism), and we see him having actual panic attacks, but once again, the text doesn't engage with the topic so I am not sure what the reader is supposed to do with that information. If it's meant as an explanation for why Ben treats Maxie as a baby-bearing NPC, the text doesn't explain it. Ultimately, without any mitigating narrative, it is very hard, for me, as an adult, to sympathize with a character who does not understand that choosing to be a teen father means you have to get a job and no you will not get to go to robotics camp. There is also some robotics-related drama that Ben is very invested in, but which is just so insignificant in the face of everything else, that it is hard to care. Within the first few pages I was really hoping Ben would drop out of robotics, but this does not happen.

Ben's' mother is "supportive" in a way that borders on irresponsibility. Every possible obstacle is smoothed away to help Ben make this dream of being a father come true-- his parents gift him a car, his mom finds him a job through her ex-husband, another ex-husband happens to be a family lawyer, his grandparents give him a new laptop-- and still Ben is not a kid who should be raising a child. It seems like all of the support is a setup, a kind of massive case of reverse psychology, but it's kind of baffling because if the setup fails, the consequences are truly dire. Anyway, I have asked myself, are there teenagers this oblivious? Are there parents this ridiculous? And of course there are, but irl they would stretch the limits of my sympathies, much less in fiction.

My issue with Maxie is the way that she is the one carrying the baby, and she is clearly suffering and unhappy, but she is sidelined. There are characters who ask, "what does Maxie want?" but no one actually seems to care. The possibility of abortion is very neatly sidestepped, as in, it is never once even discussed, and yet the narrative tells us Maxie is pro-choice. It is almost as if the author was afraid of putting abortion on the table. The book then suffers from the exact same problem Juno had, and that is it is extremely difficult to write a non-religious teenage girl, a cool feminist girlboss type character, and have her decide to carry a baby only to give it up for adoption. We get the sense in Unexpecting that perhaps Maxie's parents have pressured her into this, and Maxie is clearly depressed through most of the book, but Ben is so fundamentally disinterested in what is going on with Maxie that we just don't know. Maxie comes off as a vehicle for Ben to play out his daddy issues and the "redemption" of her parents at the end, when they show themselves to be, at the very least, not homophobic, is kind of too little too late when the book's entire plot is based around a presumption that they forced their teen daughter to carry to term.

I saw another review that suggested this book might have been stronger with dual POVs, and I have to agree. Telling a teen pregnancy story from the POV of the father is unique and interesting, but relegating the mother of the child to a background character whose wishes are essentially disregarded by everyone in the book does not make for a good story. I can see what Bailey was attempting to do, but I don't think Unexpected succeeded.

I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley to read and give my honest review. I’d like to say as a Wisconsinite and Milwaukeean I got a chuckle out of the references (saying water fountain instead of bubbler was a bummer though). As for the book I found it to be a really interesting take on the teen and queer experience. Ben, being a neurodivergent teen who had his life turned upside down did behave accordingly I think. Without spoiling anything I think the characters placed around Ben were realistic and helped him or deterred him exactly how they were meant to. Considering I read it in one evening I’d say this was a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but the cover and description immediately caught my attention. The first quarter of the book felt as though it dragged a bit, but after that, I was sucked in and couldn't stop reading it.

For starters, I would just like to say that for a guidance counselor, Eliza is terrible at realizing that her son needs mass amounts of therapy. My goodness. That poor boy. But it was nice to watch Ben's growth from the beginning of the book to the end of it. I'm not sure if the author intended him to be written neurodivergent but I caught more than one hint at it, particularly in regard to some of his anxieties as well as some of his issues with social cues.

This book was a unique perspective. We don't typically get to see stories like this from the father's point of view. I quite enjoyed that. But even as I felt for Ben and everything he was going through, my heart also broke for Maxie. Because her parents, particularly her father, were quite awful to her especially in the beginning (making her deliver the papers at school to punish her; how terrible), and her feelings and desires were completely swept under the rug like she didn't even matter.

I see some people remarking about how selfish Ben is, but...he's a 16-year-old boy who has never had a stable father figure in his life. Of course he's worried about his own future child feeling abandoned. Is it logical? No. But again, he's a 16-year-old boy with abandonment issues of his own that he's never worked through. Yes, that isn't a good reason to raise a baby as a teenager, but that's the point of the story, yes? He starts off wanting to do this but realizes that in order to be a good father, he needs to do what's best for the child and not for him. And in the end, he realizes this and makes the best decision for the child.

Two of my favorite characters in this book were Roger and Gio. Roger, because of how he stepped up for Ben; Gio, because when Ben felt like everyone else was against him and not listening, Gio was just there for him.

My only real complaint was how obvious the ending was in regard to Monica and Lisa. I would have liked it if that part had not been made so glaringly obvious about halfway through. But that didn't detract anything from the story for me. I still enjoyed it even though I knew how it was going to end. Because the journey of how they all got there was a nice one to follow.

All in all, I quite enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to a friend.

Read an ARC.

Drawn in by the robotics club but stayed for the heartfelt story.

Teenage pregnancy told from the father's perspective with a modern update in accurately capturing that "forced birth" and "the mother is only a vessel" feeling in a post RvW world.

Touches on how this new life impacts relationships of all kinds, family and friends, while not dwelling too long in any of the dark places. I do wish the story could have continued a bit farther in time, like in Juno where we see everyone moving on, because the location and timing of the ending was a bit of a downer for me.

I decided to read this book on a whim, but I loved it. This book has hit home with me a little bit because I had gone through this process myself. The beginning of this book was pretty interesting. I liked the fact that the main character was part of the LGBT+ community. It was interesting to see a character who was trying to figure out their sexuality. I really liked how Ben's mom and stepdad were supportive throughout this entire book. It was also nice to see how focused Ben was on stepping up and figuring out how to be a good parent. One of the big things that I didn't like about this book was how Maxie's parents treated her. I thought that it was wrong on all levels. They pretty much decided that she was going to give the baby up for adoption and that she never had a choice in the matter. It just rubbed me the wrong way because she did really have the option if she would have liked to keep the baby or not. I do love how this book ended. I feel like it was a perfect ending for everyone involved.