4.5 stars!

Wow, this book was really not what I was expecting and ended up being so much more and a really fantastic read. Usually I am one to run as fast as possible away from anything that has the words “surprise pregnancy” in the description, but boy am I happy I didn’t do that with Ready or Not by Cara Bastone. I am a sucker for many things that occurred in this book, the slow burn was perfection, the best friend’s brother, he’s always loved her, and multiple care-taking scenes. When I say Shep has me by the heart and the swooning I have done over this man – he’s been added to the ever growing list of book boyfriends and I don’t think he can do any wrong. Eve’s evolution as a character was relatable, and also very heart-warming. This was the perfect blend of romance and women’s fiction – I’m definitely going to be adding this author’s books to my TBR.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided to me through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Cara Bastone and Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone is a the story about Eve Hatch. She doesn’t like change, she loves living near her best friend and she is as far from her hometown as she can be. She has a good career and a her own apartment. Things are going well until a one night stand comes back to haunt her. Well not the one night stand but what comes from that one night stand. She is pregnant and she needs to make a plan and she doesn’t know where to start. Every relationship in her life starts to change with the news and she can’t keep her emotions in check. The people she counted on most, she stays away from, and the baby’s father doesn’t know how to react. Shep, her best friend’s brother becomes her closet friend. She is able to lean on and prepare with. Her best friend Willa, tries her hardest to be involved but is having a very hard time. How is she going to get herself, her friend and the baby’s father in line? How can she plan for the future when she has no idea who will be in it? How can she prepare for being a mom? So many changes for a girl that doesn’t like change. Eve has a lot to figure out and hopefully it can all be done before the baby comes.. one can hope can’t they?? This was a very good read. I liked the characters and the story. The author did a great job developing the main character. This was a four star read for me. I want to thank Netgalley, the author and Random House Publishing House for my copy for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book. I always love an uplifting story and Read or another, checked all the boxes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of this book.

Well I admit, I choose this book based on the cover and I am glad I did. It was a well done Romcom but also, had great friends and family elements woven throughout the story. Eve's best friend Willa, Willa's husband and brother all step up for Eve when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. Eve needs to navigate her new circumstances now that she is pregnant. What will the father's involvement be, what will her brother's think, where will she live? The story was very cute and I enjoyed it. A book 2 to see where they are in a few years would be a fun read.

I have mixed emotions with this novel... I enjoyed many parts because it brought back memories of being pregnant with my three children and I also thought many parts were funny and relatable. However, the sex/gender/pronouns that got brought in multiple times kind of ruined it for me. The ending also felt rushed and incomplete.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for and Advanced Reading Copy of Ready or Not.

The thing about me is I love a surprise pregnancy troupe and a pretty cover…and this book has got both💖

⭐️READY OR NOT, comes out FEB 13TH⭐️

4.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and @thedialpress for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!!!

#readyornot #carabastone #dialpress #thedialpress

This is a story about Eve. She just got confirmation that she is pregnant. Not what she was expecting. Especially since the father is a one night stand from a few weeks ago. This book was funny, heart warming and just made you smile. You get to meet really great characters like Shep, Ethan, Willa and others. This book just made me happy. The relationships and how they grew was fun to see. This book was definitely a 5 star book.

I really liked this book a lot. I have enjoyed Cara Bastone's Audible exclusive novellas so I knew I was already into her authorial voice. When I realized this was a book centering around a surprise pregnancy, I was wary and if you are not into that, please note that it really is the central theme (further, but carefully, complicated by another character experiencing infertility). While it's definitely also a romance, I think this is mostly Eve's journey and story of growth. I'll also note there is also an underlying theme of grief.

What I liked:
• As someone who has been pregnant, it made me feel seen in a lot of ways
• The combo found family + reconnection with bio family was beautiful
• The friendships were real and complicated and handled (resolved) really well
• The way that people supported and showed up for Eve made me actually cry a number of times (that is apparently the thing that gets me)
• Related, all the characters are really lovely and likable people. Shep is a cinnamon roll for sure.
• For about 85% of the book, I thought it was remarkable (and great) how careful it was about gendered language (but it seemed to slip at the end in a couple of mentions)
• The audio narration was really well done - more animated and varied delivery than you often get for a single narrator.

What didn't work as well for me:
• I did have to suspend disbelief a fair amount (or, I guess, a romcom amount)
• It took me a long time to really get Eve's perspective on her work stuff. I actually think that was a feature and not a bug and was resolved well. I might not have been as pulled out of the story if I had a little more trust with the author on that.
• I can appreciate a messy MC but it makes me uncomfortable when a non-fleshed out character is depicted as messy or problematic. For a while, I thought the book was allowing Eleni to be complicated but the resolution there felt a bit lazy and closer to the vilifying the ex-GF trope than I'd like to see.
• The way the childbirth was depicted felt very real in some ways but missing a really big component for me. I get that it is a whirlwind, and you get tired and lose track of time etc but it was written in a way where it sounded like it was happening *to* Eve and that she didn't really seem aware of some things (and thus could not have informed consent on some small choices you can make during labour.) Perhaps this is a relatable experience for some people but it bumped up against something that I am a bit sensitive about.

While I have gone on a bit about the things that didn’t work as well for me, this book was a solid four stars for me and left me with a bit of a hangover. I have been thinking about it a lot since I finished it and if you are not turned off by the central themes, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Delightful story of a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. I enjoyed this book full of humor, love, friendship and a bit of fear. Eve is a single woman in NYC and the story begins with her taking a pregnancy test. As the story unfolds we meet the father of the baby Ethan who she questions whether she can depend on to help her. Center to the story is her friend Shep who is her best friend's brother. One can only hope to know someone like Shep. He quickly becomes a favorite character. What Eve faces and the questions she must answer in her life are realistic and relevant. While thinks may not work out as she imagined they seem to work out for the best! Thank you netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.

This book was so good! It’s been a long time since I read a book in under a week, never mind in a few days. I’m not usually a surprise pregnancy plot lover but this was done so well I fell in love. I both read and listened to the audio at the same time and the audio really brought the story to life! Can’t recommend this book enough. So happy I read it!

Thank you so much for Ready or Not! This book is a refreshing breath of fresh air sure to break anyone out of a reading slump. This book is laugh-out-loud funny and so relatable! Highly recommend this book!

♥️I
♥️LOVED
♥️THIS
♥️Book

A must read!
I loved the characters development.
I loved the relationships between all the characters.
I loved the flow of the story.
Yup, loved everything!
I was so sad to get to the end of the book.
You need this book in your life
Cara Bastone is a new author to me. I want to read more written by her.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I hope that you're ready (ha!) for this sweet book, Ready or Not. From the beginning, I was absorbed in Eve's journey - and greatly enjoyed her commentary along the way. Did I fall in love with Shep along the way? Maaaybeeeeee.

This book was absolute perfection. For fans of Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reed, I highly recommend Ready or Not. The cutest romance about how life always works out better than we could imagine.

This is the first book I have read of Cara Bastone's and I'm glad I was able to read it. I wanted to read this book because I fell in LOVE with the cover. I mean that cover is so beautiful and makes you want to be there. I have had the best luck judging a book by it's cover. This was another one I made a good choice with. This book gave me all the feels and had me laughing out loud. I had such a good time reading this book. You won't be able to not fall in love with all of these wonderful characters. I can't wait to read more of Cara's books. I would HIGHLY recommend this book. Grab a cup of coffee and take the day to read this fun book.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

•Accidental pregnancy
•Love triangle
•Found family
•First person POV
•Slow burn

I've never been an accidental pregnancy trope girly but after falling in love with Out on a Limb a few months ago I began to have second thoughts. One book could be a fluke...why not try another...or two?

After finishing Ready or Not I can say that it is in fact not a fluke and I do love this trope!! That or I just love well written books with complicated, unconventional, deep down good to their bones characters.
Eve finds herself pregnant after a one night stand with a bartender she's met exactly once. Both of her parents passed away years ago, her siblings are twice her age and live halfway across the country, and her best friend is dealing with infertility issues of her own. The perfect storm of emotions to make her feel very alone. Despite feeling alone along the way, for the next nine months, those surrounding Eve prove that she is far from. This book was all about showing up. Showing up for yourself, for those who love you, and those who you've never even met but already love more than you ever thought possible.

I will say that somewhere in the middle it got a bit repetitive and slow for me. Even so, I couldn't wait to see what Eve's version happily ever after would look like. 4 solid stars. I would definitely recommend this & will read more of this author's work.

Eve, Shep, Ethan, Willa, Nurse Louise… there isn’t a character not to love. Everything in this novel feels so real and genuine. The tingly love feelings, to the anxiousness of navigating an unexpected pregnancy, to supportive but heartbreaking reality of friends- I loved it all!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Recently Released on Feb 13, 2024.

I loved this book! It made me emotional and care about Eve and what she was going through. If a book can make me cry and laugh at the same time it's a 5/5 in my book! Thank you Netgalley and Cara Bastone for this read!

I've spent the last couple of weeks slowly reading this book, and it definitely lived up to the gorgeous cover. It starts with a trope most people don't seem to like (surprise pregnancy), but don't judge this book by that one single trope. It's so much more than that. It's found family, friends-to-lovers, slow-burn, takes place in NYC, and really spoke to my mama heart.
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

2.75⭐️

I'm sadly a bit disappointed in this one...

I've never rolled my eyes when an "accidental/surprise pregnancy" trope is involved. I actually think these circumstances make character growth much more admirable.

Unfortunately, what irritated me was the baby daddy situation. Initially, there were no problems, and the baby daddy, Ethan, wasn't in your face too much.
Enter Shep! He's Eve's best friend's brother. He stepped up for Eve when his sister started taking a step back. Honestly, it's tragic that we didn't get more romantic scenes with them together.
But getting back to the baby daddy... just when you finally feel the connection between Shep and Eve, Ethan's there. I wanted to throw something so bad because it took a turn where you didn't know who Eve would eventually end up with, and I hated that.

There's also an unnecessary "woke-ness" going on surrounding an unborn baby. That's all I'm going to say about that...

Ready or Not has a messy but beautiful plot, which was what I was hoping for when I requested it. Obviously, I was hoping for more romance and less triangle romance vibes. But it was interesting to see how Eve started to adapt and accept her future. It's not perfect by any means but definitely enjoyable :)

*𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘤! 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯*

I had no idea what this book was about and went in blind. I just loved the cover and knew I wanted to read it. This was such a heartwarming story and the slow burn was just perfect! I really enjoyed the characters and their personalities. The complexity of of an unplanned pregnancy and all of the feelings associated with it were put on full display! I would definitely read more by this author!