Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this read. Oh I so liked the first 85 percent of the book until the got together and then it got a little weird for me. I don’t know. I guess as a mother with children I just found the relations part very odd. I had to skim over that and then get back to the book because that was what just killed it for me. I wanted them to wait. I just............ i mean I really liked this novel until that part.

sobbing. i loved this so much! cara bastone absolutely nailed eve and shep's story. so wonderfully thought out and intentional every step of the way; i fell in love with every character, their flaws and roles in eve's story. bastone masterfully delivers a surprise pregnancy romance filled with so much joy and love while simultaneously highlighting the fears of becoming a parent for the first time.

shep balder is THE standard, so unconditional, kind, and selfless. i could not say one bad thing about this man and the way that he cares for eve. he is her rock throughout this pregnancy, constantly reminding eve how in awe he is of her and her strength, supporting her any way that he can, his patience and kindness shining through every scene that he's in. bastone crafted the perfect human through shep balder and it is a crime he isn't real.

an easy 5 star read and a must add to your TBR list! thank you cara & dial press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5 star

Thoughts: After I saw buzz about this book, I had to pick it up! This is a SLOW burn romance but honestly my favorite parts of this book was the realistic depictions of pregnancy and moving into motherhood - the fears, the struggles, family & friend dynamics, all of the emotions and feelings that go into it.

Ugh, this really disappoints me to say but this was just okay. I'm a Cara Bastone fan, but I almost prefer her audiobooks over this and I really can't pinpoint the reason for that. I feel like Ready or Not is not a romance, it's more women's fiction maybe, which isn't really my genre. The book moved super slow. I didn't love Eve, Willa or Ethan, which definitely caused some problems in enjoying the book.

Here are the good things: Great cover (really eye-catching but still calming), Shep (if we could have had more of Shep, this would be a win for me.), and it touches heavily on pregnancy in a way most books don't. If you have had a baby, you will recognize all of the feelings she has throughout the book. It made me feel seen and not alone.

I'm in the minority, but this didn't completely work for me.

This was cute! I loved how sweet Shep’s and Eve’s relationship was. This book was a little on the cheesy side for me, but overall I did enjoy it.

4.5 stars
ARC REVIEW - thanks to the dial press and Netgalley for the ARC!!
pub date : 13 Feb 2024

My heart is so full - CARA ,WHERE IS THE EPILOGUE?????? I telenovela style gasped when I turned the last page and was hit with the acknowledgements. .

Without giving too much, Bastone did a great job of fleshing out the primary and secondary relationships that felt so so real . I loved the introspection and complex relationships between the MC (Eve) and her : best friend , baby daddy and my dear boy Shep. I genuinely got teary eyed -especially towards the end- because the emphasis on community , family, motherhood ,perseverance and just the purest love was written with so much care.

The only reason this is getting a 4.5 from me is because I am clawing my way out of a reading slump which means that I wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be - I will revisit this on audio upon release though!

This book is so different than every other friends to lovers and ONS and accidental pregnancy romance out there.
I loved that the ONS/accidental pregnancy are separate from the friends to lovers.
The story is so beautifully written. It’s about friendship and moving on after loss and how to support people you love when it’s hard. It’s also about a huge unexpected life change and how lives shift to accommodate that.
I loved Shep so much. He is steadfast and loving and just so giving.
There’s a lot in this book that surprised me. It’s a quieter romance but it was excellent.

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin. This book is an absolute treasure. A gem. A cozy warm blanket. I was not expecting to swoon over this story as much as I did. Eve is such a relatable character, I saw so much of myself in her and Shep and all of his sweet perfection completely won me over. I definitely will be purchasing a physical copy of this book. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read it in advance!

I enjoyed this book so much! Eve’s journey of becoming a mom was beautifully written. None of the book felt cliche to me. It felt honest and hopeful and made me think with fondness about my own pregnancies. The depiction of Willa and Eve’s friendship, especially the ways that it changed over time and with the surprise of Eve’s pregnancy, was so raw and honest. It was one of my favorite parts of the book. I also thought that Ethan’s character was perfectly written. It was hard to hate him despite the on-again, off-again nature of his presence -- He was just figuring it out too. And Shep, of course, has my heart. Finally, I wish that every expectant mom had a Nurse Louise in their life -- I wish that I had had a Nurse Louise. I loved her the most.

View my full review on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C25bZ3qg1eb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

What a beautiful book! Eve and her friends are a little messy but they are also funny, relatable, hopeful and uplifting.

I usually don’t like romances with a pregnancy trope but this book colours outside the lines enough that it’s an entirely new entity. It felt absolutely real. So powerful. The found family aspect is wonderful.

I love Cara Bastone and this book didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

4.5⭐️

Started off slow and I was not in love with some of the terminology used/joked with. It was cringey and not my style. I was very close to DNFing at about the 20% mark but I pushed through, and I’m very glad I did.

I enjoyed watching Eve’s character development and felt that so much of this story was very realistic.

**Incoming spoiler**

It was also really refreshing to read an accidental pregnancy story where the baby daddy isn’t the love interest, but also stays in the picture. I think this shows a really healthy depiction of what co parenting and non-traditional stories can look like.

I also LOVE a mutual pining story, especially when you see the guy doing small things to show his love without pressuring the girl.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for an early review copy!

I found this book to be frustrating and slow. I felt like nothing was really happening for most of the book and I wasn’t invested in the characters or romance. I’ve loved Cara Bastone’s other works but this one was a miss for me.

Well this was a delight. I know surprise pregnancy is a controversial trope but I actually love it and this was such a good spin on it.

Eve discovers she is pregnant after a one night stand and everything in her life begins to change (as pregnancy is wont to do). Her best friend is taking the news weird, her baby daddy is torn, and her best friend's brother starts showing up for her when no one else is. The story carries us through her pregnancy as all these relationships start to grow and change.

Eve was an excellent heroine. She didn’t always get it right but it was admirable how she kept picking herself back up and trying. Life was not going the way she expected, she didn’t have her dream career and then to be impregnated by a bartender she hooked up really wasn’t in her plan but I loved how she just kept going. It’s told only in her POV so it’s really her story, and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Shep might have been the most perfect MMC I’ve ever read. I loved Shep. He is everything I don’t normally love in a MMC - blond, golden retriever, good guy. Such a good good guy. He has pined for Eve for years, so when his chance came to be there for her he took every opportunity to grow closer to her but also to be there for the baby.

The way their relationship progressed had me downright giddy. It wasn’t all that steamy, but it was intimate and adorable. It’s a relationship of small touches and acts of service. There’s a scene where he massages her hand that made me take a sip of water because I was getting overheated. I just loved them!

I loved not just Eve and Shep but also the supporting characters. Willa is the best friend anyone would want, she would do anything for you even if it was hard for her. Ethan, the baby daddy, was struggling in such a very realistic way. He didn’t handle everything perfectly but in such a real feelings way.

I will say there were parts that felt perhaps a bit over the top about motherhood and how magical it is (one of the side characters, to summarize, basically said you don’t care about other people until you become a mother which had me blinking in confusion) but I tried not to let that bother me.

Overall though, I loved this book. I loved it so much. It’s a top read of the year for me and I know these wonderfully flawed characters will stick with me for a long time.

The two lines couldn’t have been more clear, Eve is pregnant. The girl who has always followed all the rules has an unexpected one night stand with a very sexy bar tender - now finds herself at a doctor’s office confirming what her heart already knew, she is going to have a baby. In her early thirties and single, Eve wasn’t even sure she wanted children. The idea of doing this alone is simply terrifying but somehow she is completely sure she is going to keep this baby. To add to the turmoil of emotions her very best lifelong friend Willa, who has been ineffectively trying to get pregnant for quite some time, finds the news devastating. Of all people, Shep, Willa’s older brother steps in. Recently single and living in Brooklyn, this once shy nerdy computer geek has really grown up. He takes the reins both mentally and physically helping Eve in any way he can. This unexpected loyalty sparks a layer to their friendship she never imagined. While Ethan, the hot bar tender/father struggles with their new reality, Shep supports Eve, showering her with treats and amazing foot rubs. Eve cannot decide if Shep has always been this handsome or if its the pregnancy hormones going berzerk, but it takes all of her self control not to literally jump all over his kindness. This beautiful story flows through nine months of love, friendship and back aches continually surprising Eve towards the moment of truth.

I loved this book, I loved Eve and her crazy unstable self, because she's all over the place, I love her best friends Will and Shep (they are related) I loved Eve's family, even her situation when she gets knocked up after a one night stand with bar owner Ethan, I just loved everything. The plot did not give this book justice, there is more to this book, there is the topic of fertility issues with one of the characters and trying to cope with the fact that Eve is pregnant, Ethan and his own unstable relationship (because there is a twist in there.) Then we have this friends to lovers trope between Shep and Eve, how they come to this conclusion was the sweetest, I almost cried, imagine having a crush on someone for so many years and not acting on it, but being around each other was better than not, UGH!!!!!! I loved it.

Besides the humor, because we get a ton of that in this book, we get a ton of heartwarming things going on in these 9 months of Eve's pregnancy. Her family is by her side when she announces everything, her friends are right there, even Ethan when he snapped out of his situations. Then we have Eve finally knowing what she wants and going for it, leaving behind the doubt and taking everything one step at a time. This book felt so real for me, I could relate so much with Eve and even with Willa. This author did it for me, I would be reading more from her.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Friends to lovers. There’s just something about this trope that never gets old! I instantly fell in love with the main chapter and then even more in love with her best friends. The unconventional journey to motherhood and what family truly means made this such an enjoyable book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of this book.

I ended up DNF-ing this one so I won’t be posting my review on Goodreads. I felt it was more contemporary fiction than romance and that’s just not what I was looking for in this book. Beautiful cover art though!

Eve's unplanned pregnancy from a one night stand changes the trajectory of her comfortable life. She loves her apartment in Brooklyn, her best friend lives nearby, and she has a steady job. We see the pregnancy bring Eve out of her comfort zone which leads to an unexpected romance. This story is so much more than a friends-to-lovers romance and I appreciated the depth to it. I've never read a romance even close to this premise and I enjoyed the uniqueness and originality. Ready or Not is heartwarming and funny and is a must for those who enjoy a good romance story. I would highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5⭐️ I DEVOURED this book. Like, I read it in a single afternoon. Every character felt so fleshed out and human, like they could be the person you sit next to on the subway. Part of their humanity was how they grappled with hard topics like motherhood, grief, infertility, and changing adult friendships. Highly highly recommend, especially if you’re not sure what to get for Book of the Month this month.

Ready or Not was a breath of fresh air compared to some of my other recent-romance reads. Undoubtedly, my favourite parts of the novel were Eve and Shep. Eve is a relatable and likeable main character, and I loved how practical and realistic her pregnancy storyline is. Her narration and inner monologue is also witty and enjoyable to read. As for Shep... Shep is just a lovable golden retriever-type guy and has the sweetest, purest soul. I loved him and have no qualms other than one thing, that kind of hindered my reading experience. As lovely as Shep is, he just didn't seem realistic to me.

Shep secretly being in love with Eve, his little sister's best friend, who grew up together? Sounds like a great friends-to-lovers story to me. But, Shep's secret and - at this point - unrequited love being strong enough to overlook the fact that Eve got pregnant by another guy? That, I wasn't so sure about. The further the story progressed, the more unbelievable I found it to be. Shep has no boundaries, no negativity, and no resentment on even a micro-scale. He immediately and happily becomes this pseudo-father and partner to Eve until Eve realizes she loves him, too. Then, he becomes a *real* father-figure and boyfriend. Again, all with no conflict - minor or major - whatsoever.

Call me cynical, but even in the most cute, sweet romance reads, there is usually some sort of conflict from one or both of the love interests. Yes, Eve is conflicted about her feelings for Shep, but the lack of conflict from Shep made his character lack realism and seem two-dimensional. Even though Ready or Not was still an enjoyable and worthwhile read, it didn't blow me away. The lack of complexity in Shep's character is what really hindered the book, for me.

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for providing me with a copy of Ready or Not by Cara Bastone in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced by any third parties.