I really enjoyed this sweet and heartwarming story about Eve, a woman living the dream in New York City near her best friend and trying to get ahead in her career. She gets accidentally pregnant after a one-night stand. She navigates telling the father-to-be, her family, her best friend's brother, her best friend since childhood, and her co-workers. Her best friend is trying to get pregnant and finds this difficult, so her brother steps up for Eve, supporting her as she goes through the pregnancy and getting used to the idea that she will eventually be responsible for another human.

This was a funny, sweet, friends-to-lovers rom-com set in New York City. The accidental pregnancy was done so well, as the father dealt with his responsibilities to her as well as his girlfriend with which he had an on-again, off-again romance. I loved Shep, who stepped up for Eve and was super sweet to her. He's her best friend's older brother and she loved their mom, who was another mother to her. Her friendship with Willa was sweet and supportive, but it was complicated because she desperately wanted to get pregnant. Just overall a sweet, wonderful book. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback, and NetGalley for the ARC

Why is writing a review for one of your favorite books of the year so hard?! (we are only a few months in and I’m already calling it).

READY OR NOT features the sweetest, slow-burn, friends to lovers romance between Eve and her best friend’s brother, Shep. Told with such humor and heart, I loved their interactions and chemistry, and the way that Shep was just always there to support Eve through one of the most challenging times, and their banter was hilarious.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-friends to lovers
-best friend’s brother
-accidental pregnancy
-heartwarming with all the humor
-found family

*many thanks to PRH and prh audio/Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

The story starts with Eve discovering she is accidentally pregnant, and follows her journey of pregnancy as she navigates relationships with her best friend, her best friend's brother, the baby's father, the nurse she befriends at the doctor's office, family, work, etc. I really enjoyed this story and Eve's humor, as well as the romance between her and Shep, the best friend's brother. I was expecting a bit of cringe when I realized it would be a romance during an accidental pregnancy, but the author handled it nicely, and you can feel the affection that has always been there. I was a little frustrated with the grace and kindness Eve gave to the baby's father while he was figuring his stuff out, but it all worked out in the end. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I was happy to get an ark but didn’t really know what to expect going into it, but it ended up being one of my favorite novels this summer. The banter is excellent and there are so many parts where you will just laugh out loud to yourself and Smile into your pillow. I will definitely be enthusiastically looking for more books from Bastone.

4.5 stars. I'm not usually a fan of the surprise pregnancy trope, but this sweet slow-burn romance was an exception. Eve and Shep's growing friendship over the course of her pregnancy (the result of a one-night stand with someone else) was lovely.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

Ready or Not was a different kind of romance than I normally read. The book starts out with the main character, Eve, at her OB/GYN's office confirming a pregnancy. She's completely terrified as the pregnancy is the result of a one night stand with a hot bartender and she just is not sure how to move forward with this brand new information. The story continues from there as Eve tries to navigate life while you're growing a human and all the curveballs that come with it.

As someone who has never been pregnant and will never be pregnant, I tend to shy away from books with pregnancy/babies as the main plot point but this one was different. I really appreciated how the author didn't make pregnancy sound like it was all sunshine and roses all the time. The experiences Eve went through during the course of the book felt more real and authentic than I've read before and I think that's why I didn't throw my Kindle across the room while reading. We do also get a best friend's brother romance in it and Shep is the golden retriever boyfriend we all deserve.

I picked up and put this book back down before I really got into it. Once I did it was a quick and entertaining read. Some highlights include the characterization of a pregnant main character as experiencing desire and being sexually attractive (this definitely is missing from our culture as a whole!) and the character of Shep. In the end it was worth the read.

This is a friends-to-lovers romance when the woman gets pregnant unexpectedly. Love this plot!

I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC.

Just wow! This was so beautifully written and executed. It was heartwarming and funny with such strong, well developed characters. I really felt like I got to know and understand the many layers to each of them so I felt connected to seeing how the story played out. The romance was a slow burn and almost felt secondary to the main character’s personal journey but that just made it that much better once it finally played out. Definitely one of my favorite books of the year!

I really happy to get an arc of this book. Thank you so much. I really loved this book. It was a heartwarming , realistic contemporary romance. It was at times funny as well loved the main character eve.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ready or Not is an unexpected pregnancy character driven fiction about a woman, Eve, who has a one-night stand and- you guessed it- ends up pregnant. I went into this book thinking it was a romance and I cannot stress how much it is not that. I think had I not had this expectation I would have enjoyed it more for what it was rather than just waiting for the romance part to hit. This novel follows Eve navigating a relationship with Ethan, the child's father, while also finding herself falling for her best friend's older brother.

There are so many things I liked about this book. There was no weird secret about Eve having feelings for Shep. She told Willa and Willa said 'don't break his heart' and it was a very reasonable and respectful conversation. There was no weird unnecessary conflict at the end to spice things up. It was just steadfast love and Eve sorting her shit out. The writing significantly improved over the course of the book but toward the beginning the author would say something really wild as a simile that just took me right out of the story. One I highlighted was 'The sky dark as a hat pulled over my eyes' which I guess would technically be correct but kind of seemed out of place. The narrative voice was also a bit strange since it seemed like third person most of the time then she would be randomly talking directly to the reader.

I was also a little annoyed at the Eve for a good part of the book. She seemed like such a passenger in her life. Just going along with whatever and not making any choices until the end. And she just so happened to have these two perfect men fall into her lap? Wild but ok. Shep was the perfect book boyfriend and please tell me why that annoyed me? it almost seemed like his personality was just being perfect and always in love with Eve which was a little dull to be honest.

3.5/5

I thought that this was so adorable and i loved the friendship aspect before the romance. Him helping her with the baby daddy issues and then just being pregnant and always being there for her when nobody else could. Stepping up to be a good father figure and just being the cutest man ever!!

WOW. This book was incredible. It made me want a baby kind of? And I've never felt that way before. I loved Willa and Eve's friendship. I love Shep, I love Ethan, I love Isamu. I love the history, I love the little things like Eve explaining that she doesn't want to know the sex of the baby, and that it's different than gender and that the baby will choose its gender when its older. I love the big things like relationships and grief and independence. I'm a little confused where Eve lives because it didn't really sound like Midwood, but I was willing to just go along with it for the sake of the story. I wish Good Boy was a real bar, I'd go there all the time. I liked that there wasn't much about this story that was conventional. I liked that Eve had older parents, I liked how seeing different people deal with loss. It was really a great book. Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade Paperback for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
This was a great book and I'll be purchasing it for the library.

Eve Hatch loves her life, her apartment, the company that she works for (WFA) and that she lives near her bff Willa. As she is the product of a late in life unplanned pregnancy to older parents, she is not close to her three much older brothers, so Willa and her brother Shep are who she hangs with. Uncharacteristically, she had a one night stand with a bartender, and despite precautions, finds herself pregnant. She knows she wants to keep the baby, even though she had never had any interest in having a child before, and feels all alone. The sperm donor (Ethan) has a girlfriend who he loves, though they had been broken up at the time of the inception. Willa and her husband have been trying to have a baby, but she keeps getting her period. And she's not even sure if she will tell her family. It is Shep that is there for her from the very beginning and he has a secret that he never told her, (but he thought she knew). Such a sweetheart.

What I liked about this book: wonderfully written characters, humorous dialogue and an entertaining story. What I didn't like was the ridiculous anti-biology, anti-grammar idiocy. Which annoyed me so much that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. Fortunately, it was one conversation, that was never mentioned again.

I was gifted with an Advanced Reader's Copy by the publisher via NetGalley.com. This was my unbiased, honest and voluntary review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an eARC of Ready or Not in exchange for my honest review!

Ready or Not really did give me the good old boost of heartfelt coziness and charm that I needed. I don't even read all that much of the pregnancy trope, and it's not like I actively avoid it, but it's just not something I actively pursue, either (I definitely don't like it, though, when it's plopped into a tale as a plot twist). But it's a compelling trope in this warm and lovable book that gets me invested in Eve's messy life, in the people surrounding her, and in the adorable dynamic that grows between her and Shep. It's absorbing to see how this book explores motherhood, the impact it has on the perspective you have on people and the ways in which they connect with one another, creating families that break out of the nuclear family stereotype, and the pressure that society puts on us to conform with its traditional norms by procreating. As for the spice, we only get a bit of it after embarking on a whole slow-burn journey, but that journey brims with authentic chemistry, and it reaches a gratifying payoff once we get to the actual spice itself towards the end.

Overall, I'm officially rating Ready or Not four out of five stars, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more of Cara Bastone's writing.

I loved this book! It brought me back to when I was pregnant with my babies and the things I didn’t know. I loved the relationship she had with her friends and didn’t allow the hard things in life to overcome her. Such a fun read!

Eve Hatch is originally from the mid west and now lives in New York working in her *almost* dream job. She hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to dating, especially with guys named Derek. After a one night stand, she finds out she’s pregnant and realizes everything in her life is about to change. Just when she needs the help of her best friend, Willa, their relationship seems to be going through a rough patch. Instead she strikes up a new, unedited friendship with none other than Willa’s brother, Shep. Who wouldn’t love a man who checks in regularly, orders you lunch, listens without judgement and oh yeah… he’s totally hot! Eve goes through a wild journey in the span of nine months. Learning more about herself, life, family and friendship than she ever thought she could. Ready or Not is such a fun and romantic read full of slow burn, best friends brother, friends to lover type of romance. So so cute and worth the read.

As far as this trope goes, this romance works. Accidental pregnancy is a tricky one, and Bastone largely delivers. But I just personally wasn’t drawn to the writing or the voice or perspective––not this author’s ideal reader!

Ready or Not is lovely heartwarming and realistic contemporary romance that follows Eve Hatch who unexpectedly gets pregnant after on night stand that changes not just her life but her too.

Eve is still getting used to the idea of baby and how the baby is going to change her life, the father of the baby (Ethan) already has a girlfriend and isn’t sure how much he wants to get involved in Eve and baby’s life, her best friend (Willa) reacted badly to the news as she herself was trying to have baby for long time with no luck…

Only person who is genuinely happy and supporting is her her best friend’s brother, Shep. The more he gets involved with selfless care and concern, the more Eve starts developing feelings for him but is it just a pregnancy symptoms or something deep and real?

Writing is refreshing and entertaining. I loved the format of the the story. It was divided in 3 part with pregnancy stages. I loved how author told how women feel in all three trimesters through Eve’s life changes and feelings.

I loved how Eve took it all. She might seem not taking it seriously and going through it in stride as we don’t get to know her much before the pregnancy but as I read more I could see it’s more like her nature. She is kind of person who lives in her dreamy state and struggles when it comes to making big decision. It was interesting to see how having baby and and pregnancy progressed it made her change how she lives and thinks. It was amazing to see her develop and read her journey of embracing pregnancy and motherhood.

Author portrayed- feeling of becoming a new unexpected mother, how people react to it when you’re not with the father, impending parenthood, changes in life with nor expectation of support from father, anxiety, and how all feelings changes as soon as you see baby in the ultrasound- all in most realistic and relatable way.

Willa‘s reaction to Eve’s pregnancy was bad in the beginning but I love how she tried to mend that reaction after she got over initial shock and pain. I loved how author portrayed dealing with infertility issues through Willa, how painful and difficult it is for women who has gone through miscarriage to be happy for someone having baby who never thought about pregnancy in life. It was most realistic and heartfelt to read her situation and I loved Eve for not taking it to heart and not letting Willa’s reaction destroy their friendship.

I also liked how clear Eve was about what she wanted from Ethan and Shep. I had a feeling this might turn into love triangle and was so relieved to see it didn’t. Shep was a sweetheart. He was that lovely cute guy who was just happy to take whatever Eve was willing to give to him, whether it is friendship or boyfriend or second father to the baby.

Like said in book, he was so “other-centered person” who is happy for others but I also liked having Shep’s view on his own action. He acted the way he did for one reason which was to be with Eve no matter what and for that he was ready to get along with Ethan which is most loveliest thing I read and it somehow also felt selfless selfish thing one can do.

Romance is slow burn with friends-to-lovers trope with many lovely and heart-melting moments. My favorites were Shep being there for Eve when she revealed pregnancy to Ethan, first baby kick, Shep buying a cycle with baby seat, and Shep reading baby books.

Climax is exactly as I anticipated. I also liked Ethan after that drunken scene and how he finally got sense to do right thing. The best scene was both Ethan and Shep helping Eve in labor and how that changed the dynamics between them in the end. End is lovely and perfect.

Why 4.5 stars –

Even though writing is engaging, entertaining, and refreshing, I feel this is kind of book that you’ll enjoy more with audiobooks. There is lots of monologues and expressions, and feelings that felt sounded much better in visualization than in words.

Overall, Ready or Not is delightful, uplifting, and heartwarming Friends to lovers romance with most realistic portrayal of surprise pregnancy.