Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book!

First of all - the cover 😍🤩

Oh my, I absolutely loved this so much. Easily my favorite book read so far in 2024. The humor, the journey of pregnancy, the coming of age story, and let’s not forget… Shep 🥰 I’m literally obsessed.

5 huge stars.

Loved loved loved this book! Eve finds herself pregnant after a one night stand and it obviously throws her life into a myriad of different directions. All of the sudden her relationships change with her best friend, brothers, baby daddy, and her best friend's brother. This book had me cheesy smiling SO many times and I just adored the characters.

I. loved. this. book. I laughed, I cried, it was beautiful.
I felt deeply connected to each of the characters and had so much love for each of them. The world they lived in is a world I want to be in. The way Eve fought for herself and her baby had me sobbing. The love her and her baby experienced from all the people in her life is all you can ever hope for when having a child and the author portrayed it beautifully. I'm just obsessed with this book.

They say never judge a book by the cover, but damn, look at this cover! It is stunning, and the sole reason I wanted to read this. Even after learning that a surprise pregnancy was a plot point, I had to know what was inside this beauty.

At first, I struggled a lot. I even contemplated DNFing, but the reviews are fantastic, so I wanted to stick it out. The result was a sweet and enjoyable contemporary romance, but one that I don't know that I will remember in a few months.

If you love golden retriever love interests, this book is for you. The things that Shep does for Eve will make you swoon. However, he needed a flaw, any flaw, at least one. No man is that perfect.

I found the pregnancy trope to be well executed. It felt realistic and showed the hardships, as well as the beauty, of pregnancy. I also like the friendships and wish we would have gotten more with Eve and her best friend. The absolute best character in the book is Nurse Louise. Honestly, she deserved so much more page time.

I have seen several reviewers complain about Ethan and the way he acted. However, I don't think it was as awful as some make it out to be. Given the circumstances, his behavior is probably very realistic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this sweet unexpected pregnancy book. This is a delightful book that I couldn't get enough of. I loved it and could have read 100 more pages. I love it!!!
I just reviewed Ready or Not by Cara Bastone. #ReadyorNot #NetGalley
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Ok this love interest was a literal angel, best book boyfriend of the year??? He's a contender for sure. I liked how chill and non-stressful this story was, it definitely will appeal to people like myself who enjoy slice of life stories. I liked how all of the characters had flaws that were discussed and called out, including the main character's. Just a sweet, not-stressful time and I love to see it! I do think this was a very millennial feeling main character [I am also a millennial], and she did get on my nerves a TINY bit, but it also gave her character a super strong sense of personality. Also, I found it very cool that I'm a person who doesn't ever plan on having a baby and still found the pregnancy stuff fun and interesting to read. And wow! The spicy scene was 10 out of 10!!
Anyway, can't wait to read more of this author's work and my lord this cover is amazing!!! I had to buy it for myself and am contemplating nailing it to my wall.

I will be including a review of this book in an upcoming reading vlog on my booktube channel. I will post the link here when it's uploaded.

One of my favorite reads of the year! Not only is the book amazing as well as well-written and developed, it also has a gorgeous cover. I’m in love with this book!

“Ready or Not” was such a great read and I loved this book so much! Full of surprise, love, and friendship it is sure to pull at your heart strings. I’ve recommended this to so many people since reading it and didn’t want it to end!

Honestly, I had no clue what this book was about before I started it - it was also my first book by Cara Bastone - and what a treat! This book was so incredibly adorable. I loved the story line - a one night stand, surprise pregnancy, realizing that even though she feels alone, she has more support than she realizes. Between friends, family and even the one night stand. I absolutely loved the characters, their interactions and banter. I thought the internal thoughts of the main characters were realistic - along with the thoughts and feelings of her support system. I laughed and I cried and I just thoroughly enjoyed escaping into this sweet and wonderful book.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Absolutely loved this book from start to finish. The characters came to life on the pages. There is some part of Eve that every woman can relate to despite being in such a situation that’s not very relatable. This was so well done, it felt like I rode every high and low of Eve’s journey right alongside her and wanted so badly to hold and squeeze her hand through the pages so many times. I will be recommending this to any and every body!

4.25⭐️

This was a very charming and immersive book, i loved the talk about pregnancy and how it can change multiple people’s perspective on life. Witnessing Eve’s attitude towards her baby change throughout the months was so very sweet!
Shep was one of the cutest, simpest love interests and just so thoughtful (can we talk about the bike!?🥲), howevee I didn’t fully like how his and Eve’s relationship transitioned from friendship to love, it didn’t feel very linear!
As for the other characters, Eve’s brothers (besides Mal🤐) were so cute, love how they tried to be there for her in spite of the age difference etc. As for Ethan, i’m a bit conflicted because I actually liked him a lot and found myself kinda rooting for him to end up with Eve?? He seemed like a genuinely nice guy but I didn’t like how the fault got dumped all on his gf, he chose to be with her again and again and he could have made his own choices on something so important, he had months after all!! Still think he’s a very sweet character though💖
Bonus point for Nurse Louise, so happy she was included in multiple scenes throughout the book🤩

Very sweet story about unplanned detours in life. I overall really enjoyed this story for many reasons.
Shep was simply perfect. I adored this character, how he cared for Eve, how mature he was about the relationship with Ethan. I couldn’t have asked for a better MMC.
I appreciated that the baby’s father Ethan was not portrayed as a jerk. Sure, he had his issues, but the character experienced a lot of growth and all of his “bad” behavior was relatable given his circumstances.
The addition of the fertility issues with the best friend were relatable as well. Sometimes we want to be a better friend than we can be sometimes, and that’s real life.

Now, my only real negative relates to Eve- I found her character to be the least relatable. For someone so organized, so forward thinking, I found her complete lack of self-analysis over her situation when she got pregnant to be very strange . I have a hard time believing that someone who got pregnant in the circumstances that Eve did would just metaphorically shrug and essentially act like “oh ok well guess I’m doing this now” and have no mental acrobatics happening. For someone who never expressed any major desire to be a mom, someone who really doesn’t express excitement or happiness in general over falling pregnant at an inopportune time, she really didn’t seem too bothered or stressed by it for a long time, never considering all the options, and I find that unrealistic and unrelatable.
Otherwise, I generally really enjoyed this book .

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone – 3 Stars (Kindle, NetGalley)

I received Ready or Not from NetGalley at the end of last year (yes, I requested it based solely on the cover), and I had literally zero idea what it was about. I can definitely say I had never heard of a book with an “unexpected pregnancy trope”, but that’s what Ready or Not is based on (no spoiler, it’s the first chapter). And, I loved it! It was such a sweet and fun read that included found family, friends to lovers, and lots of cozy descriptions of New York City.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone is a beautiful novel about a woman named Eve who finds herself pregnant after a one night stand. She decides to keep the baby on her own, and as her best friend Willa is struggling to be supportive at times due to her struggles with infertility, Willa’s brother Shep steps into the role of supportive friend. As Eve’s pregnancy hormones start flying, she begins to picture Shep in a closer role but feels she needs to wait to determine if it’s just hormones or if she’s falling for Shep. As Eve works to figure out what her life will be after baby she discovers you can find love in unexpected places.

I loved this story. I thought the characters were three dimensional and the plot was enjoyable. There were times I felt like something may have been missing, but the end was so beautiful I didn’t care. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for access to an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book! Two love interests, no idea who the main character is going to pick given her unplanned pregnancy, and such a beautiful birth story! The book came really close to bringing me to happy tears.

I've been obsessed with Cara Bastone's work since I first listened to "Call Me Maybe" in 2020 and then immediately devoured every book she’d written. There’s something about her characters that feel so real; like they are people I already know and adore.

I feel like this book is being widely mislabeled and mismarketed. Although it’s definitely a feel-good rom-com, it’s also a much more serious book about a woman’s journey into motherhood that took my breath away at moments with how true it felt. As someone who recently gave birth, I deeply appreciated her trimester-by-trimester structure. I found myself reliving some of the less fun parts of being pregnant while reading this book but also was taken back to the magical moments of feeling your baby kick for the first time inside of you.

I will say, I did not read the synopsis before I read this book (why bother when I knew I was going to love it right?) and was surprised when Shep started appearing more and more like her OTP. I think it’s a testament to her character development that I remained firmly Team Ethan for the majority of this book.

I think the ending was absolutely perfect, even if I did selfishly want to stay with the characters just a little bit longer. I’m not sure if she has plans for any other stories with these characters, but I would love some spin-off books just so I can see Eve and Shep live their HEA. 5/5 stars, would recommend!

This was such a cute and sweet Rom-Com! I love this type book, and this author didn't disappoint! I read this book in one day! I would definitely recommend this book!

I have never read anything by this author but the description sounded pretty cute and I admit I loved the cover. This is a surprise pregnancy book. Eve is a single girl living in NY and after a one night stand finds herself the one thing she never contemplated, pregnant This was a super cute and easy read. For a surprise pregnancy book there was not a lot of drama. I'm not sure how realistic this book is- IRL it doesn't feel like things work out as easily, but that's not really what I expect from a book. I don't mind that things are glossed over (i.e. things like health insurance and the struggles of being single and pregnant- or dating while pregnant- or you know just the every day struggles of BEING pregnant). I am okay making certain leaps for a book that is meant to be more cute than tension filled.

So this book really focuses on four different relationships. The first is the one between Eve and her best friend Willa. Willa desperately wants to get pregnant and has struggled. How Willa handles finding out Eve got pregnant after a one-night stand and how their friendship changes a bit after was understandable. Eve and Willa are childhood friends and they don't have a lot of boundaries- until they do. Marriage (Willa and her husband who definitely wasn't featured enough) changed their friendship a bit- but Willa's fertility journey has changed things more than even Eve understood. Willa obviously struggles with being both happy for her friend and devastated she can't emotionally be Eve's person for this. Infertility is definitely addressed but only to introduce a break in their friendship to make room for the Hero (Willa's brother). This is definitely an area glossed over.

When Willa can't step up for Eve- her older brother, Shep, does. Shep is also a childhood friend of Eves as the three basically grew up together. Shep is quirky and awkward and really the most wonderful Hero you could ask for. Almost too good to be true. Shep provides a lot of the comic relief but also the safety net. I absolutely loved the banter between the Eve and Shep. If I was going to complain about him at all, I think I would say it doesn't feel believable that he wouldn't have ANY issues/insecurities with the whole fact that the love of his life is knocked up by another man. Or that if he pursues things with Eve it means he's basically also about to become a father figure. He does have one flash of it when he's talking with Ethan, but even that isn't really much more than an acknowledgement of the situation. Regardless, I loved Shep. We should all have Sheps in our lives. I wish their romance had been fleshed out more as well. They were best friends, and then more. And it was both super sudden and also not. Partly this is why this book feels less of a romance and more like a women's fiction with a romantic subplot. Her friendship with Shep was really more important and prominent than her relationship which didn't happen until way later in the book.

The one character I think we got the least from- and maybe because he was kind of the least important- was Ethan. Ethan is the guy she had a one night stand with and is the father of the baby. Ethan's reaction, while not perfect, is probably better than most people in his situation. He wasn't really an unlikeable character- but also he did some crap things and didn't face any real consequences for them. I wish that would have happened a little more. It is understandable that he would struggle with the idea he was going to be a dad and co-paernt with someone he barely knows. But he spends more time talking about his on-again-off-again girlfriend's thoughts than his own. He's not really a present character, and maybe that is on purpose as he isn't the Hero in this book. But even still, it starts to feel like deadbeat dad. There weren't really discussions about what his involvement was going to be or his responsibilities as he doesn't provide Eve with any support the whole time she's pregnant. So it just felt Ethan was thinking only of himself. And while he wasn't unlikeable, I guess I was disappointed he wasn't more likable.

Eve herself is the last relationship focused on and how that changes when it isn't just herself. I liked the relationship she has with her nurse and how that helps her figure things out a bit. She also talks about her job and her apartment and how those play into who she thinks she is and what she wants- and how that changes when she accepts that not only is she pregnant, but she's having a baby. Overall this book was very cute and easy to read. I think while the most difficult issues were basically just glossed over and addressed in her inner thoughts- and maybe could have been used for more tension or drama if they were dealt with between the characters- at the end of the day I still found it enjoyable and wasn't sad that it was an easy read. Kind of what I needed right now. Thank you to net galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nobody is more surprised than me by how much I loved this romcom! In Ready or Not, Eve has a life she’s fairly content with in Brooklyn, but when she learns she is pregnant after a fun night out, her world shifts and becomes full of surprises.

As Eve starts to prepare for life with a baby, things feel off with her best friend, Willa. Eve informs the baby’s father that she’s pregnant and he wants to help, yet he also feels torn. Willa’s brother, Shep, recently returned to town and he begins to step in, helping Eve where Willa and the baby’s father haven’t been. Eve can’t tell if she’s truly into Shep or it’s the pregnancy hormones, and she has a lot to juggle as she gets ready for her next phase of life.

Ready or Not delivers on several fronts — It’s cute, sweet, and funny with laugh out loud moments, and relatable ones too. I really liked this story and most of its characters.

Thank you netgalley for this book.

I enjoyed the character development and story line of this novel and will definitely be checking out more from this author.