This made me cry so many tears! I adored this book. I could not put it down once I* started!! I loved getting to know these characters and seeing what was going on inside their heads. It was very well written and i really enjoyed reading it.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Maybe I'm a sucker for a road trip book but this was engaging and fun (even with all the family drama). A big improvement from the last Sidney Karger book I read too! I took a star off because I could've done with way less dog barf. preferably zero dog barf.

Thank you, @berkleypub, for the opportunity to read this one for a #berkleybuddyread

Biz and Wyatt are complete opposites. They have different family backgrounds, can't agree on marriage, one is spontaneous, and the other is a planner. The one thing they can agree on is that they have a baby on the way, and they each need to prepare themselves. What better way than a cross-country road trip to the birth of their baby.

What ensues is a journey (they love that word) of unexpected stops, interesting characters, revelations, and a chance to reconnect through it all. They just need to get over their assumptions and constant miscommunication to get there.

The miscommunication was just too much for me, and I struggled to like/care about these characters.

What a wild, heartwarming, and hilarious ride we go on as we follow Wyatt and Biz on their cross-country journey to meet their first baby. Thank you to Berkley for sending a digital copy of this book for review.

I loved the road trip aspect of this book, as well as the journey of our characters uncovering family secrets and recovering from past trauma before their new beginning as parents. I did not love, however, the seemingly (toxic??) relationship Wyatt and Biz are in compounded with the never-ending miscommunication trope throughout the story.

I did overall enjoy this read and found this to be likeable. I will recommend to readers looking for a unique LGBT romance who do not mind the miscommunication trope.

Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The best part about reading this book was reading it with my bookish besties! Opposites attract, a cross country road trip and a baby on the way for these new dads This adventure had them evaluating their relationship when bumps get in the way with a baby on the way! Many adventures were had on this road trip!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW oh gosh i really don't have much to say but this will be a joyful, fun ride.

Short synopsis: Wyatt and Biz are expecting a baby via surrogate, they decide to road trip cross country as a baby moon and hit some bumps along the way trying their relationship.

My thoughts: This book was filled with humor, unlikely circumstances, a bit of miscommunication and character growth.

I really liked the surrogate representation and how these men found a way to growth their family. The miscommunication really put a damper on the story for me, but ultimately this was a fun story with lots of heart and humor!

Read if you love:
- Road trips
- Surrogate rep
- Lgbtq+ Rep
- Babymoon

Let me start by saying I will continue to pick up whatever Sidney Karger lays down because his stories are thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to turning me into a superfan. Unfortunately this one had a main plot point that simply was not for me.

In this latest release you tag along with Wyatt and Biz on their “Babymoon” while they make their way cross country for the birth of their new baby via surrogate. The problem here is the two’s relationship was already on the rocks on page one and then ONE AND A HALF YEARS LATER they are having a baby while having the exact same problems when in all actuality they should have probably broken up and definitely should have put the babymaking on pause.

I love a road trip and rekindling romance stories, so this would have 100% been my jam if the whole baby thing wouldn’t have been a part of it. A baby doesn’t save a relationship and they should not be brought in to a toxic environment. Having just binged all of Flipping Out recently, these two were reminiscent of Jeff and Gabe on Flipping Out - so I just could not get on board.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I am so so sorry, I really did not vibe with this book. It might be a good book for someone, and I would encourage those to give it a try but I struggled to connect and have the story pull me in. Sorry.

Wyatt and Biz are expecting a baby via a surrogate.
They plan a road trip from Brooklyn to California where the surrogate lives.
But as we all know planned road trips always have lots of bumps along the way which leads then off the path.
This was such a heartwarming story with laughs and finding family

A fun, lighthearted read about a couple roadtripping on the eve of becoming dads for the first time.

The Bump follows a couple as they go on a baby moon before the birth of their daughter through a surrogate.i thought this was going to be a fun road trip story. It did have some fun & silly moments but it was much more heartfelt & insightful than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it & I think it's one many couples can relate to especially when it involves bringing a new child into the world.

I really, really wanted to love this book. But I just liked it. The premise is so great - two gay men take a road trip before the imminent birth of their baby via surrogacy, a sort of “babymoon.” The problem for me was I just didn’t buy them as a couple who would last. They are having what would be called marital problems if they were married, even before they embark on this long road trip. They’re not communicating and there’s a lot of tension between them. Are they going to make it as a couple? Are they going to be ready to be parents very soon? Biz gets bad news early in the trip and doesn’t tell Wyatt because of their tension and other issues Wyatt seems to be having. Biz wants to get married but Wyatt doesn’t see the point of making things official. This all didn’t bode well, in terms of their coupledom.

Family secrets come to light along the way, with a number of unplanned detours as they drive from Brooklyn, New York, to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to Boston (Wyatt’s hometown) to the Chicago suburbs (Biz’s hometown) to Colorado to Nevada and finally to California in time for the birth.

I wish I had loved this book but I think the characters just didn’t come alive for me until near the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. I bounced between the ebook and the audiobook, nicely narrated by Ryan Spahn and Michael Urie. All opinions are my own.

Wyatt and Biz are expecting a baby via a surrogate. They live in Brooklyn and plan a cross-country road trip with the ultimate destination of California, where the birth will occur. They planned a detailed itinerary but they face multiple hiccups and bumps along the way that take them off their route.

This was such a delightful read! Wyatt and Biz are opposites but both are secretly freaking out inside about becoming fathers. The faced a lot of unforeseen circumstances both internally and within their families that made them think about the type of fathers they want to be. It was filled with some laugh out loud scenes but it was also a road trip of self-discovery. This was such a heartfelt read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙜𝙤 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚.

📍 Read if you like:
• Heartfelt Stories
• Road Trips
• LGBTQ+ Rep
• Miscommunication

This book sounded so good, while I wasn’t the biggest fan of Best Men by this author, I still had high hopes for this book. However, it wasn’t really my favorite… would I still recommend it?! Yes to certain readers!

I love this cover and I love any story that involves a road trip, so I was instantly intrigued. However, the book has a lot of miscommunication throughout the whole book. It’s my least favorite trope and it was extremely difficult to get through.

Wyatt and Biz are the characters in this book and I loved the surrogate idea, it was very heartfelt and inspiring. However, some of the choices these characters made annoyed me.

Props to the author for the unique story and detail to the journey/road trip. I loved the aspect in this book and it was definitely a great premise. It was just super hard to root for the characters’ relationship with the miscommunication.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Berkley for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you @prhaudio @sidkny and @berkleybooks for my gifted ALC and ebook. The Bump is out now!

As I prepare for the birth of my first child soon, I thought this book seemed like perfect timing. The Bump is about a gay couple who are expecting their first child via surrogate. They haven’t been on the same page recently and they want to reconnect before the baby arrives. They decide to take a road trip babymoon to all their favorite vacation spots on the way to their baby’s birth in California.

Their first stop is Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod. This is a summer time Mecca for gay couples and it’s a fantastic spot to visit for anyone! They are only there a few days before Wyatt gets a phone call from his mother that his brother was hurt in an accident and he needs to come help them. A family detour to the middle of Massachusetts brings up a lot of feelings for Wyatt who doesn’t really remember his absentee father. How can he be different for his child when he has no role model?

Biz wants to stop to see his big Italian family in Chicago before the baby too. They throw the guys a baby shower and they each see how close a family can be. But Biz has a lot of feelings about his father, who was always 10 years older than all his friends’ fathers and is now battling health problems. What if his dad isn’t here to see his child grow up?

As someone going through this myself, this book definitely stirred up some feelings about the kind of parent I want to be. But it was so genuine and truly hilarious in places. I also listened to audiobook just because I wanted to hear @michaelurielikesit and he was the perfect voice of Wyatt. I highly recommend the audiobook; I feel like I laughed so much more hearing the narrators’ inflection.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Wyatt Wallace and his partner, Biz Petterelli, have been together for years. The couple may be total opposites, but they just fit together. Along with their dog, Matilda, Wyatt and Biz enjoy their lives in NYC, along with frequent trips to Provincetown for vacation. But now, their lives are about to change in a big way. Two years after they started the process of surrogacy, Wyatt and Biz are about to welcome their new baby.

Both men are excited, but they are also both dealing with a lot of fear and self doubt about becoming fathers, which is unfortunately leading to a lot of tension between them. Rather than flying to California, where the baby is being born, the guys decide to take a road trip across the country. It will be a chance to rekindle their bond and hopefully work through some of the recent issues between them. They plan an itinerary full of gay meccas, hoping for a chance to have some fun and excitement along the way before the responsibilities of parenting kick in. So, along with Matilda, Wyatt and Biz head out in their aging convertible for their weeks-long babymoon.

Unfortunately, pretty much nothing about the trip goes as planned. Their relationship continues to be strained and neither man is willing to talk about their real feelings. They encounter family crises and unexpected detours, not to mention car troubles, terrifying storms, and scary convenience store owners. But Wyatt and Biz also have a chance to reflect on family and what kind of fathers they want to be. They also slowly begin to reconnect with one another, remembering what brought them together all those years ago and how much they truly love one another. With their lives about to change and the new baby coming any time, Wyatt and Biz may finally have found their way back to one another and be ready to take on the next stage in their lives together.

The Bump is a entertaining road trip story that has fun and humor, along with some nice depth, as Biz and Wyatt reconnect while traveling across the country. I am a big fan of forced proximity and road trip stories, so I was intrigued by this one from the blurb. This story has a bit of a twist on that trope, in that Wyatt and Biz are not meeting for the first time on their journey, but are an established couple who are hitting a rough patch in their relationship that they need to work through. We meet the men in the prologue when they are happily in love and making decisions about egg donors for their future child. Then we jump ahead to two years later with the baby soon to be born, and it is clear that things have become strained between them. Both Wyatt and Biz are having doubts about their ability to be a good father. In Wyatt’s case, his father walked out on his family when he was a child, and he has always been the support for his mom and brother in his dad’s absence. Wyatt can’t help but worry about being a good dad without that role model in his own life. For his part, Biz is just worried he won’t be good enough, that he will somehow be a failure as a dad. The two men are stressed and snapping at one another, and the conflict is exacerbated by their very different approaches to life — Wyatt steady, organized, and planning everything; Biz enjoying spontaneity and taking life as it comes. Especially as Wyatt feels Biz’s desire to cut loose before the baby comes as a sign he isn’t ready for the responsibility, and Biz wants Wyatt to relax and reconnect before their lives change.

Nothing quite goes to plan with their trip and those changes at first just add to the tension between them. But, over the course of the story, we see Biz and Wyatt finding their way back to each other. Even as the guys are stressed or annoyed with each other, there is never any doubt that they truly love one another and want to be together. The dual POVs really help give insight into their feelings, and I loved the little moments where we see one of them catch sight of his man and think how much he loves him, or how attractive he finds him. The story is also peppered with memories of their past and the joy they had in one another, and it is so rewarding as we see that happiness reappear along their trip. I also liked that we get some foundation for why these guys are slow to talk to one another. For Wyatt, in particular, we see clearly how he comes from a long line of conflict avoiders. The fact that the men are not communicating feels less like a plot device to keep them apart than a means of showcasing their characters. That said, there were a few too many “the phone rings at the critical moment just as they are about to talk” situations and I did wish to see them actually have some deeper conversations a little sooner.

This story is really rooted in family, both the one Wyatt and Biz hope to build with their new baby, and also each of their individual families. Wyatt has a small circle, just his mom and brother, and he has always been expected to be the caretaker. No one really talks to each other in his family and Wyatt has never been told just what exactly happened with his dad. In comparison, Biz is the baby of this giant, Italian family who adores one another and wants to be together all the time. We get to spend time with both families, and it would have been easy to set things up so it all looks perfect with Biz’s boisterous family in comparison to Wyatt’s more reserved one. But we see the good and the bad in both family dynamics and how their relationships with their parents/siblings shaped both men. In particular, their dynamics with their fathers, and how it is affecting each of them as they look toward their own fatherhood. This isn’t a heavy story, but Karger gives some nice weight to this exploration of family and fatherhood and how it affects Wyatt and Biz.

But along with the heavier topics, this one is also just a lot of fun. There are funny moments and wild events and unusual encounters that keep the tone light overall. This is a fairly long story, but I was just so caught up in it all that I couldn’t put it down. I enjoyed following along as Biz and Wyatt find their way across the country and back into each other’s arms, and can definitely recommend this story.

P.S. Also, can we talk about this cover? Perfect tone, beautiful design, and it captures so many little details of the story, right down to the orange convertible with Matilda in the back.

A heartfelt, road trip, second chance romance between a gay couple who attempted to take one last vacation together before their new baby arrives only to have unexpected family drama come up that derails their plans and extends their road trip across the country.

I loved the dual POV, messy family drama, road trip shenanigans in this story and thought it was great on audio. Perfect for fans of Nicolas DiDomizio's Nearlywed. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: parental abandonment, MS rep, surrogacy

The Bump is a fun road-trip novel featuring a couple going across the country for the birth of their child via a surrogate.

Biz and Wyatt are happily coupled (although Biz would like it if they were married) and expecting their first child via surrogate. They decide to drive across the country (a babymoon) before he or she is born. While they love each other, things have been testy between them. Is it the stress of expecting a baby? Or are they falling apart? They hope this trip will get them back in rhythm. Both secretly fear they won't be a good father, but haven't shared that with each other (or other important facts about their lives).

This book was a 3.5 star book for me. There was plenty I enjoyed on their road trip, but the soon-to-be dads got on my nerves a bit, especially at the first of the novel. They almost seem like caricatures of "gay men odd couple from NYC" rather than more complex characters. I appreciated their growth throughout the novel, but I also will say there were times when I was skimming rather than reading whole passages.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!