Adult, ARC review, book review

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby by Sarah Ready (ARC Review)

Title: Josh and Gemma Make a Baby
Author: Sarah Ready
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC
Date published: January 25, 2022

A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

New Year’s Resolution:
Have a baby
Preferably with Josh Lewenthal


Meet Gemma Jacobs. She’s driven, energetic, and a positive thinker. She has a great career working for famed self-help guru Ian Fortune, she lives in a cute studio apartment in Manhattan, and her family is supportive and loving (albeit a little kooky). Her life is perfect. Absolutely wonderful.

Except for one tiny little thing.

After a decade of disastrous relationships and an infertility diagnosis, Gemma doesn’t want a Mr. Right (or even a Mr. Right Now), she just wants a baby.
And all she needs is an egg, some sperm, and IVF.

So Gemma makes a New Year’s resolution: have a baby.

Josh Lewenthal is a laid back, relaxed, find-the-humor-in-life kind of guy. The polar opposite of Gemma. He’s also her brother’s best friend. For the past twenty years Josh has attended every Jacobs’ family birthday, holiday, and event – he’s always around.

Gemma knows him. He’s nice (enough), he’s funny (-ish), he’s healthy (she thinks) and he didn’t burn any ants with a magnifying glass as a kid. Which, in Gemma’s mind, makes him the perfect option for a sperm donor.

So Gemma wants to make a deal. An unemotional, businesslike arrangement. No commitments, just a baby.

To Gemma’s surprise, Josh agrees.

They have nothing in common, except their agreement to make a baby and their desire to keep things businesslike.

But the thing about baby-making…it’s hard to keep it businesslike, it’s nearly impossible to keep it unemotional, and it’s definitely impossible to keep your heart out of the mix. Because when you’re making a baby together, things have a way of starting to feel like you’re making other things too – like a life, and a family, and love. And when the baby-making ends, you wish that everything else didn’t have to end too.
 

⤖ My Review ⬻

I’ve never picked up a book with quite this kind of plot before. But as my fiancee and I are preparing to have children of our own, I found myself drawn to the pregnancy aspect of Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. I also really liked the idea behind the romantic aspects of the plot!

And I’m so glad that I came across Josh and Gemma Make a Baby, because it has been one of my favourite romance reads so far this year! Going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect since I didn’t come across the books through my usual channels, but rather stumbled upon it outside of the more mainstream ways I hear about books.

But Josh and Gemma Make a Baby was great! It gave me some Bridget Jones vibes and otherwise had a vibe all its own. I really felt for Gemma from the get-go. And I also really liked Josh from the start, and definitely understood why Gemma had had a crush on him for so long.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby made me laugh quite a bit at time, while also making me ugly cry at others. There was also more to the plot than I had originally thought and I was impressed with how it had all been woven together. I definitely recommend this one to those who enjoy pregnancy and discussions about fertility in their romance plots!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Sarah Ready writes contemporary romance and romantic comedy. Her books have been described as “euphoric”, “heartwarming” and “laugh out loud”. Her debut novel The Fall in Love Checklist was hailed as “the unicorn read of 2020”. She loves to write fast-paced, emotionally compelling romances about quirky, smart women and the men who love them. Before writing romance full-time Sarah had lots of fun teaching at an Ivy League. Then she realized she could have even more fun writing romance.

Her favorite things after writing are adventuring and travel. You’ll frequently find her using her degree at a dino dig site, crawling into a cave, snorkeling, or on horseback riding through the jungle – all fodder for her next book. She’s lived in Scotland, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and NYC. She currently lives in the Caribbean with her water-obsessed pup and her awesome family. You can visit her online at www.sarahready.com

⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let's Chat ⬻

Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you plan to? Let me know in the comments!

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