I've loved this book so much.
I was in a reading slump for several weeks and even if I read, I was slow and distracted.
Then I saw this book and I'm so grateful to Netgalley and the publisher to give me the chance to read in advance.
So, here is my honest review about it.
I really enjoy contemporaries, but the problem with them is that they're often predictable. Fortunately for me, this book is not one of them.
The story is quite simple, but the characters make the difference.
I devoured this novel because I couldn't put it down. It made me laugh so hard and at the same time I was captivated by Josh and Gemma story. There was so much tension, you can't understand until you read it (and you should, believe me). Multiple times I thought I was going to burst for frustration and, meanwhile, continuing to read, I found myself moved by their personal issues and got fond of their way of being, especially Josh. He cares so much and people often don't see his cheerful attitude is also a wall to protect himself from hurt. I silently fought for him to be finally recognized for the admirable man he is.
I had liked less Gemma, but I think it's because I can related with her more than I'm glad to admit. Being insicure and living with the fear you won't be enough for someone is something that lots of people struggle with, and the author was really good to portrait in her. Her insecurities, her mistakes, her lack of courage.. You want to smack her head multiple times, but it's worth to see her fall, understand and finally do something to fix things right. It would have been interesting to have more time to deepen her relationship with her siblings and her parents, but I'm happy to read a sort of closure in that too.
Great mention to the hilarious moments that made me fall in love even more with this book - I won't spoiler you anything but for who has already read it I'll just say "Toy Boy" and "koi pond". They were amazing and not forced, thing that made them adorable and a good interlude between more serious parts.
Plus, this novel focus on the IVF process lots of couples or single woman face to have a baby.
It's not excessively dramatic (and I really appreciate the lack of spectacularization) but at the same time it doesn't hide the frustration, the procedures, the pain women have to face as well as the hormonal changes they must endure. Sometimes it's funny to read, sometimes it's not but this is the point: this is life. It isn't always full of sparkles and fun. Having a baby is a great step and people who try IVF came from different paths and stories and deserve respect. This book gives them that. Carly, Hannah, Brook, Gemma... they show the reader different aspects of the same process and I'm sure lots of people will related with them. Recognize in them, also, and that's important, because we need to remember we're not alone.
At the same time, this book is full of hope, that spreads through all this amazing journey that I'm sad it has already ended. Great idea the use of inspirational quotes (you'll understand why during the reading) and I've adored the presence of drawings in the story!
In fact, it would be beautiful to have the chance to read Josh's web comic! I don't know if the author has some ideas about it but for me it would be really a great shot (or the opportunity to read about Josh and Gemma again. Maybe through Dylan's story? I don't know why but I'm very curious about him)!.

I can't wait to read other works from this author <3 Totally recommended.

#JoshandGemmaMakeaBaby #NetGalley

Well, this book took me completely by surprise! I didn't expect it to be quite as funny and as moving as it was, nor did I realise last night that suddenly it was past midnight and I had finished the book... Because I just couldn't put it down. As someone who is very familiar with hormone shots and IVFs I think the story perfectly hit all the emotions you go through during treatment; and, just as the author said at the end of the book, this is Gemma's story, and every journey is different. The lighter, hilarious or fairytale-like elements and the heartwrenching, heavier parts of the story were very well balanced throughout and all the side characters were great, too.

But ultimately this is about Gemma, a 32-year-old, divorced and single woman living in New York City, who can't seem to find anyone worth settling down with but on New Year's realizes that she really wants to have a baby. Even though the reason for her divorce years ago might have been her infertility. Enter Josh, the best friend of Gemma's brother, who has always been around "like a houseplant" and who - to Gemma's surprise - agrees to act as a sperm donor. Legal contracts are made and in the process of perhaps making a baby Josh and Gemma might become friends, too.

Ps. Loved the little drawings by Josh Lewenthal.❤

This was a sweet love story, but I couldn’t get past the way that other characters spoke about Gemma as being ‘dumpy’ and ‘pathetic-‘ even her own mother. What’s worse is that Gemma frequently agrees with this assessment of her character.
The majority of characters were very one dimensional, with little development. At various points it also starts to read like a Trying To Conceive forum, which is absolutely not for me.

This was a decent Rom Com that also tackled done seriously tough topics. The tone felt very much like books by Abby Jimenez.

▪️WHAT I LIKED:
- This book had great female friendships with wonderfully quirky and memorable female characters.
- There were complex family relationships that were well-written and realistic.
- There were a lot of very swoony moments which dragged a feminine sigh from me. And a seriously hot steamy scene.
- The infertility journey was well-written and felt realistic. Although, it really dominates the book.

▪️WHAT I STRUGGLED WITH:
- I found it wildly predictable. In the first scene I easily identified the *twist* revealed in the last chapter. And there is a side character that also has a *twist* that the reader sees from a mile away.
- The lead female is flawed, which is good for character development, but she was SO flawed and sometimes just downright cruel to those around her that I really disliked her.
- There are two scenes, that are meant to be the funniest parts of the book, that are so improbable that it takes the humor away. Strangers assaulting each other and destroying property with zero legal ramifications is just not happening. It's not funny to me if it's totally implausible.
- There is a bit of dialog in this book that is a heavily "borrowed" from one of the mist famous Rom-Coms ever made. It's so similar that I read the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS at the end of the book, fully expecting a shout-out to the original. But...no.

From JOSH AND GEMMA MAKE A BABY:
"When you realize you love someone and that you want to spend the rest of forever with them, you want forever to start right now."

From WHEN HARRY MET SALLY:
"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.."

So, this was an okay read for me, but with a fair amount of issues that I just couldn't get past. Others seem to universally love this book, so other readers may want to check it out since I am clearly in the minority.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a sweet, humorous romantic comedy about childhood friends in their 30s deciding to make a baby as neither of them has anyone significant in their lives, yet they feel times is passing them by and they want to create a child to love. Gemma sees her sister's four children and longs for her own, but is discouraged by her recent divorce and her devastating diagnosis of infertility. Josh has faced loss of family all his life, so he is eager to have one of his own, even though he has always been warmly welcomed by Gemma's family as her brother is Josh's best friend since childhood.
The plot, although predictable, is entertaining and descriptive and sometimes slightly steamy, creating a sweet story about unexpected love, loss, family and hope. As someone who has experienced the infertility journey, the descriptions are accurate, if somewhat more positive than they might be in real life. However I do wish I would have had a wonderful support group meet-up, as Gemma had (although would have preferred a better location!). The ending sweetly wraps up the story, giving a glimpse into all of characters' lives for the future. It was the perfect New Years read as it began with New Years and ended with New Years also!

Seeing some raving reviews on Bookstagram made me want to read this. I got it from Netgalley (thank you publisher and author!), and I can say that I get why people have been liking it so much.
This book has some of the funniest scenes and characters I have read. But sometimes it was also very poignant and heartwarming. I loved Gemma and Josh, and the whole cast of secondary characters.
It's just a very enjoyable book to curl up with.

my original goodreads review, when I finished this book at 1am after reading the last 70% in one sitting was "i almost cried WHY DID I ALMOST CRY" and that's the general feeling throughout this whole review. i've been struggling to put my thoughts on this book into words because i really want to do it justice. for starters, this book hit me a lot harder than I expected it to? i'm not looking to get pregnant or even thinking about children, but the way that gemma described the whole IVF process was so interesting, and helped me understand infertility and the emotional devastation it can cause. josh really felt like a huge question mark at the beginning of the book, especially because male characters in romance books have the tendency to be absolutely transparent (mainly with their romantic feelings for the main character), but he hid himself under layers of humour. it made all of this so much more real, because in real life, people aren't going to present the deepest parts of themselves just for fun?

this book got me so attached to the story and the characters. i don't know how else to describe it, but when everything went wrong for both josh and gemma at once, i was so emotional without even realising it. and when she threw the shoe (people who've read the book will know hahahah), I almost burst out laughing because it was so random (not in a bad way of course).

my one point of contension with this book was that, especially at the beginning, when you're not really 'in' the story yet, the illustrations have the tendency to break off that 'flow'. they're a really nice inclusion, especially with the little 'illustrations by josh' note at the end, but i think they would work so much better as one cohesive comic panel at the end, including the ~information~ from the epilogue.

this book still made me feel so emotionally drained that i lost several hours of sleep over it, so: read it!

First read of 2022 and it was a great one. I will first start with why I gave this book 4 stars. I really want to give this a 5 stars, but I was bothered by the way they mentioned Gemma’s (the main character) weight and how it was viewed as a bad thing to be curvy.

Apart from that, this romance is very important in my opinion. It talks about pregnancy and every struggle that comes with it and for that I think and hope people will read and enjoy it.

Gemma who has complications getting pregnant decides to try and have a child. As the title suggest she turns to Josh for it. I won’t give much away about why because that’s the fun part of reading this story.

Both Josh and Gemma are really funny yet very touching and struggle with a lot of things. I went from crying to laughing out loud in just seconds. Josh is a character I could really relate to throughout and I think everyone will love him. Gemma is also very lovable. I had a lot of second embarrassment bc this is still a romcom and it was amazing. There are a lot of positivity quotes and even though I’m not about all that it grew on me and I appreciated that.

All in all this book breathes positivity, lightheartedness but doesn’t shy away from sensitive subjects like grief or infertility. I hope this book gets the recognition it deserves. <3

What a fun romantic comedy - this story hooked me and I could not put it down. The author tackles the tough topics of IVF, infertility, and pregnancy loss in both a heartfelt and lighthearted manner, The romance between Gemma and Josh made me smile, laugh, and cry all in the same evening. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking out a witty romcom! You will be rooting for these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

📕 Book Review📕 Josh & Gemma Make A Baby- Sarah Ready (5 ⭐️)

Ever read a book and you can’t wait to tell all your friends to read it?? That is this book! I absolutely loved it. Every part. The quotes, the illustrations, and my goodness did I love Josh Lewenthal 😍 If the plot doesn’t reel you in I promise you don’t have a beating heart and seriously need to go seek medical attention. This book was hilarious and I have no regrets staying up until the next morning with the flu to finish it! Thank you so so much @sarahready for writing this and making room for different discussions and connections that so many women, men, and couples have, but are so rarely shared. The diagnosis, the IVF, the miscarriages, and the will to keep trying, even though.

Synopsis:
Gemma was 22 when she was diagnosed Stage 4 Endometriosis. Doctors said her abdomen looked like a grenade went off inside. She tried the marriage thing 10 years to be exact!! I quote, “I already rode the marriage boat, it tipped over, capsized and I nearly drowned.” She got divorced (the scumbag cheated spread eagle on their dining table!!) and she decided single ladies don’t need a man to have a baby (thank you science 🧬 🧪 🧫). Now at 32, she asked her childhood friend, whom she’s always fantasized about (who wouldn’t he’s a total stud), to give her his sperm for IVF.

this book was so good! i couldn’t put it down after the 40 percent mark. it's probably one of the best single pov romances i’ve read in a longgg time. sarah ready did a great job of showing what josh was thinking through gemma’s perspective. <spoiler>i loved the hints about Josh and his comics. I have to say it was kinda annoying how gemma just assumed he was a broke artist, even though he was taking care of his dad and was so disparaging to him for so long. </spoiler>

this book started as a light romance but got heavy at some points, dealing with infertility and parental death. despite the heavy moments, there were still so many funny scenes. another thing i liked about this book was the way the fertility aspect played out. it was super realistic <spoiler> despite it being so sad i was glad the miscarriage was included, with it being so realistic </spoiler> .

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed the "Soul Mates in Romeo" series and I gotta say that I wasn't disappointed! I loved Josh so much and whew when I tell you my heart broke those last few chapters but that ending was so cute. I really read this in one go because I could not stop reading. Sarah Ready, you have done it again!! I can't wait to read more books from this author. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The pining had me screaming.
Gonna be honest, the plot took a different turn then I was expecting, Going off the cover I thought Gemma would be pregnant for a large part of this book. That wasn't the case but I really enjoyed the direction this book went down. I couldn't get enough of it. My sinus cold made my eyeballs and brain literally sting last night but I pushed through to finish because I was enjoying it so much.
If I had any complaints it'd just be that I wish I could have seen Josh and Gemma being in an actual relationship a bit more but other then that I had a lot of fun!

Reads like a romcom, with tones of seriousness under the surface. Once this story started to pick up I couldn’t stop reading until the end.

TW: infertility, endometriosis, miscarriages, IVF procedures

This premise was a wild one! I haven’t read a book like this one before!

Gemma is a thirty-two year old divorced woman working for a self-help guru. She’s spent years and years looking for her Mr. Right, but after a disastrous marriage and even worse prospects, she’s decided that she doesn’t want the man — she wants a baby.

The whole premise revolves around Gemma turning towards IVF (in-vitro fertilization) to help her get pregnant as a single mom, but the idea of an anonymous sperm donor freaks her out. So she makes a list of all the qualities she wants to see in her baby, and only one person she knows fits that bill to the last letter — Josh, her brother’s best friend and a constant in her life for the past 24 years. (I say constant, but she knows next to nothing about him and what he does — constant in terms of quantity not quality, I guess!)

Josh agrees to be her sperm donor, but as she starts turning towards Mr. Wrong, she begins to realize exactly where her Mr. Right has been this whole time. The only problem…she doesn’t want to complicate this IVF process by pushing her feelings onto him.

To be perfectly honest, this book was hilarious in so many aspects — Gemma’s family is insane, her support group is unhinged and the dialogues and situations she finds herself in are like no other! The support group has people from very different walks of life, with very different situations in which they’ve all opted for IVF. But somehow, this insane group of puzzle pieces works out in their favour because they get great friends out of it.

Josh’s webcomic is an unpaid main character in this book, in which everyone in Gemma’s life talks and fawns over it and she just hasn’t read it at all in the past two decades. It makes sense that it all comes to a head with it, because there are hints that imply that there’s something Gemma needs to see in it. Also, I liked the little drawings sprinkled throughout!

I really felt for Gemma in the first half of this book, but towards the latter half, I was more confused than anything. It felt like we were taking leaps and bounds with her relationship with Josh in ways that you couldn’t tell how you got there? Somewhere, these events were disconnected enough for me to lose track of the Gemma-Josh train.

If you need a laugh-out-loud contemporary romance that explores the trials and tribulations of trying to enter an unconventional phase of life, then this is for you!

[Thank you Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC and NetGalley for providing this book to me in exchange for an honest review!]

"𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒐, 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓'𝒔, 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉. 𝑰'𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒆. 𝑹𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆."

𝑯𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕.

"𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒓. 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅."
_____________________________________

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25
Spice: 🔥🔥
Tropes: Brother's best friend, planned pregnancy, love triangle (kind of)
Triggers: Loss, infertility, miscarriage

Available January 25th!

I saw Josh and Gemma Make a Baby was available as an ARC and decided to read it. I'm glad I did because I enjoyed it and it introduced me to Sarah Ready!

As someone who doesn't have that "I have to have a baby" urge, I wasn't sure I was going to connect with this book. I found myself able to connect to the story and I was rooting for Gemma to become a mom. She was challenging at times as a character, but I felt like I related to her at times around her looks and how she holds herself back.

Josh is just a perfect cinnamon roll 🥰 It was so clear how he felt about Gemma and it was frustrating to see her be so oblivious to it. I loved him so much. His new years resolution was perfect.

This book had many funny moments, but also made me cry a few times. I thought it did a good job of talking about infertility and loss, which is still very much a topic that's not discussed enough.

This would've been a five star book for me, but I felt it lacked some spice/tension. I'm totally good with closed door spice scenes, and some of my top books last year had limited spice. There were moments, but I would've liked more. I wish we could've got some POV from Josh since we only got Gemma's.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. And thank you, Sarah, for writing this book!

I'm going to start off by saying that pregnancy tropes are not really my thing. I was quite hesitant to start this book but decided to give it a chance. Within the first 20 pages I was HOOKED!!! Gemma's voice is hilarious and so relatable, it was easy to fall in love with her immediately. I got STRONG Bridget Jones vibes but it didn't feel. like it was an outright copy cat of it. Josh was also one of those MCs that slowly creeps up on you. As I got further into to the book I found myself in pain over how much Josh was clearly in love with Gemma. There was some plot twists that were amazing and only drove the novel along. Also the group Gemma joins full of women also going through infertility was absolutely hilarious. I loved the life long connection they all formed. I am so happy I decided to give this book a chance and will forever be recommending it to everyone I meet. As we get older we forget to lean into scary things because of the chance of being truly, gut-wrenchingly, hurt. Gemma's journey through this felt incredibly personal and like I was going through it with her. Thank you to Net Galley for letting me read this!

This was pretty much exactly what I was expecting from the description! Gemma is in her early 30s, has been divorced for a while, and learned back in her 20s that she was infertile. She's always wanted a baby, and she decides to go it alone through IVF. When she first meets with the reproductive endocrinologist, he asks if she has a partner and she blurts out that she does, though she really doesn't. She decides to ask her older brother's best friend, who she's known for years and to whom she lost her virginity 16 years before. He ultimately agrees, and through the process they actually become friends, and then maybe more. I liked their relationship, and this was a very quick read - a nice balance of heavy topics (infertility, loss, grief) and fun, light banter.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby follows the journey of Gemma, a thirty-something divorced woman suffering from infertility, and Josh, her brother's best friend and the guy who's been a "houseplant" in the background of her life since she was young. Lacking any boyfriend prospects but really wanting a baby of her own, she asks Josh to be a donor for her upcoming IVF cycle.

I grabbed this ARC because I was enchanted by the premise, and thought it would be a fun read. Which is was, for the most part. It was a cute, predictable, brother's-best-friend, slow burn romance. But here's the thing: I really wasn't a fan of our heroine for large parts of the story. She has some really unlikeable qualities. She's extremely self-centered and judgemental, which are not qualities I think lend themselves to being a good parent. Speaking of parents, it's kind of easy to see where Gemma gets her judgemental side from, because her family is awful. On the surface they seem loving, but the non-stop fat-shaming of Gemma goes unchecked and unchallenged for the majority of the book, and from what I can gather she's not even really fat. They also bemoan her lack of a boyfriend and it seems like the entire town knows about the condition of Gemma's uterus. I doubt Gemma told anyone other than her family about her endometriosis, so that means the people who are supposed to love her the most blabbed her business to anyone who would listen.

For the most part, I think Gemma's IVF journey was done well. I've never had fertility issues so I cannot speak to the veracity of her experience, but it seemed like an honest portrayal (except for the part about being able to schedule an appointment with a fertility specialist online for the very next day - ummmmm...no). Although it does seem a bit unrealistic that she would embark on this major medical procedure with very little forethought and research. I mean, she seems surprised at the first support group meeting to learn that many IVF cycles fail. That really seems like basic information someone should know before committing thousands of dollars to an invasive medical procedure like this.

So in a nutshell, your enjoyment of this book will probably depend upon the degree to which you are willing to suspend disbelief on a number of fronts. If you're good with overlooking some flaws in pursuit of just being entertained by a sweet love story, you'll probably like this book. I recommend it for anyone looking for a romance with a unique storyline and a happy ending.

CW: infertility, pregnancy loss, death of a parent, fat shaming

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been a long time since a book made me feel this angry and in love at the same time. On one hand, I LOVED Josh. He has been added to my ‘men from books I’ll never stop thinking about’ list. On the other hand, I really hate Gemma. Let’s start with Pros...
Pros:
Josh.
Funny moments
Josh’s secret
Josh
JOSH.
Con:
Gemma’s crappy attitude
Gemma’s head being so far up her own butt
Gemma’s head being so far up Ian’s butt.
IAN!
Ok... so I have less to say than I expected. This book had soooo much potential and I really liked the moments Josh and Gemma had alone, walking the city and eating pizza. Ian’s storyline was so dumb and unnecessary and made me truly dislike Gemma. This is the kind of story that really needs that dual POV to help readers not only connect with the characters, but to give the author a chance to give more depth to the plot. There were so many topics brought up I would’ve loved to see tackled and resolved, and most just ended up completely brushed over and I don’t feel like we ever truly get to know Gemma or Josh.
2 stars for Gemma, 5 for Josh so let’s meet in the middle and say 3.5