Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. I enjoyed the premise of Josie at cross roads as newly divorced and pregnant and reuniting with 2 high school friends. Their pact to improve each of their lives and their journey was enjoyable to read. I loved Kevin and wanted more of his story. I wanted more love story between Josie and Ben to be more believable. Overall, a fun story.

I adored this story! I love the friendship Ben, Kevin and Josie shared. I liked the pact they made to help each other grow. I liked how the drama was kept at a minimum and it more so focused on all the good they had.
I enjoyed reading! It kept me smiling

This book grabbed me from the first minute. I was so enchanted by the off-beat story. It of course has the sweet rom-com tropes (we all love them), but this had so much else going on. I love that there are genuine and deep platonic cross-gender friendships, you don’t seek that as much as I would like in books. I highly recommend it!

ARC READ


I loved this story. Jose's life is a mess and to top it off she's single and pregnant and ends up bumping into her high school crush and best friends, they make the best pact and end up living together to make their life better.

I laughed so much throughout this book, Kevin is hilarious especially when hiding from Noel 😂😂

This book deserves five stars all day long!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Add this one to your tbr if you like:
- clean romance
- found family
- second chance romance

To really set the vibe, be sure to keep "This Love (Taylor's Version)" on a loop for the entirety of your read.

We meet Josie as she discovers she's pregnant and the only logical comfort food is the fried goods at the fair. While there, she bumps into her two best friends from high school, Kevin and Ben. They realize they've all been floating through their twenties and none of them are particularly adept at being a successful adult. They make the "Corn Dog Pact". Three goals, all designed to make them grow into the kind of adults they want to be.

I loved the friendship between these three. The support and love for one another and being able to pick up where they left off in high school, it was amazing. They made a melting pot of a home and it worked for them. The slow burn rekindling of feelings between Josie and Ben was heart warming. Kevin and Izzy made the perfect comedy team and kept everyone on their toes. Josie's meddling mother somewhat earns her redemption, but I was ready to fight her for the majority of the book. I appreciated that Josie stood her ground and kept her boundaries with her ex, while moving forward for their childs sake.

This really was a light hearted read that hit on some very real feelings for younger adults who may feel like they don't have it all together. That's okay. You have time. Time to figure out a plan and to make it happen. To the Corn Dog Pacts everywhere, cheers.

4.5/5

Josie Hale's life is falling apart. She is pregnant and caught her husband cheating with his co-worker. She has no job and is in a tight financial situation. At the country fair she runs into her two best friends from high school. Ben hates his job and has a shaky relationship with his eleven year old daughter. Kevin is living with Ben and hates working for his Dad in an executive position. Even worse, he messed up and lost his girlfriend. The three form a Corn Dog Pack. Josie moves in with the guys. Living together creates their own problems. Not really a romance, but a book about different relationships with family and friends. Food and humor plays a very important part in the mix.

Poor Josie. Life has fallen apart after fleeing Chicago upon the disastrous end of her marriage. To top it all off, she now has a baby on the way as the result of a last ditch effort to salvage her relationship. Running into some old high school friends ends in a Corndog Pact and the chance to get her life back under control.
With a mix of humor and a relatable series of unfortunate events, Stephanie wrote a heroine I wanted to root for. Josie deserved all of the good juju and the support found in Ben and Kevin. Definitely would recommend to all of my women's fiction - with a side of a second chance/unrequited love romance - loving friends. Additionally, I cannot wait to dive into all of the fried foods at a local fair this summer.
I both read and listened to an advanced copy. The narration is great and done by Sophie Amoss. She brought Josie to life.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for the advanced copy and Dreamscape Media for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale is certainly a slow burn second chance romance. Then lets throw in many humorous moments and a unplanned pregnancy. End result? A funny, quirky and laugh out loud story. Though admittedly a somewhat unbelievable story but, it certainly will keep you engaged.
Definitely loved all the characters! Loved getting to know Josie, Ben and Kevin.
Perfect book to read at the beach or by the pool.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Cw: Cheating (past relationship), divorce, pregnancy, fatshaming related to pregnancy, gender essentialism, discussions of child custody, teen pregnancy (side characters)

While I enjoyed the writing and the premise of this story promised so much, unfortunately this book stated it was about body autonomy and being open minded. Unfortunately this was written from a very specific view point, pro-life, with very heteronormative and gender essentialist leanings. Especially with what is going on in the news now it was disappointing to see this still being characterized as an open viewpoint. I do hope the crack the whip line was caught before publishing as well.

Steam: 1

Josie has a craving for greasy fried food. The only place available in her town is the fair. Shes hoping she won't run into anyone she knows. And of course she does. Her best friend Kevin from high school and Ben, her former high school crush. They end up talking about life and their struggles as adults. They make a pact, the Corn Dog Pact to get their lives together. Ben needs to have a better relationship with his daughter and Josie needs to get her life together. After finding her husband cheating on her and then she finds out she's pregnant.

This book was so cute and I loved the banter between the three friends. How they bettered each other's lives.

Josie Hale has split up from her husband and moved back in with her parents. Unfortunately, in an attempt to reconcile they got together one last time and now she's pregnant. Oh, and her parents have announced that they are selling the family home and moving to a condo so she is about to be homeless. Walking round the county fair Josie bumps into Kevin and Ben, two old school friends who she hasn't seen for years.

After the three of them commiserate over how bad their twenties have been: Kevin works for his father's insurance company, which he hates; and Ben got his girlfriend pregnant at nineteen, now he has an eleven year old daughter who he only sees once a month, they enter into the Corn Dog Pact to improve all of their lives, financially, professionally, and romantically, by the time the last of them turns thirty-one.

I see that this was meant to be funny, but all I could think was that three thirty-year old adults were living like a bunch of teenagers, eating badly and drifting through life aimlessly. Heck it even took Kevin to tell Josie she couldn't eat or drink certain things whilst pregnant. To make it worse, Josie is supposed to be a teacher - how did she and her husband live before she left him? Also I don't quite understand how they all started saving money when they earned no more than previously and clearly hadn't been spending money on anything substantial previously.

Maybe I'm just too old but this really didn't do it for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale is a great read! Getting divorced, jobless, pregnant and living with her parents is not what Josie saw for her life at thirty. But she also couldn’t have predicted her hormonal craving for a corn dog from the fair could offer her the opportunity to turn it all around. With old friends, a new home, her baby and The Corn Dog Pact she is determined to get her life back on course no matter what it takes! This is a very cute read and I have a feeling many ladies can relate to Josie in more ways then one.

This book made me smile SO HARD the whole time I was reading it. The premise easily could have been so cringey and forced, but it was such an easygoing read. It was perfectly paced, full of heart, and honestly did have me laughing. Josie, Kevin, and Ben are all so sweetly written that you really can’t help but fall in love with all three of them.

Getting divorced, jobless, pregnant and living with her parents is not what Josie saw for her life at thirty. But she also couldn’t have predicted her hormonal craving for a corn dog from the fair could offer her the opportunity to turn it all around. With old friends, a new home, her baby and The Corn Dog Pact she is determined to get her life back on course no matter what it takes! 🍕
This is a very cute read!

The storyline caught my interest, but my expectations were let down. I stopped reading at 13% DNF. I'm not a fan of the writing style it doesn't hold my attention.

******************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley.*******

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Very much enjoyed this book, recommend it.

I liked this one ! Easy read and a little too long. But overall okay 3/5. Thank you NetGalley for this arc

The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale is a fun second chance and found family read that you won't want to put down. I just had to know what Josie, Ben, and Kevin's crazy "Corn Dog Pact" would lead to. It all starts at a farmers market where Josie goes to get a corn dog and leaves contemplating living with her old high school friends (one of which is also her high school crush).

In their thirties, their lives haven't gone as planned with divorce, debt, and family struggles. But, these friends know how to push each other and make each moment a fun filled one. Definitely recommend, if you want to get lost in a fiction read that will have you laughing and crying. The ending was so cute as well it.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale by Stephanie Eding in exchange for my honest feedback. Divorced and pregnant Josie finds herself alone in adulthood until she runs into two old friends. Ben and Kevin invite Josie to move in with them and each create a pact for self improvement. Through the story they continue to grow into better people and they start to depend on each other. This was a life learning journey for the three of them but in the end they all find love.

This was a cute book but wouldn’t necessarily call it a romance. It’s more about Found Family. It left me with a little bit of a sad feeling.