Gemma is such a fun character who takes us through her becoming a mother through sperm donation and IVF. The sperm donor ia her brothers beat friend and before she knows it feelings are sparking and things are moving forward. I truly enjoyed this story!

I wanted to like this book but I felt it was hard to get through.I was slightly bored and felt myself checking out and forgetting what was happening in the storyline. I wanted to like it, but it was a solid 2 star romance.

This loved this book so much. It goes through the struggles of miscarriage's and IVF treatment, the ups and downs that come along with it. The happy moments, the sad moments, I loved following Josh and Gemma through their journey, I loved it all. i would highly reccomend this everyone.

This is a rom-com with a new trope as the female lead wants to have a baby through the IVF method and the donor is his brother's best friend.

I don0t usually find romance entertaining, I need a little bit of smut or comedy for me to finally enjoy a romance story, but even though this one doesn't have too much of any of those, I ended up enjoying it for the most part.
I disliked Gemma, our main character 90% of the time, but apart from that, the novel was quite entertaining.
Also, I liked how the author treated the infertility of the main protagonist. You don't usually see stories like that.

I don't often love romance books. I'm always more likely to give a romance book three stars or less, but I keep reading them because sometimes I come across something like Sarah Ready's 'Josh and Gemma Make a Baby'

I loved this book from start to finish. I loved the relationship between Josh and Gemma. I loved the emotions and the flaws of the characters. I loved that the romance. I loved the group of friends she found.

I just throughly enjoyed the entire book and I'm super excited the read the sequel.

When I requested it I thought it would be a funny book that maybe would represent us that struggle with infertility. But I forgot about this book until now when I decided to go read reviews on it and the things that I read were horrible so I wont be reading it. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

I just couldn’t get through this book at all. I’m not sure if it was the writing style or the plot or something else, but I didn’t make it very far. Maybe I could find another book by the author I would like more, but this one just wasn’t for me.

Josh and Gemma make a baby! What a doozy this one was. I totally felt for Gemma and so glad she found her happy ending! This was a super cute read!

Looking forward to reading the next one. I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well written and the plot had some laugh out loud moments. Glad I read it.

I was excited for this book, but I was let down by the writing and some issues with the characterization, or should I say how the book tells a character. Apart from Gemma being so annoying, I noticed a lot of stereotypes in this book, which was enough to make me DNF it.

This was definitely a read that I enjoyed thoroughly! The characters had such development that really brought you in to see who they really are. With their quirks and mannerisms it was hard not to see them as real people and think you are just seeing everything as their friend from a single point of view.

Sarah Ready is one of my absolute favorite authors and I am so glad I got the opportunity to listen and read to this beauty. This was one of the books that played like a movie in my head as I read it, and listened. This was a tandem read with audio and e-book, and the audio was phenomenal. I really liked the narrator and what she had to author.

I honestly don't think that I could have loved this book more! I am so beyond excited to be able to continue with this story line in the upcoming release!

I absolutely loved this book! Sometimes all you need for a little pick-me-up is a chick lit read, and this hit the spot perfectly. The premise was great (two people having a baby together for the sole intention of having a baby, sans romance), and Sarah Ready delivered it well. The main protagonists were both very likeable, and the way the story was written made me feel very invested in the outcome. I'll definitely be looking out for more books by Ready in future.

I absolutely enjoyed this rom-com. I was captivated immediately and couldn’t put it down. It was funny, and, at times, heartbreaking. Gemma was flawed yet relatable and Josh had me swooning. I adored the quotes and illustrations throughout and felt that the storyline was unique and refreshing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for my review copy.

This was the first romance that I’ve read after a long term break. Why? I don’t know. I’ve been reading so many romances that they seemed the same after a while so I laid back on the genre even though it’s one of my favorites. But then I read the synopsis for this story and it checked almost all my perfect romance boxes and there we go.

Even though this might’ve classified as friends to lovers, I don’t think it really truly is. While that’s one of my most favorite romance tropes-and one of the reasons why I picked up this book- Josh and Gemma weren’t friends to begin with. There were more acquaintances through their families. Josh and his dad have always been around for Gemma’s family, and except for a little fling back when they were teenagers, Josh became only Gemma’s brother’s best friend for years. They haven’t kept in touch enough to warrant for this to be a friends to lovers story.

The story is really cute, that’s for sure. It’s also funny. There were some parts where it made me laugh out loud. Also, there were some emotional stuff going on too, that may or may not have made me cry. The romance was cute, some scenes between the hero and the heroine sexy, some I couldn’t decide what to feel for. It was easy to figure out some of the things in the story, so easy in fact, I doubt the author meant for them to be a twist in the end but who knows. But in the end, this was an easily read, cute romance between two people who decide to have a baby first, and fall in love later.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️/5
Tropes - romcom, Brother best friend, planned baby?/IVF

This was a really cute romcom that I read very quickly. There were lots of laugh out loud moments that I loved, there is loads of banter and cute cheesy moments.

This was okay, i never really felt the romance angle from Josh but he seem like a nice guy. Just seemed to happen a bit slow then super fast.

Note: I received a NETGALLEY ARC AND AUDIO in exchange for an honest review.

Note 1B: I will not be reviewing Josh and Gemma the second time around - because this novel was barely enough to stomach. Same goes for the audio.

Note 2: This is a duet for now. This is the first novel. Josh and Gemma the second time around, releases Jan 26th 2023.

Triggers: ivf failure, miscarriages, bodyshaming, infidelity, pregnancy mishaps, death.

What can I say about this atrocious novel that won't make me wish for it's self combustion even more?

Honestly. I expected a lot more from this novel.

Considering one - it's a sarah ready novel - and I loved her previous novels. Two, it touches on sensitive issues like pregnancies and other crucial situations that happen to women/transwomen,intersex etc. Three - because the title was damn hilarious.

Did I get any of the above remarks right from this novel - Answer no.

This novel was so atrocious and horrible and gosh darn I expected better - that I cannot, cannot put a positive spin on it even if I wanted to.

Gemma for one sucked as a character - she was a doormat to everyone who mistreated her - family, relationships. But was a selfish, judgemental bitch to those who cared - Josh, her IVF group friends. Plus such a hot mess and disorganised and ignorant - like she could've adopted a kid, she could've done it with an anonymous donor, so many other ways to have a kid. Her personal life was such a mess - that it made me have sheer headaches and of oh god when is this going to end? Newsflash it didn't end sooner.

And also she wanted to have a kid with a familiar face - let's just get one thing clear - Josh is not a familiar face - she had a hookup with him one time, and that was it. Otherwise all they did was say hello at family functions. Having a kid with someone familiar means, asking someone from your own family, a close friend - not an almost perfect stranger - like Josh was. So yeah sorry but the first half of the plot was completely absurd. More on how the second half of the plot went to shit later.

Secondly - Josh was pathetic. That was it. He reminded me of Ross from friends - yes I hated friends, sue me- the way he keeps pining over Gemma and never tries to solve the backstabbing that happens to him from someone else, ages ago. It's pathetic. And it made the romance even more unbelievable when she finally acknowledges everything that he does for her. His overly charming behaviour also tended to get on my nerves at times.

Plus he said no to her - when she asks him initially - but then on a sudden 360 twist - he agrees to be her donor friend. Like what the hell? Where is the consistency here? It all seems to have vanished somewhere. And also a vibrating iphone? WTF? God...I needed more bleach for that scene than ever.

The other characters sucked as well - they are all judgemental, superficial, and suck in growth, until towards the end. Like I get this was also a bit of self discovery, but my god were they caught up in their vain problems so much and being pregnant for the stupidest reasons imaginable. I couldn't tolerate it. Plus her family is irredeemable - and she lets them use her for no reason, for no actual caring oh wow, awesome no worries reason. Instead they humiliate her (reference to triggers), and she STILL HELPS THEM!

The romance was unbelievable - no development, no slow burn, no nothing. All she does is date losers, then one day like Isaac Newton gets hit on the head with the knowledge Josh likes her, loves her. That's it. That's the origin of the story. They're both losers, and Gemma deserves Josh, who is also pathetic. I honestly thought they were better off as friends. That is all.

Her pregnancy issues - are never addressed. She never considers adoption, no anonymous donor, no surrogacy, no nothing. Sigh. All she does is whine about asking Josh to be her donor, you'd think a woman who can run a company successfully for her boss could also run her personal life, but cannot, ladies and gents. Her pregnancy issues are not taken seriously, not even by her. So really, this is dangerous for women who read this novel, if they do, and think it's okay to be this thoughtless, uncaring, and robotic in the name of a miscarriage, ivf problem, etc.

Overall, this novel was a complete disaster, even with the half sweet ending.

Nothing sold me on this story, everything was terrible. The character development especially hurt, because wow, I dared expect better from the protagonists themselves. And the romance too. Sigh. Plus touching on the heavy topics. Completely glazed over, no care whatsoever.

Wow, you really disappointed me, Sarah Ready. I hope you know that, with this mess of a novel.

Gosh.

I really enjoyed reading this one! I honestly didn't expect the heavy theme throughout but it was the perfect complement to the cute romance. Although the cheesy quotes/sayings were a little much at times, I am definitely looking forward to the sequel and see these two as parents.

I loved this book so much!! It had be laughing out loud numerous times. It was just the right type of read for the end of the year and to pull me out of a book slump,