"You should always believe the universe is going to give you good things, because sooner or later, it will. "

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby was a very fun and exciting read. I didn't like it in the first moments, but the book ended up winning me over with time. I just fell in love with Josh, definitely my favorite character in this story.

But I couldn't connect with Gemma, in some moments it was excruciating to accompany her. Anyway, it was a fun read, but I would like some points to be different.
ps: definitely "pregnancy trope" is not for me. Thankyou to netgalley for providing me with an
eArc.

I so enjoyed watching the way Josh and Gemma’s relationship developed. Gemma’s journey of self-discovery as well as the way her perception of Josh (and Ian!) shifts kept my interest throughout. And the chemistry between the two in spite of her desire to keep things simple was fantastic. While it was a bit predictable, that didn’t detract from the story for me at all. And I also appreciated the way the author handled the IVF issues, something that doesn’t often come up in this genre.

Although I enjoyed this book it's a shame the author had to rely heavily on plotlines from Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding! I mean she's obviously a fan of that book but I'm sure she could have written her own plot.

Gemma's co-worker is same type as in Bridget Jones and her boss Ian is clearly based on Daniel Cleaver and her Mum has the same sort of parties Bridget's Mum has and her Mum is always trying to set her up with eligible bachelors. Her sister is always shouting at her kids in the middle of phone conversations with Gemma same as Bridget's friend does. Josh has a history with Ian that's similar to Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver (Josh punches Ian same as in Bridget Jones). Ian has a lady friend that is waiting for him when he's with Gemma and she has a mean put down of Gemma as in Bridget Jones.

That aside though, I enjoyed this story of Josh and Gemma although a lot of it was predictable. We don't get Josh's POV but I felt the author made it too obvious early on how Josh felt about Gemma.

It was an easy, lighthearted read even though it deals with IVF but this was dealt with in a humorous way that was refreshing.

I haven't read anything by this author before but I liked her writing style so I would read more from her.

Gemma is a 32 year old divorcée who’s struggling with infertility. She constantly spouts her self-help guru boss’s positive quotes and is ready to take life into her own hands. Josh is the boy-next-door, Gemma’s brother’s best friend, and a web comic author. When Gemma decides to undergo IVF, she asks Josh, someone she describes as a houseplant (always there but never noticed), to be her donor. Throughout the process Gemma learns a lot about life, herself, Josh and love.

I’ve heard a lot about this book and was excited to read it. I appreciate that it provided an inside look into infertility and the challenges that the women who are struggling with it face. The characters in this story are larger than life, and not necessarily in the best way. So many outrageous things happen, it didn’t really seem real. People (including her mom) are AWFUL to Gemma, at least in the beginning. All in all, I think that this story has the makings of a good RomCom, but not all the elements worked for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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.

I ended up not finishing this book. It turned out that it just was not for me! When I read the description I really hoped that I would like it and it would be a good fit for me, but it was not.

Gemma our protagonist is a 32 year old divorcee who’s done waiting for the right person. She dearly wants to be a mother and is now skipping the marriage part and thinking about making a baby. IVF is her only option because of her history anyway, so all she needs is a sperm donor. Enter Josh Lewenthal, her brother’s best friend who’s always been around since her childhood and who is the ideal candidate to be a sperm donor. The story kicks ahead from there on...

As characters, both Gemma and Josh were easily likeable. Gemma’s voice was solid and made the narration seamless as it’s a first person POV. I love how the author didn’t hesitate to go all out on the negative shades of her character as well, as it’s not something we usually see in a rom-com book. It only made her more human, so that’s a plus. Her internal monologues reflected well on the story and were the only indicators of her age. I’d say she was both mature adult and a gawking teenager through the story. But rather than taking it as an inconsistent portrayal, I just assumed it was who she was and felt fine about it.

Josh Josh Josh.. Of course, at this point I would say that all romance authors know the Kryptonite to crack our hearts and dangle it in front of us with characters like Josh. It’s criminal come to think of it. Josh is adorable, charming and confident and what makes him unique in a way is he stands up for himself in the relationship when it matters. He neither gets egotistic nor lets Gemma walk over him. He balances the line better than the usual romance or rom-com characters.

Their chemistry was awesome. It’s a slow burn book and every scene was a scoop of delight. They have history, Josh being her brother’s best friend, but the author didn’t over exploit that trope. I’d say she even subverted it a bit, since despite Gemma knowing him all her life, the question arises on how well she knew Josh as a person and not just through the lens of her brother’s bff and it was good to read it revealed.

I also liked the concept of little sketches shown in the book at each important moment. It felt like encapsulating their memories in a polaroid and it felt nice. I also liked some of the quotes that Gemma and Josh say, though some of them felt pretentious.

I loved all the other characters of the book as well - Gemma’s family, Josh’s father, Gemma’s friends, their partners and especially the kids! Kid voices, when done right, never fails to make me all gooey. They were adorable!

And finally, if you have been reading my reviews for sometime, you’d know how peeved I get when it’s a rom-com and there’s not a comical side to it! Honestly, I didn’t know it was a “rom-com”, so I was expecting it to be a pleasant romance book. And that’s when the comical parts clicked! It was very nice! There were many laughable moments and they didn’t seem forced either. I feel very happy about it.

Overall, am very glad that I read this book in the first week of this year! The timing of the book sat well with me since it had a sort of clean slate, new goals, full of hope vibe that I was in the mood for and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I’d definitely recommend reading this book and reading it within the month at that! Happy reading!

📕 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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I consider myself a member of the target audience of this book, seeing as I am a young woman who typically adores silly romance novels, Alas, this was a difficult read for me. The first few chapters were extremely strong and created some great imagery (describing Josh as an “octopus”, etc.), and throughout the story there were some romantic moments, but the vast majority of this book was so filled with plot conveniences and ridiculously inhuman character actions that it was almost laughable. I don’t want to spoil too much in this brief review, but I go extremely in depth in my Goodreads review on everything I found ridiculous about this story. Easily one of the most hilarious reading experiences I’ve had in a long time, but certainly not in the way the author intended.

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!