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Hello sassy people! Today’s post is about my newest favorite book: Josh and Gemma Make a Baby by Sarah Ready! Thank you, Sarah and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!
One of the cutest, most heartfelt books I’ve ever read. This managed to give me everything I wanted while, at the same time surpassing all my expectations, and I had high expectations.
Josh and Gemma Make a Baby
by Sarah Ready
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.
Genre: Romance, ARC
Publisher: Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC
Year: 2022
Nº of pages: 366
Goodreads rate: 4,08
Tropes: Brother’s best friend, Cheating Ex, Divorced, IVF, Infertility, Pregnant, Small Town Romance
Smut factor: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 4/5 (steamy)
TRIGGER WARNINGS (Based on StoryGraphs): Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Emotional Abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual Content, Terminal illness, Vomit
Main characters: Gemma and Josh
Main conflict: Gemma wants to have a baby and in her head, Josh is the perfect guy to be the sperm donor, he is healthy, he is a good guy, the is good looking and smart, while also being someone she is not in the least interested in being in a relationship with. Gemma is going to have to face many things in her journey on baby-making, including standing up for herself, learning to not judge and make preconceived opinions about people, and loving herself the way she is, she learns a lot about love and positivity, even when life is not a sea of roses.
Pacing: Medium
Mood: Amazing, Deep, Delicious, Important, Sweet
Hero: Book boyfriend, Delicious hero 🥵, Sturn Brunch Daddy
Plot or character-driven: Character Driven
P.O.V.: Single P.O.V.
Character development: Deep
Read in: 2022
My Rate: 5/5
I have to say, this was my first book by Sarah Ready and Oh my God, I think I found a new favorite author. This book was AMAZING. It made me laugh, made me cry, made me swoon and be mad, I had all the feelings! But in an extraordinary way. Some books make you cry and leave you in a fetal position on the floor, but this book is not like that, it shows you the hard realities of life, but it builds you up again, it gives you hope again, and when you finish it, there are only good feelings.
One thing I did miss was Josh’s POV, I would love to have his POV, but I also understand the author’s choice, and it worked really well. Being in Gemma’s read was incredibly interesting, and it was so real, she had a complex mind, and I believe many people, myself included, might have related to her a lot. This book was deep but soooo sweet, it handled heavy topics, but in a funny and light way, and I honestly think this would give an amazing movie, I kept thinking about this during the book.
Feminist rate: 5/5
This book deserves 11 stars! This is the kind of book I’ve been saying is necessary. This is a prime example of one of the jobs of the romance genre, sharing, in deep, heartbreaking detail, a struggle so many women go through, but nobody talks about it. It shows us all the parts, the good and happy parts, the funny parts, the uncomfortable parts, the bad and sad parts. This is a book that teaches us so much, empathy, respect, friendship, and especially love, not only romantic love, all kinds of love. Infertility is an experience I hope to never have, however after reading this book I believe I understand at least 1% better what these women go through, I believe I felt 0,0000001% of the pain they do and experience some of the happiness by the end too.
And I loved that I was not only about infertility, Gemma and Josh are complex characters, with many issues to work through like self-acceptance, body shaming, past traumas, grief, prejudice, toxic positivity, feminism, and the “role” of the “modern woman” in society, what a normal family is, so many important subjects are handled here, with so much care, it’s incredible (and just a small note, this book unleashed a huge argument in my house about traditional families, religion and God’s wishes, which was, to me, a great reaffirming opportunity)
To me, this is the greatest thing about romance, we get to feel pain, fear, and loss, but there is the promise of a happy ending. This is a safe space to feel all these emotions, and at the end of this book, I only felt happy and refreshed. I think I’m rambling too much, but this is also something this book does to you, makes you think about life.
Anyway, loved it, it is one of the best books I’ve ever read, will forever have a special place in my heart and my recommendations and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.
Recommend this to Anyone who is not afraid to cry, laugh, and swoon all at the same time, who is willing to learn and reflect on life. Also, anyone who loved All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover, the themes are similar, but the books are different in their writing, their mood, but not the lessons they teach, but you won’t be destroyed at the end of this book as it happens to me at the end of every Colleen Hoover book.
If you want to buy this book, it is now live on Amazon. You can also add it to your shelf on Goodreads and see what other people thought about it!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3m7VbER
Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/JoshandGemma
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/33SbsbM
Amazon Hardback: https://amzn.to/3AgLgDH
Nook: https://bit.ly/3kSqV1p
Nook Paperback: https://bit.ly/3Ild3Wd
Nook Hardback: https://bit.ly/3AfQjnK
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3D0rT22
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3unQZ7G
Amazon Audible: https://amzn.to/3FPHOku
Add Josh and Gemma Make a Baby to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3kSrkAT
About Sarah Ready
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
Connect with Sarah
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PVEe4j
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3wt7D6B
BookBub: https://bit.ly/3wtATKA
Website: http://sarahready.com/
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Well, that is all for today, I hope you like this post, hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Feel free to leave your opinion about it in the comments and I will see you next time!
Bye sassy people!
- I know that some comments I make about decent guys on my posts are the bare minimum a guy should do, so no, they don’t deserve to be treated like gods for doing the minimum, but at the same time, I’ve read a lot of sexist books and I appreciate authors who make characters that can serve as role models and examples of how a decent guy acts and what a loving and respectful relationship looks like. I believe we should always encourage these authors and bring attention to the ones that still write sexist characters and stories.
- I make a lot of comments about sexism and healthy role models in books, but a lot of times these characteristics don’t make the book a bad book and definitely don’t make the author a bad author. Please never shame these authors and these books for these comments, I simply feel that we need to have awareness of the less than ideal situations some books bring us, and not use the romanticized problem as examples of what a relationship should be. Most of these authors are still amazing, and the content they write doesn’t reflect directly with their personal views and opinions. Always make sure to respect and be kind to everyone, even while criticizing their content.
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Meet Me
Brazilian architecture student and book lover
One of my goals in analysing my readings was to talk about important topics, like feminist and consent, because literature, art and culture influence us, and I believe we should always encorage authors who talk about this topics.
Come check out my Goodreads Reading Challenge!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2020
I read 148 books in 2020, come see them!
