Author: Sarah Ready
Narrator: Erin Mallon
Publisher: Swift and Lewis Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: January 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: 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.
My Thoughts: First of all, I absolutely loved that Josh and Gemma have known each other forever. Even though Gemma isn’t looking for any kind of relationship, I was rooting so hard for them to realize they are meant to be together. I also liked the other women in Gemma’s infertility support group and enjoyed how they weren’t just background characters. The author did an exceptional job illustrating the infertility journey for all of these women and I felt so much empathy and compassion for their struggles to conceive. I also loved Gemma’s family and how they have included Josh and made him a part of their family as well.
This is the first book in a two book series and you must read this one first. I went with the audiobook format and the narration was performed by Erin Mallon. I thought her narration was flawless, giving all of the characters vibrance, wit and charm. This story moves at a wonderful pace, giving me time to get to know all the characters. The plot was clear, concise and original. Though I am sitting on several books by this author, this is my first experience reading her work. I don’t know how she or her books have been overlooked for so long but I am looking forward to reading more and catching up with Josh and Gemma in the sequel, Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around.
My Final Verdict: I highly recommend this book to readers of contemporary romance stories that tug on the heart as well as tickle the funny bone.
Thank you to the publisher, Swift and Lewis Publishing LLC, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.
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