Josh and Gemma Make a Baby
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.
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0What an utterly sweet read! This was so enjoyable. It was fun but then it sucker-punched me too and had me ugly crying (quietly) at two in the morning, trying not to wake my husband up.
The story follows Gemma; a witty, likeable 32-year-old who's getting a little sick of her mother's attempts to set her up with a new date at each family function.
And they're getting older, too. Since Gemma discovered during her first marriage in her early twenties that she had endometriosis and wouldn't be able to conceive naturally, and since she's now in her 30's and still single, her well-meaning but misguided mother is of the opinion that she needs to set her up with older men who have already had, or just never wanted, children.
Gemma, on the other hand, ain't having none of it. She's taking matters into her own hands. After all, she doesn't have to be in a relationship to have a baby. She can try to conceive through IVF, she just needs a little something from someone and decides she knows just who to ask.
Josh is described as a laid back, relaxed, find-the-humour-in-life kind of guy. At first, we only have Gemma's description of his character to go off. She's known him most of her life, made her mind up about him years ago, and hasn't really paid attention since.
It got a little bit frustrating at times to see how blind Gemma was about not just Josh's character, but other things too. I guess in some ways it's fun to be more in the know as the reader than the characters themselves but Jiminy Crickets! Open your eyes, Gem!
My only other criticism is some of the scenes felt a little slapstick in their attempts to make me laugh. I already found both main characters funny, I didn't need the physical comedy. So this is the only reason it wasn't 5 stars for me as otherwise I really, really liked it.
I feel like people who loved [b:The Friend Zone|41945163|The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1)|Abby Jimenez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553782196l/41945163._SY75_.jpg|65437442], or heck, even good ol' [b:Bridget Jones's Diary|227443|Bridget Jones's Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)|Helen Fielding|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558869586l/227443._SY75_.jpg|3185154], would really enjoy this book.
Hope it makes you ugly cry, too (in a good way).
4 Stars ★★★★
ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
0The IVF aspects of the book are by far the best. They give a look into an aspect of family decision making that's not usually discussed, especially in rom coms. The overall plot is interesting more so in concept than in excision, however, which is a but of a bummer.
My main issue with this book is the sources of conflict. First, there's this whole side where Josh won't tell her he's liked her for years - but I can't tell if we as the audience are supposed to be surprised. Also, why does he like her? It's never said and she is shown to have been a dick to him. I do appreciate that they have at least some history but their chemistry is conflicting imo.
The second point of conflict is her relationship with her boss. He sucks and nothing about him is surprising and I find his subplot entirely superfluous. His pages could have been used to further flesh out the relationship between the leads or give more depth to the FL in regards to her life goals or *something.*
Finally...there's the stupid recurring double in the fertility office. I don't like using the word stupid as a descriptor but they were nearly book ruining for me. They were in two (rather long) scenes and I almost just skipped those completely. They're not funny and they just made me uncomfortable in an awkward and cringey way.
The last critique I want to give this book is that the title is...unfortunate. I don't really want to have this title on my shelf just due to the fact that it lacks any sort of subtlety (kind of like the book in a lot of ways). I get it's maybe a bit tongue in cheek but it sounds more like a pregnancy how-to than a novel.
Overall, I wanted this book to be something it's not. It didn't entirely fail - I was entertained for a few hours - but it definitely needed some refining.
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