Book Review: Josh and Gemma Make a Baby

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Josh and Gemma Make a Baby

Author: Sarah Ready
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Released: 01/25/2022
Review Source: Netgalley

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.

I don’t usually gravitate towards romantic comedies, but Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a wonderful book which brings to light tough topics without making me feel heavy and I enjoyed every second of reading.

Gemma has known Josh for decades. He’s her best friend’s brother and she grew up with him, although she never considered Josh a friend. Gemma decides that ten years after her marriage failed, she can’t wait to have a baby. The clock is ticking and with her infertility, Gemma can’t afford to keep waiting for the right man (who she’s convinced doesn’t even exist) so she’s going to make a baby by herself.  She asks Josh to lend a helping hand and donate his sperm, he agrees, and the rest is history. 

I thought the interactions between Gemma and Josh were so wonderful. Gemma has such a kind heart and my own heart ached for her during her battles of infertility and trying to find her happiness in a town where everyone knows her business and has an opinion on her life. I will admit, I wanted to give her a good, hard shake sometimes when she failed to see what was right in front of her (cough, Josh, cough) but it was an entertaining journey of discovery. 

Gemma and Josh are friends-to-lovers/brothers-best-friend but their relationship is much more than that. Their compatibility was off the charts. They were always there for each other during the tough times, making sure the other was okay and trying to put a smile on their face. Their journey to acquaintances to madly-in-love was a steady journey and one not to be missed. 

Overall, Ready handled the topic of infertility with grace and care, and she really did the topic justice. Erin Mallon was a perfect narrator for the book and was a brilliant addition to the novel. This is my first novel by Sarah Ready and after my audiobook finished, straight away I added the rest of her novels to my Goodreads account. Josh and Gemma Make a Baby is a brilliant book.