I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone Published by Dial Books on February 13, 2024
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Women's Fiction
Pages: 373 •Format: E-ARC •Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn that’s close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, traditional family who has never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it’s comfortable and steady. She always knows what to expect from her life . . . until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.
The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, right when she needs her the most. And it’s actually Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help Eve. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is . . . suddenly kinda hot? Then, as if she needs one more complication, there’s the baby’s father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.
Up until this point, Eve’s been content to coast through life. Now, though—maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it’s the way Shep’s shoulders look in a T-shirt—Eve starts to wonder if she has been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.
Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone is truly a slice of life novel. Following protagonist Eve, I found the story to be a beautiful exploration of identity and the transitional space between pre-parenthood and motherhood.
The story takes a unique take on a pregnancy story. Eve becomes pregnant via a one night stand with a cute and charismatic guy she meets during a night out on the town. It’s a shock to her perfectly curated, if perhaps a bit too safe, life in New York, with her freedom and perfectly curated apartment and total devotion to her best friend. To further complicate matters, said BFF has been struggling with fertility issues for years, and is less than supportive when Eve breaks the news. She finds the most supportive person in her life to be her BFF’s brother, Shep, who she finds herself growing more and more attached to.
While there were some love triangle elements (and Eve’s dynamics with both Ethan and Shep were super different and interesting to ready about), I would argue that my favorite parts of this book were Eve discovering more of herself through her journey to motherhood. Her pregnancy not only forces her to lean into and examine her feelings for the two men in her life, but also to learn more about herself (what does she want the next step in her career to be, does she foresee herself staying in the city, her relationship with her brothers who are all much older than her, etc). At first I was hesitant as to whether I would be able to stand Eve as a protagonist (she’s a bit overly snarky in the first chapter) but I really felt like I got inside her brain and rode the waves of fear, excitement, anxiety and shock along with her through her pregnancy. This novel was truly a slice-of-life journey, and it did the rare job of making me feel like I got to know all of the characters well despite being a standalone novel.
I also appreciated the non-judgemental, realistic view of a millennial in Eve’s position. While she definitely has to make some changes to her life for impending motherhood, she’s not expecting marriage or forcing Ethan to be with her (that situation was messy and fascinating to explore) and isn’t shoe-horning her life into a specific mold now that she’s pregnant. In fact, Eve’s world expands a lot more over the course of her pregnancy, as it actually serves to strengthen her bond with her much older brothers (one of favorite parts of the book! So sweet!) and seeing how she explores her relationship with Shep while pregnant with someone else’s child might seem strange but actually felt tender and vulnerable. Eve’s pregnancy didn’t narrow her life, it made it much bigger and richer.
Overall: A tender, insightful, and vulnerable exploration of impending motherhood. I am definitely interested in checking out more of the author’s books in the future.
Tropes: Best Friend’s Brother, Found Family, Surprise Pregnancy, Love Triangle
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Goodreads Challenge 2024
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