Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Ready or Not

Somebody call the Louvre cos we’ve got ourselves a masterpiece.

Cara Bastone is a genius. Her writing is gorgeous. It’s casual and simple while also immensely clever. It’s hilarious and raw and friendly. Ready or Not is your best friend telling you about their day. It’s your own stream of consciousness, guiding you through life, making subtle observations about inconsequential events and overthinking everything.

Eve is a badass. She is all heart, even when she thinks she isn’t, *especially* when she thinks she isn’t. Eve is love and bravery. She cares and she craves and she feels so much. I adore her. She is also hilarious. I can’t figure out if I’m more inclined to be her or be her best friend.

Shep and Ethan are two sides of a coin, opposite and yet so similar. Both men are in touch with their emotions. Both men are genuinely good. There were moments in this book that had me frustrated with Ethan but nothing ever made me doubt his integrity or his intentions. Shep is, of course, perfect. No notes. I hate saying that, but it’s true.

I love that Ready or Not is just a story of an accidental pregnancy and figuring out what the ever-loving fk you’re going to do about it. This is a book about dreams and friendship and found family. It is a book about accepting flaws, your own and those others. It is a book about honesty and openness. There are some really hard-hitting themes in Ready or Not, from infidelity to infertility, and all of them are handled with grace and respect.

I am over the moon to be able to go and read Cara Bastone’s entire bibliography.

Content Warnings

dianapiskor's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book, until about halfway through, really hooked me. Eve, finding that she is unexpectedly pregnant and the ramifications of that, was interesting… until a point. However, this was publicized as a romance book and there wasn’t a lot of romance in it. It’s more women’s fiction. That’s fine, but I need publishers to stop marketing them the same.

This book deals more with Eve’s, the FMC, growth as a person using her unplanned pregnancy to do so. Everything centers around this. What you think is going to be a romance ends up being Eve’s journey. That’s not what I thought I was signing up for. You’ve got this awesome character, Shep, who is supposed to be the MMC and this is their romance. But at the end of the day, there’s a lot of internal monologuing and their romance falls extremely flat because ITS NOT A ROMANCE.

This becomes abundantly clear around the halfway point and that’s when the story slows down. And that’s when my interest started waning.

Overall, the book was good, but it is mismarketed, which is frustrating to me as a reader. It’s not the author’s fault, but, ultimately, it impacted my enjoyment of the book.

Content Warnings

cc_shelflove's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Yup, this had everything I like in a romance novel. Adults telling each other what they want… we love to see it! Bastone did not include any of that ‘tiptoeing around our feelings’ bullshit. This novel was complex in that it centered around Eve’s unexpected pregnancy from a one-night stand. Will the biological father step up to the plate? What about her best friend’s brother, seemingly waiting in the wings to attend to her every need? For someone who hates all things babies and children, surprise!!!! I loved it. A Book of the Month selection that will surely be passed along to my friends and family.

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