Ready or Not

I've been a fan of Cara Bastone's audiobooks/audio plays on Audible for awhile now. I love how her audiobooks include a cast of narrators and background sounds which put the reader right in the heart of the story.

Ready or Not is Bastone's latest book and it's a heartwarming, easy contemporary fiction listen with some late stage romance that includes the accidental pregnancy, childhood friends to lovers and 'he falls first' tropes.

This is a slow burn romance with some spice. The pacing slows even more in the middle, but I appreciate how the author shows the different stages of pregnancy and the complicated emotions and issues that are raised when soon-to-be parents who aren't together try to navigate their relationship.

I was surprised that (for me anyway) the heart of the book isn't the prospective parents, Eve and Ethan. It's actually Shep, the older brother of Eve's BFF who is sweet, devoted (pretty swoony) and clearly overlooked by Eve.

This book had humour and heart but not quite enough of each for my tastes. It's a decent story but also kind of forgettable. I'd recommend it to contemporary romance audiobook lovers, but I feel that Bastone's earlier work is stronger.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Cara Bastone

Genre: Romance

Type and Source: eAudiobook from Audible.ca

Narrator: Alex Finke

Run Time:  10 hours, 50 minutes

Publisher: Audible Originals

Pub Date: February 13, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life-changing revelations in this heartfelt, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance of found family and unexpected love.

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.