Title: Ready or Not
Author: Cara Bastone
Narrator: Alex Finke
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication date: February 13, 2024
Print length: 373 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 50 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible
Rating:

Something about the plot synopsis for Ready or Not seemed right up my alley, just what I was looking for in a feel-good audiobook listen… and I was right. Ready or Not hit the spot, and I had a great time listening to this sweet, funny tale of unexpected pregnancy and unexpected romance, both of which happen in a very unexpected order.

Eve Hatch is in her late 20s, happily living life in Brooklyn near her best friend Willa, working in a job for a non-profit she really believes in, even though she’s stuck in an admin-level job without having the graduate degree needed to pursue the work she actually wants to do. As the book opens, Eve is at the ob/gyn office, waiting for official confirmation of what she already knows thanks to three home pregnancy tests: Yes, she’s pregnant. A hot and heavy one night stand a few weeks earlier (with proper protection) has led to this moment, and all Eve wants is to confide in her best friend.

Unfortunately, Willa takes the news very personally — she and her husband have been struggling with fertility challenges — and is not supportive. But fortunately, Willa’s older brother Shep is staying with her, and immediately jumps in to be there for Eve in whatever way she needs, including going with her to tell the hot bartender (a/k/a baby daddy) that she’s knocked up. Ethan (who, it turns out, is the bar owner) is thrown for a loop, especially since he’s in a relationship (they were on a break at the time of the hookup) and loves his girlfriend.

Ethan is an inconsistent, emotional mess, and Willa is trying to be there for Eve but is clearly struggling. It’s Shep who provides Eve with friendship, encouragement, and foot rubs; Shep who makes sure she has groceries and a shoulder to cry on. He’s a big, floppy, golden retriever of a guy, and he’s just so good you want to hug him nonstop. It takes Eve quite a while to realize that the boy she’s known since childhood means more to her than she realized, and even longer to figure out whether she’s really fallen for him, or if it’s just the pregnancy hormones talking.

Ready or Not is a sweet, engaging listen. Eve’s quirky sense of humor shines through, and her personal evolution over the course of her pregnancy feels believable, as she’s forced to take her life more seriously and figure out what she actually wants, not just accept whatever comes her way.

I press my ear to his chest and isn’t it so wild that you can go forever knowing someone and never really listen to their actual heartbeat until they kiss you behind a tree?

I enjoyed Eve and Shep’s relationship so much — they’re incredibly cute together, even when she’s being completely obtuse and taking way too long to realize how deeply Shep adores her. At the start of the book, we see Willa as somewhat selfish, but over time, it’s clear that she’s struggling to deal with her own pain while also trying to be the friend Eve needs in the moment. Ethan is hard to take — true, he’s thrust into a situation he had no idea was coming, but then again, so was Eve. His waffling and self-pity make him come across as unreliable and pathetic for a lot of the book, but eventually, even he gets a chance to improve.

My main quibble with this book is that Eve does absolutely no reflection about being pregnant at the start of the book. She gets the news, she goes to tell Willa, she reacts to Willa’s reaction, she deals with Ethan’s reactions too… but we never see her pause and consider whether she wants a baby, or what this will mean for her life. She tells Willa right away that she’s keeping the baby, which is a perfectly fine choice for her to make — but it feels as though we should have seen at least a bit of contemplation and consideration about what this big change will mean for her life.

The narration was mostly fun and enjoyable, although I found the narrator a little too over the top during the book’s one sex scene and in the labor scene — the auditory equivalent of TMI, if that makes sense. My other issue with the narration is that it can be hard to distinguish between Eve’s spoken lines and her inner thoughts — I had to rely on other characters’ reactions to figure out if certain things were said out loud or not.

Quibbles aside, Ready or Not is an entertaining, romantic story, and although the friends-to-lovers trope is practically everywhere these days, it still feels fresh here. The pregnancy element adds an unusual element to Eve’s relationship with Shep, and it’s nice to see how things work out with Ethan as well.

Check out Ready or Not when you’re in the mood for quippy banter, great chemistry — and lots and lots of descriptions of the main character’s baby bump!