Ready or Not

February is here: it’s the month that romance is on everyone’s minds. While I enjoy romance books year-round, there’s something about this month in particular that makes me crave a profound, thoughtful, (and yes, funny) love story. When Ready or Not crossed my desk, I just knew it was going to be that something special.

At the start, Cara Bastone introduces us to a classic career-driven woman in New York. Eve is constantly seeking more valuable work to land her dream position at work. Her world is flipped upside down, though, when a one-night stand leads to an unexpected pregnancy. It’s a complicated situation, as one could expect, in more ways than one. Eve’s best friend, Willa, has been trying and struggling to get pregnant herself and takes the news hard. On top of that, the father is…conflicted about the news, to say the least. Overwhelmed by the mounting stress in front of her, Eve is in desperate need of support. She finds an unexpected confidant in Willa’s brother and slowly starts to see the man she’s known most of her life in a new light. Throughout nine months of calibrating her life to this new reality, Eve finds levity and love in someone she never would’ve expected.

This is a love story that scratches every itch—a passionate, slow-burn romance with amazing chemistry that makes you think along with swoon. This February, pick up Ready or Not. You’ll fall in love with the characters while they fall in love with each other—and there’s no better way to spend this month of romance.

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.