Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️

by Cara Bastone

And, yes, this is me telling you that this book about an accidental pregnancy is fantastic. 

Eve has carved out a life she loves in Brooklyn. She loves her small but beautiful apartment, has a job at a non-profit she believes in, and Willa (her best friend from home). After a very out-of-character one-night stand, Eve is shocked to discover she is pregnant. As the pregnancy frays at the edges of her friendship with Willa, sends the father into a personal crisis, and challenges every plan Eve had for her life, the one person who seems genuinely happy for her is Willa’s brother, Shep. From groceries to lunch deliveries, movies and talks, Shep’s unending kindness causes Eve to see the man she has known her entire life in a new way…while pregnant with another man’s child. Told over nine months, this is a beautiful story about how unexpected turns in life can bring unexpected joy and how love and friendship can transform your life. Like pregnancy, the emotions in this book grow more intense as Eve’s pregnancy progresses. 

This book is unique in that you aren’t rooting for Eve to get together with the baby’s father, but you don’t hate him either. He isn’t a villain in the story, he is a guy with a lot of shit to figure out, and you are rooting for him to do that. However, you will 100% be rooting for Shep (he might become your new favorite book boyfriend). You also grow to love Willa, as her emotional journey with infertility is tested when Eve stumbles into pregnancy. And finally, Eve is awakened to the reality of needing to find her voice and push for what she wants in life. It is an emotional journey for all characters, laced with humor and tenderness. 

I also realized I don’t hate this trope; I hate it when it is used as the third-act drama. Like the spectacular book Out on a Limb, this opens with pregnancy and develops a heartfelt story around it. That, I can get behind.