Ready or Not Book Review

Despite this book being over 400 pages, I consumed it very quickly and it was definitely what I would call “candy”. It’s so sweet it’ll give you a toothache. This isn’t a hard criticism. I like to use these types of books as palate cleansers after reading a heavy book.

This rom-com of a novel stars Eve, a New York City transplant from the midwest looking to make a career in the nonprofit world saving animals and their habitats. While she’s working for her dream nonprofit, she finds herself stuck in the entry level position she intended to use as a stepping stone to her dream position. In her personal life, her childhood best friend, Willa, lives a short distance away from her. Eve is typically a creature of habit, but a deviation from her regular nightly routine upends her whole life.

On the surface, Eve is boring. However, as the book progresses and her backstory is revealed, she becomes slightly more interesting. It’s not until she develops a backbone that she becomes truly likable. While I must admit to being annoyed by her meek personality in the beginning, I ended up really appreciating the woman she turned out to be.

Eve’s deviation from her routine leads her to a bar where she meets a charming and irresistible bartender named Ethan. The two hit it off right away and spend the night together. Weeks later, Eve finds out that she’s pregnant. Shocked and scared, she turns to her best friend for solace. Unfortunately, Willa doesn’t react the way Eve expected her to and Eve walks away from Willa disappointed. Fortunately, Willa’s brother, Shep, steps into the role Eve wanted Willa to take and supports Eve throughout her pregnancy. With her hormones on overdrive, she develops feelings for Shep.

The predicament that Eve finds herself in isn’t uncommon and it does make for a good story. Where does she go from here? Does she end up with the baby’s dad, with Shep, or does she raise the baby on her own? This type of adversity opens up a world of possibilities for the story. Unfortunately, the meat of the story could have been better in my opinion.

There were several conflicts throughout the story. I found Ethan’s conflict over wanting to be a father and Willa’s conflict over her feelings towards Eve’s pregnancy to be the most compelling. I felt like there was potential for a riveting conflict between Ethan and Eve, but it sort of fell flat as it was written. The conflict between Ethan and Eve could have even led to a thrilling conflict between Ethan and Shep.

While there was a bit of conflict between the boys, it was resolved fairly quickly and in such a cheesy way (spoiler: think bromance). The conflicts surrounding Eve and Shep (yes, there were multiple) felt miniscule compared to the bigger conflicts in the story. There was a feeling of inevitability around Eve and Shep that made the tension between them almost nonexistent.

Eve definitely gets a “happily ever after” ending. All of the conflicts are resolved and Eve gets everything that she wants. While a happy ending is par for the course for a romance book, there were just some parts of the ending (spoiler: namely the bromance between Ethan and Shep) that were a bit too cheesy for my taste.

On the whole, Ready or Not was a decent romantic comedy novel. While I do think there were a lot of missed opportunities with the novel, I enjoyed Eve’s character development, her journey navigating such a drastic life change, and how quick of a read it was.