⚠️cw: grief, trauma, TBI⚠️
I adored 'Josh and Gemma Make A Baby', so I was excited to read this next instalment. The book picks up on the eve of Josh and Gemma's wedding. Gemma is 8 months pregnant, and though she should be the happiest she's ever been, she's feeling out of sorts. The book follows their journey after their lives are turned upside down by a traumatic event, and they have to work to keep their HEA.
I personally loved the idea of reading what happens next because real life doesn't stop when you find 'the one'. I won't spoil the plot, but I must warn readers. If you're looking for a light, fluffy romance, this is probably not for you. That doesn't mean there aren't some absolutely gorgeous moments - Josh Lewenthal is as devastatingly swoon-worthy here as in the first book (I absolutely lost it at the nursery, the drawing scene, and the illustrations) - but this book is FILLED with drama, a lot of which broke my heart. I spent most of the first half in tears, which is a testament to the writing. Gemma wouldn't be Gemma if she didn't let misconceptions get in her way, but in fairness, she has a lot going on in this book. My small critique is that there's no mention of the birth, and I found the idea of Gemma being left alone early on a little odd. Still, these were small niggles. There's a subplot which involves Ian Fortune, and, damn it. I kind of... don't hate him anymore!
If angst is your kryptonite (it's mine), you will be treated to a deeply moving story about people dealing with a potentially devastating medical emergency, and the emotional aftermath as life and love have to be rebuilt. Heartbreaking but ultimately beautiful.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥
Emotional Rating: 💓😟🙈🥰💔😢💔😢🤦🏻‍♀️😬💓💔😢😍💓🥰

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to give an honest review on both the eARC, and Audiobook (which was read with such emotion by Erin Mallon)*
*** I have uploaded the same review to Amazon UK but am awaiting moderation***

Favourite Quotes:

“...I don’t want you to ever doubt that I love you. I promise you, as long as you’re here and there’s a sky above, I’ll love you. If you ever doubt it, just look up.”

“Everyone can say it’s meant to be when things are good. Being in a relationship is easy when there’s plenty of money, or everyone’s healthy, or everybody has a job. But when somebody gets sick, or you go broke, or someone’s in trouble, that’s when you know whether your relationship is built on sand, or something stronger.”

3.5 Stars Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around was a fantastic sequel to Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. Ever wonder what came after the proposal and the happy ever after? Real life, change, and challenges. 34 weeks pregnant with their baby, Gemma is about to wed Josh. At the altar Gemma suddenly falls ill and passes out. Gemma wakes up having been in a coma for the past three months and delivered her baby daughter, who Josh named Hope. She had developed pre-eclampsia and her coma was the result of the eclampsia. Josh never gave up his belief that Gemma would wake up and come back to him, but when she woke up Gemma wasn’t able to feel any emotions and accidentally blurted to Josh that she didn’t love him anymore. Battling a traumatic brain injury from the eclampsia, Gemma is determined to recover her ability to feel and fall in love with Josh again.

This was a wonderful story of recovery and second chance love. I loved the theme that love changes over time and due to unforeseen circumstances, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the effort. I also appreciated that there was no “magical” fix to Gemma’s lack of emotions, like kissing Josh. Instead, her brain overcame the TBI as it healed itself. I love Josh and Gemma’s love story!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of this story and how after finding love a person still has to put in effort and work because happily ever after doesn’t just happen. Josh and Gemma were sweet characters and I loved how they worked to keep their relationship and put in the effort needed instead of giving up.

The story had me hooked from the very beginning and I just had to know what happened. I really enjoyed that it was filled with every emotion you would want from a good book and I would love to read more.

I was super excited to read this book because the first one was so cute and charming. The very first chapter proved that the charm was still there. To be honest I contemplated not even finishing this book after and incident happened, but I am glad that I didn’t. The story actually ended up being really cute and I love Josh!!! This is a definite read if you are looking for more Josh and Gemma.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for providing the ARC.

A little over a year ago, I received an ARC of Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. I wasn't sure what I was getting into. The premise sounded interesting, quite unlike other rom-coms I've come across and it didn't shy away from the very hard topic of infertility.

I quickly fell in love with Josh and Gemma reading this book, their struggle with their blossoming relationship, and the added wrinkle of IVF. The book made me laugh out loud, made me ugly cry, and made me feel warm and hopeful about the future.

So when Sarah Ready announced that a sequel would be coming out, I was ecstatic. My friends and I lamented that after Josh and Gemma's struggles that we didn't get to see their family grow in the first book. The second book surely would bring that loop closed.

Well it did, but Ready completely subverted any expectations that I had for the sequel, and it resulted in one of the most beautiful, tragic, uplifting, and amazing pieces of fiction I have ever read.

I think I spent the better part of the book silently weeping as Josh and Gemma faced one of the most difficult hardships not just in fiction, but also in life. The way that Ready writes these characters and writes this story is nothing short of amazing, the way that she weave everything so seamlessly together, to draw emotion out of her readers, and make everything feel so warm and hopeful, even when the world has gone gray.

I've already re-read this book five times. You're not going to want to miss out on this book (or its predecessor), because it truly is a work of art.

Thank you to NetGalley, Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC, and the wonderful Sarah Ready for the Advanced Readers Copy of Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around. My Thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is given voluntarily.

When I read Josh and Gemma Make a Baby last January I immediately fell in love with Gemma. Her character was so sweet and feisty. She reminded me a lot of myself. When we were introduced to Josh, I thought he was an arrogant jerk, but the more interactions I saw with Gemma, he grew on me. and the ending made me fall in love with Josh. I knew this was a storybook couple. I didn't expect there to be a second book to their story, so I put one together in my head and played out their happily ever after. When I saw that Sarah was writing a second part to their story I was so excited. Little did I know she was going to jerk at my heartstrings and have me in all the feels with this one.

Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around was a beautiful story of love, determination, and endurance. It shows just how much love can survive if you have faith and don't give up. Josh is 100% my new favorite book boyfriend/husband. Seeing how he never gives up on Gemma and their family, even when she feels nothing is beautiful. He pushes through and wants to show her love. and in the end, love endures. don't let me spoil it for you. Pick up a copy yourself and see for yourself.

and Sarah Ready, all I can say is please keep the storyline of Josh and Gemma Going. I would love to see their life unfold and their family grow. One of the sweetest book couples ever!

When I saw that Josh and Gemma had a sequel I did a little happy dance - but wow! My heart wasn’t quite ready for this!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing.

Ups and downs.
Loving and then questioning.
Together then apart
This book takes an emotional toll on its readers. Joy punctuated with sorrow and then you think it’s going to be ok but more mess ensues.
It does work out ok but it takes the entire book to arrive at that stage.
I didn’t like Ian at any point in the book.

Thank you, Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC, Sarah Ready, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Keeping with the heavy theme like the first book, it touches on topics you don't really see in other Romance books. I will say that I was happy with where the first book left us and it could have been left there. However, I did enjoy this part of Josh & Gemmas story as well

Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around is the sequel to Sarah Ready’s romantic comedy Josh and Gemma Make a Baby. Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around is a more solemn story with weightier issues. The books must be read in sequential order.

Gemma Jacobs is an upbeat 33-year-old social media marketing professional living in New York City with her fiancé, Josh Lewenthal. She is pregnant with their much-wanted baby and is excited about her upcoming marriage. Josh is a laid-back, fun-loving, writer of a successful web comic series. He is thrilled to be marrying Gemma, his best friend’s younger sister who he has known for 25 years.

Unfortunately Gemma has a stroke during their wedding ceremony and is in a coma for 3 months. She wakes up a changed person and works to recover from her brain injury. Josh and Gemma’s lives are turned upside down, and their love and their future together are at risk. Gemma’s former boss and love interest, Ian Fortune, reappears and interferes in their relationship.

Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around deals with traumatic brain injury and its aftermath. Instead of “happily ever after”, the characters must fight to re-establish their “before” relationship. Gemma’s post-stroke experiences are very realistic, although her recovery occurs at warp-speed.

The story is gripping, and full of unexpected twists and turns. It’s definitely not a romantic comedy. There are multiple descriptive sex scenes, so the book may not be appropriate for all readers. All of the secondary characters from Josh and Gemma Make a Baby make appearances, so it’s nice to see their progress. I recommend reading this book, but be prepared for a roller-coaster ride.

I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and Social Butterfly PR for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5 stars (rounded up)!

Reading "Josh and Gemma Make a Baby" by Sarah Ready is a must if you want to enjoy "Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around" to the full extent. This book picks up right where we left Josh and Gemma, in love, pregnant, and ready to get married and have a baby. Unfortunately, there's a hiccup in their happily ever after. Can Josh and Gemma get back to the love they once knew?

This book is good! I thought it would be an unnecessary sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, but it doesn't feel like a sequel needed to be written. I think this is an entertaining read. Ready alters the course of Gemma and Josh's lives enough to justify its existence. She asks some big, big questions here. She's not afraid to go deep and pretty dark with what happens to her characters. This is a really tough read at times in terms of its content. I was not prepared for this plot at all! Made me hug my husband a little bit tighter! I was also not expecting to like certain characters who attempt to redeem themselves after what happened in the first book! What happens to Gemma and Josh really tests the bonds and strength of their love in more ways than one. There is a lot of talk about love, but what does love look like in the face of extreme adversity and trauma? If these characters had been even slightly less developed, this book would not work at all, but because of Sarah Ready's excellent depth of character from the first story, we grow and learn and adapt and relearn with Gemma and Josh along the way. It got me in the feels more than once! Things do feel like they wobble and feel a bit long in the middle-end of the story.

I also loved Erin Mallon's audiobook narration. She breathes life into these characters, does wonderful voices, and has fantastic emotion in her voice!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Ready, and Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

I want to start off by saying: I did not realize when I first asked for this from NetGalley that it was a sequel.
I loved it anyway.
I genuinely don't know that you need the first to read through this one. Some things, like the evolution of Ian's character, might be stronger with an understanding of the first. But honestly, the relationship between Josh and Gemma soars on its own.
I loved how messy this was. I loved the re-establishment of romance, I loved the 'love' that was found between enemies/friends, I loved that it used very non-tropey ways to bring two characters back together. I felt the tension was very real, and it took trauma and made it relatable. I genuinely enjoyed every second of it. I also thought the chapter titles being quotes from within the story was a clever idea: I kept looking for them and how they carried into the overall narrative.
I definitely want to go pick up the original now and see the start of something between these two characters, and see just how well it 'fits' with my version of them.

Josh and Gemma are about to marry when Gemma experiences an eclampsia-induced seizure. After three months in a coma, she's disoriented, and she's lost touch with her emotions. Her doctor says there's a good chance she'll make a full recovery. Yet Gemma isn't sure she can ever feel the love for Josh that she did before. Can their relationship survive?

This is a funny, poignant emotional novel that I loved as much as the first book in the series. Josh is patient and supportive with Gemma during her recovery. It's ultimately a joyful, uplifting story.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This was such a perfect continuation to the first book! There's that saying about how sequels are never as good as the original, and while that might be true in some cases, this book was definitely the exception to that rule. I never could have imagined how much I would love it.

I don't want to give away any major spoiler but, just FYI, the prologue starts with what, for all intents and purposes, is a death scene. Instantly, I was like WTF?! To say I was caught completely by surprise would be a gross understatement. I was expecting a few bumps in the road and a little turbulence in Gemma and Josh's otherwise fairytale love story. I should have known better. Their journey to love, happiness and a much desired baby hadn't been smooth and easy in the first book, so I genuinely have no idea why I expected something different this time around.

If this book managed to do one thing, it was to pull on my heartstrings like a virtuoso plucking a sorrowful melody off a violin. Again, I won't mention specifics as to not spoil anything, but because of reasons Gemma suffers a traumatic brain injury that primarily manifest as an inability for her to feel any emotions.

All of the feelings Gemma was not feeling? I was feeling them two-fold. Holy crap, it was heartbreaking. It destroyed me when she broke the news to Josh. First because she was mourning that loss and terrified of what it would mean for their future, but even worse than that, was how Josh loved her so much still. She felt awful not being able to reciprocate, having the memories of what that all-consuming love felt like, but not being able to conjure it anymore, no matter how hard she tried.

Part of the story was her coming to terms, adapting and learning to accept her new reality. Another big part was, surprisingly, Ian.

Bringing back Ian and trying to turn him into a sympathetic character was unexpected, but turned into an interesting part of the story that sort of ended tying everything together. As a year has passed since I last read Josh and Gemma Make a Baby, I didn't hold much of a grudge or negative feelings towards him. But I loved the role he played in this book, how he was given a backstory and turned into a fully fleshed out person instead of the asshole, vapid villain he was in the first book.

On that same topic, I would have liked to see more of her group of friends from the previous book. They made a few appearances, but after what an integral part to Gemma's story they were before, their absence was quite noticeable here. It felt kinda like Ian was the only emotional support system Gemma had throughout the whole ordeal, and while that allowed for some amusing plot development, it was still weird af. At the same time, her mom was a more prominent character this time around and it was both great to see more of her and have the chance to explore how traumatic events and illnesses aren't just hard on the sick person, but also on those who love them.

Josh was still too precious for this world, hiding his hurt behind big, carefree smiles, but seeing his vulnerable moments and emotional struggles and how childhood trauma still influenced his adult decisions was heartbreakingly amazing.

And while Gemma and Josh managed to find their way back to each other, my heart still feels heavy and light at the same time, because their lives were nevertheless irrevocably changed. They'll never again be the people they once were. But different isn't necessarily worse. Through the pain they found new and deeper ways to love each other. And that was so inspiring and heartwarming.

This story had no villain, and as such, it also didn't need a hero. I don't personally know anyone who's suffered from TBI, but I believe this was a very realistic approach to the topic (even if it was embellished with a little bit of book magic to add a rose-colored sheen to the bleakness of real life). Still, it stuck to its message that real life isn't a fairy tale, and magical kisses won't fix you up, and I can very much appreciate that.

In the end, Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around was a heavy, heartfelt, wonderous story of pain, struggle, hope and love. I believe all who've read and enjoyed the first book will absolutely adore this one

This book was SO adorable. I am reading the series backwards, but I liked this so much that I am not reading Josh and Gemma Make A Baby. Josh and Gemma are so cute together. Although their story is so unrealistic, it didn't bother me because they were just so cute. I loved being in Gemma's mind - learning and growing with her. I wanted to scream at both of them multiple times, but only because I wanted them to have that happy ending. It was a quick read and I was fully invested in their story, their family and their relationship.
Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy!

Gemma and Josh have known each other for ages. They got together in "Josh and Gemma Make a Baby". It might be good to have read the first novel, before starting the sequel.

So what happens after the Happily Ever After of the first book? Do Gemma and Josh get married and have their first child together? It's complicated.

Right when Gemma is about to say "I do". things fall apart.

Yes, the story is intriguing. Yes, I found some of it funny. Yes, I found parts of it not at all funny but frustrating. I don't want to spoil any part of the story here, but I saw the twists and turns coming from a mile off. One of the first twists should have been obvious to Gemma, but that would have made for a very boring story.

Let's say, when you ignore the obvious twist at the start, the rather weird 'medical' condition in the middle, this makes for an entertaining read, especially if you have read "Josh and Gemma Make a Baby" and liked it.

I listened to the audiobook, which was good. I am fairly certain, though, that I would have bailed on the book otherwise. It was just too predictable.

Josh and Gemma make a baby was one of my favorite books of 2022, with so much humor, heart, and steam, I quickly fell in love with the characters. So when I saw Sarah Ready was writing a sequel, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Many of the things i loved about the first book were present in the second book - which picks up right where book 1 left off. The characters are loveable and you can’t help but root for them. Sarah Ready’s writing is incredible and manages to hit all of the emotions - you’ll laugh out loud, you’ll cry, you’ll want to throw your book in frustration with the characters, and you might even blush over the steamy scenes. The array of emotions and how deeply you’ll feel them while reading this book is incredible.

However, the plot of this story was not my favorite. I’m not sure how many terrible things one couple can withstand, and the storyline felt so much heavier than the first. Because of that, I ended up not loving this book as much as the first.

Thanks to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for the advance copy.

I really loved this book! Immediately when I saw this was on #netgalley after finishing the first book in the series I knew I had to read it. The author does an amazing job of making you feel connected to both Josh and Gemma and their relationship. You are invested and want them to "win". If you love a good romance novel that is heavily character driven you will love this book. Recommend reading her first book and then this one. This will make you laugh, cry, smile, and just overall give you a good feeling. I can't wait to see more of what this author comes out with as I love her writing style and she writes in a way that makes you not want to put the book down. Thank you to the publisher and to #netgalley for providing a free copy of this ebook in return for my honest opinion. #joshandgemmathesecondtimearound

3.5 stars, rounded up
1. Definitely read Josh and Gemma Make a Baby first!
2. Without giving too much away, this is a different take on the "second chance" trope. It also has quite a bit of miscommunication/misunderstanding in it. If that's not your thing, you might want to skip.