I really enjoyed this! What I appreciated about Robinson's novel was how likeable and bubbly all of the characters were. Mila is a full-time attorney, part-time comedian in D.C. who decides to use the app Baby Bank to embark on a solo motherhood journey. Go figure that her romantic interest, Ari, just happens to be her sperm donor!

While I appreciate Robinson touching upon topics such as reproduction rights and gender, it sometimes felt a little too forced. Additionally, I enjoyed this being a quick read but I think there's a lot left unexplored (Ari's background, for example, is only superficially touched upon) and I would have preferred the chapters to include timeframes (such as 32 weeks, for example). Robinson made sure to include information in each chapter as to where Mila was in her pregnancy, but a visual cue would have helped my feelings of abstractness.

That being said, I love the theme of found family and the gaggle of characters supporting Mila on her journey, and I'm looking forward to what looks to be a continuation of these characters' stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mila uses an app to be matched with a sperm donor to get pregnant before her fertile clock runs out, only to find out his sister is the hot reporter she’s been dodging from work. The woman she can’t get off her mind. Nothing can go wrong.

I would say huge trigger warning for people trying to conceive. A 35 year old woman gets pregnant in one shot using an at home kit and sperm from a cup. It’s totally going to be triggering for any person actually TTC when it takes more than one try. That in itself really killed the book for me. She decides one day to have a kid and is pregnant about a week later. Milas character is bad, and selfish and makes poor decisions and she realizes and admits this but is no way changes.

It was cute and easy but actually covered really hard topics.

4.5⭐️

It was my absolute privilege to read this during Pride Month! Thank you NetGalley for offering this book in a bunch of LGBTQIA+ romances for Pride Month helping to celebrate queerness. And thank you for granting me access to this book.

I loved Baby Bank. It was well written, it’s a funny, sexy and smart story, and also touched on several contemporary issues including reproductive rights, queer issues and women’s empowerment!

What’s also exciting is that this is the start of a series, I can not wait to read more books in the Queerly Devoted series!

Mila Torres is a lawyer by day and stand up comedian by night who embarks on single motherhood. Enter Baby Bank app, where she’s able to source donor sperm. Somewhere along the way she finds herself pregnant to her sperm donor as well as in love with her sperm donors sister, Ari. Somethings developing between Mila and Ari at the same time Mila’s pregnancy is blossoming…

This book is about how Family is what you decide and what you make it, and that Parenting comes in all shapes and sizes?

This book plot was well developed, it has everything you would want to see in books.. The character know exactly who they are, they have such a strong female empowerment. The author define the world so well and the writing was so beautiful. I would recommend this book to anyone

Baby Bank (publication date 9/19/23) by Sarah Robinson, is a cute queer sapphic romance that hit home for me--the main character, Mila Torres, is a lawyer, and she wants to become a mother despite the fact that she is still a single bisexual at 35. With her multiple live-in friends assisting her swiping through a known donor app, she chooses someone who is not creepy--seems nice, and smart, even,

We find out that Mila's known donor is the brother of the journalist--Ari--that has been pursuing Mila for weeks for details about the divorce that she's been working on for a conservative senator. So there's some political drama woven in as well. And Mila has a side hustle--she is also known as Torrey Miles, stand up comic, throughout the DC area, because being a divorce lawyer is not funny at all.

Mila and Ari keep running into each other, though if they are seen together it could ruin Mila's career.. But Mila wants to see her, and maybe more, even though she might be pregnant with Ari's brother's baby? How do you date when you possibly may be pregnant? And you think you're in love with . . . the baby's biological aunt?

It is super-cute, hilarious, feminist, and sweet. All of the characters are lovable--Mila has both a found family and is close to her mother, who was a single mother herself.

There is, however, some anti-fat bias throughout, mostly in how Mila describes her weight gain through her pregnancy. I was disappointed that the author chose to include the anti-fatness and it wasn't caught in the editing process--it's otherwise inclusive, with characters of several different ethnicities. But it didn't detract too much from the overall story for me.

This concept was crazy, but a lot of it fell flat. It seemed like every plot that was being thrown around was half developed and never fully resolved. It was a quick read though which was nice, but other than that I felt pretty underwhelmed the entire time.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc for an honest review. I was drawn to the book's premise, but unfortunately, I found the execution lacking. The main character wasn't very likable, and their constant references to being a lawyer or in law school in the first chapter felt repetitive. The story felt to be all over the place and I found myself confused at times. Despite having a comedian as the main character, the humor didn't shine through, and I was disappointed that the love interest repeatedly ignored the MC's boundaries. Mila's friends were forgettable, and I couldn't be bothered to distinguish them. Despite being a short book, it felt slow-paced, but the spicy moments were a highlight. I really loved the idea of a book about a queer 34 year old deciding to get pregnant however overall there were too many let downs for me to thoroughly enjoy the book.

This book was kind of a bit far fetched but I loved it!! Yeah, it's highly unlikely that all of these very specific coincidences would happen to the same person in a short span of time but that's part of what I loved about. It felt like kismet at play.

I adored both Mila and Ari and would definitely be down to read more in this universe. This was a laugh out loud read that contained some very deep and universal themes that are very relevant today. Very deep and touching while still being able to give us some hilarity as well.

**Received ARC through NetGalley. Voluntarily reviewed**

Baby Bank is a hilariously fresh take on LGBTQIA+ romance and modern millennial life. Mila Torres, a successful divorce lawyer by day and a stand-up comedian by night, is living life to the fullest in Washington, D.C. But when her doctor's suggestion about freezing her eggs forces her to confront the ticking clock of her fertility, Mila decides she wants a child, and she wants one now.

This unconventional quest for motherhood leads her to the quirky world of online sperm banks, specifically the Baby Bank app. As Mila navigates the profiles of potential donors and swipes her way through the options, the story takes a comedic twist that is both unexpected and utterly entertaining. The humor and wit in the book are its standout features, making it a delightful read.

The characters, including Mila and her eclectic group of friends, are relatable and endearing. Mila's journey to find not just a sperm donor but also love is a rollercoaster of laughter, drama, and self-discovery. The surprise twist involving the sperm donor's sister adds an extra layer of complexity and intrigue to the story.

"Baby Banked" is a light-hearted and charming exploration of the challenges and joys of modern millennial life, encompassing career aspirations, dating dilemmas, and the quest for parenthood. The author's ability to infuse humor and heart into the narrative makes this a compelling and entertaining read for anyone looking for a unique and laugh-out-loud romantic comedy.

I loved the synopsis of this story and knew I had to read it. “Baby Bank” is a fun, sweet and emotional sapphic book that pulled me in with its great characters and was such a great read.

Mila is a lawyer living in D.C. and after a recent trip to the doctor, has her thinking about her future and if kids are in that future. After thinking about it, she decides yes and goes on the hunt for a sperm donor since she’s going to do it on her own. When one of her friends tells her about an app called Baby Bank, she finds her donor. While doing all of this, she’s being pursued by a reporter named Ari, who wants her help taking down a senator that is trying to pass a bill that is threatening women’s rights. And the two have another connection they weren’t expecting, Ari is the sister of Mila’s sperm donor.

The storyline is full of green flags and makes it even more special. It’s all from Mila’s POV so we get to see her learn and grow as she gets pregnant and realize that she has feelings for Ari. Mila is a pansexual and it’s so great that it had that kind of representation in the book. Hearts not parts. Mila grew so much in the book and I ended up admiring her and what she stood for. She wanted to be a mom and took matters into her own hands to get it done. And also being brave enough to stand up and make sure people knew about that senator. Ari was such a great character and I admired her for who she was as a person. The last few chapters were great and left me with a smile on my face. This is the first book in the series and I hope we get more soon.

I was chortling throughout my entire read of this lovely tale by Sarah Robinson. Mila and Ari's relationship was a joy to read. It touched upon many modern issues and was fire romance.

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the was the first book in a planned series.

Thank you to Books by Sarah Robinson and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

Where do I start with this?

I am so pissed off that I didn’t like this. And not because it was good and I had issue with some things. It’s because I love the premise and the story absolutely plummeted below expectation.

Mila, the main character, decides that she wants to have a baby after a visit to her gynecologist. She’s in her mid-thirties and always wanted a child, and decided that it was the right time to have one. She had a good job as an attorney, and a good support system, so she goes ahead with using an app to find a donor.

Turns out, the donor is the brother of the reporter that’s been hounding her for inside information about a senator she’s been representing.

I similarly want a child more than a significant other, and plan on having them on my own if I am not in a committed relationship by 30. So, obviously this book called out to me. The premise alone is fun because we don’t see a lot of this or a lot of representation of queer parents in a lot of books. So, when I was accepted to read this ARC, I went in rather positive.

At first, it was fine. I liked the first couple of chapters, albeit Tori Miles (her comedian alter ego) wasn’t the funniest. We’re just kind of told she’s funny because people laugh. I also liked how Mila and Ari (the love interest) initially are introduced to us. Ari’s hounding Mila for information on a senator who paid for an affair partner’s abortion while supporting an anti-abortion law. Since Mila’s on his divorce case, she has information.

From how they first interacted, I assumed that they were only ever cordial if that. They didn’t seem to really know each other and I was excited to watch their build up, except the pacing is poor.

The next time we meet Ari, Mila is giving her a flash drive at her show and at most, they’re maybe acquaintances but still seem like strangers. We haven’t seen any texts or other exchanges between the two. And then, we meet Ari again on the night Mila gets artificially inseminated via a sperm donor from an app that specializes in free sperm donations. Turns out, Ari’s her baby daddy’s big sister.

This all is fine. Again, their interactions are minimal and they are friendly with each other at most, and then, we meet Ari again.

Her step-son turns out to be her Lyft driver to Mila’s mother’s house and both he and Ari are invited in. While grabbing drinks, Ari follows her and they almost kiss because apparently, Ari’s been Mila’s crush the entire time even though we weren’t made aware of this until they almost kiss.

The rest of the story, the pacing was just…bad. They do the do a couple of times before Ari suddenly just wants to be friends and Mila doesn’t like that, so she throws a fit and they stop talking for a while until Mila decides to ask her out and Ari thinks it’s a good time to propose to Mila.

I genuinely could not have cared less about these characters. There was no chemistry and the proposal at the end made me laugh because they barely knew each other. On top of that, none of the characters were really fleshed out. Yes, Ari had a sad backstory, but all I know is that and that she’s a reporter. All I know about Mila is that she wants to be a mom and a comedian and was a lawyer until she got her license revoked for leaking information on her client.

Ultimately, the relationship, one of the main focal points of the story, fell terribly flat so it was hard to finish it. I find it interesting how in the acknowledgments how she mentioned that traditional publishing companies told her that the world wasn’t ready for her book—yes, it was. The pacing just bogged down the book and it wasn’t written very well.

I had a few other miscellaneous complaints about it, some other people have already mentioned. There was too much going on, for starters. A romance and a baby and a lawyer job and a comedian hobby. Pick two. Please. Too much is going on.

Also, the conversational tone of the writing pulled me out of the book sometimes, especially with how many em dashes there were—it reads like something I wrote when I first learned how to use one. I like them, too. But you have to use them sparingly.

The inconsistencies were glaring. One minute, Mila says she’s kind of small, and the next she’s having a crisis over lifting her belly flap during an ultrasound. She can’t figure out if she has a house or an apartment.

And lastly, there were just too many words. So much space was filled up with something a line editor should’ve axed. This book could’ve been several pages shorter because of how many filler words that were on the pages. Be concise. Please. Show, don’t tell. You do both.

While I’m mostly griping about this book, there was one aspect I found interesting and it was the attorney storyline. I really wish Robinson would’ve just picked that and a b-plot and navigated her way through that. It would’ve made a so much better story.

I hate being so negative and this isn’t a jab at the author. I was just really disappointed over something I wish would’ve been much better written.

⭐️: 3.5/5

Successful divorce lawyer by day, stand-up comedian by night, Mila Torres is living her ideal life, until she realizes that she’s approaching 35 and wants children. With no serious romantic prospects to speak of, she decides to go at it alone, using a donor from a free app, Baby Bank. All goes according to plan, until she finds out that her forbidden crush is the sister of her donor, and what was supposed to be an uncomplicated fertilization gets complicated really quickly.

Baby Bank is a quick, sweet, feminist read, absent a lot of the dramatics present in a lot of other romance books. It has great LGBTQ+ representation, and I really liked the emphasis on how family can be the ones you choose, not the ones you’re born into. I also really liked how there was visibility of all sorts of different attitudes toward motherhood and having children, and no single one was emphasized as the “right” way to feel. As for the book itself, the movement of time was a little bit hard to keep track of, since there were big time jumps throughout which made the story feel a little rushed, but at the same time definitely stopped there from be any lulls in reading. I’m not sure how sold I was on the romance, especially at the beginning, because (minor spoilers, continue reading at your own risk) if a reporter, no matter how hot or how attracted I was to them, basically stalked me to get me as a source, then ended up not being able to legally protect me as a source and that resulted in the loss of my livelihood, I would be SO pissed and would honestly never consider them as a friend, romantic prospect, or really anything other than the entity that I blame all future misfortunes upon. Anyway, maybe I’m just a grudge-holding bitter person. Lastly, what was with the disdain for NoVA by the main character living in DC? I grew up in NoVA and a lot of my friends work and live in DC, doing similar jobs to the characters in this book, and the disdain and discussions of “crossing the bridge” just…don’t, at least not in my experience. Still, such a cute book, and I live for a good HEA.

Thank you to @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sarah Robinson for this ARC.
Trigger warning, mentions of sexual assault, does not go into the details so really depends on an individual's sensitivity.
First in a series.
LGBT+ representation for both main and side characters.
Main character has a routine pap with her Doctor. Doctor suggests freezing her eggs or having a baby soon as she would be considered a geriatric pregnancy at 34 year old. She decides she wants a baby and wants one now, second parental unit be damned. However sperm from a sperm bank costs $12000 a pop. In comes baby bank to save the day! (and her wallet) It's an app just like tinder where men make up a profile and offer up their sperm for free. She and her friends have a viewing party, drinking and laughing going through these men's profiles, it seems like a good time. It is funny and fairly lighthearted for the first half but goes a bit deeper in the second. A really enviable and lovely relationship between the main and her mom. Slow build love story.

Sarah Robinson has written a funny book that I really enjoyed and told my reading group about. I will be reading further titles by Sarah and I’m sure they will be as good as Baby Bank.

I really enjoyed the fact that the main character was in her 30s and we follow her along on her fertility journey. I I don’t particularly find the romance aspect of the book. Interesting at all I do like the representation of queer characters and the journey that they have to go on in order to have a child, but other than that there was nothing that I liked too much about it.

4 stars
2 spice

I enjoyed this book. The plot of the book is that the Main Female Main Character (MFMC, she is the narrator) is pansexual and she wants to get pregnant and start a family. But she doesn't want to wait for a man to get pregnant so she gets sperm from an app called the Baby Bank. It turns out that the man she gets is from (who is a weird but kind sweetheart) is the brother of the girl that she has a crush on (the Secondary Female Main Character SFMC). But the SFMC has stated numerous times that she did not want kids, and this made me hesitant while reading because whether or not a couple has kids is something that should be decided on together and should not be compromised. But as it turns out the SFMC did want kids she just didn't ever want to be pregnant.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and the story. I loved the MFMC's friends and I am excited that it looks like they will be getting their own books too, which I will definitely be reading!!

3.5 stars.

This book was ambitious, which you can tell even from the description, with a pretty intense B plot about governmental hypocrisy and lawyer confidentiality, and i think it manages to juggle everything better than i would have expected!

The characters were solid for the most part, but i had a hard time with how much the friends of the MC really fell by the wayside as the book went on in favor of her mom and her new gf--this is a particular annoyance for me in books so i know it might not bother others as much! The book was a fun and quick read overall.

No spoilers but i did not like the reveal of Ari's character's backstory. In the absence of other discussion of that topic, it felt like a scare tactic.

I would definitely read another book by this author.

What a great story. If you enjoy a good book and want to see a wonderful HEA then I think you will appreciate this story. The whole idea is such fun and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

This story had such a unique plot and overall it delivered! I enjoyed the characters and the way their relationship built up throughout the book. I would've liked a longer book to build more depth, but I definitely recommend this book.