Is it a romance? Is it women’s fiction? Is it coming-of-age? Like some of the best romance (see Jane Austen), Bastone’s latest, Ready or Not, is a romance and definitely a story about the heroine’s growth. (If there was less emphasis on a lovely romance, it could be WF, but thankfully, not.) Most importantly for readers of this blog, it’s really really really good. I’m thankful to a newfound ability to stay up past my bedtime because it gave me several hours of uninterrupted reading time. The fact Bastone’s story is wittily and well-written with wonderfully nuanced characters and good pacing to the HEA kept me from snoozing.

Ready or Not‘s opening captures the reader thanks to Eve’s wry voice. Eve Hatch is at an obstetrical clinic waiting to find out if she’s pregnant, convinced she is, given the three positive home tests. From that scene onwards, we watch Eve transform physically and emotionally: is it the pregnancy? In a sense, yes, it makes her rethink and re-evaluate her life and I loved that her decision to keep the baby (though abortion is discussed as a choice, which I also appreciated) doesn’t make her world sparkle with the fairy-dust of *heart eyes* saintly motherhood. It’s damned hard and Eve often messes up with the people who love her: her best friends, Willa and Shep Balder and the baby’s father, Ethan Rise (frankly, he’s a nice guy but he messes up way worse than Eve). What Eve realizes as the pregnancy proceeds and relationships shift is how she has shortchanged herself. More importantly and significantly, because pregnancy is irrevocable, Eve realizes she’s been “stuck” in certain patterns, ones she must break to make a fulfilling life for herself and baby. For a novel whose plot is growing a baby (her name ain’t “Eve” for nothin’), it sure kept me riveted. Why? Eve’s voice and her relationships as she navigates pregnancy and figures out the future.   

Once again, I’m disappointed I can’t quote from Bastone’s romance because what will capture the reader is Eve’s funny, self-deprecating voice and jaundiced-eye view of the world. But she’s also good at understanding, observing, and analyzing the world and people around her, though she’s never quite sure of herself. An intelligent heroine? Bring it on. The first hint, early in the novel/pregnancy, is when she tells her best friend Willa, who reacts somewhat selfishly. Though Willa comes back from that and is supportive and loving, we don’t know exactly what has brought these two to this point. Once we do, near the due date, things are much clearer.

This is Bastone’s strength, no one is a villain and no one is a hero (well, Shep comes pretty close because, hey, ROMANCE); characters are three-dimensional, likable in many ways and yet, realistically flawed. Eve’s brothers come across as distant and yet, they’re wonderful by the end. It’s not them, it’s how Eve sees them. As Eve matures in her understanding of where the people in her life are coming from, she also gains in self-understanding. And not in a pop-psych way. Because she’s smart, but stuck in some ways, nothing heart-stoppingly tragic, just everyday-this-would-be-better-if-it-would-change way. Like her reevaluation of her job, which has as great an HEA as the HEA.

And speaking of HEA…well, it’s marvellous and subtly twisty in the best emotional way possible. First, there is the baby’s father, Ethan Rise, a one-night-stand encounter, a nice one, warm, friendly, sexy, fulfilling, but out of character for both. Eve is no “secret baby” mama; she seeks Ethan at the bar where they met and tells him she’s pregnant within days of confirming at the clinic. He cries; Ethan cries a lot and there be good reasons, but I also found it endearing. You’d think, with romance convention and cliché the way they are, Ethan would be hero-in-the-running. I loved that Eve has the desire, but not the cause, or emotional investment. She doesn’t know him and he doesn’t know her. This is so beautifully, realistically portrayed.

No, the romance narrative lies elsewhere and its development is a thing of beauty. It’s too delicious to spoil and because it’s definitely slow-burn, each reader should experience it in all its glory. Let’s say the cover does one lovely moment in the romance, justice. Like an aw-worthy moment. The working out of Eve’s relationships, with co-workers, family, friends, as well as her own sense of who she is and who she wants to be, are handled with humour, humanity, and subtlety. I absolutely loved it. There is QUITE a realistic rendering of birth-giving, but as dénouement, it’s as perfect a twist to the baby-filled epilogue as you’ll ever read. It’s during the fact, and in the fact, and after the fact. It’s not trite, or sentimental, but heart-felt and not-quite-beautiful in the details, but beautiful in the results. If you read one romance this year, make it this one. With Miss Austen, who’d have loved Bastone’s novel, we say Ready or Not is proof “there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” Emma. (BTW, Bastone wrote three fantabulous category romances for Harlequin, you should read those too.)

Cara Bastone’s Ready or Not is published by Dial Press and releases today, February 13th, a perfect Valentine’s Day present to yourself. I received an e-galley from Dial Press, via Netgalley. This does not impede the, note please, AI-free expression of my opinion.