Unexpecting by Jen Bailey

Juno meets Heartstopper in this poignant and emotional story about found family, what it means to be a parent, and falling in love.

Benjamin Morrison is about to start junior year of high school and while his family is challenging, he is pretty content with his life, with his two best friends, and being a part of the robotics club. Until an experiment at science camp has completely unexpected consequences.

He is going to be a father. Something his mother was not expecting after he came out as gay and she certainly wasn’t expecting that he would want to raise the baby as a single father. But together they come up with a plan to prepare Ben for fatherhood and fight for his rights.

The weight of Ben’s decision presses down on him. He’s always tired, his grades fall, and tension rises between his mom and stepfather. He’s letting down his friends in the robotics club whose future hinges on his expertise. If it wasn’t for his renewed friendship (and maybe more) with a boy from his past, he wouldn’t be able to face the daily ridicule at school or the crumbling relationship with his best friends.

With every new challenge, every new sacrifice he has to make, Ben questions his choice. He’s lived with a void in his heart where a father’s presence should have been, and the fear of putting his own child through that keeps him clinging to his decision. When the baby might be in danger, Ben’s faced with a heart wrenching realization: sometimes being a parent means making the hard choices even if they are the choices you don’t want to make…

I received this from the publishers and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Release date: August 22, 2023.

Oh boy…Let’s start from the beginning….In the synopsis it states its Juno meets Heartstopper. No, absolutely not. There is one part that could say Juno but it’s nothing like Heartstopper. I’ve read Heartstopper.

I’m not the biggest contemporary fan but I will give a book a try. Sometimes I do find some I like. This one was not one of those. I believe this is Jen Bailey’s debut novel. At least that’s what it looks like on Goodreads. You can tell. The story line is not unique. I didn’t care for any of the characters. They were very flat and boring. The story line seems like it jumped in some spots with no good transition. It was like one minute there was a conversation happening and then it would end and jump somewhere else and I feel like there was no conclusion to the conversation that was happening. I knew how this was going to end barely 50% in. But it does have a pretty cover. Some people may like this but it was not for me.

Rating:

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