This inspired by the chat thread I have with my friend Tom, who I’ve been trading recommendations with for a while now after he read Red, White and Royal Blue and wanted more! I’ve been working on it for a while, but as yesterday’s Book of the Week was the new Alexis Hall, (yes he’s the person I already recommended it to) I thought now was the time to let it loose on the world.
Let’s start with the Timothy Janovsky, which I also read last week and am also lending to Tom. This has a time travel gimmick/device and although it didn’t work as well for me as The Seven Year Slip did, that was because I found the hero, Nolan, incredibly hard to like. But I know I’m a massive grump at the moment on that front, so other people may love it. Nolan is a wannabe standup comedian who blows off his sister’s wedding reception and disappoints his family, while also leaving his best friend and crush in the lurch (see what I mean about hard to like?!), after arguing with everyone he wishes on some crystals before bed and wakes up seven years later a massive success but with friends and family still ignoring him. Thus begins his quest to fix it all and get back to his “real” life. And that’s the point where Nolan starts to get better, but it does take a while to get there!
In The Problem with Perfect by Philip William Stover, Ethan is the mastermind behind style icon, influencer and TV star Chase and their TV bosses think they’re a couple. They’re very much not, and when Chase (and his ego) walks out and leaves the country ahead of a major Pride event he’s due to be fronting, Ethan hunts down Chase’s twin brother Beau and persuades him to take Chase’s place. You know where this is going. I loved the side characters, but didn’t think the main romance was quite as satisfying or well-resolved as it should have been because it all wraps up super, super fast.
If you read the Stover and like it, then you might also like Best Men by Sidney Karger (or at least like it more than I did!), which is another book set around a wedding – Max’s best friend Paige is getting married and wants him to be her Man of Honor. This throws him into close contact with the groom’s brother Chasten who is basically his complete opposite and they have to learn to work together. I had a bunch of issues with this – lack of sympathetic characters, not enough time with Max and Chasten together to understand why they might want to be a couple, constant references to Max being the “gay best friend” but I can see from Goodreads that other people have really enjoyed it because they found it much, much funnier than I did!
It’s a short story, but I wanted to include A Thief in the Night by K J Charles, a historical romance where a highwayman turns valet and ends up caught up in a plot to steal a priceless bracelet. It’s linked to Charles’ The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting which I’ve mentioned here before and also would fit into this post if you want some more historical M/m romance.
And of course there are also a whole stack of previous BotWs to mention too – as well as 10 Things that Never Happened, there’s We Could Be So Good from last month, Fake Dates and Mooncakes, Boyfriend Material and Husband Material (more Alexis Hall!), and finally, I mentioned Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjaming Alire Saenez in the last Quick Reviews too.
Happy Reading!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 