I am sorry to say I didn’t enjoy this. The New York setting felt flat and inaccurate, and the characterisation was weak. It had some sweet sections and maybe the authors style just didn’t suit me but I only skip-read the second half.

This book felt very slow paced. Hard to get into but I pushed myself to finish. New author for me so maybe I need to get used to their writing style or not in the right mind yet. But it just didn’t do it for me.

Alex Michaels is all work and no play until his assistant drags him out for an evening with the girls at the local gay club, After Hours. He’s immediately smitten by the gorgeous waiter who seems to paying him a lot of attention. Nick has never really been in a serious relationship before, his parents made him feel worthless, so he hasn’t really felt valued before. He finds it difficult to believe that Alex likes him for himself but as they spend time together they really hit it off.
I really love the fact there is no over the top drama but the storyline keeps you interested the whole way through. The gentle love between Alex and Nick is heart warming but their love is hot. Really looking forward to the sequel. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The book is a nice attempt on writing a m/m romance novel set in New York but from the first chapter it becomes clear, the author has no idea about New York or working in the city whatsoever. Her city descriptions might come from looking at Google maps. That aside, the story could not be peppered with more stereotypes and clichés! And again, the whole "management" complaints and corner office talks, let alone the cleaning crew or bar scenes. All way too contrived. There are also tons of repetitions in thoughts and words even. When there was someone on the same page *smirking* for the third time, could not read any further. This was chapter eight. There are roughly 50 'smirks' in the book, and 80 'hots' and 136 'smiles'. Had I read a sample of the book before downloading it, I'd never even done so. - I received an advance copy of the book.

DNF at roughly 50%. Repetitive dialogue, stereotypical characters and cliched plot.

Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

The only reason I did not rate this book 5 stars is that Alex & Nick’s story continues in Book 2.... I thought the book was a stand-alone as that is what prefer to read.

I’m new to the genre M/M relationships & this is the first book that made me really feel what first love between 2 men must be like - I absolutely loved both characters .

Alex is very successful at a Wall Street firm but his dream was always to go to Cooking school & become a chef ... he has never been in love or had a serious relationship but that all changes when he meets Nick at the club After Hours where he is a server - instant chemistry between the two 🔥🔥

I kept thinking as I was reading this book how very similar these characters feelings are to any M/F heterosexual relationship...

❤️ Instant attaction
❤️ Getting to know that other person
❤️ Excited to get a phone call / or text ❤️ rate excelerating when that other is near
❤️ First dates
❤️ Meeting parents for the first time

Great read & can’t wait to read the second book to finish what I hope is a HEA for these 2 characters !!

Sorry to say it didn't hold my attention. It felt a bit moderate with a lot of cliches.
Immature personalities. Nice friends and colleagues and hot sex

After Hours is a M/M romance with lots of graphic sex scenes, minimal angst and a HEA.

Alex is a successful manager in a Wall Street investment firm. He has what most people would describe as the perfect life: well paid job, a fancy apartment not far from Central Park and family who care about him. However Alex is not truly happy. His dream is to be a chef but as this is something his parents discouraged when he was a teenager he has done what they wanted and entered the business world. He’s also lonely. He doesn’t have many friends in New York and his sex life is not existent.

Nick on the other hand is pursuing his dream to become a teacher. Whilst in graduate school, he needs to pay his own way after being cut off by his parents. He does this by working multiple jobs, one of which is as a waiter in the gay club, After Hours, which is where he meets Alex.

After several meetings between the two, full of innuendo and flirting they eventually start dating and fall in love.

There were a few things about the story that I wasn’t a fan of. First of all nothing much really happens. We pretty much just follow Alex and Nick through their relationship and the self doubts they both have to overcome to be together.
Secondly I thought there were parts of the story that were very repetitive. We hear repeatedly about Alex’s parents making him go to business school rather than culinary school and about the fact that Nick has slept around in his past.
The third thing I didn’t really like was the stereotypical gay man behaviour that is reinforced in this story (mainly that gay men are promiscuous).

Having said all of that, those issues aside, the book was mainly well written even though the pacing was a little slow. The characters are very well developed and we learn a lot about them as people as well as their confidence issues, insecurities, hopes and dreams.
There is also a great surrounding cast of characters that enhance the story without detracting from it. I particularly liked Andrea and her grandmother.

The one thing that does stand out about this story is the hot sex scenes between Alex and Nick. These are mostly well written, although a little repetitive at times (multiple shower sex scenes are included).

All in all this book was good but not great which is why I would rate it 3 stars.

Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy. All opinions are my own and provided willingly.

After Hours by Emjay Haze is the story of Alex and Nick.
Alex looks to have it all rising to the top with a great apartment but Alex has another dream that he would like to go for. Nick is a hard working guy trying to make it through Grad School and also working at the "After Hours" club to earn money.
Alex sees how dedicated Nick is to work toward his dream job and that makes Alex thinks to maybe start working toward what he wants to do also.
This was actually a sweet easy read romance!

3.5 STARS!!!
After Hours was a good romance read. I enjoyed all of the characters in this book and there were quite a few. However, they were enjoyable characters that will give you more than a few laughs as you read this story. This was a sweet, steamy romance read with a little bit of drama and great chemistry between Alex and Nick, who are the main characters. I was truly expecting a little more drama because this was a little too sweet. I was just waiting for something to happen because I honestly expected a little more than a light but steamy romance read from a book with this title. There were moments where it seemed like a buildup for drama was going to happen and then it just fizzled out. The story was a little slow in some parts but overall, it was a good read and I would give another book from this author a try. Even though it wasn't a 5 star read for me, I would still recommend readers that enjoy a good M/M romance read to give this book a try.

II was only able to get through Chapter Eight. I felt like all the characters were terrible and/or offensive stereotypes. One in particular that sticks in my mind is the dialogue of the janitor. I felt like I was taken back to the 1950's. Even the "harem" of women were exaggerated personalities.

Aside from the above, a lot of what I read was repetitive. For example, Alex's parents' disapproval of his wanting to go to culinary school was mentioned way too many times. And the implication that enjoying cooking and being a chef was somehow less-than-manly was very off putting.