This physically pains me but I did not love it and I wholeheartedly expected to. An entitled dude gets shuttled off to his salt of the earth grandparent's house after a series of mistakes and falls for a local man who is nice to his grandparents? Did I mention when we meet Hector he's chopping wood in a flannel? Catnip.

Unfortunately, the story had oodles of opportunity for character development for Matthew but at the end I'm afraid I still found him as unlikeable as I did at the beginning. I love when people are extra because I'm an introvert and like to see them go have a great time and live vicariously. But his extraness felt false and made the whole book feel like a shade of secondhand embarrassment because he would do embarrassing things and be privately horrified but publicly thrilled.

This had all the makings of a Hallmark Christmas special (plus a little rated R action) and I was checking them off as I went: quirky coffee shop owner, Christmas tree farm, finding the missing Christmas vibes from his life, big winter gala. I just found everyone in Matthew's NY life to be intolerable (except for Oksana and Maxim).

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

An incredibly enjoyable and hilarious romance. The enemies to lovers dynamic between Matthew and Hector was enticing and adorable. I loved Matthew's character arc from spoiled and bratty to compassionate and loving. I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas vibes as well. Can't wait to read more from Timothy Janovsky!

About the Writing Style…

Timothy Janovsky has a very easy to read and digest writing style, with the book being descriptive enough to help visualise everything but not so much that it starts getting boring and the festive atmosphere was very very captured in the story, I enjoyed that a lot

The Plot…

The plot in itself is nothing new, with a spoiled rich boy being sent to a small town as punishment but he finds love and is humbled over a period of time, so yeah it is a old plot but the author was able to capture it very well and once I got past the beginning (around 15%) it was really fun to read.

Things really kick off when Matthew decides to organise the gala event, we see him not only come into his talent but also see how the community aspect of a small town community starts rubbing off on him and though he is kind of an insufferable brat at the start of the book he really has good character development

The romance is really adorable as well, Hector and Matthew feel an instant dislike towards each other at the start of the book but the way the book progressed that hatred to love was very done, accurately paced and really adorable.

There is also great Mental Health rep in this book with out man character Matthew suffering from a General Anxiety Disorder, and through the course of the book we see him deal with it, address it and talk about it and though it is not a lot, I did like the way the author normalised discussion of mental health amongst peers.

Moving on the characters…

Matthew, he is a complicated character and most of his personality is a consequence of his upbringing, being extremely neglected by his parents and growing up in pretty toxic upper class society, he is very much the obnoxious rich boy that we see in a lot of movies but his character growth is marvellous, through the course of the book he starts seeing the faults in himself and works on bettering himself as a person and I loved the way his story ended

Hector, he is charming guy from the start though his first interaction with our main character is not ideal and that stems from Hector’s prejudice against Matthew but it is addressed well and once he destroys the preconceived ideas he has, his and Matthew’s friendship and eventual romance thrives!

Overall this is a nice book, with great mental health rep, a very cute romance and great character development, it is quick to read and perfect for the holiday season

I would recommend this book to anyone longing for Christmas and/or looking for a cute queer romance to read

Content Warnings for You are a mean one Matthew Prince:
Parental Neglect, Gaslighting, Anxiety and Panic Attacks

You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince just didn’t really work for me. First, let me just say that I’m not a big romcom/romance reader. I do enjoy romcoms sometimes, but I find that the ones that I like are self-aware and play with the tropes in the genre. This book was all formula.

Matthew Prince is a spoiled rich young adult who does something to potentially embarrass his famous parents, so they whisk him off to stay with his grandparents for a few weeks in a small town in Massachusetts to keep a lid on the story. His roommate at his grandparents’ cabin happens be ruggedly handsome, hardworking, and with a heart of gold, and well, you can fill in the blanks from there.

What I did enjoy about this book: mental health visibility, lots of diversity, and some of the side characters (namely, Noelle and Matthew’s grandparents). What I enjoyed less about this book: I never bought the premise, it was very predictable, the characters felt very flat, and it was so slow in the middle.

Regular romcom readers looking for a wintery setting will like this one. Grinchy readers like me who like less formulaic reads should steer clear.

2.5 stars

Thank you so much to Timothy Janovsky, Sourcebook and NetGalley for an advance copy of the book!

"Listen, if I'm going to sit on a man's lap, it's not going to be to tell him what I want for Christmas, okay?"

This was one of my anticipation holiday releases this year and it delivered. The title alone is so catchy and I can't help but say it in the tune of the Grinch. The cover also stands out with its bright green and similar standard Grinch design.

Matthew Prince is a self absorbed, entitled, ego driven twenty some year old who has been giving everything to him. When he impulsively bought an island with his parent's money, that was when enough was enough and they shipped him off to his grandparents house while they try to clean up the mess. Being used to the hustle and bustle of the fast life of New York City, he is now being forced to slow his pace down in the Berkshires. There he is met with Hector Martinez who is a local college student staying with his grandparents. Which is all good except Matthew will be sharing a room and gasp a bathroom with Hector. Being an only child, Matthew is not used to having a roommate or sharing anything. Matthew and Hector navigate how to live with one another and then they decide to take on working together for the annual gala.

Can they put their differences aside to make the gala a success?
Will news of his island purchase get out?
Does the forced proximity push Matthew & Hector together?

"Who knew a little snow could turn a Scrooge into a romantic?"

Matthew was meant to be an unlikeable character and compared to other characters I have read with similar characteristics, I was not turned off by his actions. I was looking forward to see how far he would go and what buttons he pushed just because it makes the redemption so much sweeter.

Hector was not perfect at the start of this book either. He did not let Matthew walk over him and gave him push back which was something Matthew was not used to. He challenged Matthew and I loved that.

The side characters were also enjoyable! I love Matthew's relationship with Noelle and I am glad he realized how superficial his prior relationships were. Even his relationship with his parents was interesting to see in the 2nd half of the book. I would have love to seen more with his father has more of the focus was on his mother. I also wish the mother would've apologized to a certain character and perhaps they did off the pages (fantasy in my head).

Timothy's creative way to describe what Matthew does to help calm himself down was brilliant. I love that Matthew comes up with these event planning ideas in his mind which then led to him figuring out what he was meant to do. I also love the different representation Timothy has in his books. It is refreshing. Even to have his parent's divorce as an adult is something you don't see often in books. I also loved all the pop culture references throughout the book (hello Deuxmoi).

One flaw that I found which is more of a Stephanie issue is some of the chapters were a little long for me. I'm a sucker for short chapters.

"Everything's more festive in an ugly Christmas sweater."

Read this if you are a fan of:
- Forced Proximity
- Enemies to Lovers
- Redemption ARC
- Big Town to Small Town
- Taylor Swift references

Timothy will be an autobuy author (not that I wasn't expecting this after his debut novel Never Been Kissed).
I am looking forward to what he has up his sleeve in his future books.

PS: Timothy don't think I missed the reference to our share love of a certain British boybander. I most certainly didn't and loved it!

Honestly You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince is like a queer Hallmark movie and probably my most favorite holiday book I’ve read so far!

I received a digital copy from NetGalley/Berkley in exchange for an honest review.

Do not let my review or star rating deter you from reading this book. I can see how this story could be a comfort read for many.

Pros:
*I love character development and the MC matures a lot from beginning to end.
*I love when small rural communities are reflected realistically with flaws and failing businesses but populated with people willing to help each other because they're a community. This is my reality and it's not represented enough in fiction. (I'm not talking the Hallmark perfect small town where the sun shines every day.)
*Weirdly enough, I enjoy when mental illness is portrayed realistically on page and not sugar-coated. I am well-acquainted with the "get out, get out, must get out RIGHT NOW" that Matthew feels at times. Well done, Mr. Janovsky.

Cons:
*No one other than the MC has any personal growth. Matthew's mom starts to make changes by the end, but (view spoiler).
*The MC is so incredibly selfish, spoiled, and entitled for the first two-thirds of the book. He starts to make a turn at the halfway point and eventually learns what's important in life. But I read to escape the selfish and entitled in real life, so this kind of spoiled the escapism component for me.
* Toxic people everywhere! (view spoiler).

Other issues I had were entirely my own based on personal preferences. I was blinded by the brilliant word play of the title and missed a key detail in the synopsis. I do not regret reading the story of Matthew Prince and Hector, and if you feel drawn to the story summary, I recommend adding it to your holiday TBR.

What a cute, Hallmarky, holiday rom-com! It did take me quite a while to warm up to Matthew, but I sort of expected that going in, so it didn’t bother me that much.

I love a holiday romance, and this did not disappoint. Give me all the holiday feels, all the cheese, all of the snowy, small town feels.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sourcebooks and Dreamscape for the ARC & AudioARC of this!

This was perfect timing, I needed some holiday vibes early this year! Super cute, with some of the feels of Schitt’s Creek, a spoiled rich young man is sent to the middle of nowhere with his grandparents after a potential scandal - and starts to fall for the college student they are housing. Queer, sweet, and an easy book to get drawn into, this is perfect for getting your Hallmark movie vibes.

Ok, this one is completely my fault. I have to be in the mood for a romcom, or I just find them annoying. I thought I was in the mood, I really liked the blurb, but once I started reading, not so much.

It's entirely me, I think this story will do really well with the right fans, but it just didn't suit me right now, and that's my fault, not the fault of the story.

A wonderful story from the LGBTQ+ community where a boy from a well off family makes a bad decision and is temporarily cut off and sent to his small town grandparents home for the holiday season. The character growth in this story is beautiful and the love story that pans out is even better.

This was a delightful queer holiday romcom. Matthew Prince is rich, spoiled, and selfish. After a major PR fiasco his parents exile him to spend Christmas with his grandparents in the small town of Wind River. Upon arrival he discovers that he must share a bedroom (bunk beds!) with Hector Martinez, a former student of Matthew’s grandfather who is very attractive but not impressed or charmed by Matthew.

Matthew is desperate to get out of the small town and back to his life and decides he can win over everyone’s approval by coordinating the Wind River holiday charity gala. He enlists Hector to help him. Their sort-of enemies-to-lovers / opposites attract romance is sweet. The enemies part is resolved pretty early on; Hector is solid, supportive, and calming presence in Matthew’s life. They discover a mutual love for A Christmas Carol and this connection weaves throughout the story in several ways that I found very charming.

I really liked that the story is from Matthew’s POV - seeing all his selfishness, and the shiny, perfect Instagram filter veneer he presents to everyone. He is A. LOT and your tolerance for his extra-ness may vary. I liked him and found him annoying but hilarious. But underneath this exterior is a lonely young man with a general anxiety disorder and a complicated relationship with his parents. I appreciate that this romcom addresses how stressful holidays can be for people with anxiety and mental illness.

A sweet, queer holiday romance with a messy MC, a charming (but not overbearingly charming) small town, frank depictions and discussion of anxiety and mental health.

ARC courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca (thank you!)

I enjoyed listening to this one and think that had I only had an ebook I might not have finished. Both characters were hard to like at first and while I felt back for Matthew because of his parents and family, it just took a long time for him to be redeemed in my opinion. I also would have liked for their to be more relationship building because I don’t feel like I got much, it went from enemies to hooking up so quick!

Matthew Prince is a wealthy, spoiled socialite who is constantly in the limelight for his shenanigans and wild parties. When a bad breakup leads to an impulsive purchase of an island, his parents froze his credit cards and shipped him off to his grandparents in the small town of Wind River. He immediately clashes with Hector Martinez, a boarder at his grandparents’ place who is thoroughly unimpressed by his snobbish behaviour. When the local charity gala’s coordinator fell ill, Matthew volunteers to co-plan the gala with Hector, hoping that his good behaviour will earn him a ticket back to New York City and his old life.

This was my first Timothy Janovsky novel and an early Christmas read. Written in first person from Matthew’s POV, Janovsky’s writing is humorous, witty, and sarcastic. I mean, this was how Hector’s snoring was described: “Hector sleeping sounds like a mother demon is having a baby inside his mouth, and then that baby is respawning while simultaneously killing the mother in a loud, violent battle to the death.” 🤣

I really enjoyed Matthew’s growth as a character. He started off as the most annoying snob, with a complete disregard for people whom he considered beneath his station, calling his chauffeur, “Driver Man”, and the local barista, “Coffee Girl”. But you soon realise that beneath the wild image he portrays for the media to lap up, lies a very unloved and insecure young man who has never known what it is like to truly connect with somebody on a deeper level beyond carnal desires and social/political/business gains. I loved how Hector came along, chipped away at his barriers, and showed him what a proper, loving relationship was like. And the way he handled Matthew’s anxiety attacks was really 🥹

I loved how Grandpa and Grandma showed him true acceptance and familial love, and I loved the new friend he made in Noelle, the “Coffee Girl” who showed him what true friendship was.

This was truly a heartwarming and delightful queer rom-com that I really enjoyed and devoured in a day. 4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for access to this eARC. Give yourself the gift that keeps on giving beginning October 3rd.

I have to be honest and admit that I've been meaning to read Timothy Janovsky's Never Been Kissed since it first came out and just haven't gotten around to it but if it's anything like this beauty, I really need to hurry up. This incredible book, You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince, is so everything I needed right now. I was prompted even moreso to read it due to him being in HoliGays22 with another recent 5 star read for me, Courtney Kae's In The Event of Love and this joins it with a strong 5 stars as well.

Entitled young adults who act like the world owes them something for their existence grate my ever loving last nerve and Matthew did indeed do this for the first couple of chapters. I loved the witty banter between he and Hector from the jump and couldn't help but mentally snap at each and every one of Hector's reads. Luckily, Matthew begins to show his humanity not super far into the book so I was eager to see what he could become rather than just gritting my teeth as I read about a character I couldn't wait to be rid of.

I loved the side characters (Noelle, Oksana/Maxim, Gram and Gramps) and the small town setting of Wind River. I loved the way that Matthew would do battle with Krampus (the personified version of his generalized anxiety disorder) by planning parties in his head and man oh man do I wish I could have a Prince Charming created event for every important milestone in my personal life!

Just absolutely amazing.

Queer ✔️
GAD Representation ✔️
Minority characters ✔️
Hallmark movie vibes ✔️
Forced Proximity ✔️

This book has a lot of really great stuff going for it and for the most part I think it was executed really well. While at times the pacing definitely lagged I think overall people looking for a story to make them cuddle up by a fire watching the snow fall will find themselves happy to spent an afternoon with this book on their lap.

This was a cute and a little emotional cheesy Christmas romance.

Matthew was a shallow and pretty mean guy in the beginning, but every time he starting grating on me he’d drop some intensely sad backstory snippet that had me 100% on his team. The saddest boi! This really made it work for me - it explained why he was a defensive jerk in the beginning, literally a defense mechanism. But he works through it! Look at this!!

"Hating Christmas is the one way I get to manage my familial expectations. I don’t get my hopes up over silly traditions or false illusions of togetherness. It’s safer than admitting that as a child I used to bleed red tinsel for this entire month."

he’s only grinch because his parents suck! so sad!! i’m glad christmas was returned to him because i too love christmas

He also had a well done redemption arc I felt like. It was gradual throughout the book, and he had to come to terms with all his personal and family baggage in order to complete it, which I really appreciated. Especially him telling his parents how much they fucked up. Hell yeah.

This had some very awkward writing things going on that did pull me out of the story, such as:

• unnatural conversations - they were very expositional and people don’t speak in paragraphs

• very odd word uses - sometimes it was just flat out incorrect word use, sometimes it was …made up words?

• too many dramatique metaphors and analogies - these can bring color, but you have to be restrained with them…it was not restrained here

• the dramatique metaphors also made the sex scenes (such as they were) gauzy and vague and really kind of distant…i don’t need it to be super explicit or anything, but this just felt like it should have been fade to black for the awkwardness it ended up with

Overall, it was cute holiday fluff. Some romcom moments like a mini baking contest, cute side characters, good personal arcs…it’s got it all.

I really expected to have a hard time relating to a 1%-er who is shipped off the to the Berkshires because he was being punished for buying an entire island without permission- even if he has GAD. However, Matthew Prince grew on me quite quickly. I fully expected a cute, rom-com during the holiday season, but I did not anticipate how deep this book got when talking about anxiety, impostor syndrome, difficulties with parents, growing up, privilege, LGBTQIA+ situations, etc. I was so pleasantly surprised by how substantive this book is.

The characters are all so likable- except for a certain few who are not meant to be- and I wanted the best for every single one of them.

Also, I cannot help but shout out a book that recognizes the supremacy of the Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

This book had a lot of promise - major Schitt’s Creek vibes during the holiday season? I was so there. But I feel like it fell flat in a lot of ways, making it just alright for me.

Matthew Prince is a spoiled rich kid who has been raised to think about his public persona and how he’ll appear to the masses so he’s curated his entire personality around that. After making a questionable and costly decision while upset, he’s sent to stay with his grandparents while the story dies down. Based on the book title, I assumed Matthew was going to be rude and grumpy, but I don’t think that’s true - he’s out of his element but he’s definitely not the grinch I anticipated him being. He’s felt like a burden for years thanks to his parents’ obsession with image and hasn’t ever had the chance to figure out who he is like he does when he’s out from under their oppressive thumbs.

Hector Martinez isn’t well off and is relying on the kindness of Matthew’s grandparents providing him with somewhere to live while finishing college. He has a huge chip on his shoulder when it comes to money, decadence and extravagance, making things really awkward when he’s forced to share a room with Matthew. Hector is incredibly sweet, hard working and earnest and is willing to do whatever it takes to see his family in Texas for the holidays, including working with Matthew to plan the town’s holiday gala. But I cannot for the life of me figure out why Hector used the word “dude” so excessively throughout this book - it was distracting and aggravating and made me dislike Hector a little more every time it came up.

These two team up to plan the town’s holiday gala and end up spending a lot of time together even though things started on a less than stellar note between them. They’re opposites in a lot of ways but learn they have more in common than they thought. I just didn’t feel the chemistry between them - they made good friends when they finally started talking but it never felt like they clicked with me so it made it difficult for me to root for them.

I had two major problems with this story - 1. The pacing. It took me forever to get into this story (probably like 40% in) and even then I felt like things dragged on way more than necessary. I found myself skimming in a lot of places to avoid repetitive moments and get to the dialogue. 2. Matthew’s parents. I know we weren’t supposed to like them but their actions were inexcusable to me in so many ways. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth about their whole relationship and made me feel even worse for Matthew than I already did.

Overall this one was just okay for me. It had its good moments and definitely its bad, but wasn’t super memorable.

*I'd like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I heard a lot about this book from other authors I liked and on listicles for upcoming romances. I liked the premise of the novel. It felt a bit like Schitt's Creek where Matthew Prince, the protagonist, is cut off from his wealthy parents and exiled to his grandparents' house in suburban Massachusetts. There he meets Hector, the graduate student staying with Matthew's grandparents as he finishes school.

The two don't get off on the right foot, and it's obvious that the chemistry, though it may not be initially positive, is palpable. I did hate every time Hector said "dude" because it just took me out of the story. I understand it was a character choice, but I never took to it. It took me a while to get into the story, but that may just be because I'm having a bit of a reading slump recently. Once I gained traction, I was invested in Hector and Matthew's relationship, the party planning, and Matthew's personal growth.

This book comes out next week, and I can't wait for the deserved hype for this book,