Pretty woman but queer? YES PLEASE! This concept of this book was really intriguing and I’m happy I read it. The characters se so good, I’m in love with Teddy so much! I like them as a couple and I like that there was a plot a bit convoluted, but I think the resolution can be a little less exaggerated. However, the book was fun and a good reading, and I think I will read every other book of this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for the arc!

While the main characters were both likeable and the spicy scenes were well-written and fun, the main story had too much going on and wasn't fleshed out enough to give the story the structure it needed to allow the romance to fully blossom.

Thanks to Afterglow Books and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for review.

The Boyfriend Subscription is Steven Salvatore's take on a queer Pretty Woman, which I thought was a fun premise. Overall, I liked this book. The main couple, Cole and Teddy, are cute, and they felt believable enough to me. But the pacing of this book was a bit all over the place. The third act breakup and conclusion, especially, felt like it was waaay too quick and with convoluted. Like, if all that happened at my wedding, I'd be so mad lol.

I'm interested in checking out other Steven Salvatore books, since this one was fun enough.

all the stars. every last one. simultaneosly a gay love story and a mental health focused book in the best ways. thanks for the arc

What a unique and fun read! This book was steamy, had depth and I loved getting swept away in this story. It was romantic and swoony and I loved watching these two characters overcome so many insecurities to be together.

I so badly wanted to love this book but I didn’t. The cover is gorgeous. The premise is amazing. I loved Cole and Teddy as people and I liked them together. But the writing was clunky and I hated most of the plot. It just all happened so fast and the evil side characters took up so much time that I didn’t feel enough time was spent on making me believe Cole and Teddy were falling in love. So once the love declaration came I wasn’t even convinced they should be together. This is a prime example of why I’ve stopped taking arcs recently because I can’t really spell out my issues with this book without spoiling.

I will say I did love Teddy. He was the most well rounded character, fully formed, and I loved him and felt for him the entire way through. Which is funny because I feel like I was supposed to feel that way for Cole? But I never really connected with Cole, instead I connected only with Teddy.

This book isn’t bad by any means. A lot of my issues come down to personal preference in writing style and in storytelling. So I do still recommend it especially if you love the pretty woman trope and well written sex workers.

The Boyfriend Subscription really takes you on a ride from start to finish. Teddy and Cole are two complex characters with vastly differently lives built around past traumas. They meet by chance but the connection is instant and we find ourselves following them through a quick whirlwind of confusing feelings, steamy nights and personal growth and understanding.

I think this story packed in a lot of plot drama and tropes which aren't a bad thing, though some areas did feel a little rushed towards the end. Focusing on just the main relationship aspect with Cole and Teddy though I enjoyed this one. I would root for them in real life (pun intended) and enjoyed seeing their story play out!

In the Aftermath of losing his marriage and Plant Daddy, his retail plant store, Teddy Hughes is facing financial woes forcing him out of New York to start over in New Orleans with his mother. His path takes and unexpected turn when Cole Vivien, the charming and handsome entrepreneur behind the sex-work app VERSTL, meets Teddy in a local dive bar. Cole Needs a fake boyfriend to maintain a more traditional image for an investor and to take home for his sister's upcoming wedding and offers Teddy a business proposal, fake boyfriends for a week, financial relief, and only two rules, no kissing and no love. As they navigate the complexities of their increasingly intimate arrangement the question arises: Can a couple of rules really withstand the unpredictable nature of human connection?

This was a fast paced sweet and quirky romance that had me laughing out loud more than once. Teddy Hughes was so relatable, I was rooting for him the whole time! The nods to Pretty Woman were giggle-worthy and nostalgic. This is a must-read queer romance with lots of queer representation, sex-work and body positivity.

A wild rollercoaster of emotion. How do you navigate a relationship that’s intended to be temporary when feelings develop? Teddy and Cole are the typical star crossed lovers from two different world, but seemingly find the unexpected in each other.

A very interesting read with highs and lows that keeps the reader wondering and wanting more. There’s also a some intimate scenes to spice things up along the way.

Thanks for the ARC. While I started with high hopes, this book left me with the mids somewhere around the middle and I stayed there until the end. I will say it's a relatively quick and easy read so it wasn't painful it was just average.

Thank you Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this book. It started with a great premise the gay ‘Pretty Woman’. I wanted to love it but the insta love and convoluted storyline with the ex’s just made me grumpy. It was a struggle to get through. I don’t know why Cole had to be in the sex business ( I didn’t feel like it added anything). I will say I love Teddy. I loved that he loved plants and didn’t fit the stereotype make leading man.

While I’m disappointed by this particular book, I would try another book by Steven Salvatore.

This book was okay but I still didn't like it that much. Kinda sucked and was weirdly plant daddyish and all in all I hated it.

I will go into this review with a note that I 1) have never seen Pretty Women and am not super familiar with the concept, and 2) fake dating is one of my favorite tropes ever, but I do not like it as much when there is payment involved. It just feels ... weird to me. And this is not a diss on paid sex work, which is very valid and a legitimate job.

I wanted to check out this book because I have the authors YA books on my TBR and I liked the BDSM-sounding appeal. And yes, the sex scenes were hot! I loved how different the two men were and how much they grew in the course of the book. I liked the idea of Cole's business and how he had developed it all on his own. I liked that Teddy was a plant daddy and wrote books!

Things I didn't like? The idea that Cole's parents knew NOTHING about his business - like, really? Changing your name is not a magic wand to immediately erase you off of the face of the planet. I can suspend belief for a lot of things - I do not read romance novels for the reality of them - but this was a little too much, and unfortunately it was a major plot point. I did not love some of Salvatore's writing, either - there were a few lines that pulled me right out of an otherwise enjoyable scene (the phrase 'smashed my prostate to pieces' comes to mind, ugh).

Overall, the book was cute. I think it will be great for people who like fake dating, who like power dynamics in relationships, and who like plants. It just wasn't really for me.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Teddy is a sweet and nerdy botanist who just lost his NYC plant shop in the course of his divorce, and he makes a quick but intense connection with Cole, an entrepreneur who created a popular app for sex workers, on which Cole also stars. As the blurb suggests, we get a fake-boyfriend-Pretty-Womanesque plot, but here the sex worker is the wealthier party paying for companionship.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I really appreciate a queer romance written by a queer author, and the leads are pretty likable. Teddy is, well, a teddy bear and a total plant nerd. The level of plant nerdery is a huge plus for this book— very charming. Cole is fun: he’s thoughtful about his work, clever, and very taken with Teddy, despite the transactional nature of their initial relationship.

This book was a bit of a mismatch for me: when reading the blurb I focused on the plant gay and pro-sex worker aspects, neglecting to consider that Pretty-Womanesque also promised slickly wealthy trappings and that “entrepreneur” usually equals “man with too many expensive suits” and descriptions of money spent in ways that have little relation to most people’s lives. That’s on me. I suspect that this will please readers that don’t share my aversion to this kind of main character.

Based on my tastes. I’d probably give this book 3 stars, but otherwise it likely deserves 4, so I gave it that. I took off a star because the denouement leans too heavily on unnecessary drama and miscommunication that makes the leads less likable than they’ve been in the earlier sections of the book.

Thank you to Afterglow Books/Harlequin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of Steven Salvatore’s The Boyfriend Subscription. Edgy and charming, TBS presents a fresh take on the Pretty Woman story, while taking surprising leaps for body representation, and offering an emotional feast for the reader. Sex worker and creator of the VERSTL app, Cole Vivien is wealthy, handsome and has just about everything… except for a date to take to his sister’s wedding. Teddy Hughes is devastated after closing down his plant shop, Plant Daddy, and surprised when Cole offers him something unexpected: cash money to pretend to be his boyfriend for the Big Wedding Weekend. What’s even more unexpected? Feelings! Longing! Love?

Cole and Teddy present a delightful pair, well-matched but both navigating complicated emotional waters due to past relationships and heartbreaks. Teddy is dummy thicc and remains an unfortunate but well appreciated rarity in queer literature. Body positivity remains the last frontier of acceptance and romanticism, so we’re glad to see a step in the right direction here. Placing the sex worker in the position of power was also a spot of genius, and a smart way to spin the classic tale of Pretty Woman into something new with fresh relationship dynamics. My only gripe is I thought the climactic conflict was a little contrived, but you’ve got to do something to earn the Big Grand Gesture, and more than one happy ending.

The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore is a treat! I did not expect to enjoy it so much — I have read a handful of “similar” stories that start with a fake romance that leads to something more. Where Boyfriend Subscription is different, however, are the themes Salvatore does a nice job of covering and how quickly we get to the action (in more ways than one).

Salvatore introduces characters and does a wonderful job of revealing their background and motivations. I loved getting to know Teddy and Cole (and the great secondary characters like Kit and Mallory,) but I wish we got to get to know them more naturally and spend more time with them. It’s a minor gripe, but the story takes place over the course of three days and in that time, these characters share so much of themselves that you have to suspend disbelief (which I had a hard time doing). I’m a jaded romantic who scoffs at folks falling in love on reality shows like 90 Day Fiancé and Love is Blind in 5 minutes - maybe I’m the problem!

Overall, I think this is a great novel and one that I hope others read — not many are telling queer stories that touch on healthy queer relationships and sex work. Please pick it up when it’s available March 26, 2024. Thank you to NetGalley and Afterglow Books/ Harlequin for an advance review copy.

Being this I'd somewhat of a pretty woman retelling I thought it was cute. I've never read a book from this author (atleast that I can remember so I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised.

This story is a sort of a queer re-imagining of Pretty Woman where Cole, a high powered tech exec/sex worker arranges a fake dating set up with a flannel wearing hottie he runs into in a chance meeting at a bar. Teddy is down on his luck after his much richer ex-husband divorces him and literally takes everything. Teddy is a plus size plant gay former business owner and author and I really liked him.

The story had a good premise and I was really excited to see a positive story featuring sex workers, but it didn't fully live up to it's potential. Cole Vivien comes from extreme wealth and decided to start a sex work company after his father disowned him. But he still retained access to a ton of money and was able to create this massive company that can rent out penthouses for parties and he's still able to wear Armani every day and buy obscenely expensive houses. Cole struggles come from trying to prove himself to his distant emotionally unavailable father which causes him to not believe in love and having a strict 'no kissing rule'. I found his character kind of unlikeable and unrealistic.

Teddy, on the other hand, was better developed. You can easily identify with being screwed over by rich white patriarchy and feel for him while he grieves the life he planned and the fact that his business was stolen out from under him by a mostly off-screen mustache twirling villanous ex.

There are a number of misunderstandings caused by side character one dimensional 'friends', and some super quickly resolved problems. This story could be good, but just felt flat.

Fake dating between a rich app creator and a broke plant guy as a new twist on Pretty Woman? Teddy Hughes is drowning in debt, in grief over his failed plant business, and crumbs of a ruined marriage in which his husband cheated on him, Cole Vivien doesn't believe in love but he needs a fake boyfriend, especially as he is a super successful and rich creator of the app VERSTL, an app that enables consumers and sex workers to connect. Teddy and Cole are two different people and what was only suppose to be a one night stand turns into something more when Cole offers to pay Teddy to be his fake boyfriend, but with exes around every corner, insecurities, and family drama, the complicated feelings between them only gets more complicated. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me, I didn't really like Teddy or Cole, and their romance wasn't there for me. I love a twist on Pretty Woman, but this one was just meh overall for me. I love a fake dating trope, I love opposites attract, and honestly this had all the makings to be a really fun book, yet it just fell flat to me. I really wanted to like it and I tried to connect with the characters and their growth, but I really just didn't. The romance just didn't feel there and you just dont really believe that these two are in love with each other. Despite this one being a miss for me, if you are looking for a quick LGBTQ romance with a bit of spice and a touch of Pretty woman, give this a go!

*Thanks Netgalley and Harlequin - Romance, Afterglow Books by Harlequin for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I had seen this book on NetGalley and hemmed & hawed whether to request it, then eventually passed. However, I then saw a bookstagrammer describe it as a Pretty Woman remake, so i scampered back to NetGalley & hit the request button!

I loved the Pretty Woman plot - with a few little twists, but the majority of the 'bones' of the plot were kept, even with a few key phrases -- loved this -- it was a great homage to Pretty Woman, very cute.

The romance overall was enjoyable & the charcters were interesting, but I also struggled with the main characters/narrators a little - it was told from two alternating perspectives but I found I kept getting confused which one was talking at any given time & kept having to flip back to the header of that section to double check. Maybe their voices just didn't sound different enough, and though they clearly had their different careers & pasts, they didn't act very different -- there were times when Teddy acted much more confident than I'd have thought, or where Cole seemed to do things that didn't fit his high-flying business persona. For example Teddy keeps emphasizing how this isn't his world, over & over, as he came from a very poor background (ie. Cole's ultra-wealthy family), but then he goes off & mingles confidently with all the people at Cole's sister's wedding like he was born to it.