This was good & fun!! I liked the vibe of this read & the characters felt so honest. The overall story was slower & more vague than i usually love.

This was so cute!

Interestingly, both of the leading men have already comes to terms with their sexualities before falling for each other, in contrast with the previous book in the series (Don't Want You Like a Best Friend), which includes more of a self-discovery narrative.

James is a peer, but can't seem to get out from under the shadow of his overbearing stepfather, who grasps for any bit of power and influence he can.

Bobby is a second son, and actually has one of the few compelling second-son narratives I've read in a while.

I see gambling as a metaphor throughout this story; they characters engage in betting and discuss its merits frequently. Being in a gay relationship is very risky at this time, and each character has to come to terms with how to make a meaningful relationship work.

I loved these two together, although they jumped from rivals to lovers just a bit too quickly for me. Overall, a fun read. I recommend reading the first one in the series for maximum effect.

I did not like this as much as Don’t Want You Like A Best Friend but I still enjoyed it. The first part was a little slow but it does pick up.

"You're the Problem, It's You" is a delightful book! I did not realize it was the second book in a series but it was easily readable as a standalone. The characters are engaging from their first mention on page and the story is paced very well. This is a very entertaining historical queer romance, with themes of personal growth, being true to oneself, found family, societal expectations and more.

The two MCs bump heads initially and there is definitely a grumpy/sunshine vibe but it's more than that for both of them. They are both struggling with who they are, where they fit in, how to be who the are inside and how to fit themselves into the expectations of those around them and society at large. Once they allow themselves to be vulnerable (and more honest) with each other the story truly gets going. There is some angst and some spice but at its core this is a romance and a story about finding yourself and finding your place.

the secondary characters were excellent! I am going to find the first book and read about Gwen and Beth. But almost every side character--from Uncle Dashiell and Aunt Cordelia, to Albie and Meredith. Meredith's mom--they all had important roles to play and were vital to the story line, as well as being interesting in and of themselves.

There is such a warmth to the family dynamics and I loved that. The solution to the story was sweet as well.

Quite happy with this book and will definitely search out more by this author.

"You’re the Problem, It’s You" by Emma R. Alban is a sharp and insightful examination of self-awareness and personal growth. The witty prose and relatable characters make for an engaging read, as the protagonist navigates the complexities of relationships and self-discovery. Alban’s humor adds a lightness to serious themes, creating a balance that keeps readers invested in the journey. The exploration of accountability and the challenges of change is both refreshing and thought-provoking. Overall, this novel is a captivating reminder that understanding ourselves is often the first step toward meaningful connections with others.

Emma Alban can do no wrong. The build up to the relationship is superb. Seeing a victorian era queer couple get their happy ending always brings me so much joy. I love to see a lavender marriage.

I was able to read an ebook arc of this thanks to NetGalley. A fun romance. Great read. Would read more by this author.

Queer historical romance and a lovely sequel to Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend. The characters were well-developed and it was so great to see the continuation of Beth and Gwen’s story as well. Very much enjoyed this one!

thank you to netgalley and avon and harper voyager for this eARC!

i really loved this book! i love these characters so much and i’m glad i got to read more of them. i had a lot less trepidation going into this book than i did starting “don’t want you like a best friend” because i had already been introduced to the world and how the queer romance would play out in this period. i think the contrast is interesting, and i like the way she points it out in the book (like the characters kind of draw attention to it), between queer men and queer women in the 1800s. for example, queer women, in the first book, are essentially unheard of, compared to the clubs we see that exist for queer men in this book. that kind of historical crap is cool to me.

beyond that, i did like the plot of this book. i will say, i like it slightly less than the first book; it was just a tad less organized i think. it still was very good though and i liked the similarities to the first book and how it kept with the idea of “mischief & matchmaking” (as the series is named).

it was very cute and i definitely would recommend it to fans of the 1800s that don’t want to read bridgerton (or other similar books) in fear of straight romance.

Still working on a consistent guide for my reviewsssss, but for now I’m just gonna pour my thoughts out lmao.

Right out the gate, I’m gonna give this one a 2.5/5-star rating and round it up to 3 for NetGalley.

This one wasn’t bad at all. It was a nice Historical Romance and I’m assuming fans of Bridgerton would eat it uppp. (Coming from someone who's never watched or read Bridgerton so don’t come after me if my assumptions are wrong,,,, ) Alas, I’m pretty picky about my Historical reads and even pickier about my Romances.

I briefly skimmed the Reviews after finishing it and I noticed a majority of the low ratings were for people who wanted the Enemies-to-Lovers trope and this book didn’t deliver. But… Why isn’t anyone mentioning the fact that Gwen and Beth are literally Stepsisters? That we’re really keeping these relationships in the family? I really didn’t like that. Like, at all. And no one was concerned that their ending solution was to just marry their cousins (in-law) so that they can all be a big family. Yes, I understand that neither of them were marrying their blood cousins, but it still rubbed me the wrong way a bit. Definitely not into the Step-sibling trope… or getting with anyone within your family tree, for that matter.

Though I was here for the boys and their relationship, I finished this read loving the background couples so much morrrreeee! Uncle Dashiell and Aunt Cordelia were so stinkin’ cute and we didn’t even get that much of them! And Albie and Meredith were perfect as well. WHAT A POWERHOUSE COUPLE THEY ARE! All of their cute little ‘hand on the baby belly’ scenes had me swooning. They’re too cute! Guess I just have a soft spot for expecting parents. But BOY let me tell you I don’t know what I would have done if either of the new mommies died during childbirth. Let’s not put Uncle Dashiell through that again, my heart can’t take it. I didn’t read the first book so this was my introduction into the characters. Finding out about Dashiell and then watching him go through Cordelia’s birth was ughhhhh! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! For that reason, I’m glad the ending let us know that Meredith made it through her own birth with her baby. I wouldn’t have survived having to wait until a sequel to find out if she was okay! Mini-Albie for the win!

My thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the Digital ARC. This book is ALREADY OUT!!! Go check it out for yourself and see what you think!

Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, lots of angst and spice. It did take a little while for the story to develop, but once it picked up I was wanting to keep reading the pages. I need to go back and read the first novel. but I think I will like that one just as much! This was my first Emma Alban and I would love to read more from her!

bridgerton vibes, but make it queer, and make it complicated, and make one of the main guys grumpy, and make the queer found family vibes STRONG, and you've got this book! i listened on audio and half liked it, half was annoyed by one narrator's voice, but enjoyed the story and seeing the evolution of these two MMCs as they stopped fighting their feelings and found their way to each other. the ending? a DREAM, considering the confines of the era!!

While I enjoyed the first book in this duology Don't Want You Like a Best Friend , You're the Problem, It's You was an improvement in a lot of ways. Structurally, the story is much more focused on the central romance. It does still have Beth and Gwen as prominent side characters and a lot of familiar faces from the first book but they complement the central romance rather than distracting from it.

One of my favorite things about Don't Want You Like a Best Friend was the characters and that is also true of one. While Bobby and James frequently butt heads and cause each other pain and frustration, I found both deeply sympathetic characters. Bobby is the second son trying to find his place and be helpful to the family while feeling left out of a lot of things. And James is someone who's grown up in a fairly toxic family, having to hide who he is just to get by and not even sure what he wants out of his new role as Viscount Demeroven.

Initially there's a lot of miscommunication between the two men, but given their individual frustrations and pride, it made sense to me that they wouldn't share more than they did. If you're really sensitive to the trope, it might bother you more but I didn't think it was unreasonable. There were some elements here that reminded me of the dynamic of Pride and Prejudice. It's not full-on enemies to lovers but definitely two very different people trying to deal with bad first impressions on both sides and slowly coming to understand each other.

I also really liked the historical detail in this one, much like in the first one. I'm not a stickler for exact historical adherence but it's really fun to see more queer representation in a historical context and a wide array of how they handled not being able to legally express that love. There were some sections where it was so focused on the parliamentary struggles of the period that I lost a bit of interest but I appreciated the level of detail and focus on social commentary.

Overall, while not perfect in terms of some pacing issues, I still really enjoyed You're the Problem, It's You. It's very closely connected to the first book in the series so I think it would be tough to read this one without having read the first but it builds really well on what was already set up and improves it in a lot of ways.

Not revolutionary, but an enjoyable romp of a queer historical romance. I have not read the first book in this series (although familiar with the premise) and did not have any difficulty jumping in at this point. The ending was a bit obvious from rather early in the narrative, but the characters were engaging, so it was still satisfying to see them work to the solution on their own.

This was every bit as cute as the first installment, if significantly more angsty—not that that's a bad thing! It was just clear that the stakes were very different this time around. It did a great job of telling a new story whole continuing the storylines from book one. That can be a difficult feat, but the author pulled it off well. Everything was wrapped up neatly by the end, but I'd absolutely read more from this universe. I would have loved to have seen the villain of the piece handled differently, but maybe that's just me.

This book was a bit of a let down after reading Don't Want You Like A Best Friend. The two boys were so annoying. I understand that they are both going through some shit, but I was so frustrated with them. The story gets better, but not my favorite historical MM romance.

Super fun and the perfect sequel. If you’re worried about the second in a series not living up to the first have no fear. I thought this book was the perfect way to dive back into this world.

This book was a great fun read! It definitely veers more into the rom-com territory than just historical romance (which in my mind tends to be differentiated by the level of historical accuracy and period accurate details they include). I personally don't mind some historical inaccuracy so I loved it. But honestly, the title is a reference to a Taylor Swift song sooooo if you're picking this up with the intention of complete accuracy, you might be choosing the wrong book.

I love enemies to lovers but think there could have been a bit more chemistry; overall would recommend. I did prefer the first book in the series more though so if you haven't read that one yet, choose that one!

Rating: 3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4

(soft) DNF @ 33%

I am SO SAD to say that I didn't enjoy this book. I picked it up and put it back down so many times hoping that one day it would click with me but that day just isn't coming.

I do not know if this is perhaps an issue with me and not an issue with the book. I absolutely adored Alban's debut with Don't Want You Like A Best Friend and even requested this the second I finished it. So I'm very confused about not enjoying this one. I loved that one so much, why is this one not resonating with me? I don't even have many exact issues with it, I am just currently finding it boring. It is still well written, I feel like I could really love these characters, but it just isn't doing it. The only exact issue I have is that every scene we are getting of Gwen and Beth is them fighting and that's just not what I want to see after I spent 300+ pages falling in love with a couple. I'm sure there's a good reason for it though that I haven't gotten to!

I hope this will be a soft DNF and I will come back to it one day. I am so sure that this is not an accurate representation of the book that I will be withholding this review publicly as to not impact others opinions. This review stays between us, NetGalley.

a very lovely continuation of a queer regency love story. getting to see my babies Gwen and Beth get their true happy ending with James and Bobby made my little heart happy
- full of queer joy and some queer hardship since this is a pretty realistic take on the regency era. lots of reinforcement of how unfair life can be, lots of lessons on how necessary it is to carve your spot in the world despite it all
- every character in this little found family is my baby, but james demeroven is truly mine. i see you boo 😭
- the antagonist was straight up evil. he got his comeuppance tho 🔪
- i think i liked the first one more, still loved this tho!! i feel like we got less of james and bobby actually getting to be together since it took a while to get them there
- the ending tho 😩😩😩🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Note: this was my first NetGalley book and I didn’t know I could sent feedback here!!! I read this back when I first got approved. Thank you so much for this opportunity and letting me read this early!