This was really sweet!

I appreciated that this had such solid mental health rep, and also some of the side effects in taking medication presents in relationships. The overall blanket of acceptance for people are so thirsty for it was a warm lovely hug.
There was a decent amount of miscommunication, and you did want to lovingly bonk both characters on the head, but all of it comes from a very authentic place.

I highly recommend for a lovely warm, cocktail themed read.

Thank you to Afterglow/ Harlequin and Netgalley for an early copy.

This was a very sweet romance with two great characters with believable issues! I loved them together and I liked the plot. I found the third act conflict to be very childish, but the banter and the bedroom scenes were excellent.

This book had me blushing for the vast majority of it!

FWB’s-to-Lovers may just be my new favorite trope.

This was the perfect queer romcom with well-executed anxiety and OCD representation. I felt properly seen in so many ways throughout.

The Epilogue? Explosive. 🙊

(BookTok review coming very shortly)

Greg, an internet famous mixologist, is in debt, down on his luck and just broken up with his boyfriend. No long able to afford NY he gets a job at a small Pennsylvania town to help rejuvenate a failing restaurant. This is where he meets Julien, nephew brought up by the owners and sommelier who can't wait to get out of town. Greg just wants to be liked and Julien just wants to be left alone.

The two meet to an instant attraction but neither is looking for a relationship as they both have aspirations bigger than the small town they're working in.

I really enjoyed that this story delve into mental illness, anxiety and who doesn't love an enemies, to pining, to lovers?! The drinks and happy hours the boys came up with sounded so fun and wish I could try them. And the sex was *chefs kiss*

This is a sweet, fun contemporary romance. I enjoyed that the stakes weren't too high and we got to see these two characters grow and help change each other.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great, easy, feel-good read. Just the right amount of spice and darkness that didn't make the sombre subject matter seem token in nature. The characters were relatable and the pace was good throughout. Would definitely recommend to a beginner reader of MM romances.

Julian is training and on track to be an up and coming sommelier while working at his family’s restaurant.
Unfortunately that restaurant has been recently struggling, but his aunt and uncle believe bringing in TikTok famous bartender/mixologist Greg is just the ticket to drum up interest and new business.
Greg jumps on the opportunity as he can see his 15 minutes coming to a close and bills are piling up.

The two have a meet disaster over a tray of spilled drink samples, and before things between them can get better, they get worse. Customers notice the awkwardness that leads to their jobs not being done well, and when it affects the reviews the the owners step in. Make nice, work together to create special mixers to bring new people in twice a week. Or else.
(I remain unconvinced they’d *actually* fire a relative for anything short of the business closing - maybe the new hire - but they *did* seem serious sooo idk?)

Their whole ‘work nemesis’ situation is a hundred percent because they won’t talk to each other. Not exactly miscommunication, more a lack of it entirely. We, from the outside, can see clear as day that they’re meant to be friends or more, and the picking at each other is frustrating!

In spite of themselves, they do end up friendly - and then with a fwb adjacent ‘sex pact’ - but as new opportunities pop up for both of them the lack of communication rears its head and, let me say, that third act breakup is harsh.

In spite of the series topics of alcoholism, ED, OCD, and anxiety I still would have labeled this as a quick light read, and if things hadn’t gone so far during that ‘breakup’ I would have liked it more.

Thanks to NetGalley and harlequin for the arc

I picked this up because it was short and I wanted to try to fit in one more queer read in June (read queer all year, folks!). I lived in the Philly area for 10 years so was excited to read something that took place in Bethlehem and had a lot of PA references.

And I was trucking along with this and thought it would be about a 4 star read - I really liked the start to Julien and Greg's relationship and how understanding they both were of each other's needs. I think the OCD rep was pretty good and you don't see much erectile disfunction rep either and the care and understanding with how Julien reacted to that was wonderful.

It initially wasn't a 5 star read for me because SO much happened off page. Like really a lot of their relationship development happened off page so we heard about it rather than saw it. Tell versus show never really works out well for me as a reader. This book is short enough that it definitely had the space to have at least a little more on page.

However....then we get to the end of the book. Greg goes back to NYC to apartment hunt and stays with his ex. He and Julien are...I guess sort of broken up at this point? They didn't really have an explicit conversation about it. And while Greg is staying with his ex, they make out and start fooling around. Depending on your definition, it maybe doesn't evolve into full blown sex because of Greg's ED. And you know, this maybe wouldn't have bothered me this much. EXCEPT - when Greg goes back to Bethlehem and Julien is honest about his feelings for him...GREG DOESN'T TELL HIM WHAT HAPPENED. This pissed me off so much that I knocked an entire star off of the book.

Julien Boire and Greg Harlow might just be my favourite fictional gay couple of all time. A sommelier and a mixologist? That's a match made in heaven!

Told in alternating dual third-person POV, this story follows Julien Boire, a sommelier who dreams of leaving his small town and family-owned restaurant to become a master sommelier in a bigger city. Meanwhile, Greg Harlow is a TikTok influencer from New York City famous for his rizz and interesting cocktails. After a devastating breakup and mounting debt, he decides to move a small town to start over and get back on his feet. When Julien and Greg meet, they get off to a rocky start but their chemistry is undeniable.

Julien's social awkwardness was so endearing and relatable and Greg is quite possibly the sweetest and most understanding person ever. 13% into the book and I was already making several notes in my ebook about how much I love these two characters and how adorable they are together.

I love books with neurodivergent characters or who are 'flawed' in some way and this one featured a character with OCD and another with anxiety and erectile dysfunction. This book navigated those areas brilliantly and made the characters feel real and well developed.

Unfortunately, I did not really enjoy the minor conflict near the end (spoiler: it's reminiscent of Ross and Rachel being on a 'break', which was a conflict that I did not love).

You Had Me at Happy Hour follows Julien, a grumpy sommelier working at his uncle’s restaurant, and Greg, a TikTok mixologist who is hired to liven up the restaurant. When their obvious dislike for each other leads to some negative reviews, they are forced to work together to revamp the happy hour at the restaurant. Working turns to an friends with benefits arrangement that turns into feelings. I really enjoyed the beginning of this book with the setup of the novel and how both characters mental illnesses were portrayed. Julien has OCD and Greg has GAD, none of these are treated as things that need to be fixed in the novel and the MCs do everything to make sure the other is accommodated in the sweetest way. But this book ended up boring me around the half way point. Nothing exciting was happening and the romance didn’t feel strong enough to keep me interested.

You Had Me at Happy Hour is a hallmark of a soft love story that shows respect for the individual characters' needs without coddling them through having to overcome their hangups to get their HEA's.

Julien can't wait to leave his quaint hometown of Bethlehem, PA, and explore bigger and better places. Working at his uncle's restaurant is just the starting point on his way to becoming a master sommelier. He just needs to ensure that his life is set up in just the right way so it doesn't trigger his OCD oh, and of course, he needs to work on his interpersonal skills.

Having been swept up in the glitz and glam of New York City nightlife, Greg seeks emotional and financial solace in Bethlehem. Greg seems to be everything Julien is not - outgoing, glitzy, and charming.

But when Julien's cantankerousness and Greg's flirtatiousness get the restaurant in trouble they are teamed up to figure out how to revitalize Happy Hour and rescue the failing business. Soon they realize that together they create magic not just in a cocktail glass and putting their rivalry aside enter a coworkers-with-bennies pact... except... well maybe there is more to the deal than the coworkers or even friends label they allow themselves implies.

I enjoyed this book and think that the dual POV is a great asset and helps underline the mental math done by neurodivergent people when trying to navigate and communicate their idiosyncrasies in new relationships. However, I think that the third-person narrator makes it harder for the reader to truly connect with the emotional aspects of the story.

What to expect: black cat x golden retriever energy, rivals-to-lovers, friends with benefits, lost-in-translation moments.

Rep: homosexuality, OCD, anxiety disorder, therapy, ED due to SSRI's
TW: alcohol abuse, neglect by parents

3.5 /5 stars (rounded to 4)
3/5 spice

Side Note: Lehigh University is in Bethlehem, PA and I spent some time deciding between Lehigh and my alma mater in Virginia. So it was fun to revisit the town through this book. I wish there had been more mentions of the beautiful surroundings and how it's nestled so near Amish country. It would have helped hit home the difference between Bethlehem and NYC. However, this did not change my enjoyment of the book.

Very cute little story about a would-be sommelier and a hot mixologist (this is the fourth food-and-drink-themed queer romance book I've read that's coming out this summer, so it must be all the rage!!!). Perfect summer read with a relatable main character who is predictable insecure and afraid to leave the nest. A perfect beach read to escape into as you dream of cocktails!

What amazing mental health rep! And combined with wine and spirits and love? What an excellent, informed pairing. Julien and Greg are thrust together with their own mental health and life experiences and trials when they're both working at what might seem like opposite or opposing goals at Julien's uncle and aunt's restaurant in quiet Pennsylvania. The two learn to work together and in time come to work out a friends with benefits agreement that gets harder to keep in the friendzone.

Can they overcome their pasts and embrace futures that they never foresaw for themselves? Together? Of course they can! But read on anyways to find out how and enjoy Janovsky's careful writing of yet another beautiful love story.

Such a delightful story of two men who don't quite fit, and end up fitting together. An out-of-the-way restaurant provides a haven for a fallen social influencer.

Janovsky has such interesting premises for his stories. They keep me coming back again and again regardless of how much I liked or did not like some of his books. You Had Me at Happy Hour was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

What I liked:
-the representation of OCD and anxiety. Very rarely do you see both handled well in a novel but I think Janovsly hits the nail on the head with his portraly of both
-Greg and Julien are very open to listening to one another and adapting to their partners needs. I love seeing communication in my romances
-loved seeing the Allentown PA rep, as a Pennsylvania resident myself I think Janovsky captured what's it like living in a small town really well
-I liked that both Greg and Julien had their own reasons for dabbling in professions that dealt with alcohol and that someone who does not drink alcohol was included as it's becoming more and more of the norm.

What I didn't like:
-the sex scenes kind of fell a little flat in the sense we were told about them and very little showing happened during them - also very little dialogue during them
-the writing in general felt a little more YA than I think I'm used to in romances I've read before
-the resolutions at the end felt a little rushed and Julien's hesitations about leaving Allentown kind of fell to the wayside

Overall a sweet romance that feels like a hallmark movie as you're reading it.

I wasn't a huge fan of this one. I thought the smut was super cringy, and I didn't feel like it had much of a plot. I rated it 2 stars.

4.25 stars

This might be my favorite Timothy Janovsky book I’ve read so far. I liked both MCs and how careful they were with each other’s neurodivergence but that is also why the third act conflict didn’t make as much sense to me. I also really disliked the decisions Greg made in NYC but we lol make mistakes so I forgive that. However I think their resolution was good and I can imagine them together for the long haul which is always a nice way to feel at the end of a romance novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

"You Had Me at Happy Hour" somehow lacks passion and substance despite it's plot. The backstory/plot about each characters' past and mental health issues should have been deep, personal, and intimate but instead felt thrown together. The representation of someone with OCD and someone who deals with erectile dysfunction due to taking SSRI's is really cool, but it just felt...lifeless. The dialogue was INCREDIBLY cringey to the point that I had to take breaks to awkwardly laugh off my secondhand embarrassment. The sex was lackluster and felt too informal and clinical.

This book had the makings to be cute, funny, sexy, and inspiring but falls flat.

Thanks so much to Harlequin - Romance and NetGalley for an ARC of You Had Me at Happy Hour in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3/5

I really loved this book and was cheering for the couple to get together the whole time. It had just the right amount of spice and romance. I'd say it's like a wholesome Hallmark movie with some steamier scenes. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a heartwarming and cozy read.

There's something about Timothy Janovsky books that keep me coming back for more every time. Every single one feels like a warm hug, You Had Me at Happy Hour is no exception. From the start, Janovsky's characters, Julien and Greg, create this sense of belonging (Julien has OCD and Greg GAD), that personally makes me feel so seen with my own mental illness.

They're almost complete opposites — grumpy/sunshine, wine vs liquor, and so forth. A spilled tray of drinks and one semi-ruined shirt leaves them starting off on the wrong foot, but the sizzling attraction is burning steadily on the back burner. It's both hot & steamy and soft and full of yearning glances. I enjoyed every second of it!

You should read this if you like mental health representation, grumpy/sunshine dynamics, food-adjacent romances, and sweet and steamy love.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was enamored with this story from the start, the premise is so good, the characters are well written, and the romance was top shelf. Greg and Julien and so adorable to watch together, and seeing them become more comfortable with one another and grow closer and let down their walls brought a smile to my face. I wish the “conflict” had been drawn out a little more, it just felt too easily fixed, but otherwise I really enjoyed this book!