What a wonderful story!
I went back to read the first book in the duology before picking this up and i'm so glad i did because it just made me love the finding your people and family aspect of the book even more so!
After this series Alban is definitely now an autobuy author for me, I adore how they right love!

Really enjoyed this one - lots of strong feelings flying around, sometimes leading to the inevitable...!

Emma Alban’s You’re The Problem, It’s You, is a queer regency romance with rose tinted glasses. Being gay back in that world would have been heart breaking and difficult, but Alban dreams up a fairytale so that everyone gets the happily ever after that they deserve.

This book is the direct sequel to Alban’s Don’t Want You Like A Best Friend, which is her Sapphic novel. This one is all about the world of the gay regency. She touches on the fear of discover, but this book is more about sunshine’s and rainbows than anything bad happening. Like many queer books set in the regency era this is about the romance between two gay characters, not the existence of two gay men in regency England.

Emma Alban is an excellent writer. Her story is crafted with a perfect character arc and romance tropes. Her male main leads, Bobby and James, start out as enemies and slowly morph into lovers. I enjoyed their storylines and thought the things they were struggling with were great set ups to the overall story. The rest of the cast of characters were fun, with extra storylines to make them multidimensional.

The world of regency London has been vibrantly brought to life through tea parties, clandestine clubs and parliament. I actually thought the parts of the story in parliament were particularly interesting, but maybe that’s a reflection on the pace of the novel.

You’re the Problem, It’s You is more of a leisurely promenade than a fast paced, exciting read. There’s lots of worrying about things and little extra details to build the world, but it does mean there’s not a lot of spice or burning hot romance. It’s a great read, as Alban is a great author, but it didn’t keep me up late at night reading.

I did find this book had one of those disconnects between how the characters were described and how they thought and acted in their own heads. I found Bobby hard to place. He was meant to be the dashing second son with a devil may care attitude, but he came across as a sweet worrier more than anything else. Also, Bobby and James went from enemies who fought all the time, to people with a crush in the blink of an eye.

I thought the drama that almost tears them apart was well thought out and fit the characters and storyline really well. It was overcome very quickly. This book is about sunshine and rainbows and dreams and wishes coming true. It does make it seem a bit fantastical and unrealistic, but I’m happy to have the happily ever after.

Which I did love. I saw it coming from ages away, but it really was the perfect solution for all queer people in the story to get their happy endings. It was cheesy and perfect, but this is a regency romance.

You’re The Problem, It’s You is a beautifully written gay romance set in regency England. You just really want the male main characters to beat all the odds and find their happy ending, and luckily they do. This is a fairytale not a realistic story. It is a bit slow, but overall a fun read.

I really enjoyed this book, I loved seeing the whole gang together and scheming for the second time in this sequel. A perfect mix of bridgerton feels, romance and moments of angst.

I really wanted to love this book but the nearly the entire of the first half is a miscommunication trope and i absolutely hate it. Its painful to read and if it hadn't been an e-arc I would have DNFed long before.

The characters do get better in the second half, but with how they are in the start made it hard to connect with them and so I didn't really end up caring for them much.

This could jsut be my personal taste, sadly this book was not for me.

In the current mid-Bridgerton lull, this is the perfect way to scratch the itch. A fun read that will be FFO all the exploits of Lady Whistledown but want something outwith the Quinn family formula.

A beautiful regency era romance with bridgertonesque scandal and LGBTQIA+ representation

What if the world could be a better place? What if we could make it a better place for all of us?.'

This book includes
- historical romance
- LGBTQIA+ representation
- scandal
- enemies to lovers
- opposites attract
- found family / family dynamics
- chemistry

After reading the first book in the series 'Don't want you like a best friend' with my book club I saw this book and couldn't wait to read it and see where else the story would go. You can read this book as a standalone but I love the connection and fluidity if you have read the first one.
The way the relationship in this book progressed was wonderful to read, it happened so naturally. It was really interesting to read a regency romance from the male perspective and how different the societal pressures are for men vs women. Throughout the book we saw where the men struggled and watched them accept themselves too, there should be more books like this.


A beautiful representation of love and celebration of queer relationships. I loved this book and can;t wait to read more from this author

This was really good - but not great which is a little disappointing because I was expecting to LOVE it but that’s on me for setting my expectations too high. There are so many fantastic characters and the friendships and found family are beautiful and even though I liked both MCs separately, I just didn’t buy them as a couple. The supporting characters absolutely stole the show and without them I’m not sure I would have continued with it but it just so happened that they were incredible.

My biggest issue with this book is the fact that the pacing is really off. It dragged a lot in the middle and I had to keep forcing myself to push through. All that said, it was a lovely book and I adored the epilogue because it was such a ray of sunshine. This book is also oozing with queer love which is gorgeous.

I would recommend it if you love found family, sweet scheming family members and a whole lot of queer love.

You're the Problem, It's You" by Emma Alban is a delightful and entertaining read. While it didn't stand out to me personally, I would definitely recommend it to a teen reader

Receive a e-ARC of 'You're the problem, it's you' via NetGalley, so have not read the first in this series by Emma Alban - but this was not a problem!

I did enjoy the gay romantic Victorian basis for the story, however found it a little hard going throughout the book. Personally I found the miscommunication elements a little irritating, and stalled the flow of the story.

I guessed at the ending/solution about a third if the way along, however this wasn't a major issue as I liked the life they all built together and how it gave a fully rounded ending.

I think it is a powerful element to the book that the love and support of family/community was well written.

Thank you to NetGalley UK and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for a review.

3.75 ⭐ (rounded up)

Much like its sister novel, I really enjoyed this book. From the beginning of the book, it was easy to root for Bobby and James with their chemistry and sexual tension. The build up of their relationship happened slowly and then all at once - I felt this could have been paced a bit better but I really enjoyed their dynamic once they had acknowledged their feelings. The heart of this book for me, was the familial love. Albie's, and later Meredith's care for Bobby was something special. The kinship between Beth and Bobby was lovely, especially since they didn't interact too much in the last book. It was a fun, mostly light-hearted read.

This was a pretty good historical romance! I enjoyed the last 50% much more than the first half, and I would definitely say that this was too long, but I adored James as a character, the romance was sweet and convincing, and I cried twice. Absolutely loved the ending, and wish more historical romances did this!

3.75 rounded up

This wasn't as good as the authors first book. It was fine but I struggled to stay invested in the relationship and the story. It feels like a book written by a straight woman about queer men.

Other people's milage may vary but I found there were too many modern and Americanisms. One or two is fine but it was near relentless.

I'm getting a little tired of Taylor Swift references in romances, I think publishers think this is appealing to a lot more people than it does. Ditto for the Leni Kaufman covers, everyone has the same face.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc.

I really wanted to live this, especially with the Taylor Swift reference as the title but it just wasn’t for me and around 25% mark I ended up DNFing as I couldn’t get on board with the story. It seemed to chop and change so much. I didn’t connect with the characters and unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars
I want to start out by saying i read the first book in this duology (series?) and I did enjoy it but found it slow at times. So when i saw this book (and fell in love with the cover) I was SO very excited to read it and I was really hoping the pace would be quicker with this one but sadly it seemed worse in this one. At times this book felt like it was a chore to get through. I was hoping for a LGBTQ+ version of Bridgerton but it just fell flat. Nothing happened for like half the book and it really just seemed like it was a load of unnecessary scenes. The miscommunication went on for ages and I got board of it. It’s with a heavy heart i say this book wasn't for me. But that’s not to say i hated it. There were parts of the book I enjoyed, I liked the lavender marriage plot at the end and I really liked seeing Beth and Gwen again!

While not my favourite, I think this is a fun duology and of course I always enjoy a good lavender marriage.Overall, I had a very fun time with this book,

Loved it! Perfection! I honestly can't stop raving about this book. So many of my friends are waiting for it going kn sale. Fantastic writing style also

I really enjoyed this read and it helped put faith back in myself in picking ARC reads. It was funny, quirky, adorable, a little bit frustrating (miscommunication trope - not a fave) and so heart-warming. I did predict where this book was going early on but it didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Bobby and James are so cute!

Favourite quote:
“I should have said something ages ago, made it clear. I will love whoever you choose to love, and I will treat them like family just the same.”

You're The Probem, It's You is a delightfully queer Regency romance that was a breeze to read. I loved seeing the messy misunderstandings between Bobby and James as they were being pulled to each other. I always adore an uptight grumpy man and James was a perfect lead with so much substance under all those layers. Bobby, with his easygoing nature, was equally enjoyable. Loved seeing them get together, as well as everything that happened around them.

I laughed out loud more times than I could count and thoroughly enjoyed the delightful romantic escapades and hilarious mishaps. (Gwen is definitely a force to be reckoned with and I loved every bit of it her offering to punch a guy or two for Bobby!) Some days you really just need to read a good romance and this was definitely one of the ones I've enjoyed a lot!