Look Up, Handsome is a small town story about the owner of a book shop trying to save it from closing over the holidays. It evolves family drama, famous authors, people rallying together for a good cause and, of course, finding love in unlikely ways, If you are looking for an easy to read, holiday romcom with queer romance then give this book a read.

However, not what I'd suggest if you are looking for something with more depth. I think the setting of this story is interesting and has potential but I found it lacking. I couldn't fully connect to the main characters and Quiin isn't very likeable at times. The fact he wouldn't even settle for a lower paying job or work for anyone else just because he'd rather keep his life style was especially off putting.

In sum, this book has flaws but I still think it is a good holiday read that fits the hallmark movie sort of vibe and can be easily be read over a weekend. It's also, from my understanding, a debut novel which always make me feel softer about it.

Such a fantastic story. Got everything you need. Funny, romantic, heartwarming.
The characters are brought to life in this heartwarming cozy novel. Just feels like a hallmark movie which I absolutely love!

this is an adorable holiday romcom! I adored the opposites attract, small town, cozy snowed in vibes of this story. Quinn and Noah have such a sweet evolving relationship. I love how they grow into such a sweet, tender, loving couple while snowed in the adorable small town. I especially loved the other characters of the story and how pasts are rehashed, communicated, and understood now in the present.

overall this is the coziest holiday romcom and I thoroughly enjoyed it! thank you for the arc :)

im so sorry i really felt like i couldn't give this a fair crack. the line about noah's eyes looking like the welsh hills on like page two. it was too much.

I think that this book would work better as a Hallmark rom-com, than as a book. 

The idea is really cute and there are parts that I enjoyed (especially in a first half of the book), but overall it's just mediocre. 
It's a debut, so I know that I shouldn't expect too much, and that's why the rating is not lower.

But what exactly annoyed me in this book? Well, mostly the main character, Quinn. Quinn is an owner of a queer bookshop in a little town in Wales, and he's got a personality of a wet blanket. He lets everyone do whatever they want and ignores his problems, especially the big problem that is his stepfather evicting him from the bookshop. And we are supposed to feel sad for him when he didn't even tell his mother that he doesn't want to leave the bookshop... Even after he vows to finally try to fight for it, he mostly relies on his friend Ivy to organize everything. And his attitude towards his love interest Noah is so weird, he wants this perfect man that he imagined and doesn't accept his traumas. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say that his behaviour at the end was very irrational for me. As for Noah, he only talks about his past, we know almost nothing about his current life in London, but he keeps insisting that he has to go back there. Why? No idea.
The other characters are shadows, they appear when Quinn needs them and then disappear.
All except for Hermione, Noah's mother and ex film star. Her side plot is probably the most interesting part of the book. 

There are also a lot of plot inaccuracies, like Noah says he stays in the town because of the snow, but later we find out that he came to spend Christmas with his mother. Did he change his mind? The snow keeps appearing and disappearing and Noah's still there, so I don't get it. Quinn and Noah's age also doesn't work with the Hermione's scandal. 
And I could keep going, but I will stop at saying that the ending didn't work for me.

Overall I think that this book is far too long, it could work better as 200 page or like I said as a Christmas film.

I’ve always wanted to visit Hay-on -Wye, Wales’ iconic book town but haven’t yet had the chance so I was utterly charmed by the way Jack Strange really took me there.
It’s such a nice change of pace to see a Welsh protagonist and a story set completely in Wales. There definitely aren’t enough! (In fact, I can’t remember another off the top of my head.)
The setting of LOOK UP, HANDSOME – both the quiet, small-town atmosphere of Hay-on-Wye itself and the gloriously queer bookshop Quinn runs, Kings & Queens, specifically – completely steals the show. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the characters, the romance, or the drama around whether or not Quinn would be able to save the shop – I absolutely did! – but the feeling of place and community that Strange manages to inject into this novel was what really set it apart for me.
LOOK UP, HANDSOME ticks so many boxes: it’s a sweet seasonal read (wait til you find out some of these Welsh Christmas traditions!), there’s a bookshop that I think every book lover is going to wish they could visit, a great cast of side characters to create that real sense of ‘world’, and a nice little slow-burn romance.
I think I might’ve liked a little more development on the romance, and maybe a little tightening up of the pacing in a couple of spots, but this is a great read for romance lovers, and one that give you something a little bit different from the usual holiday romance.

I unfortunately struggled to connect to the characters in this. The romance didn’t click and it was set up a little too formulaically. I also did not appreciate the slight cheating trope- that plot line absolutely did not need to be included as it didn’t further the plot at all and just made me feel icky. The some of the side characters were really interesting, but they weren’t delved into enough, others I didn’t like at all. Overall there were just too many different plotlines and it needed to be fleshed out more for me.

A sweet and wholesome Christmas romance, Look Up, Handsome is just the book for you if you enjoy queer romance and love books.
Quinn is trying to fight losing his queer bookshop in Hay-on-Wye: he is under threat of eviction due to plans for a tourist centre in the property of his store. When successful author Noah finds himself snowed in in Hay-on-Wye after attending the book festival, providing a distraction Quinn doesn’t really need.
This was a cute romance, and I liked chaos goblin Quinn despite getting annoyed at him for putting on blinders when it came to tricky real-life situations. Ignoring eviction notices in the hope that the situation will resolve itself felt naïve.
The whole novel was pretty closed-door, angsty over a small touch, so the explicit scene at the end felt somewhat mismatched to the tone that had been set throughout. I don’t mind a spicy read – but I felt I got blindsided by that particular scene.
Overall an enjoyable read – and if anything, it’s made me want to visit Hay-on-Wye, which is apparently a real town renowned for its bookshops!

I really wanted to like this book. I love the charming small town at Christmas. It has interesting, quirky characters. But it also just made me sad.

Quinn is desperately trying to save his bookstore from being shut down, and there is a bit of mystery and romance. But it is very problematic romance for me, and really, I just found the book sad overall despite its happy ending.

If you enjoy angst and small town Christmas, you could like this book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

The first couple of chapters were really fun, funny situations during a book-event, cosy situations in Quinn’s bookshop Kings and Queens. But after a while the book dreaded on me, the situations were not so fun anymore and I found Quinn very annoying. He sometimes felt like a little child, ignoring important stuff, and not thinking about the consequences and always feeling that he was the victim. Get your act together and grow up I thought quite often.

The story about Noah was different, a successful author coping with his fears. But why did you take your boyfriend with you man? The chemistry between Quinn and Noah was not really existent.

Ivy and Daniel were both likeable characters, although Ivy sometimes seemed like a battery-operated bunny with all she did. Hermione, being Noah’s mother, took up a lot of room and her story was put down very nicely.

The story became better with the last couple of chapters and the two epilogues, although I did not see the explicit scene coming and found it not really fitting seeing that there had only been a kiss here and there.
All in all the most fun was that I learned that the village Hay-on-Wye really exists and that it really is a town full of bookshops.

This book is perfect for this time of year. Now that Halloween is behind us I thought I would get into the festive spirit and this was perfect. Set in a small village in Wales it has the small town vibes, community spirit, love and all the festivities that go with it. It’s an MM novel and follows a small book shop owner who is at risk of losing everything. His is the first LGBTQ book shop in Hay so it’s heartwarming to see everyone coming together to save it.

A fun, lighthearted read. I really enjoyed it. The author went into such detailing setting the perfect scenes with his spot on descriptions. He really has a knack for painting the perfect picture for the reader. I’ve added hay on wye to my places to visit!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this and review it.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this little gem of a holiday story. The characters were delightful.

This book deserves 1000 stars, not 5.

Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange is hands down my favorite book of 2024. From the enchanting setting of Hay-on-Wye to the adorable romance between two handsome men, this book had everything I love—including a mention of my favorite flowers, bluebells.

I adored how the storyline of Quinn fighting for his shop while falling for Noel mixed so perfectly with the interwoven storylines of Daniel’s struggles and Quinn’s grief of losing a parent. The continuous link of the little Christmas robin really made me well up, adding a beautifully emotional touch.

An absolutely genius addition to the book was having an LGBTQ+ bookshop housed in a church; the connotation is brilliant. All in all, this was one of the most joyous reads of 2024, and I hope to see more from Strange in the coming years.

Look Up, Handsome is definitely a cute holiday romance with its cozy small town vibes and grumpy/sunshine dynamic, but unfortunately did not hook me like I had hoped it would. There's a bit too much info dumping and being told vs shown, that just put me off it. That being said, it did have some adorable moments, but just didn't win me over.

Give me all these stories. I loved it soooo much and honestly just picked it straight up again for a re read because these characters just called to my heart and I love them so very much.

Approaching the Christmas season was the perfect time to be reading this book as I really felt the cosy vibes throughout. I was really interested in the main characters and felt so bad for Quinn’s issues with potentially losing his shop, and loved the various side characters as well. Everyone was really well developed and I loved seeing how the story would play out in the end. It was beautifully written and although I started this book rooting for the romance, I ended up needing to know what would happen with the bookshop! A fantastic read for the winter months, showing the beauty of a small town and the friendships and found family which can be formed there. Amazing!!

This book was the perfect cosy Christmas read that you will need this year. Quinn is just trying to save his queer bookshop in Hay on Wye when stunning Noah, romance writer, comes back to his home town and is now Quinn’s ultimate distraction.

Noah has his own back story going on which I actually found really endearing. Quinn’s best friend was totally adorable as well; I could totally eat up a book on her please 🙏🏼

Overall; this book was addictive, laugh out loud funny, swoon worthy, dramatic and cosy.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK - One More Chapter for this ARC e-copy of Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange.

Pull your cozy armchair up to the fireplace, warm up some hot cocoa, and break out this book, marketed as a Hallmark-adjacent LGBTQ+ wintertime romance. It just wasn’t for me.

My main problem with this book is that I didn’t like Quinn, the main character, at all. Has he endured hardships in his life, including the death of a beloved parent and being gay? Yes. Is he currently being threatened with eviction from his bookshop by his own step-father? Also yes. But none of this makes me feel bad for Quinn largely due to his behavior toward others. Quinn is bitter and hateful to everyone he knows, including his so-called best friend and his own mother, who he just can’t forgive for getting remarried after her former husband’s death. This haterism also extends to people that only occasionally pop up in the narrative—the only thing you’ll know about these people is that Quinn met them once and hates them. No amount of quirky mishaps or clumsy pitfalls could make me like Quinn from the very first chapter, unfortunately.

With its aggressive cheerfulness and British-adjacent, slightly forced humor, this book reminded me a lot of Matt Cain’s “Becoming Ted,” which I read earlier this year and didn’t particularly enjoy either. I suppose there must be a market for this type of thing, and I’m just not a part of it.

☆ ☆ - OKAY / DNF

The characters are well-developed, and their chemistry is palpable, making readers root for their happiness., making it a heartwarming escape for any romance fan.

LOOK UP, HANDSOME is a queer holiday romance set in the small town of hay-on-wye in wales. quinn is the owner of the first and only queer bookshop in town—that is, until his stepdad and landlord sends him an eviction notice. quinn is determined to do whatever he needs to save his shop, but when he meets noah, a romance novelist, he can't help but be distracted.

this book has everything i love in a holiday romance and i absolutely loved it. i did find the pacing to be a bit slow in the first third, but as the story progressed, the pacing got much better. i loved the cast of characters in this book and the town coming together to help quinn save the bookshop was so heartwarming!! aside from quinn and noah's romance, i also really enjoyed quinn's relationship with hermione and how it helped him develop.

read if you like:
- grumpy/sunshine
- forced proximity
- small town romance

thanks to netgalley and one more chapter for the advanced copy!