4 stars

Khorram's adult debut does not disappoint.

Farzan and David - and their burgeoning relationship - are at the center of this fairly uncomplicated but highly readable romance. One brings food and the other brings wine, and, well, the great pairing thing really does come to fruition in all of the expected ways. Their relationship is charming, predictable (but isn't that what romance readers are often eagerly anticipating?), and fulfilling. It also includes a healthy dose of intimacy, which, in its relative descriptiveness, is what most distinguishes this book from Khorram's earlier YA efforts.

I like these couples and enjoy the various side characters, and while this book doesn't show up with any earth-shattering material, it's a great representative of the genre.

I found this audiobook so beautiful and fun!

Farzan and David are both in their late thirties and have to navigate their careers and social circles. Farzan feels like a failure as he has already changed careers several times. But when his parents tell him they want to give up their Iranian restaurant, he puts his everything into saving this meeting spot for the Iranian community in their city.

David is on the brink of becoming a master sommelier, lifting his career into ever higher spheres. After a mistaken identity and a one night stand, Farzan and David decide to become friends with benefits. Just for a little while.

I loved how real I'll Have What He's Having is and how relatable Farzan and David feel. Shezi Sardar and Winston James did such an amazing job with the audio version. I cannot recommend this book enough!!

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

No shit, Sherlock, but this book is sexy as hell. How can it be so fluffy and orgasmic at the same time? Like there’s a lot of smut and there’s a lot of wholesome fun, too. Well, I don’t care how the Adib Khorram did it but I’ll have What He’s Having is one of the best contemporary Adult MM romances I’ve read in my entire reading career. This book is just so beautiful and perfect from its amazing cast of diverse characters, to how the romantic plot was designed, the dialogues, the beautiful setting of Kansas City, and down to the careers of our two lead characters. The narrators’ voices and the twang are even spot on like hell yeah, it’s like I’m personally witnessing the unfolding of the whole story.

Farzan Alavi, one of our lead characters, not only identified as a gay but also as a fuck-up after seemingly failing everything in his life: his job, relationship, his loving parents. It’s like the Universe is singling him out to fail whenever he bags a small win. Our other lead character, David Curtis, the wine director of Aspire and an ambitious black guy who believes that with enough hard work and determination, he’ll get to where he wants to be and so far, his recipe is proving to be successful. Two characters who are as different as the sun and moon, crossing paths with each other due to a wrong assumption. And what seemed to be harmless flirting between the two led to one thing to another. This is how the story of I’ll Have What He’s Having went. The whole thing may sound your typical and eyerolling MM romance out there, I assure you that the story is more than dicks and romance.

You are an adult who is in their late 30s and still feeling lost? Try this book because it might resonate with you as it resonated with me. I’m biologically female but identify as pan and also in my late 40s but I can totally relate to Farzan’s day to day struggles and his insecurities. Looking for something wholesome and strong filial vibes? Try this book because it has the most amazing story of the Iranian community in Kansas, Farzan’s endearing family and how they stayed strong together despite being in a new place and you know, running the Shiraz Bistro which is actually one of the things that bind the community together. Looking for toe curling, hot, and smutty scenes with lots of Vitamin D? Look no further because this book will satisfy your hunger in more ways than one.

Another thing that I love about this book is it gives us glimpses of how Farzan and David go about their day-to-day lives, showing us the intricacies of how they tackle the different personal and professional challenges thrown their way every single day. There’s no glorification here but the author made the mundane so relatable and refreshing. My only gripe about this book is that cover. Why? It’s cute but it’s projecting a very strong YA vibe.

Summing it all up, I highly recommend this book even for those who are not so into MM romance. Lots of heart, laughter, and depth.

When I took a shot at getting an early copy of this book based on the author's debut still being a favorite of mine, I wondered if I was really the right audience. I'm as white as they come, eternally sober, and romance is not my go-to genre. So what business did I have trying to nab a book about a Iranian-American chef and a black inspiring sommelier? Well made for me or not, I regret nothing.

I was prepared to either be completely lost when wine was talked about or rolling my eyes to high heavens. The exact opposite. There is an honest poetry to the way food and drink are both spoken about in this that doesn't come off as cheesy at all. This is probably aided by the fact that Farzan is a cook and you can see him placing these flavors into context and understand and appreciate the offerings David supplies or talks about. Also, while it is a central element, it is by far the entire focus.

Instead this is just as much as two people in their late thirties deal with the concepts of expectations from themselves and others, private and the assumption of the general public. It shows how that shapes our motivations and self worth. It's about having a history and know what hasn't worked. It's about the broad scope of family, about how we're not always the best to ourselves and those who love us. It's about self discovery and being passionate about the things you know you love. It is also heck a geeky at times with lots of gaming and anime references for those of us of a certain age.

Now I will be honest. I wasn't crazy about one character basically being talked into trying something, namely a casual relationship, when they were very opposed to it because they knew it was not the type of thing they wanted. Even though as it is the genre it is you know things are meant to work out. It was rather uncomfortable. It's not enough to knock the reading experience down for me.

The one element that I will sing the praises of and took me completely by surprised was, of all things, 'the spice'. Those who may hear my personal book rantings will know that during 'those types of scenes' in romances I'm usually either shaking my head, snorting, or chuckling, just waiting for it to be over. Now I can't say I got totally carried away. Instead there was happy flailing. I can't recall other books that have talked so honestly, openly, about the less glamorous things that can happen when being intimate and with casual to humored responses from the characters. And the level of communication about what each are comfortable with, permissions, medical related history, are all up front. It is so SO encouraging to see that the types of vital conversations for healthy relationships are being included and not edited out because 'that's not what readers are there for'. For some of us, that makes those types of scenes far more palatable. A novel can be realistic and still a pleasurable escape - no pun intended.

Finally, I just need to give a final hat tip to all the family elements. I have never had the opportunity to have Persian food. However, having been on a mission to read more from and concerning Iran, it's nice to have an idea of what some of the dishes I've heard of actually contain and the traditional process they're made. This might not be a huge thing for many, but I know for foodies at least it will be a treat.

Touching, considerate, humorous, and soul uplifting, this was just a really fun work.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC in exchange of my honest opinion.

Right out of the bat I was pleasantly surprised to know that the main characters were in their late thirties instead of being in the early 20s. That makes a world of difference nowadays for me since I’m in that age bracket. For some reason, when I first glimpsed at the cover I thought it was going to be a YA LGBTQ romance.

In this story we have these two POC man that I believed encapsulated the struggles of dating really well including the all the stereotypes they are subjected and complicated family dynamics.

However, I believe I’m getting burnt out of romance books that has a lot of sex scenes, and this one has quite a bit and they are very spicy. Which led me to jump ahead in the audio to the actual plot when things started getting repetitive and this made me like less the book.
As a woman that reads a lot of romance, I try to diversify my readings and I was very interested how different the relationship and even the spicy scenes were portrayed in this book since it’s written by a a male member of the lgbtq community.

The narrators also did a fantastic job in bringing those characters and moments of interaction with other characters to life! I will look for more work of those narrators because their voice is super clear and nuanced.

Overall is an interesting story but the fact that the spicy rate was high made me not enjoy it too much.

There were so many things I adored about this book. Although I don’t usually care for long descriptions of food or wine, I felt that this was done in a way that showed incredibly well the passion that Farzan and David have for it. They were endearing and relatable, I loved that they were older characters than what we’re used to in romances, that they weren’t physically perfect, that they were a bit damaged without having some tragic back stories. And most of all, I loved how the sex scenes were hot but oh-so-relatable and realistic; this was so refreshing to read.
I flew through the book, alternating between the digital version and the audiobook as I prefer to do, and bot were amazing. I especially liked the narrator acting out Farzan’s voice. I thought he was emotionally on point and his intonations made me laugh when listening to passages that would have me smile. While the narrator for David has an incredible voice, he was less well-suited for high-speed listening, which was a bit frustrating sometimes, and I didn’t really like the way he did Farzan’s voice in his parts.
I could not help but root for these two, but also fall in love with the entire cast of secondary characters, from the friends to the siblings and of course the parents. I can’t tell you how hard I laughed at the “meeting the parents” scenes.
I would probably not count this book among my favorites of all time, but if you’re looking for a sweet and refreshing romance with amazing representation, this is it.

<i>Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-ARC.</i>

This is a beautiful queer romance that follows Farzan and David as the sparks ignite and their meet cute of mistake identity turns into a working relationships. . . Or tried too. Adib Khorram does an amazing job making David and Farzan feel so relatable and real in this novel that you can't help fall in love with them, their career paths and their romance. This is an open door, spicy romance (4/5🔥) so when listening to the audiobook I would use headphones haha!

Thank you Forever, Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the advance listening copy.

Thank you Netgalley, forever publishing and hachette audio for the free ALC and ebook. My opinions are being left voluntarily. This is a phenomenal mm later in life romance. Loving all the sommelier romance books this year. This was spicy and it kept spicing. Love how tender it was with the side story's and hot they pushed to give their love a go.

4.5/5☆