By Emma Alban
Mischief and Matchmaking Book 2
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️
Blurb
The enemies-to-lovers queer Victorian romance follow-up to Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, in which a young lord and a second son clash, but find themselves thrust together again and again by their meddling cousins.
“That man is, without a doubt, the absolute most obnoxious…
Bobby Mason is sick of being second: born the spare, never trusted with family responsibility, never expected to amount to much. He’s hungry to contribute something that matters, while all around him his peers are squandering their political and financial power, coasting through life. Which is exactly why he can’t stand the new Viscount Demeroven.
…insufferable…
James Demeroven, just come of age and into the Viscountcy, knows that he’s a disappointment. Keeping his head down and never raising anyone’s expectations is how he’s survived life with his stepfather. To quiet, careful James, Bobby Mason is a blazing comet in his endless night, even more alive than he was at Oxford when James crushed on him from afar. But Mason is also brash and recklessly unapologetic, destined to shatter the fragile safety of James’s world. Worst of all, he keeps rubbing James’s failures in his face.
…hottest man to ever walk the ton.”
They can barely get through a single conversation without tensions boiling over. Neither Bobby nor James has ever met a more intriguing, infuriating, infatuating man.
If only they could avoid each other entirely. Bad enough their (wonderful but determined) cousins Beth and Gwen keep conveniently setting up group outings. But when an extortionist starts targeting their families, threatening their reputations, Bobby and James must find a way to work together, without pushing each other’s buttons (or tearing them off) in the process…
Genre: Historical Romance
Read if you Like:
🎩 MM romance
🎩 Enemies to lovers
🎩 Found family
🎩 Romcom
🎩 Victorian setting
My Thoughts:
I have been so excited to read You're the Problem, It's You ever since I finished Don't Want You Like a Best Friend and It didn't disappoint!
Emma Alban does something really interesting in her historical romances which is that they have a new adult feel to them. Her heroes and heroines are still figuring their lives out and they still have parents or older adults involved in their lives and decisions. In this story, James struggles with taking his seat in parliament and taking on his title. I like the acknowledgment that these people are young and still figuring out their lives.
I also really enjoyed seeing the differences between the first romance which was sapphic, and this one which was between two men. The realities of the time were that there could be social consequences for sapphic romances but romances between men were illegal. It changes the stakes of the two stories. At the same time, men had so much more freedom and information, which really changed the awareness these characters had of their own sexuality.
Bobby and James had an interesting dynamic. I really appreciated that the book was dual POV because we got to see how both characters perceived each other and how that changed over time. James in particular is so anxious, but it comes off as rudeness to the other characters. I liked them coming to understand each other as well as the reader already knew them.
I can't recommend this one enough! I think it has appeal for contemporary and historical romance readers. I do think that the story is best understood by reading Don't Want You Like a Best Friend first. Despite having read that one only a few months ago, I had to look up some characters to remember who everyone was.
🌶️🌶️ - This story had one detailed open-door scene and several other partially less detailed or fade to black scenes. There is some sexual tension and passionate kisses as well.
Thank you so much to Avon for sending me an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
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