What a fun, sweet and lighthearted book! I really want to keep Timothy Janovsky on my radar for the author's upcoming books in the future. I loved the messaging as well as the relationship. Loved the fun and relatable characters.

“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime 56-carat blue diamond, and I’m not about to let him slip from my hand and sink to the bottom of the ocean.
This time, I’ll hold on tight.”

In this fun, light-hearted rom-com we meet Wren. A big movie lover and romanticiser of life. He’s been saving his first kiss for something special, but when he turns 22 he decides to finally get his first kiss this summer. In a drunken mood, he starts thinking about all the almost-first kisses he had… and wakes up having sent four emails to the guys he almost kissed! One of them to his former best friend and first big love Derick, who has ghosted him since they started college. To Wren’s surprise, he answers and that’s when he learns that Derick also happens to be in town working at the same local drive-in movie theatre… and that's when all the things in Wren's life spiral out of control.

I loved this book from start to finish! I instantly connected with Wren and that made me want to keep reading. Then Derick entered the screen (pun was definitely intended ;)) and from that point I was completely sold! They were both so much fun, complex and so adorable. Their banter was the best thing ever and while reading I couldn’t stop smiling.

The side characters were amazing, the plot was fun to follow, really liked the side plot with Alice and I loved the drive-in movie theatre as the setting!

During the events of the book, Wren is struggling with himself and his identity in such an honest and raw way. This exploration of his identity was so well-executed. It really shows that labels are only that and that only the individual can decide who they are. Wren’s journey is such a good representation and I think it can help so many people with figuring themselves out and there is nothing more beautiful than that!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cute m/m NA rom-com that reads more like YA where our protagonists find their true selves and believe in their ability to make a difference while saving a local drive-in. Unfortunately the book doesn't give either the budding second chance relationship, or the second chance needed for the drive-in enough focus so that both plot lines falter. I didn't feel any connection between our MCs other than the occasional "he's so hot" and sweet but ho-hum romantic gestures. I was more interested in the saving the drive-in plot line and wished it was more of a focus in the story.

This is such a cute and lovely romcom! And to think I almost DNF'd it!!!! I think that it took me a second to get into because I wasn't a huge fan of the main character Wren's friends at first. However, I quickly warmed up to them, and everything became 10x better when the love interest appeared. Derick and Wren are adorable and I loved reading about the progression of their relationship. I also loved Alice, the badass female film director who's film may finally get a second chance.

If you like romcoms, films, and reading about the exploration of identity, then I definitely recommend you pick this one up!

This one could not be any more adorable! Loved the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with a queer twist and the balance between sweet and heavier issues and topics.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablance for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one to be honest with you. I wanted to read it because of the demisexual rep, but I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the story. And then I got into it and it was so much more than I expected! For starters, I adored Wren. He is awkward and nervous, but so passionate and kind. I adored watching him be passionate about movies and Wiley’s.

I really liked the discussion about growing up and being your own person. It was really nice to see Wren and his friends exploring what to do next with their lives and where to go next after finishing university. I also liked that there was a lot of discussion about choosing your own path even if other people don’t understand what that path might be. I also really liked how there was a lot of discussion about being open and honest and working on communication.

I really liked the discussion about demisexual and the way Wren and his friends discussed sexuality and supported each other. I think it was really nice to see Wren’s friends supporting him through his self-discovery. I really enjoyed how it was not treated as something that needed to be deeply understood, past explaining the definition and then accepting that, that is just how Wren is.

This book made me cry in the end, which I was not expecting. Just watching Wren and his friends overcome things to support his passion and his goals was so heartwarming. I adored this book and definitely need to reread it.

The book is sweet and there's a very diverse cast of characters. It reads like YA, and maybe it's my fault for expecting something different, but I was a bit disappointed.
I DNF half way through, as infortunately, the book wasn't working for me. I think it can work for a lot of people, maybe it wasn't the right time for me to read it.

The cover was unappealing and the book was better but it never significantly caught my attention. Nothing big wrong with it, just not for me. I never connected with the romance.

This new adult romance completely took me by surprise!
It had all the cuteness and coziness needed in a romance. From the likeable characters to the demisexual representation, this has become a new comfort read for me and i definitely recommend it to everyone.
Thank you Netgalley for providing me of an arc in exchange for a honest review.

"to all the boys i've loved before" in a gay version! sign me up!!!! perfect summer second chance romance for a great summer weekend.

we get all the best things we need in a sweet, ya romance book. bits of laugh, bits of cry and bits of happiness.
great queer representations - gay, demisexual, lesbian, bisexual and drag queens! i actually can't believe that i stumbled across demisexual representation and it made my heart go boom because that's the label i identify with.

the story itself is really good, the introduction of wren and derick is simple and yet perfect, you can relate to wren quite a lot which makes this book more enjoyable with each chapter.
i've been meaning to read more small town romances and even though it it's the main focus here we get that too! another main point in the book is to help the drive-in that wren loves since it's been struggling financially, that's where things can get tricky but i don't want to spoil too much!
another great character that brings out the great vibes is alice kelly - the amazing movie director who's been away from the film community for a long time and wren is very determined to showcase her last film she made few decades later. their friendship is a really nice touch in the story for sure!

but coming back to derick and wren, their love story is a second chance love story, which isn't something that i go for a lot but it was really good! it didn't feel wrong or forced, it was an innocent, a bit confusing coming of age story with great loving moments.

overall, i will want to see maybe a continuance to the story once again or maybe another book set in the same place as this one since i really loved it! i'm already waiting for another book from Timothy Janovsky!

rating: 4.5* - excellent! loved this one but maybe had one or two small flaws.

Wren Roland has never been kissed, he is waiting for the perfect movie moment but he is still waiting. He sends emails all the boys he “loved” before and ends up with a response from his Derick Haverford his first pre coming out crush who just ghosted him when they started college. It is the summer after graduating college and Wren is back at his summer job as Manager at the Drive in which he loves and hopes to own one day and in walks Derick who is the new social media manager that his boss neglected to tell him he hired. The drive in isn’t making as much as it used to with everything being streamed and Derick is there to try to drum up business and make sure it doesn’t go out of business. While doing this of course they start to get closer together and Wren realizes something about his own sexuality and why he hasn’t been able to actually kiss anyone and that he needs more than physical attraction to be able to do that. I really loved this book and I loved that movie aspect of it since I worked at a movie theater for a couple years so this made me nostalgic for that. This was a really great and fast read and I can’t wait to read his next book.

Thanks Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

I loved the LGBTQIA + rep in this book (especially the demisexual rep as I'm an asexual myself and is rare to find in romance stories!) and the characters were likeable and well fleshed out.

The story itself was what let this book down for me sadly. It dragged on and by the 3/4 mark I felt bored of reading and really wasn't enjoying myself.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

WOW, I really didn't expect this from the book. It was a very pleasant surprise.
The characters were memorable, the dialogues were done in a good way.
This story will stay with me forever.

this was one of the most fun books I've read and I'm so happy i was granted this ARC because it got me out of my reading slump. Its fun, its fresh and its SOOOO swoony. i needed a good romcom and this filled the void with such good tropes: ESTRANGED BFFS TO LOVERS, do i need to say more?? other tropes also included: only one bed. the exploration of demisexuality in this, the nuance with lived experience was so fun. most importantly it was about queer joy, queer love both romantic and platonic and i loved every second of it.

It was a fine new adult book. Good demi representation. A little slow for my taste but perfect for those that don’t like spice in the romance.

4.5/5 Stars

This is one of those books where I read the synopsis and immediately knew I would be reading it. A queer romance that revolves around saving a drive-in? Yes, please! I grew up going to the drive-in and some of my best memories from high school revolve around my friend group piling into a couple of pickup trucks and going to see the newest releases. Never Been Kissed is the debut novel of Timothy Janovsky and it incorporated so many of the tropes I love! I would describe it as a coming-of-age, second chance romance and it was utterly delightful!

This book was the queer version of To All The Boys I've Loved Before that so many of us wanted. Wren Roland is still waiting to have his first kiss and he wants it to be movie perfect. Unfortunately, real life is not like the movies. After a disastrous birthday party, Wren drunkenly decides to send the emails he has written to the four guys he's almost kissed. The next morning brings regret and embarrassment of the OMG! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!? variety and it was so perfectly done!

Timothy Janovsky packed a lot into its 288 pages. Not only was there the romance and save the drive-in plots, this book was an exploration of the uncertainty that defines the transition from college student stage of life to the working adult stage. Wren and his friends have dreams but also have no idea how to achieve said dreams now that they have their respective degrees. Working at the drive-in is supposed to be their last hoorah before moving on to a 9-5 job. What Wren wasn't expecting was having to work with his former best friend who ghosted him freshmen year and one of the email recipients.

I loved the romance so much! Wren and Derrick have a lot of baggage and watching them work through it and start to fall for each other was *chef's kiss*. It was a little more dramatic than I am used to reading but it fit the story. I've seen mixed reviews on the Alice plot of the story and personally I loved the whole thing! Watching Wren and Alice both come out of their shells and learn to love other people was so heartwarming!

This story was also a beautiful and relatable exploration of what it means to be queer. And had the resounding message that it is okay to take your time. There is no deadline that you have to have your identity figured out by or that you have to hit any romance milestones by. Wren has figured out part of his identity but feels like gay is only the beginning of who he is. Labels are so important and when he finds that last missing piece of his identity so many things and past experiences fall into place. Wren's experience learning about the ace spectrum paralleled my own experience so much. I have started to see myself more and more in the queer books that have been released recently but this one made me feel so fully seen that I cried a few tears. Thanks for that Mr. Janovsky!

I loved this book so much and can't recommend it enough! I have already bought a physical copy to add to my personal library. I loved the cover! And I cannot wait for the second book in this series coming out this fall! I need it in my hands yesterday!

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC on this novel even if I sat on it a bit too long in my TBR stack. I thought this was absolutely adorable and I could really feel how much the protagonist AND the author love movies and the drive-in. The B plot with Alice Kelly and her treatment in 70's Hollywood was also well executed. The background characters were three dimensional and had their own lives going on while the main plot proceeds. I thought this was super sweet and also highlighting some of the Q in LQBTQ+ that does not have the main spotlight. Pick this up if you love sweet romance with no smut or movies or just want to turn your brain off for a bit and enjoy.

Imagine reading something with the premise of To All The Boys I've Loved Before, but make it super gay. That is Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky.

As if that's not enough juice for an adult romance novel, this novel also has a second-chance romance and friends to lovers vibes within it.

This book is a wonderful treat. It's a book I needed before the stress of the finals kicked in, but even without that bias, I assure you it's a fair well-written romance.

I gave it 4 of 5 stars, and would recommend to fans of Heartstopper as well.

OHMYGOSH!!

For this being his debut novel, Timothy Janovsky did an amazing job!! This book was so cute and full of heart and fight!! I’m just so giddy from that ending!! 😍

Wren and Derick’s journey together and separate was wonderful to watch. Derick standing up to his Dad and Wren educating himself and finding that he’s gay and demisexual and learning that he can be both!! So much growth with these two!!

And Alice, what a firecracker!! I loved her so much!! I want to know her in real life!!!! #spiritanimal

If you enjoy a good MM romance or miss going to drive-in movie theaters, please, PLEASE read this one!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the wonderful opportunity to read and review this amazing book!!

I am very much a mood reader and the vibes weren’t there for me on this read at this time. All of my friends love it, so I’m sure that I will too once I’m in the right headspace!