This book is so incredibly cute. It takes all the bookish romance tropes and makes them feel fresh and new. What originally drew me in was the cover. It's so colorful and upbeat.

I do have to admit that it took me a bit to get into. The beginning didn't really pull me in like I had hoped it would. But if you stick with it it is rewarding.

I was saddened by this. The blurb read as a really exciting novel and it fell flat for me. Unfortunately this is not a book for me.

I love everything about this book. The cover, the story, the romance, the book boyfriend. EVERYTHING.

PK Harrington, III works for a publishing house. He like his job Ok and he’s got a work BFF in Maggie who is funny and keeps him grounded when he goes off the rail. One night he gets a call from the lobby that his BFF since college has arrived and is in bad shape. PK has not seen Arty in a while since he has moved in with his artist boyfriend, Roman. Roman is not someone PK likes. Mostly because he has had feelings since college for his BFF since they shared a drunken kiss. Arty invites him to stay because of course it’s his best friend.

Once Arty moves in, PK has great hopes that he will be able to convince Arty that he would be a great choice of boyfriend. He’s had this crush on his BFF for years and he’d really like to move things along. Arty accuses of him of being anti-romantic and so he sets out to prove Arty wrong. He writes a secret romance that he has his work BFF look at and next thing he knows, he has a book deal. Which he doesn’t share with anyone. This turns out to be somewhat problematic and makes things between Arty and PK very strained. There are some twists and turns that push them together, but there is a lot of groveling and making up to do.

So I’m giving this a very conditional recommendation. I will be share that at the 20% mark I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish this book. The constant stream of consciousness staccato first person POV that is mainly PK’s internal dialogue was killing me. It took me some time to warm up to ANY of the characters to be honest. And what does it say that Wade is probably my favorite character. He’s the most honest with everyone except his parents because they are not worth his bother. I could totally believe that his parents trot him out like a show pony and have literally no idea who he is as a person and they aren’t really interested in finding out either. I loved that he just did his own thing and mostly kept those parents at bay 😉 I did really like PK’s parents – frankly they were the only ones of the bunch that had their act together. I did love Maggie, PK’s work BFF and her bird! Not sure how realistic it is, but the publishing house folks were sure entertaining.

My other niggle with this story is the fact that there actually isn’t a lot of interaction between PK and Arty for such a long story. Like they might be living in the same apartment, but it seems as if they don’t actually spend time together regularly. Arty is in his room playing his games, doing his social media stuff and PK is writing the secret book in his room. There are some pivotal scenes – with Arty’s brother Ches, the Book Club meeting, some meetings with Wade, etc. But there are large sections of the book that are totally PK and the chaotic thoughts in his head. I honestly don’t feel like I knew Arty. I know their family kind of sucks, they love their job at the bookstore, they are a complete romantic and they are sad about their breakup. There is a lot of pining – Arty for what he had hoped for with the last BF and PK for what might never be with Arty. I just didn’t feel like I had a sense of them as a couple. The ending was really kind of abrupt when I had really looked forward to seeing them move forward.

If you don’t like first person POV, then you will not enjoy this. It took me some time to get somewhat comfortable with the voice of the narrator. It’s a lot. If this poor guy’s head is always this busy, well no wonder he’s having trouble communicating. While a lot of the internal monologue is somewhat humorous and entertaining, I was overwhelmed at times. All that noise is quite distracting 🙂 This is the first book I’ve read by this author, so I don’t know if this is the style of all the books, but I would have to think about taking on this type of voice again.

I’ve enjoyed several of Kris Ripper’s book and this sounded like it would be another delight. Sadly I was not able to get into the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I really wish I love this one more than I did. I loved the premise of this book but something in the execution of this book just didn't really work for me. I'm not the biggest fan of miscommunication and there was just too much of it in this one for me.

I really love this author and this one did not disappoint. So well written and this author has a knack for writing characters.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

One boy in love with another. It reads like a romance that sounds good, but it has not been told. It's only one sided. This is the first book that I read by Kris Ripper and it may not be the only one.

I found that while reading this book, that I wanted to yell at the main characters, that I wanted to hop into the book and slap the characters around a few times because of the utter nonsense that happens in the book. But I can say, that there were moments in which I hoped for Preston to be able to have the romance that he wanted. But we all know that what we think, what we hope, and what happens are all different things.

Whew this book, made me feel so many things. I felt anger. I felt upset. I felt the urgency when Art had a family emergency. I just know that my emotions were all over the place towards the middle and then end of the book. At the beginning, the book just felt cute. The thoughts that Preston had toward Art, his imaginings of how Art and he could get together was so cute. I found myself laughing at them.

Overall, I feel that the book should not be changed at all. I feel that the author goes into so much detail with the characters and brings out real problems and feelings so that the readers can relate to them but also feel for them. It almost seems that the characters become your friends by the time you are done reading the book.

This was a really well done read! This was my first Kris Ripper book and I look forward to reading more from them in the future!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Ze has written this rom-com in a very informal style, almost conversational. You get streams of consciousness from main character, PK, who is in love with best friend Art and has been since they shared a drunken kiss in college.

After Art brushed the kiss off as a mistake, PK has been pining for them ever since but, after not making any progress, decides to write a book (anonymously) in which he can fictionalise himself and Art, and create a romance on paper.

The book is a huge success and everyone seems to want fictional version of PK as their boyfriend - including Art. But when PK’s plan for a huge romantic gesture around the book backfires, he gets more than he bargained for in the feels department!

I kept flagging bits that I wanted to discuss and, after finishing it, I thought it would make a great book club book - because there’s so much in there to talk about. This book is definitely a conversation starter!

Here are a few examples:

📚Pansexual characters, which you often don’t see representation for.
📚Art comes out to PK and you see PK’s thought process of retraining his brain to use the correct pronouns, which I haven’t seen before in books.
📚PK raises questions about whether to correct someone misgendering Art, in terms of consent and outing someone.
📚The characters are very much flawed, which added to their authenticity.
📚Some exploration of gender expression.
📚Relationship complexities throughout.

I liked that this was a light and fun book to read, but more that it got my brain whirring with things to discuss!

This is the first book I've read by Kris Ripper and, although it wasn't 100% my thing, I'll likely look for others. The story premise is excellent (see below if you've forgotten), the main characters and character development great, the secondary characters lovely, the nonbinary rep and coming out handled so well, the slow-burn exquisite, and the Grand Gesture treated just as I always think Grand Gestures should be treated. The plotting was a little uneven and the narration is very, very voicey. If you love our chaotic mess of a prince, PK, you're going to love the book, but if you don't, woe is you. Because this is very much PK's perspective on this story. If I'm being honest, I did love our chaotic mess of a PK, but I definitely could've used some more from Art, too. I don't think it needed full dual timeline, but more dialogue between them would've set me up nicely.

From the publisher:
"When Art moves in with PK following a bad breakup, PK hopes this will be the moment when Art finally sees him as more than a friend. But Art seems to laugh off the very idea of them in a relationship, so PK returns to his writing roots — in fiction, he can say all the things he can’t say out loud. In his book, PK can be the perfect boyfriend. Before long, it seems like the whole world has a crush on the fictionalized version of him, including Art, who has no idea that the hot new book everyone's talking about is PK’s story. But when his brilliant plan to win Art over backfires, PK might lose not just his fantasy book boyfriend, but his best friend."

I really enjoy Kris Ripper's writing and I've read this entire series. I love how the friend group is so varied and has such a differing group of genders and identities. It felt so much more true to real life than a cis het group of white people that is so common in books. THis one however, felt so much to be in this anxiety constantly., their brain was too much for me.

I REALLY wanted to love this book. It features a charming queer friends-to-lovers premise (my favorite trope), and a publishing-related plot, and a buzz-worthy author. But. It just never clicked for me. PK's voice is meant to be bubbly and approachable, but honestly, it felt like I was reading something written in a teenager's diary. And that was a big part of the problem for me. For an adult romance, PK is an incredibly immature narrator -- and his long, on-going pining for his BFF felt very much like an adolescent crush than the makings of true, lasting romance. I just could not get into this one, and ended up DNF'ing partway through. It felt like torture getting through PK's narration. I casually flipped to the last few chapters, and still found myself feeling very humdrum about the course of the story. This was a no for me.

DNF

I tried to make it as far into this book as I could, but I found the narration style irritating and rather immature. It was almost stream-of-consciousness (in first person), which is not something I enjoy, outside of a very select few modernist novels. Pretty frustrating, since the concept sounded really fun.

Kris Ripper is a queer author whose novels explore many aspects to what it means to be LGBT. In their novel “ Book Boyfriend” they explore what it means to express one’s feelings in a “friends to lovers” relationship. The novel follows Preston “PK” Harrington, an up and coming writer who works in a New York City publishing house. PK has never been in love and has only had romantic feelings for his best friend Art whom he drunkenly kissed at a party in College. During that time they were both roommates and became best friends. The novel explores their friendship and relationship in the years after and explores the circumstances needed for PK to express their feelings. In this romantic comedy does PK return to the adage “write what you know” and expresses his feelings towards Art in his novel. What can possibly go wrong right ? Overall I enjoyed this novel and highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Pete Cross. Cross’s narration highlighted the nuance created by the author and brought their story to life. Of five stars on goodreads I give the novel a strong four of five stars.

3 stars

A pretty good romance featuring unrequited love, a foul mouthed parrot, epic-refusal-to-communicate miscommunications, & friends to lovers.

[What I liked:]

•The MC is pretty likable (until he suddenly starts acting selfish & oblivious). His unrequited feelings for his best friend still made me feel very sympathetic towards him, & since he didn’t have malicious intent towards anyone, he’s redeemable I guess.

•The writing is smooth, there are some funny dialogue moments, & the setting descriptions were good.

•The romantic feelings of the MC felt very real, very nuanced, & were touching. His affection for his bff is sweet & genuine.

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•I totally get why the MC interpreted his unrequited love interest’s comments the way he did (that his love interest would never consider dating him). So it was odd that the interest says the opposite at the end of the book. That felt inconsistent.

•Yeah, this is one of those books where the main conflict revolves around refusal to communicate. If you dislike that trope, this may not be the book for you.

•Omg, the MC! How could he be so un-self-aware? & also unaware of the feelings of others? He wasn’t characterized as a stupid or oblivious person. He had so many chances to do what he knew he definitely should do. Not only did he not take them, he suddenly changed his mind & decided to do what he knew was the worst thing possible? Yeah, that was eye roll worthy.

CW: Abusive family dynamics, substance abuse, suicide attempt, abusive romantic relationship

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

So this was a romantic comedy. I've never read a romantic comedy before. I have to say, I definitely laughed on multiple occasions so I can honestly say the comedy/humor aspect of it all was well done.

This story is about PK who's in love with his bestie Art. Art breaks up with their current boyfriend and ends us living with PK like they used to during college. After an argument were PK states that he can be romantic, PK ends up writing a book in which his main character does all these romantic things he thinks about but never actually does. After showing the half baked story to a coworker (he works in publishing), he ends up with a book deal and thus the story unfolds.

I have to say that PK is dense, clumsy, unable to express emotions and be comfortable having/expressing them. Basically, he's a guy who was raised in America.
The part I like in all this is that, even though he has all these issues, he isn't excused. Other characters consistently call him out on these.
Also did I mention that PK and Wade (PK's frenemy) both identify as Pansexual and Art uses they/them pronouns? I like that PK is out to his family and that even though he could hide his attraction to men, he doesn't.
Art on the other hand is awesome. They're cheerful and understanding but they're also not afraid to call out PK's BS.
Also, if you need a safe for work title, this works as well. There is basically no smut/explicit content in this title.

All in all, if you need a romantic comedy that respects, mentions consent and the importance of it, and also does a good job of portraying a character who is unlearning toxic masculinity, this is the title for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin) for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Boyfriend is a sweet, fun and romantic. Preston and Art are well crafted romantic leads who go on a wonderful journey to find their way to one another. I love a good friends to lovers. I like how well they communicate in the end and get together. So fun and cute.