The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau might be my favorite of hers! Jackie is such a talented author that makes the characters drip off the page. I love it!

So I thought this was was great and sexy and just awesome. I remember these characters from the author‘s previous book, Donut Fall in Love. I honestly didn’t know that this would be connected to that at all which I thought was super cool I love books like that. I love that both characters are bi. I feel like books need to have more of that. But all in all I really did think this was like a fun contemporary and I think people really like it that liked the authors previous books.

I know a Jackie Lau romance is going to make my heart happy. In some ways The Stand-up Groomsman is a departure from the types of Lau books I’ve enjoyed in the past. In this follow up to last year’s Donut Fall in Love Lau takes a more serious tone and unpacks some bigger emotional truths, in this case how we handle expectations and how it interacts with larger family dynamics. But in most ways, this is almost exactly the type of book I’ve come to expect from Lau – there’s tropes that she’s going to play around with and there’s going to be spades of representation.

When Vivian Liao's roommate gets engaged to her favorite actor's costar, she has no choice but to come face-to-face with Melvin Lee again following their terrible first meeting the previous year. He's just as funny and handsome as he is on-screen...but thinks she is a snob and a sellout. Mel is used to charming audiences as an actor and stand-up comedian but can't connect to Vivian even though he wants to make up for judging her based on his own fears and experiences. The only thing uniting them is their goal for their friends’ wedding to go off without a hitch. As they collaborate on wedding cake and karaoke parties, antagonism turns to burgeoning friendship to something more.

The Stand-up Groomsman features both opposites attract and enemies to friends to lovers. It's also a queer m/f book as both main characters are bi. Vivian and Mel have vastly different temperaments and personalities, which made for an interesting chemistry. Lau writes well-rounded leads who understand and respect each other's boundaries. It was not a typical relationship, and the ways in which Lau steps outside the “norm” meant a great deal to me personally and I was excited to see it. This one doesn’t shy away from making a happily ever after for its characters that makes sense for them, not for what might be expected for them.

A major emotional beat is worth and family expectations about Mel and Vivian’s relationships with their families. Vivian is made miserable by her family, specifically by their expectations of who she should be and the way they robbed her of her childhood by forcing her to act as a third parent for her younger siblings. Between her family and her terrible ex Vivian is convinced that people only want to be with her for what they can get from her. She must find that she is worth happiness and someone who sees her as she is and loves her without expectations, which paves the way for a consistent undercurrent of how consistently kind the leads are to each other. Mel also has trauma he must work through, and Vivian is steadfast in her support of his healthy boundaries as she has fought for her own.

It could be easy to get frustrated with Vivian, and I was for sections of book, but at the same time Lau uses Vivian’s past experiences well in explaining who she is today and how her personality formed. There were some things that weren’t great – the grovel was too quick for my tastes. I also got possibly irrationally angry with the break-up at the 80% mark. Lau occasionally falls back on telling the reader how the characters are feeling, instead of letting the characters’ behaviors and actions do the speaking, but overall this book and its predecessor are worth your time.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the dynamic between our two main characters, and the inclusion of a stand-up comedian gave this a unique twist.

Jackie Lau knows how to keep a story flowing. Her writing is amazing in both Donut Fall in Love and this follow up novel. Loved reading about old characters being elaborated on as well!

Second book in the series that started with Donut Fall in Love, which I loved.

This story focused on two of the supporting characters from the first book - Vivian, the roommate, and Melvin, the co-star. The romance had some fresh takes - long distance and no drive toward the altar - but I found the characters lackluster. Melvin's stand up bits were quite simply... not funny. They tended to rely on physical gags that were very difficult to conjure in my head, which made them land pretty flat.

I really enjoyed this follow up to Donut Fall in Love. I think it would be easy to get frustrated with Vivian but at the same time it was well shown how her past experiences shaped who she is today and how her personality formed. And so when someone like Melvin treats her differently and more in line with how she prefers, it’s hard to trust. It was great how Melvin never attempted to change anything about her.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC!

I didn't realize that this book was a series when I started it. This story follows the couple’s respective close friends from In Donut Fall In Love.

Melvin is a stand-up comic with a vibrant personality rivaled only by his bold shirts. Vivian is a buttoned-up finance professional who loves the color gray and makes fan art in her spare time. The two definitely don’t hit it off at first, but opposites might really attract as they’re thrown together for their friends’ wedding activities.

I really liked this book and will go back and read In Donut Fall In Love now!

The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau features Asian protagonists who don't quite hit it off when they meet, but who have to repeatedly see each other because of the wedding of their best friends. Contempt leads to attraction, but is it the kind of love that will last? Vivian and Mel have an unmistakable chemistry that is fun to read about, but there are some repetitious scenarios that distract from the plot.

This was a cute book but it was hard for me to get into it to start. It was almost a DNF. However, it did get a lot better and I was able to enjoy the story. I really enjoyed the character Vivian but Mel kinda annoyed me through the book. still, it was a really cute read and I recommend it for anyone that enjoys enemies to lovers trope.

This was a fun hate-to-lovers romance from Jackie Lau! I enjoyed Donut Fall In Love, and I was really excited to see Vivian and Mel's story in The Stand-Up Groomsman. The slow, natural progression of Mel trying to melt Vivian's "frosty" exterior while falling hard for her nevertheless was super cute. Mel's extended family and all their shenanigans were hilarious and I was genuinely laughing out loud at all their interactions. I also really loved the discussions of being queer and Asian in this romance--the fact that not one, but BOTH of our main characters were bi and Asian in this novel was so great, and I can't wait to read more from this series (Possibly a story between Irene and her bodyguard next? Fingers crossed!)!

In Donut Fall In Love, Vivian Liao, banker, met a man she's had a crush on forever, comedian Melvin Lee. That meeting... was awkward as hell. Mel derided her profession and couldn't believe that she would be happy with her life doing something boring for her job while leaving her art on the side. He had done the same and it crushed his soul.
Now, the two are going to be thrown together as the characters from that book are getting married. Mel is the best man and Vivian is a bridesmaid.
The relationship between them moves slowly from antagonism, to a sort of friendship, to sex, to love. It is a lovely journey and we get to see a lot of growth from both Mel and Vivian. Not all of the side stories that led to who they are get entirely wrapped up and I kind of like that (life isn't a neat package tied with a bow) but other readers may find that frustrating.

Four stars
This book comes out October 25, 2022
Follows Donut Fall in Love
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve been a fan if both the MCs since Donut Fall in Love and have been rooting for them. I loved how similar they both were and how different Mel is from a standard romance hero. I would have liked a little less of his standup bits but overall, it was a really enjoyable read.

The second book in Jackie Lau’s Donut Fall in Love follows the first book’s couple’s respective close friends. Melvin is a stand-up comic with a vibrant personality rivaled only by his bold shirts. Vivian is a buttoned-up finance professional who loves the color gray and makes fan art in her spare time. The two definitely don’t hit it off at first, but opposites might really attract as they’re thrown together for their friends’ wedding activities.

Without giving anything away, I appreciate that Mel and Vivian are a good model for a relationship that doesn’t look like everyone else’s. They work through some real stuff together, and both have some past trauma. I would’ve liked more resolution with both of their family issues, but I guess it’s more like real life this way. There’s also bi representation.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I am typically not a fan of romance books, but this book has changed my mind about reading them. This is a funny and romantic. Opposites attract is key in this novel by Jackie Lau. I laughed and cried and got frustrated but it is a story worth reading!

Donut Fall In Love was one of my recent favourite romance reads, so I'm very happy I got to read this one already! I really liked these characters in Donut Fall In Love, so I was excited for them to have their own book! And it was great!!

It's a queer m/f book, which I always love, as not even just one but BOTH of our main characters are bi! They're both really different people, which made for a really interesting chemistry, and I thought they worked really well together.

I also love that we got to see quite a lot of our previous main characters!

I have to say Mel's stand-up material didn't always work super well for me, because it just didn't really make me laugh. I think that's because you're reading it and not hearing and seeing it performed. This didn't annoy me though.

Vivian and Mel have met once before- and it was a mutual agreement that it did not go well. They both moved on until they are reunited for a series of wedding events as their mutual friends get married. Will the stand up comedian and the serious Vivian ever see eye to eye?

I was so excited to receive an advanced reading copy of this book after absolutely loving Donut Fall in Love. I loved this book and it was lovely getting to see characters from Donut Fall in Love again.

I loved this because it was not your typical relationship. I feel like both characters grew so much throughout the story and balanced each other well. I also loved the storylines about Mel and Vivian’s relationships with their families.

This was an absolute pleasure to read and I would highly recommend if you were a fan of Donut Fall in Love!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced reading copy!

Wow! I think I want to give my tightest bear hug to Melvin Lee: the gold hearted, smart, caring hero who is not afraid of showing his sensitive side!

I wasn’t expecting to love this book more than Donut Fall in love! But I truly did! Both books take place at the same fictional, cuddling, soft-sweet-swoon universe.

At the first book we already met with Vivian Liao: Lindsay’s smart, artsy, introvert roommate who doesn’t like to attach with people, scaring of crowds and we also met Melvin Lee as sidekick of Ryan Kwok who became famous with his mouth watering abs and baking skills.

Vivian was a great fan of unforgettable axed sitcom that Ryan and Melvin played. When she has chance to meet Melvin in person, she feels like starstruck at first. She even draw the fanfiction portrait of Melvin’s character. But when Mel pushed her too hard about her life choices by telling her why she chose to work in bank instead of chasing her dreams to become an artist in front of her friends, she built her walls, hating him with every fiber of her being.

Now Lindsay and Ryan are getting married and Vivian is chosen to be bridesmaid as Melvin becomes best man which means they have to spend more time, attending cake tasting, karaoke nights, bachelor parties and millions of stuff involved in pre-marriage arrangement.

As they spend time, Vivian realizes Mel is not the arrogant guy as she’s thought. He suffers from insecurities: not being funny enough or being accepted by his own father who abandoned him 18 years ago. He’s overthinking, depressive, suffering from insomnia, trying to be a successful comedian. He’s bia, over weighted, Asian, fighting against the biased people who is highly criticizing him.

And Lindsay is so exhausted to put her family’s needs before her. She has her own anxiety issues, keeping other people at arm’s length because her family literally stole her childhood by forcing her parenting her own siblings and now she barely connects with her own her sister without resenting her. She’s so doubtful about people’s intentions because she thinks everyone wants a piece of her and she barely let anyone in till Mel destroys the barriers she’s built, achieving to get under her skin.

I liked the author’s sensitive approach to mental health issues and dysfunctional family patterns.

As a supportive character, Po Po is adorable grandma who arranges speed dates to Mel with pink limo.

Overall: this sweet and thought provoking romcom/ drama deserved my five shining stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Vivian and Mel’s meet was definitely not cute. And honestly, their story isn’t either. It’s much better than cute, because it’s real and sometimes raw, but absolutely awesome as well. I loved every up, down, and in-between as these two bared their souls to each other and found the love they both deserved!

I wasn't immediately sure that this longer book would have the punch of Jackie Lau's novellas, but I was very happy to be quickly proven wrong, and I ended up loving pretty much everything about it. The banter! The texting! The stuffed animals! Between Vivian's difficulty with vulnerability and Mel's insecurities, the obstacles to their HEA felt real and poignant -- yet the book never feels heavy. I loved how much of Mel's stand-up we got -- something else I wasn't sure would work -- and the slow build of their connection over text. Also, I've been waiting for more and better plus-size heroes in romance, and this book absolutely delivers. Vivian loves Mel's bigger, softer body without ever fetishizing him. And don't even get me started on Po Po! (It's worth reading Jackie Lau's entire oeuvre for the grandmothers alone.) I know this is a babbling and less than cohesive review, but I could spend all day listing things I loved about the book. You'd do better to request and read it than to spend any more time reading my rambles!

This would be an *excellent* 2023 pick for A Bookish Affair, and I'm also really looking forward to recommending it to patrons and friends with a wide variety of reading tastes.

Many, many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!