This felt like a love letter to queerness and found family. I loved it, and all the characters, so much!

Thank you to Harlequin Books for the eARC.

Really Cute People was indeed, really cute.

Charlie, a nonbinary person, gets snowed in at their rental with the homeowners, Hayden, Buffy, their daughter Rainbow, and their menagerie of animals. And I loved them getting to know each other. The forced proximity absolutely led to them opening up more quickly and discussing emotional and deep real life issues.

Once they all decided to start having sexy fun (because surprise! poly), is when I started to lose interest. Y’all know I am a firm believer of instalove in romantic fiction, but somehow this didn’t work for me. Neither Buffy (bi, cisgender) nor Hayden (bi, transgender) actually talked about their openness with Charlie, so I totally understand Charlie feeling like the cheating third wheel initially. And then bam, they all have sex and the story moves so fast after that.

Despite my issues with the last bit, I still enjoyed this one. I love the inclusiveness, the normality of the LGBTQ+ characters, the found family feel. I would happily read more from this author.

Such a great addition to the queer romance areas with so much representation!! There is so much character growth in this story which I really enjoyed and appreciated. Overall it genuinely was a great story that felt easy to read and I cant wait to share it with others.

I wish the romance was developed more because I feel like this had a lot of potential but the first half of the story was so slow to me. And even through the rest of the book, it felt very one-note to me. This book was fine but there was nothing that stood out to me. The writing was also a bit clunky and awkward.

What I liked: A nonbinary protagonist whose pronouns are they/them and I liked the way pronouns were handled - not in your face or telling and not showing in a preachy way but respectfully asking. (I'm nonbinary myself and I often find the way this is handled to be kind of performative.) Charlie Dee struck me as agender but this was never explicitly stated, but I love that rep. I liked the found family and the fact that this was not romanticized; found families can have problems too. The love interests were all bisexual and polyamorous and we end in a throuple.

What I didn't like: This was so cozy that I just got bored. Everyone was a flat, one-dimensional, unlikable character in dysfunctional relationships. Charlie Dee, unhappy in their job but devoted to the cause of a helpline database, never got any character development. All I knew was that they liked animals, had a cat, was an introvert, was a passionate programmer, wasn't close with their family for unexplained reasons and was annoyingly self-absorbed. I didn't get to know their personality or interests.

They go on an unpaid work trip and get snowed in in a charming small town with some charming queer Hallmark scenes, like finding queer acceptance at a church. At their AirBnB there is a mixup and their hosts are staying too. But sparks fly between Charlie and the couple, who has a cute kid. Charlie imagines that they can recreate the queer collective that they used to live with before it broke up after drama they instigated. Until they realize that they were hanging onto a fantasy and the reality behind the curtain was that they were all selfish, dramatic people who never even appeared to liked them very much.

So, this book was meant to be a queer Hallmark snowed in forced proximity queer cup of comforting joy, and for some people it will be that. But it missed the mark for me. I didn't see the spark in the romance, the sex scenes were kind of rushed into at the very end, and I was just bored by the characters. Your queer/gender identity and your diagnoses are not a personality! /pet peeve with character development in a lot of queer lit. I was also annoyed by the message; I wanted Charlie to break free of their miserable job and find themself, as someone other than a triad in a throuple or the workhorse in another queer found family.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Harlequin and Netgalley for the eARlC! Really Cute People is the story of Charlie, a queer person who is disenfranchised with their job and feeling generally depressed and unwanted by the people they thought were their friends. At a bit of a standstill, a work trip turned extended stay in a blizzard sees Charlie redefining their sense of home and rebuilding their found family. This was such a great story. I loved all of the side characters, Charlie’s emotional growth, and the connections between Charlie, Hayden and Buffy. A great queer book with fun romance, big feelings and characters that are all queer or affirming. This book released this past Spring and has absolutely not gotten the attention it deserves. Go read this!

3.5 stars.

I didn't expected I would like this book the way I did! A polyamorous romance with spicy scenes, picturesque characters and great vibes. The forced proximity trope was a plus. That said, I found the first half of the book was too slow. Also, I didn't connect with the main characters until late in the plot. In general it was a good reading with its flaws and its cute moments.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
This was a wonderful book and I'll be purchasing it for the library!

This story is about three people who are “snowed in” and began to understand their relationship. This story was great and such a fun read. I have to say that that the storyline was kind of basic, it had such a cute romance. I loved the poly storyline and following the couple experience the journey. The book deals with real life issues but also a new relationship between the three. The book is very slow but you have to push through it to get to the story.

In this book we have Charlie, Buffy and Hayden. All are great characters but my favorite was Buffy. They all developed with their relationship but I do wish we got to know more about them. I felt this book mainly dealed with just their romance and not parts of them too. There aren’t many side characters but we do have some animal friends in this book. This book is polyamours with kind of a love triangle setting. I was surprised this this book was a bit steamier than expected as I thought it was YA.

The ending was great and such a great wrap up for the story. I enjoyed the book and thought it was a cute read for the moment. Could the storyline have been better, yes but I still loved reading this polyamours story since we don’t see much of it.

*this arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity

Fun romcom

I love the idea behind this one, snowed in is one of my favorite tropes! I could only read the beginning before I got too busy, but what I read was really good.

I picked this up because I follow the author on TikTok and find their conversation about non-traditional family structure FASCINATING. I picked this up excited to read a poly romance from a poly person, not just a spicy romance written by a straight woman.

I was surprised (but not upset) that there are open door spicy scenes in this one!! There is also found family, snowed in, fun pets and an adorable child. This book was full of good queer/diverse rep which I so appreciate.

I'm not *totally* sure that I buy in to the 'none than all the sudden' character development of our MC, but I'm over that. Overall, I liked this book, am excited it exists and can't wait to read what Markus writes next!

This was such a sweet, quick read! I did find myself wanting more depth from a few characters, but this had such great heart! I love the spotlight on found/chosen family!

Really cute people was a really cute story. I always love seeing positive polyamorous representation as well as having two trans main characters. Heck to the yeah!

Another thing I especially appreciate about this book is that we have a non-binary main character who's assigned gender is never told and honestly you can't guess either and it is such a breath of fresh air.

I also kind of live for queer adult burnout stories because it feels so relatable to me right now. I really liked Charlie's slice of life adventure and seeing them geek out about one of their favorite activists and then living with them in a snowed in situation was super fun. This one has a lot of tropes in it but they're all done super well. Overall I really really liked it.

Nonbinary MC, Black Bisexual LI, Fat Trans Man LI, multiple secondary queer characters. Honestly everyone's basically queer.

I thought that Really Cute People was a delightful book. I’m always thrilled to see romance novels out there with poly relationships. I liked all the characters in this and enjoyed the storyline. I think there was a little too much going on in the sidelines but I still really liked the book.

I love the voice on this one. Charlie the MC is burnt out and says yes to a work trip. While there they realize their Airbnb is not vacated and then a snow storm hits.

Though lucky for them, they are with one of their idols and her husband and daughter. So far there is poly vibes happening. They all seem so comfortable together and this town they are in has such a tight knit queer community. Really enjoyed this one! I love poly romances.
Despite being set in the snow it felt warm and cozy

the cutest! Is the first poly romance I've ever read and won't be the last. This book is full of community love.

3.5 stars!

"Really Cute People" by Markus Harwood-Jones was, well, really cute and extremely unique! Some readers might be turned off by the insta-love of it all, but it really didn't bother me. It does start very, very slowly at first, but once the main character, Charlie, meets the other characters, Buffy and Hayden, things start moving quickly and spicily. I enjoyed all of the characters in this story, particularly Buffy. Buffy's dynamic with Hayden was both alluring and extremely collaborative. And not to mention, sexy! Once the three of them are snowed in for a whirlwind weekend, their relationship quickly becomes intimate. I think this book also boasts an engaging, interesting glance at polyamory. I'm not sure I have read many (if any) books where the characters are polyamorous, but I sure appreciate the representation. I think this story works so well because all of the characters are likable despite their flaws. I also like the commentary on both burnout and found family. I appreciate the open-door spice in such a representative queer story! This was a great read that could have benefitted from a little bit of tightening up in its earlier chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Markus Harwood-Jones, Harlequin - Romance, and Carina Adores for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

A fantastic queer polyromance set in small town Ontario that sees a big city office worker, Charlie, burnout and sent into the country for work only to get snowed in and stuck rooming with one of his gay idols and her trans husband and daughter. I absolutely loved the diverse queer rep in this book, the found family and the way different types of families and sexualities is completely normalized. We need more books like this one!! Really cute people was REALLY CUTE with a huge amount of heart!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for an early digital copy in exchange for my hoenst review! This was also good on audio too.

Steam level: a few open door scenes