Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Canadian queers ftw. Really Cute People was such a fun story. Charlie Dee is our NB protagonist whose life is in upheaval. They agree to go on a work trip/holiday and end up staying at a rental house en route. But the rental isn’t as private as expected. As the weather closes in, Charlie finds themselves snowed in with a young family - Buffy (an idol of theirs), her trans husband Hayden, and their small child who can’t seem to decide on what name she wants to stick with just yet.

The plot moved much faster than I expected and the story pretty much takes place over the course of the weekend they are snowed in together. It’s a whirlwind of a romance, but it remains fairly light and fun throughout - though the author does touch on some harder topics like burnout and the Canadian housing/rental crisis. I would have preferred a more drawn out story so that I could leave Really Cute People thinking that these people were going to remain together, but we do get a very nice spicy scene and the promise of something more. Besides, people don’t always have to remain together, sometimes they can have a good time and move on or keep things lighter than ‘till death do us part.’

Overall, I really appreciated this story, it challenged my ideas of a romance structure, and left me rooting for the characters and with a sense of fun and longing for those long snow days where I didn’t have to dig myself out to get to work lol.

*I received an eARC from Harlequin - Romance, Carina Adores & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this arc!

This book follows Charlie as they are dealing with burnout. They are feeling burnout from work, their biological family, and their queer-found family. When a work opportunity sends them away from these issues, they are fine with taking it. What was supposed to be some time alone at a private rental turned into falling for a couple with their child and their animals.

I really enjoyed Charlie as a character, and I really wanted to hug them a lot throughout this book. They are dealing with so much loneliness, and watching them connect and reconnect with people was so nice. I wish the author had done more with Charlie's journey with burnout. I want to see on the page how they made their final decision. I was actually surprised that this book had smut (not a bad thing).

Maybe I will come and add more to my review. But for now, it was not a bad book and I like it. I think I wish I loved it.
It is more of 3.75 or 3.5

This book was fine. It wasn't good it wasn't bad, it just was. The characters are all there and I can see them as real people but none of them, including our main character, are really interesting. The miscommunication trope in this book made me finally understand why people so actively dislike it when I've always been such a fan. I truly didn't care if the throuple ended up together or not by the climax of this book, I didn't care about Charlie's job or missing boss or ex roommates still secretly being friends. I didn't dislike this book, is the thing. its a serviceable romance with good technical writing but it just was incredibly mid in every way.

This is such a cute read! I love the representation of polyamory and queer relationships in a cozy romance.

This is a very sweet, capacious queer romance novel, that deals with some awesome things that you don't see very often (ever?!?) in trad-pubbed romance, like queer co-op living spaces and polycules. Loved it.

This was adorable in every single way. I wasn’t sure at first because the main character came off as one note but I grew to love them and ended up loving this story!

I should have know after reading the words “Tim Hortons” 🤤🤤🤤🤤

Wow, this is actually stinkin’ cute! This is the first queer romance novel I’ve ever read and it’s so sweet and adorable, I really enjoyed it. I love all the characters and the relationships here. I love the whole small town, cozy vibe and I think this is just the perfect winter read.