This is an interesting story of family, having new hurdles together and overcoming the obstacles. I know that many will enjoy seeing the relationships grow closer and hope for their successes. The audiobook is well done with two voices to help distinguish between the main characters. It does take place in the UK so the experiences might be slightly different than those in the US so this is a great way to have more empathy for their fellow man. This said, others will be upset that things are either messy or too neat, depending on your view. Reminders that many stories have minor characters that try to steal the spotlight when we all know that they are just creating a distraction so they don't have to mentally deal with the true point. If you find yourself having another make your coming out story about their reaction to the news, you don't have to apologize, for it's their issue and not yours. Maybe in the end this is a story where the only way for readers to connect is to have it be cliches (snow on Christmas) and stereotypes of both sides (children who are homophobic and crushes on the best friend). Thanks NetGalley for the ARC; this review is all my own opinions.

I'll say the concept of this book is interesting. Grandpa and Grandson coming out at the same time. It didn't feel like a competition and I like that Teddy was afraid even more of coming out seeing the way people treated his grandfather.

It was a great read. The struggles had me sometimes wanting to cry sometimes. I felt for little Arthur that was shoved in a closet for so many years.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I wanted to love this book, and parts of it I did...but overall, this book wasn't a hit for me. I do hope to see more stories about older generations coming out in the future!

Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out! That’s it, that is literally the plot of the book. Arthur and Teddy are grandfather and grandson, both realizing they are gay in an Irish town that is not the most welcoming. This book follows their journey of finding love and community while dealing with the stresses that come with dating. This book is not exactly lighthearted, but both Arthur and Teddy have an amazing support system throughout that made me enjoy the novel. It’s still a very generic plot that is not that different from other fiction books about coming out as gay. Overall, this book is a quick read that was not boring.

4 stars, and then some. Lovely, and highly recommend. The grandfather's coming-out story is a bit more compelling than the grandson's, which is part of rating this four stars instead of five. But both were characters that I was completely behind and rooting for. The author did a great job showing the family dynamics driving and sometimes hindering the respective coming-outs, and the plot flowed mostly realistically. Kudos to Ryan Love for a great story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you for an advance copy of this unique, creative coming out story. A grandfather and grandson are coming out at the same time, both facing complications of this for very different reasons. I loved the concept of this story and loved these characters. A very touching, smart, sweet little romance/being true to yourself story.

I unfortunately decided to DNF this book. I even got a copy of the audiobook after pub day from my library to see if that would help me get into it but honestly that made it worse. Teddys narrator was just not a match for my ears.

The book itself, it just wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t like Teddy at all for many reasons. Then Elizabeth, Arthur’s daughter, Teddys mom, was just awful and I just couldn’t read any more of them forgiving her or letting her shit slide.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Arthur & Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love. This was such a treat to read. I don’t really tend to pick up generational family novels but I’m so happy I got a chance to read this one. The story follows Arthur, a 79 year old man- deciding to come out as gay to his two children. His daughter (Teddys mum) doesn’t handle this news as well and it pushes Teddy deeper into the closet instead of coming out. The relationship between Teddy and Arthur is so sweet. From Arthur we learn that age is just a number, don’t be afraid to come out, be yourself, try new things, meet new people, and fall in love. Teddys journey is more complicated as he’s scared to come out, but is out with his best friends, his granddad, and his potential flame at work. I love and enjoyed Arthur’s story and journey- Teddy was an annoying 21 year old at times and lacked confidence (but don’t we all at that age). Overall this was a sweet story and made me proud to be in the community. 3.5 stars rounding up to 4

This is a great story about being who you truly are! It doesn't matter what age- you should always feel like you can be your authentic self.

Thank you for the ARC for my honest review

Arthur Edwards is 79. He’s been happily married to his wife Madeline for decades, they have two lovely children, three wonderful grandchildren, and Arthur has a secret. Arthur is gay. With his wife’s blessing he comes out to his family and friends in their small town and everything changes forever.

Teddy is Arthur’s grandson. He’s a nepo baby (this comes back later, trust me), an aspiring journalist, he has two best friends and, just like his grandfather, Teddy is gay.

This book follows both men in a dual POV while they navigate their new realities. They face every single reaction to their coming out that you can think of - acceptance, rejection, confusion, heartache, etc. Arthur’s story follows him trying to live every day fully and truthfully in the most heartwarming way. He attends a community boot sale, cooks Christmas dinner, and makes new friends. Teddy’s story follows him trying to come out from his mother’s shadow, finding his first love, and coming to truly understand and accept himself.

This is a beautiful, well written book. Arthur and Madeline are just good people. Madeline doesn’t play a large role in most of the book, but she supports her husband wholeheartedly, which is a very important role in a feel good book. Teddy’s story has a much larger cast with a variety of personalities. It’s harder to root for everyone in Teddy’s story because his is where the drama lies, but it still manages to complement Arthur’s chapters well. It’s also harder to root for Teddy simply because of the nepotism in the room. Teddy’s mom gets him a job, she gets him a mentor, she talks to the mentor consistently to ensure that Teddy is on track. I cared about Teddy as a character and wanted what’s best for him, but every time he’s at work or at home you’re reminded that his mother is famous and calls in favors.

Despite that, this is the book version of a Hallmark movie, and that’s a huge compliment in my mind. You have characters you can root for, drama that can be resolved by people coming together as a community, and a small town with snow at Christmas. What more could you ask for?

I was really excited to read this book. The premise was unique and so promising - different generations coming out at the same time. I had high hopes for an emotional and happy story. But ultimately I was left very disappointed. While I liked some of the characters, namely Arthur, Madeleine, and Oscar, I generally found all of them to lack any depth beyond their designated surface level personality traits. I also didn’t care for certain events in the book that seemingly came out of nowhere and did not flow with the rest of the story. I got the sense the author was trying to cram every bad thing that could happen to a queer person into one story while simultaneously resolving all the bad things quickly and cursorily. To accomplish that, every character had to be strangely, instantaneously forgiving, which minimized the impact of the bad thing that happened. There were too many storylines crammed into one book, which made it feel crowded. Despite everything going on, the story dragged at several points and the dialogue was truly lacking. I wish this book had reached its potential, I’m quite bummed it didn’t.

This British small town story opens with Arthur having his family over and telling them at the age of 79, that he is gay. This is a shocking revelation to his family but most of all to his grandson, Teddy, who also wants to come out to their family. However some of the famiily's reactions have negative repercussions and Teddy second guesses coming out at all.

This book is a very sweet journey of Arthur finally claiming his identity and living his life for himself. He faces hardship, makes some friends along the way, grows closer to his grandson and makes some very big decisions. It is also Teddy's journey, a new job, navigating a new potential love interest and his friend group and how coming out to his family could make those relationships stronger or crumble.

I was invested in these characters and I thought they all had a lot of heart and charm. I wanted to see them reconcile the bad and come out at the end in a happy and fulfilling way.

Something that bothered me about this book was sometimes the writing would change course abruptly and it would take me out of the scene. There were opportunities for the author to dig in deeper emotionally with the characters in the scene, but instead our scene would end or the characters would change the subject. It was very jarring.

Also anyone that is sensitive to very strong negative reactions to people coming out to their family or neighbors should read with caution. There is mentions of suicide and I would advice you to read with care.

I wanted to like this book, but it didn't land for me. Teddy was surprisingly unlikable. Every scene with him was irritating.

I loved the idea of this book, but honestly I just never really got into it. I loved Arther and thought his half of the story was great. His plot was so inspiring and I loved his backstory and development throughout the book.

Teddy on the other hand, I thought his character came off as so entitled. I wish he had a better ending.

Thank you to Ryan Love, Harper 360, and NetGalley for sending me this book as an ARC. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

It isn’t often you see a double coming out story, particularly one that spans generations like this one. What’s beautiful about Arthur & Teddy Are Coming Out is that it isn’t just a story about the titular characters’ queer identities, but it’s also about their personal journeys as individuals and their family relationships. In fact, family plays a major role in the story, and really shapes how both characters move through the world and how they both approach their coming out journeys.

The story brings us on both Arthur’s and Teddy’s journeys simultaneously, alternating between 79 year-old Arthur announcing his newly-uncovered sexual identity to his family, and 21 year-old Teddy, who is not yet ready to share his. It’s interesting that it is the younger Teddy who is not ready to come to terms with his sexual identity, rather than Arthur; I appreciated that the author didn’t take the stereotypical approach and have the older generation here be the one to be afraid to embrace their true self.

Teddy’s relationship with his grandfather is perhaps one of my favorite aspects of the story. It’s tender, genuine, and multi-dimensional. While Teddy was often frustrating as a character, perhaps due to his young age and naive, sometimes spoiled attitude, it was Arthur’s patience, and deep love for his grandson that always drew me back into the story. Arthur’s own personal journey of self-discovery was incredibly moving, and I found myself tearing up on more than one occasion, despite the overall tone of the story being lighthearted.

Overall, this was a charming and clever debut by Ryan Love that was beautifully written and that really feels like a warm hug, filled with love and self-acceptance.

Extremely cute! I love how many new romance novels are being published about older queers. It always makes me emotional to read about gay elders, even if they don't come out until later in life. I'm excited to be able to start recommending this sweet gem of a book!

Arthur Edwards’ 80th birthday is approaching and, with the help of Madeleine, his wife of 50 years, he’s decided to tell their two children his most difficult secret: he is a gay man. His son is startled, but supportive. His daughter, Elizabeth, who’s a widow raising three kids and planning her own second wedding, is aghast, appalled, and ashamed. She cuts off contact with her clearly delusional and lying, conniving father and insists her children do the same.

Elizabeth’s three children are stunned, especially Teddy, because he has a very close relationship with both Arthur and Madeleine. He may be 21, but he considers his grandparents as surrogate parents since the sudden loss of his father three years ago. Teddy’s grief was intense, leaving him with anxiety and abandonment issues, while Elizabeth was blindsided and began running her life on automatic pilot. Teddy’s further traumatized by his mother’s shunning of Arthur, making him wonder how would she treat Teddy if she found out he is also gay.

Mired in depression, Teddy opted out of university, and he’s put off both finding a job and coming out. Insisting Teddy get on with his life, Elizabeth arranges an internship for him at the newspaper where she’s a syndicated columnist. While Teddy appreciates this leg-up, he’s mortified that people will resent him for the nepotism. Ben, the other intern, does resent him, at first. Ben has Feelings about Elizabeth’s influence on Teddy’s spot at the paper, mostly because his own parents cut him off for being both gay and following a career in journalism against their wishes.

Ben and Teddy have a tumultuous pseudo-friendship/rivalry set up by the competitive nature of the internship, which features a job interview at its completion. Teddy admires Ben’s take-charge attitude, while Ben envies Teddy’s inventiveness and storytelling. A reluctant rapport grows between them sparking mutual attraction, even as Teddy’s friends warn Teddy that Ben could be using him to get ahead in the internship. Ben’s pushing Teddy to come out so they can have a relationship. Teddy’s gun-shy considering his mom’s continued bad behavior about Arthur’s announcement.

Meanwhile, Arthur is facing the aftermath of a forced outing–gossip mongers, losing close friends, and diminished status in his small town. On the upside, he’s supported by his wife, son, son’s girlfriend, and Teddy. He’s getting “out there” on apps, and making friendships with other queer people who lift him up. A local tragedy highlights how precarious life can be for queer youth, prompting Arthur to plan an outrageous stunt to raise funds to support queer folk. Teddy’s on board, and the positive publicity that comes from his columns helps him find more strength to finally come out himself.

This book is an intergenerational family drama that features some romantic elements. Arthur doesn’t anticipate finding love at 80; he just wants to live his truth for whatever time he may have left. He had a true love once, and his lover was nearly killed for their dalliance. The relationship between Madeleine and Arthur emerged from a youth that forced them to make the best of bad options. While Elizabeth assumes her father hoodwinked her mother, it’s clearly not the case. I loved how Arthur and Madeleine rescued each other from bleak futures through marriage. They may not have developed a romantic love, but both partners led full lives filled with trust and support. Teddy’s reflections on the horrors that Arthur survived helped him to grab the courage necessary to live his truth.

I think the book was really interesting, with vivid cinematic plot points and poignant conversations. Teddy and Arthur are good men, with real issues, who struggle with the morass of queer representation, or lack of it, in their lives. They felt like full humans, and I was invested in their stories and their happiness. While the book takes place in England, the story itself felt like it could have been set in any suburban area, which I think is a testament to its cultural translatability. There were some grandiose moments that beggared my belief, but in a way that I would have kind of accepted had it been a movie. The end felt rushed, especially in the resolution of Teddy’s job situation and his developing relationship. I had to read the Epilogue twice, because there were twists for Teddy that confused me.

Expect a happy ending here. All amends having been made, all truths revealed, and Teddy and Arthur have brighter futures awaiting them.

Note: Please note there are repeated mentions of a secondary character’s suicide, which could be a trigger for some readers.

I loved the concept of this book - a grandfather and grandson are navigating life together as two freshly out gay men. It had so much potential. I hate giving negative reviews, but this book really just wasn't executed well. The characters were not fully realized - they felt two dimensional, and were often doing / saying things that felt very contradictory to who they were supposed to be. Elizabeth's reaction to both her father and son coming out never made any sense to me, and it felt like she got away with her bad behavior with zero repercussions. The plot also contained a lot of contradictory details. The book would flip back and forth between Arthur and Teddy, but so many important things were happening off page that it made the plot confusing and hard to follow. For the most part I was enjoying the plot even though the writing left something to be desired, but then I got to the ending. Teddy had been debating between two career options that were both interesting to him, but instead chose something else completely out of left field? And the friends to lovers did not land the way it was intended to. If this book had been just about Arthur's journey, it would have felt much more cohesive.

Ryan Love’s Arthur & Teddy Are Coming Out is a special novel about titular characters Arthur and Teddy as they set off to live as their true selves. While there’s a considerable age difference — grandfather Arthur is 79 and his grandson Teddy is 21 — both face similar obstacles and successes after coming out of the closet. The book is full of characters that are multi-faceted and as lovable as the main characters. Madeline, Arthur’s wife, is so caring and a bright spot in his story. I also thought the themes and topics around mental health were handled well — know that the author is an advocate and has written about his personal experience with it in the past. Special shout out for a LGBTQ story from the perspective of an older member of the community — we don’t see that often enough!

Arthur and Teddy’s journeys to be themselves are interesting but they aren’t without faults; the latter interacts with a character whose storyline is full of tropes and isn’t as well developed. The book also overstays its welcome which is unfortunate because the beginning is so well done. Thanks to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the ARC.

Oh my goodness how sweet and cute was this one!! Arthur at 79 has come out to his family, with his wife’s support. His grandson Teddy is grappling with coming out on his own. Together - they learn to love and live on their own terms.

Things I loved about this book:
Arthur was so cute and sweet - a grandpa with a heart of gold, great advice, and a yearning to live as he’s always dreamed of.
Madeline - what a supportive and wonderful partner! Learning their history had me 😭.
Teddy - he was just trying to figure out who he was at 22 after losing his dad and kind of fumbling around for a couple years.
Oscar. What a wonderful friend he turned out to be.
I actually really enjoyed the conflict with Ben. It was well done.
Meddling friends 😅.
Finding Jack had me 🥹.
Shak 🧡.
That super adorable ending!

This one is out 2/27/24! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.