Loved this one so much! The mental health representation alone won it for me. But then there's aspects of men's health, emotional development, and the spicy scenes were extra spicy and full of all kinds of consent-driven dialogue. Loved it all so much.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this early!

This was a fun read and I loved that it touched on the sensitive topics of mental health in a realistic and healthy way. I almost wish there had been a little more plot geared towards the restaurant and the actually happy hours, and just a little less talk of intimacy when they weren't in the moment. But overall, this was cute and fun and definitely a good read!

This is a long and angry-ish review so buckle up.

Now, I have OCD. I was hesitant about the OCD rep going into this, because very few romance books get OCD right— it’s just a sad fact, OCD always gets “cured” by love. I was actually starting to think this book would be different (aside from being a little stereotypical, the OCD rep was decent) but then a single line ruined it all: “OCD be damned”. Basically, without spoilers, Julien “turns off” his OCD in order to pursue a romantic relationship/take the next step. Thats 👏🏻 not 👏🏻 how 👏🏻 OCD 👏🏻 works 👏🏻! I got so angry reading that line. If I could just say “ocd be damned” every time I want to turn it off, my life would be so much easier! I also would have loved more of Julien’s POV to include his intrusive thoughts. I get it’s a romance book and that may “turn off” readers, but if you’re going to include an ugly disease, you gotta include the actual ugly. Instead, we just get one or two compulsions here and there with no real mental rumination or obsession over his triggers. Again, I get that’s it’s a romance book, but mental health rep matters.

I also didn’t feel the chemistry right away, because the entire relationship apart from the very very end seems to be only about lust. Sure there were emotional conversations, but immediately the two were comfortable with each other simply because they were attracted to one another? Where was the buildup? The end was nice, where there was a bit more depth to the relationship and we get to see the real feelings, but 75% of the book is just lust lust lust.

One thing I did love about the book was the consent and conversations around trauma and familial relationships. The consent was not just in the physical relationship but in every aspect of the relationship. There was (mostly) open communication, and that made me really happy to see.

Usually books surrounding wine and sommeliers come off as pretentious, but I genuinely felt Julien’s passion and there wasn’t pages upon pages of wine descriptions like another book I just read, which I won’t be mentioning due to the SMP boycott going on as I write this. It just felt like another career path the character was passionate about, and wanted to excel in.

Overall, I do recommend this book but with a HEAVY asterisk… please don’t take this as good OCD representation coming from someone with ocd. I get that everyone’s ocd looks different and I can appreciate that, but no one’s ocd is cured by love. Read it, enjoy the romance, but keep this in mind.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin romances for allowing me to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

This book was such a good one! I fully immersed myself in the story of Julien and Greg, who both work at a bar and restaurant that is struggling a bit. They are tasked with working together on happy hour to try and mitigate some of the issues they’ve been having and one thing leads to another…(some spoilers below so be warned!)

Things I loved about this book:
First of all - I love how I can relate to something SO HaRD in every @timothyjanovsky book and this one is no exception. The anxiety is so real and as an alcoholic, I really appreciated how this story was handled and addressed.
I loved Julien. I loved that he was grumpy but also like the absolute sweetest man in the world. I wanted to hug him. With permission.
Greg - hiding a little behind his sunshine flirty personality. I see you!!! I see your heart. Greg’s side effects from medication had me hurting for him. He was doing his best. Ugh I just loved him so much.
I liked Julien’s aunt and uncle so much. They were great support. That story at the end by his aunt had me tearing up.
Loved Russell and Jessica. They made me giggle with their work nemesis stories.
I LOVE the sexy sweetness of this story. Like, this is some of the sweetest romance and then BAM dahs of spice and it’s always so hot and consensual and has me like 🌶️🥵👌🏻.
Also both of those silly boys realizing their feelings and being afraid. Relatable!!
That grand gesture had me swoooooooning.
Oh my GOD that epilogue 🫡🥵.

@timothyjanovsky you are a gem. I loved this story.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely AMAZING. I would have never thought of a sommelier-bartender romance, but it works so well. I love the mental health representation and all of the things that come with it, and even though I have almost nothing in common with the main characters, I still loved it nevertheless. Now that’s a sign of a good book. 💗

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had everything that I was looking for from a romance novel. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the romance element to this. Timothy Janovsky has a great writing style and I was hooked from start to finish.

4.5 ⭐️
Found family
LGBTQIA+ representation
Mental health representation
Men’s health representation

I enjoyed this book so much. Greg and Julien were beautiful together and so good at communicating about their mental/physical health. They were also so good about at helping one another and making sure they were comfortable. The way Julien handled the spicy situations was absolutely beautiful. The only thing they weren’t good at was communicating about their feelings and relationship. However, the miscommunication was handled wonderfully and was actually realistic. I would absolutely recommend this to others.

This was fine. I wasn’t really invested in the characters as a couple. I wish they were just friends instead. They really didn’t even seem to like each other outside of sex until ¾ of the way into the book. They did not communicate well at all and it honestly just got irritating as the book went on. I also don’t really like cheating in books and Greg basically cheated on Julien. He was thinking about kissing Stryker and slept over at his house while the two mmcs where still together and then immediately hooked up with Stryker when he went back to NYC? It kind of made their reunion less meaningful because he was just with another man that he still had feelings for. This would’ve just been better if they were friends because I did enjoy their time together, but I don’t think they are well suited as a couple.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I'd give this book 4.5 stars if I could. I really like this author and I think I've read everything by him to date. After loving his first three books, I wasn't as enthused by "The Fake Dating Game". This one was better and I think it is due to the fact that I connected better with the characters. The last couple books have had a lot more spice to them which isn't my faveorite thing in books. Especially when I like the characters, I feel like I'm seeing something so intimate that I shouldn't be there. I appreciate the 'found family' vibes this book had as well as the topics that the book dealt with including anxiety and sexual disorders. I also had a few laugh out loud moments which is also a definite plus.

✰3.5-3.75 stars✰ rounded up

Julien is a sommelier with big aspirations, he wants to save his money and get out of his town for something bigger and better where he has more opportunities. Greg on the other hand feels like he had his moment of bigger and better and just wants to settle down in a place where he feels like he belongs and save his money to make up for the debt living in New York caused.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the representation and break from cookie cutter main characters. Julien has OCD and Greg has chronic anxiety. Julien prefers a very specific routine before hooking up with someone, and he feels that his quirks make it hard to find a casual one night stand on an app. Greg takes medication for his anxiety that occasionally causes ED and he’s a bit self conscious about it. While paired together to plan a happy hour for Julien’s families restaurant, they end up opening up about their sex quirks and decide to hook up with each other in a sex pact.

This book was shaping up to be at least four stars for me, maybe even a little higher… and then we get to the third act and Greg makes some No-Good-Very-Bad-Choices that feel out of character. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll be vague here.
The first choice he makes and fields Julien with in the car I can understand. Juliens reaction is obviously supportive but more so out of self preservation, a fact that Greg doesn’t catch and thinks Julien just doesn’t like him any deeper than sex.
Greg then makes a series of questionable choices and observations. They felt way, way out of character. They felt a little dirty almost or made it feel like Julien was actually not as important to Greg because he made the choice to do X, Y and Z in the first place rather than talking to Julien or even fighting for him. I didn’t get it and it put a big hole in their forming relationship for me. I could understand the first choice because he was worried about money and it was a defense and worked for the plot. The rest felt unnecessary to the plot and actually messed with some relationship strength in my opinion. I could have seriously done without, like what the hell Greg?

It was almost enough for me to rate this 3 stars because I was so thrown off. I rated 3.5 because of how much I appreciated non cookie cutter characters and how much I love this author. But damn am I bummed about a few moments there in the last chunk.

I don’t think it’ll ever be a comfort re-read for me solely because of that last bit (and it could have been otherwise), but the first 2/3’s are cute and fun and I loved that part. So in my head I’m cutting out some moments and pretending they didn’t happen so I can love these two the way they deserve.

You Had Me At Happy Hour was a different read for me. I felt for both Greg and Julien as they navigated their lives from where they were to where they *thought* they should end up. I loved the slow burn of their relationship, it seemed very real to me. Also, as someone who has worked in the service industry for the better part of 2 decades, I found those aspects to be very true to form.

Timothy Janovsky has been a new instant read author from me from his debut novel o ward, and You Had Me At Happy hour continues to have his wit and humor along with deep meaningful topics that draw me as a reader in. Greg’s struggle with ED is something I haven’t had the chance to read about but resonates with anyone on mental health medication and the feeling of inadequacy that comes with it. Julien’s had a rough life and as a result has done anything in his power to not repeat his parents mistakes, something that is also easily relatable. The third act break up was a big miscommunication, which I’m not a fan of, but this is one of the few times I was left wondering if the resolution was actually coming. A resounding addition to Timothys body of work

2.5 rounded up. The back half of this is better than the front half but I don’t know that it really saved it for me. I mostly thought Timothy Janovsky felt like he had something to teach me and that kind of instructional romance novel just isn’t what I’m looking for. I also wasn’t sure about how the OCD was written— it felt very convenient for the romance and the story but never came up in the actual restaurant which, as someone who has worked in restaurants, doesn’t really make much sense.

I did like the third act misunderstanding (which is hard to pull off, genuinely) but I wish their resolution was a little more exciting. Not the worst of this kind of book I’ve read (I liked it more than New Adult, for example!) but still fairly forgettable.

I think this book was good. . The cast of characters was interesting and all so different from one another. I love the setting and environment this book created it really helped to create well rounded and dynamic characters. I love the chemistry between them and how their relationship built over time.

3.5/5 ⭐

This book was enough fun for me to debate learning to review it like a bottle of wine. Considering I’m neither a sommelier nor a fan of wine in general, I’d say that this is great praise for this enjoyable, fairly low-stress romance!

While I’m not usually interested in novels with a modern setting, I was pleasantly surprised by You Had Me at Happy Hour and am glad that I gave it a chance. What makes this book shine, to me, is the depiction of both main characters’ experiences with mental illness and neurodivergence. For example, this is the first time I’ve read a novel that was open about the side effects that medications like SSRIs can have in a sexual context. I really appreciated having that familiar, but often unspoken element of managing mental illness normalized here.

I’m also really delighted by the inclusion of non-normative sex, and even kink in this novel. That was a breath of fresh air, and not only made it more fun to read, but more honest to the range of sexual experiences & preferences folks can have – especially in the LGBTQ+ community, where heteronormative sex is often projected onto us. This choice made Julien and Greg feel more real, and relatable as well.

Unfortunately, I did struggle to get past some of the references to TikTok and social media and could struggle to stay engaged when it was mentioned. I was also a little confused by the book’s ending, which felt like it celebrated sexual development more than romance. The novel also suffers from the classic, “extremely easily solvable conflict between romcom leads,” which caused any issues to wrap up swiftly. However, none of these criticisms make or break the book if you’re just looking for a fun romantic read!

I loved this MM book and all of the representation in it. Both characters are neurodivergent and I love how mental health rep was talked about. This is such a cute story with lovable characters. I loved the grumpy/sunshine trope and thought it worked well here. It was laugh out loud funny with so many hilarious moments, and the spice was really there, which I appreciated! I love that these two had "regular" jobs and were just trying to make it in this world. I didn't like that this book was in the third person POV, but overall, it was a cute and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Timothy Janovsky, and Harlequin for an eARC of this book.

I've enjoyed all of Timothy Janovsky's books, and You Had Me at Happy Hour is my favorite one yet. Five huge stars!

The characters are quirky and unique. Janovsky delves deeply into each of these guys' issues, and makes them completely real and so interesting.

There's wonderful chemistry between Julien and Greg. From the moment they meet, it's clear that they're going to make a great team. The pacing on the romance is just perfect. Janovsky doesn't waste any time getting these two into a physical romance (yay), and the build to the happily ever after is beautifully paced.

You Had Me at Happy Hour is an absolute pleasure!

This book had a lot going for it, but I felt as if it needed a stronger big-picture edit. (I try to overlook minor flaws such as typos in an ARC, but I think it's fair to comment on other stuff.)

I started off disliking Julien when he steamrolled over the customers in the first scene. Yes, it turns out his neurodivergence affects his behavior, but I'd have liked him to be more aware of that internally, even if he couldn't control what he said. Then Greg goes and does essentially the same thing with regard to Julien's choice not to drink—something any decent human, and particularly a bartender, should know better than to do. So that's two strikes right off the bat.

After that, well, meh. Three cheers for the mental health awareness/rep—that was a bright point. But I didn't feel the relationship growing organically. It seemed herky-jerky, with things happening because they're supposed to happen X way in a romance rather than because they seemed natural for these characters. Overall, I never ended up caring much for either of the guys, and without that, there's not much point. So... decent but disappointing.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I recently discovered Timothy Janovsky's books and have enjoyed them all that I read so far. So when I saw his newest book on Netgalley I jumped on requesting an opportunity to read it early. And I’m so glad that I got the chance. I loved this story. I adored Greg and Julian. Seeing how the characters cooped with their personal trauma. I thought the way mental health was talked about in the book was well thought out and handled great. I couldn’t stop rooting for both characters. This book gave me all the feels and I couldn’t put the book down. I would highly recommend this book.