Meh. Run of the mill romance.

Jordan Collins loves romance novels and his book club, but is a bit high-strung and obsessive regarding both. When he meets Rex Bailey, a new employee at his favorite book store, the two hit it off badly because Rex mocks Jordan for his love of romance novels. However, Rex also joins Jordan’s book club and tries to do his best to help him recruit new members, regardless of their personal feelings for one another. They shift into becoming friends, but will they be able to sustain a relationship and the book club?

It’s hard enough to find fun queer romance novels, so when they’re not very good, it feels even more depressing than when I hate a het romance.

Meet Cute Club isn’t a bad book at all, but I was a little disappointed when I finished reading it. While the story is cute and I do love any book that shows that romance isn’t just a genre for women, I just didn’t click with this book. The charactes, Jordan in particular, are a bit grating for me personality wise, and I really wasn’t interested in the quick turnaround from “we just met and you’re kinda cute” aspect of Jordan and Rex leading STRAIGHT into “well we’re dating now! Here comes the pointless angst!” The quick turnaround made the book fall a bit flat as I never felt like I got any organic growth or chemistry between Jordan and Rex. They both seemed pretty one dimensional, and the last 30 pages of the book included some pretty pointless angst in order to apparently add to the page count and drama when it really didn’t need it.

I did love the relationship between both characters and their grandmothers, and between Jordan and his love of his book club. It was fun to have a book centered around romance novels that was led by male characters, since I feel like more men are starting to read romance more openly, so that aspect was fun to explore. Overall however, this was very middle of the road.

Title: Meet Cute Club (Sweet Rose #1)
Author: Jack Harbon
Format: Paperback
Pages: 239
ISBN: 9798629865032

Three Descriptors: Oddly-paced, quick romance, interesting premise