Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper. The description of this book was just so cute I couldn’t pass it up on NetGalley. Here’s a bit more about it!

A secret crush leads to not-so-secret romance in this delightful romantic comedy from Kris Ripper

There are three things you need to know about Preston “PK” Kingsley:
1) He’s a writer, toiling in obscurity as an editorial assistant at a New York City publishing house.
2) He is not a cliché. No, really.
3) He’s been secretly in love with his best friend, Art, since they once drunkenly kissed in college.

When Art moves in with PK following a bad breakup, PK hopes this will be the moment when Art finally sees him as more than a friend. But Art seems to laugh off the very idea of them in a relationship, so PK returns to his writing roots—in fiction, he can say all the things he can’t say out loud.

In his book, PK can be the perfect boyfriend.

Before long, it seems like the whole world has a crush on the fictionalized version of him, including Art, who has no idea that the hot new book everyone’s talking about is PK’s story. But when his brilliant plan to win Art over backfires, PK might lose not just his fantasy book boyfriend, but his best friend.

***Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Adores for providing a copy of the book. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I have mixed feelings about this book because there were things I liked a lot but also many aspects that got on my nerves. I loved all the humor, and I was quite frequently laughing out loud at PK’s ridiculous antics. I also really liked the inclusion of all the bookish themes, which was one of the things that drew me to this book in the first place. It was fun to read about someone creating a book as their grand romantic gesture while also getting to see the process of publishing at work from initial inception through the book launch. Unsurprisingly, the LGBT representation was fantastic and diverse. I particularly liked how the switch of one character’s personal pronouns was handled. It felt like an authentic, realistic reaction that was supportive of the character while also exploring the difficulties others can face in coming to terms with the change. My first major complaint about the book is that it fell short on the romance. I felt like I didn’t really get to know Art, the love interest, at all, and I never felt a connection between them and PK beyond friend/roommate. The chemistry just wasn’t there for me. It also didn’t help that the ending was quite underwhelming. While I liked the message it sent (that romance can often be messy and awkward and grand gestures are often problematic and cover up the need to sit and have a difficult dialogue), it was done in a way that felt preachy and made Art seem pretty childish. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the writing, especially in the first half of the book. It felt very stream of consciousness, which made the entire book feel like one long run-on sentence. Personally, I think it would have worked better with multiple POVs. Being in PK’s head all the time was a bit much, and getting some more perspective from Art might have helped make the romance a little more believable. Overall, it was an enjoyable read despite the things I didn’t like. Therefore, I rate it 3 out of 5 stars.