I’m trying to broaden my horizon regarding the books I read. Almost all of my romances have been m/f not because that’s what I necessarily enjoy reading, but it’s the most common type of romance. After browsing through Goodreads, I stumbled upon Meet Cute Club, a gay romance with a Southern small-town setting. While I’m not a fan of Valentine’s Day, I do like to save my romance TBR for February. Meet Cute Club was a short, gay romance with an added discussion of masculinity.

Jordan Collins adores romance books! He runs the Meet Cute Club where everyone sits and has baked goods and discusses romance books. As he’s shopping for books, he meets Rex Bailey who’s snarky and doesn’t understand Jordan’s passion for reading romance novels. Rex surprisingly shows up at Meet Cute Club and begins to help Jordan grow the club. Romance and a steamy hookup ensue leaving Jordan and Rex in a daze about whether they belong together.

As far as the actual romance, Jordan and Rex are perfect together! I was rooting for them as I think they balance each other out. Jordan is passionate about his love for romance and breaks down Rex’s hard exterior. Rex grew up from a tumultuous family background with his philandering father which causes him to be a bit stubborn about the idea of love. I thought these two had great chemistry together.

Meet Cute Club centers upon Jordan and Rex’s relationship along with a dialogue regarding masculinity. In some ways, Jordan defies masculine stereotypes and has been bullied. Jordan felt pressure at a young age to sign up for sports even though all Jordan wanted was to read romance. Although Rex appears as the “stereotypical masculine man”, but even he abandoned some of this to show Jordan that he loved him. I thought at the core of this story was this discussion of masculinity and how men don’t have as much freedom to explore various hobbies or interests that women do.

I thought the writing of this book was a bit jarring. The author tends to change the POV in the same paragraph. I ended up having to re-read sections of the book because I was confused as to what POV was being referenced. I wish there was more separation between Jordan and Rex with a page break than switching between them in the same paragraph. Besides the writing, Meet Cute Club is a short book. At only 229 pages, I wish it would have been longer. The “fight” that caused Jordan and Rex to break up felt abrupt as it seemed like they were doing well until they weren’t. I wish there was more build-up there. I like my romance books to have more build-up, so when the central couple fights, it feels gut-wrenching. Since this book was shorter, I didn’t have any time to feel upset that they broke up before they got back together.

Meet Cute Club was a jovial read as I was genuinely rooting for Jordan and Rex to get together. However, the way this book was written and the length of the book hindered my reading experience. I’m hesitant to continue in the series as I’m still unsure if I’m a fan of the author’s writing style. I rated Meet Cute Club as 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 on Goodreads.