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I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages and am really pleased I finally got around to it. The Happy List is a wonderful friends-to-lovers/opposites-attract romance featuring life-long best friends, Gray and Kai who couldn’t be more different. Gray is somewhat rigid and set in his ways; he’s a meticulous planner and workaholic who has very little else in his life because that’s what’s always been expected of him and he doesn’t know any other way to be. Kai is more of a free-spirit; he’s funny and upbeat and sweet, and after years spent travelling, has returned to Boston thinking maybe it’s time he set down some roots, and plans to set up in business as a bespoke furniture-maker.
The book opens on the evening of Gray’s disastrous engagement dinner. It’s disastrous because he doesn’t actually want to get married; he loves Cee, his girlfriend of two-years, but isn’t IN love with her, and her proposal – in front of the assembled friends, family and other guests – is kind of a wake-up call for him, alerting him to the fact that they’re so far from being on the same page as to be in completely different libraries! Gray can’t possibly go back into the restaurant to face everyone after his public refusal, so instead he escapes by crawling through the bathroom window – and immediately bumps into Kai, who was on his way inside. Gray is overjoyed at seeing his best friend again, and they immediately fall into their usual sort of affectionate teasing and trash-talk. Gray can’t help but contemplate how easy it is to be with Kai; there’s no pressure, no expectations – they’re just ‘them’.
Seeing Gray squeezing through a window isn’t something Kai had expected to see that evening, but he’s always been one to go with the flow, and he and Gray head off in his PoS car to grab some food. They pick up their friendship like he’s never been away, talking about everything and nothing, and he’s really glad he’s managed to get over the ridiculous crush he’s had on Gray for years, because now they can be just buddies with no stupid shit in the way. Then Gray suggests Kai should move into his spare room – which is a great offer, but maybe not the smartest move. But then Kai never pretended to be smart.
Rooming together works out really well for both of them and they quickly settle into a rhythm. But after a night out drinking with Kai, Kai’s sister Monica and her partner, and a game of Never Have I Ever, Gray suddenly realises his life is boring and predictable as hell and he’s never really had what Kai or anyone else he knows would call fun. This realisation inspires him to come up with his Happy List (because of course he does – he can’t just go from being a meticulous planner to Mr. Spontaneous overnight!) it’s time to make some big changes and shake things up a bit – “Don’t think, just do” is going to be his new motto. He’s going to get out there and have some fun. He’s going to take a risk, go on a road trip, do something crazy, and … he’s going to work out why the idea of Kai going on dates makes him want to hit something.
Briar Prescott takes her tropes and runs with them to produce a terrific end result, a delicious slow-burn romance full of warmth, humour and some of the best quick-fire, genuinely funny banter I’ve read in quite some time. The longing and sexual tension between Gray and Kai is brilliantly done and absolutely leaps off the page, the depth of their mutual affection is palpable, and I loved how supportive they are of each other. My absolute favourite thing in a friends-to-lovers story is that moment when one protagonist looks at the other and (at last!) sees them through fresh eyes, as someone they’re attracted to as more than a friend. Sometimes it’s a coup de foudre and sometimes it creeps up on them slowly, which is how it happens for Gray here. I liked how confident he is in his attraction to Kai; he doesn’t freak out about being attracted to another guy and has clearly given some thought to the way attraction works for him; he talks about needing to know someone before he becomes attracted to them (in the next book, The Dating Experiment, it’s explicitly stated that Gray is demisexual), and he accepts his attraction to Kai as a progression of their existing relationship. Kai is understandably wary – Gray has never indicated he’s anything other than straight and Kai’s worried he’s just an experiment; he’s sure he’s in for massive heartbreak but he can’t find it in him to turn down something he’s wanted for so long. His persistence in thinking that Gray is merely curious and that they’re ‘just having fun’ maybe goes on a bit too long, but I did like the way things are resolved without a silly argument or breakup.
I loved both characters, although it’s Gray who experiences the most character growth as he comes to understand himself better, to realise that he dislikes his job and wants to do something more with his life; and I loved watching his journey from being so tightly wound and self-controlled to someone open to possibility and willing to take risks. Kai doesn’t change so much, but he’s a delightful character nonetheless, good-natured and full of fun and mischief. There’s a small, well-drawn secondary cast here that includes Gray’s older brother Connor, who basically brought him up after their parents died (and even before, given they were hardly ever around), their feisty grandmother and Kai’s sister Monica, who is wonderfully clear-sighted and supportive.
There are so many romances being published today and advertised as rom coms that really aren’t, but The Happy List definitely fits that bill. It’s a bundle of sexy, light-hearted fun, the two leads are charming and likeable, and their romance is full of warmth and sizzling chemistry. I raced through it in a couple of sittings and finished it with a happy sigh – and I’ll definitely be looking for more of Briar Prescott’s work.
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 10/03/22
Publication Date: 10/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Related Reviews
New novel Project Hero by this author is on sale for a few hours at Amazon – 99 cents. Not sure if it is US only.
Project Hero – Kindle edition by Prescott, Briar. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Showing as usual price on Amazon UK, unfortunately!
I picked up a freebie short story/novella The Crush by this author at Prolific Works (thanks, Caz for the rec) and enjoyed it. Now today, I see The Underdog is free as well. . .
You’re welcome!
She’s got a new book out next week, so I imagine the freebie is part of the promo :)
Makes sense. I opted to buy The Dating Experience today. (I can only read so much of an author’s work for free before I feel obligated to buy something.) If I like these (books 2 and 3), I’m sure I’ll be buying 1 and 4 as well.
BTW, I went to Prolific Works to pick up the prequel to Eli Easton’s Fireman’s Carry (and bought Hot Seat) and also picked up Lily Morton’s The Player.
Interesting that all three of those short pieces are only available for free at Public Works. They are not available at Amazon at all at this point – not even for sale. (The freebies can be sent to Amazon for formatting and storage as a MOBI document. Whether I’ll be able to remember how to find them again – since they are not stored as books – remains to be seen. ;-)
These are all part of a year long promotion called Your Book Boyfriend’s Boyfriend. A few hundred authors are offering M/M novellas for download that will be available for all of 2022. Many use it as introductions to series they are writing (prequel novellas to the start of the series), such as the Eli Easton book. Others write standalone novellas. Lots of great offerings in the promotion!
I think that you can download these in different ways. I read on my Android tablet, through the Kindle App. I choose the MOBI option, then email it to my Kindle email address and it comes through in the same way as books I’ve bought through Amazon. So then I can put it in, say, my Lily Morton folder, if it’s The Player. along with all her other books.
I download them in mobi format to my computer and then email them to myself. That way I’ve got a stored copy in case something goes wrong with my Kindle or the cloud.
My review of The Dating Experiment will be up next week :)
I wonder if the authors might make them – or some of them, especially those in series – available for sale once the promotion has finished.
As I said in my review, I think Hot Seat works much better if you read Fireman’s Carry first.
And as I say below, I download books to my computer so I’ve got a “hard copy” – and then email the books to my Kindle. Is that an option for you?
Thank you everyone for the suggestions!
Getting them onto my Kindle is easy. But I don’t like pages and pages of books downloaded to my Kindle. It is faster to swipe two or three screens to find what I’m going to read next rather than “search”. So I’m constantly removing titles – especially library books – and downloading them again later to reread. I just have to remember to look for these “documents” under a different tab than “books” at the Amazon web site when I want to find them again.
I generally hate Amazon’s user interface related to finding and sorting books – it is incredibly limited and I’ve always wondered why. It is what sent me searching for a tool like GoodReads or LibraryThing all those years ago. (I’ve been a Kindle reader since 2004.) At least Amazon has FINALLY begun sorting Kindle books in a series together into folders; and created the new landing page of content tabs. Both make finding Kindle-related content much easier.
I think I mentioned this in my Hot Seat review comments: I’m surprised more publishers and authors do NOT include these short story/novella prequels right into their associated first novels. I’m sure it has to do with rights in some cases: (Brigg’s “Alpha and Omega” in On The Prowl anthology) because it was published by a mainstream publisher. I’m sure their thinking is why sell only one book when you can get revenue for two. But in Easton’s case, the prequel is “free” and the authors are the publisher. They missed an opportunity IMO by not including it with Hot Seat.
I agree – but I imagine there’s some sort of exclusivity agreement for being featured in the promotion. I wonder if maybe some of the authors might choose to incorporate prequels at a later date.
I don’t think I’ve ready anything by this author, so I’m happy to have some new books to explore. Thanks for the review. And thank you, Manjari for seconding the rec and adding more!
I’ve had this on the TBR for a while and finally had a gap so I could read it! She has one (I think) book in audio – Rare – with two excellent narrators (Iggy Toma & Alex Cendese) which I really must listen to as well!
Caz, I think you will like Rare. The current series is bit more rom-com. Rare is a standalone and more angsty. It also deals with a topic that is very thought provoking and about which I didn’t have a lot of previous knowledge.
You’re welcome, Carrie! What I really like about her books is that the banter and character’s inner dialogues are so funny. But there is still an emotional love story. I hope you like them!
As I think you know, Caz, I have been praising Briar Prescott for a while and I am so happy you liked The Happy List. She’s actually a pretty new author and published her first book Project Hero in March 2020. Both that book and the current series have great banter and good emotional depth. For this current series, I liked The Happy List but I absolutely loved The Dating Experiment (enemies-to-lovers, boss-personal assistant tropes). Book 3 is The Underdog (has an amputee hero). The last book in the series The Inconvenient Love (age gap, best friend’s little brother) comes out next week and I am so excited. If you want a bit more angst, I recommend her book Rare (second chance at love).
I jumped straight into book 2 after this, and as it happened to fit the March TBR prompt (“grumpy”) I reviewed it, so look for that next week. I do have her other books through KU – but as usual, it’s a case of waiting for a gap in the schedule to read them!
Same here. I loved The Dating Experiment. That book was the first one I read by this author and I loved it. From there I went back to The Happy List (and then read The Underdog). Looking forward to reading the next book in the series, but so far The Dating Experiment is my favorite.
I had a few issues with The Dating Experiment (look for my review in next week’s TBR Challenge post), but they were more things that kept the book from being a DIK rather than things that dinged the book completely.
Now I’m a little stressed that you are going to critique my beloved book. Although probably there is nothing you could say that will diminish my love for it, ha ha!
No need to stress. I liked it a lot, but there were a few small things and one big thing (the ending!) that didn’t qutie work for me.
If you haven’t read it, I recommend Project Hero. It was the first one of her books that I read and one of my favorites. The Dating Experiment also has a bonus scene called Connor Meets the Parents aka What Happened in Cancun. I can’t remember where I got it but probably by signing up for her newsletter.