Once upon a time at San Diego Comic Con, I got to recommend a book to the guy who played OG Aaron Samuels on Mean Girls. This was that book, and no, I will never stop telling that story.

Anyways…

I’ll Have What He’s Having is Adib Khorram’s first jaunt into the adult romance space. He’s an award-winning author in YA for books like Darrius the Great is Not Okay [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] and he’s from a city that I still call home, Kansas City. So of course, I had to request it after the team at Forever talked it up so much.

I’ll Have What He’s Having [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is about Farzan, a mid-30s Iranian-American who is brokenhearted and a little bit lost, and David, a man studying to take his master somm test and has no time for a social life or romance. They meet when Farzan decides to drown his breakup sorrows at a wine bar. It’s crowded and loud, so he says his name is Frank Allen to make things simpler. However, Frank Allen is the name of a food critic, and David spends the night lavishing free food and wine on Farzan (plus some flirting) in hopes of a good review. Ahh, mistaken identity causing one thing to lead to another….

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The first half was strong and entertaining. This is very different from Adib’s YA books. He got writing advice for this from Sierra Simone, so expect spice and angst. A couple of my favorite parts about this was all the talk of food and the clear love for KC. Adib describes so many Persian dishes throughout the story and they sound delicious. It made me hungry, so kudos on that. As someone who previously lived in KC for years, I loved how it touched on all the various parts. I don’t think there was a landmark, major neighborhood, or suburb that didn’t get at least one mention. Adib even referenced all the major pro-sports KC has to offer. This book is such a love letter to the city and it made me so happy.

That being said, the back half dragged a little bit to me once the miscommunication seeped in. It’s not my favorite trope and tends to slow books down for me in general as I mentally scream at them to talk like adults already. But I digress. The other aspect that slowed this particular book down for me was all the talk of wine in detail. I’m not a wine drinker, nor do I know anything about it really, so talking about the flavor notes and whatnot kinda made my eyes glaze over a smidge. Is it to be expected from a book with a somm as a main character? Yes. I know it’s a distinctly *me* problem and that’s ok. If you love wine, you might not even notice all the jargon.

I’ll Have What He’s Having is book one in a trilogy, so I am looking forward to what Adib gives us next.

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