Review Tuesday: Horribly Harry by Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey -- #MMRomance #RomCom #ReviewTuesday

Horribly Harry by Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey

Pride Publishing, 2022

Like many university students, preschool education major Harry Townsend is short on cash – especially since his friend and former housemate Ambrose left their shared digs to move in with his new lover Liam. To help make ends meet, Harry takes over Ambrose’s “business”, Bad Boyfriend, Inc. For a fee (sliding scale depending on the level of badness his client requires), Harry will show up at a family lunch or dinner and pretend to be the partner of the parents’ nightmares: a boorish, disgusting, disreputable drunk with poor manners, questionable hygiene and an utter lack of fashion sense. Sometimes the goal is to get the family to embrace a previously unacceptable real boyfriend, sometimes to convince them that the client is better off blissfully single. Either way, Harry gets a few hundred dollars as well as the satisfaction of knowing he’s helping his customers sort out their love lives.

Harry himself doesn’t have a love life and really doesn’t want one. He figures he must be asexual; he’s never been attracted to either men or women, never experienced the “tingly feeling” that’s so prominent in the romantic comedies he adores. Then apprentice mechanic Jack Windsor answers Harry’s ad for a new housemate and Harry finds himself dealing with feelings that are scary, thrilling and totally alien. He wants to watch Jack, to spend time with him, to touch his tattoos... even though he’s sure these desires couldn’t possibly be mutual.

Through a misunderstanding and an ignorance of Harry’s allergy to strawberries, Jack inadvertently comes close to killing poor Harry on their first meeting. Once he’s been forgiven, though, Jack discovers that he really likes his nerdy, creative, droll new roommate. In fact, he quickly realizes he wants Harry to be more than just a friend. Jack’s perceptive enough, though, to understand Harry’s skittishness and inexperience when it comes to sex and love. He’s willing to be patient and go slowly if that is what it takes to make Harry comfortable.

Horribly Harry is the second book in Lisa Henry’s and Sara Honey’s series Bad Boyfriend, Inc. I loved the first book (read my review at https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2022/06/review-tuesday-awfully-ambrose-by-lisa.html) but wondered whether the premise could be effectively extended to a second novel. In fact, I thought this book was even better than the first. I have not read such a clever, original, sensitive and satisfying romance in a very long time.

Harry is far from being a typical romance hero, but I adored him. He’s a lovable weirdo, a social outlier who’s mostly comfortable with his own unconventionality. He knows what he wants. He’s good at his job as a teacher. He shows a surprising ability to manipulate people in his gigs as a bad boyfriend. Ms. Henry and Ms. Honey strike a delicate balance, making him comical without descending into farce, vulnerable without being pathetic. I don’t personally know anyone who identifies as asexual, but Harry’s lack of libido struck me as utterly believable, as did his awakening to his attraction for Jack. Furthermore, I found their gradual, hesitant progression from friends to lovers as arousing as the sudden, full-out passion one finds in many erotic romance novels.

Jack’s no alpha male, either – fortunately, since that sort of man wouldn’t have the slightest chance of winning Harry over. He has a few quirks, like his affinity for housework and the fact that he threw away his university degree in his last term in order to follow his dream. Still, he’s definitely more “normal” than Harry, but not so conventional that he’s blind to the other man’s appeal. Although Jack makes some mistakes, overall he shows a remarkable sensitivity to Harry’s emotional and physical complexities.

In typical romcom fashion, the novel progresses through a variety of mishaps and misunderstandings to a lovely happy ending. The secondary characters contribute to the fun, especially Tristan, the promiscuous third housemate, and Beryl, the contrarian thrift store clerk. Apparently, Tristan will inherit the Bad Boyfriend mantle in the next installment of the series. I’m looking forward to it.

If you’re looking for an intelligent, funny, out-of-the-box romance read, grab a copy of Horribly Harry. I can’t imagine you’ll be disappointed.