Review: "I'll Have What He's Having" by Adib Khorram

I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram
Published August 2024 via Forever
★★★★

Farzan has come adrift—his love life is going nowhere, his work life is directionless, and compared to his highly ambitious siblings he feels like a failure. Taking over his parents' restaurant seems like a possible way forward...but although Farzan knows food, knows cooking, he doesn't know running a business. Enter David: training to be a master sommelier, he's too busy for a relationship; he'll have time for that when he's living it up in a major city somewhere. But when a miscommunication leads them to fall into bed together—and they're still laughing about it when they figure out the truth—it occurs to them that there might be a mutually beneficial path forward.

What decided me on reading this was this line in the description, about their early-book miscommunication: Good news—both think the mix-up is hilarious. It's a small thing, but that line says a lot: that the book isn't going to be one that is all about miscommunications that could be cleared up with one conversation; that they're going to be able to laugh at the little things; that there's going to be chemistry beyond banging. And: win! All of that is true in the book. There's lots of communication, even when Farzan and David don't think things will work for them in the long term, and they just genuinely...like each other.

Farzan's family is Iranian, and that's a big part of the book, which is nice—both Farzan and David are well aware of being POC in a city that doesn't always feel very diverse. Food and wine, more generally, are also big themes—Farzan loves to cook Persian food, and David is steadily (but not drunkenly) ensuring that he can recognize any wine placed in front of him. There's quite a lot of sex, and to be perfectly honest I skimmed a fair amount of it (I'm more for f/f romance than for m/m romance), but if you like the heat turned up high, this is a kitchen you'll want to be in.

I read an ARC, and there were still some consistency details to iron out, but the general vibe needs no edits.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.