You’re the Problem, It’s You is the second book in Emma R. Alban’s Mischief & Matchmaking historical romance duology that began with Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend. You’re the Problem is a mostly lighthearted m/m romance that, despite being billed as enemies-to-lovers by the blurb is really about two men jumping to conclusions about each other and holding on to their misconceptions for way too long before finally deciding to give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Despite that, I quite liked the two protagonists. Bobby Mason is a second son who would like to actually do something with his life, but feels limited by the fact that he’s the spare, and James Demeroven was brought up largely away from London and has been constantly belittled and verbally abused by his stepfather to the point that he has learned not to stand up for himself and tends to run away from his problems. When the two of them first meet, Bobby’s cousin Beth (one of the leads in the first book) asks him to befriend James, to introduce him to the right people and help him to make some friends, but James is so tightly buttoned-up and standoffish that he almost immediately rubs the good-natured Bobby up the wrong way with what Bobby believes to be a condemnation of his lifestyle. Things don’t improve as time passes, and the two men do their best to avoid one another where possible – but being members of the same family makes that very difficult. Bobby and James find themselves often at the same events and having to at least attempt to be pleasant to each other – but whenever it seems as though they might be making progress towards friendship, one of them will say or do something that puts them right back at square one and thinking the worst. And herein lies the books’ biggest problem. The misunderstandings between the pair continue for almost half the book – it’s very repetitive and it got frustrating very quickly. And then, once they do start to thaw towards each other a bit, it’s zero to sixty in the blink of an eye, and their various declarations and all the deep feelings we’re told they’re experiencing are simply not supported by what the reader has seen on the page. There is very little chemistry between them and I needed more from their internal monologues to persuade me that they were falling/had fallen in love.

Add to this the somewhat complicated family situation of the Masons, the Bertrams, and the Demerovens. Not having read the previous book put me at a serious disadvantage here as I struggled to work out and then remember how all these characters, members of an extended family, are related to one another. Beth and Gwen from book one are, respectively, the daughters of the late Viscount Demeroven (Beth) and Lord Haverford (Gwen); James is Beth’s cousin, Bobby is Gwen’s cousin; Haverford is now married to Beth’s mother… I could really have done with a list or family tree at the front of the book!

The story is mostly character-driven, and the little bit of plot there is – a cartoonish villain attempts to blackmail our heroes with threats of exposing their ‘proclivities’ to society – is flimsy and only present in order to enable Bobby and James to, at last, join forces to work out a way to neutralise him. James’ character arc is the strongest, as he has to work to overcome his anxiety and insecurities and move towards self-acceptance and the realisation that he is deserving of the love and loyalty he is being offered by Bobby and their family. Having the entire Bertram/Mason clan be so accepting of its queer couples and prepared to offer them as much protection as possible did stretch my credulity given the time period, but I liked seeing James slowly working out that perhaps he could finally have the life he craves with someone he truly cares for.

You’re the Problem, It’s You is inoffensive enough, and may, indeed be The Gay Bridgerton you didn’t know you needed (eyeroll) for some, but in a sub-genre where the bar for excellence has been set very high by authors like KJ Charles, Joanna Chambers, Sally Malcolm and others, You’re the Problem just about qualifies as ‘middling’. It lacks depth and emotion, the characterisation is patchy and it’s wallpapery to the extreme. The date 1858 is mentioned in the text, but other than the fact that Demeroven, his uncle, and Bobby’s brother are working to get the Medical Act passed into law, (and same sex relationships between men are illegal), there’s no real sense of time or place, and the characters have an unfortunate habit of lapsing into modern language. Someone tells Bobby to “Get some sleep, yeah?”; Aunt Cordelia is “a right laugh”; one of Bobby’s friends asks “Do we need to get you laid?”; Bobby has “zero interest in finding a nice young lady to chat up.” And so on. In fact, the writing in general feels more suited to a YA book even though the characters are in their early twenties and the sex scenes warrant a ‘warm’ rating; it skews towards telling rather than showing, and the book feels somewhat… juvenile as a result. Plus, the use of third person present tense doesn’t do it any favours.

You’re the Problem, It’s You was entertaining enough in places, but I can’t recommend it.