Panic Attack of the Heart
More romances about men going to therapy please and thank you
When I was putting together this collection, of books, I didn’t realize until starting to write my reviews that it wasn’t just panic attacks that they had in common- it was the fact that the character going through the mental health crisis was the hero. Very uncommon unless the hero is a veteran with PTSD, and even then, it’s common they don’t really connect their symptoms with a particular diagnosis. But these three books show three modern men working through their mental health as best as they can, with heroines ensuring they know they aren’t doing so alone.
Also, look how well the covers go together! And then go watch my short film Ace and Anxious on YouTube (which I wrote during a phase of my life where I was experiencing like two panic attacks per week).
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. I just need to state yet again for the record that Abby Jimenez fully stole my identity for this book, and I’d just like to say: thank you, ma’am. This is a heavily epistolary love story between a sarcastic heroine named Bri and a socially awkward bearded sweetie who end the epilogue by walking each other down the aisle. As a writer who loves love, wrote her college thesis about epistolary narratives, is named Bri, and walked her now-husband down the aisle at her wedding….. I mean, come ON.
We’ve got a sarcastic heroine, Bri, who keeps people at a distance with her sharp humor. We’ve got a seemingly gruff and standoffish hero, Jacob, who’s actually a cinnamon roll with social anxiety. They’re both out of fairly complex breakups (Bri’s just finalized her divorce, Jacob’s ex is marrying his brother) and though their first impressions of each other aren’t great, what brings them together is a series of letters passed back and forth, essentially cutting off the growing enemies-to-lovers status to something much sweeter.
Jacob secretly gives Bri’s little brother a kidney, Bri pretends to be Jacob’s girlfriend to ensure his family doesn’t stay estranged from his brother and his ex during their engagement, Jacob manages his anxiety and panic attacks, Bri works to repair her heart enough to let him in fully. As with every Abby Jimenez book, you’ll cry and laugh in equal parts, you’ll have to take a step away because she’s got her heel directly on your jugular at some points, and you’ll never believe in love more.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥
Best of Luck by Kate Clayborn. The final book in Kate Clayborn’s first series has been building towards its pairing since book one. Finally, we get Greer’s story of what she did with her portion of the lottery she won alongside her two best friends at the start of the series. We also get closure for book 1’s heroine’s brother, Alex, who Greer clearly immediately had a thing for.
Greer’s chronic illness has defined a lot of her life, and it’s one of the big reasons she never finished school, so her lottery money went towards her degree, which she’s just months away from completing. Unfortunately, she missed an art credit requirement and the only option is taking a photography class but first she’s gotta convince the professor to allow her to join late so as not to postpone her graduation and lose the job she’s already got set up. Luckily, Alex, her best friend’s brother, is in town for his little sister’s wedding and is himself a famous photojournalist in need of a break. Though staying in one place makes him itchy, after Greer helps him through a panic attack at his sister’s rehearsal dinner, he knows he needs to take a beat. And helping the cutie he noticed all those years prior who yelled at him for not supporting his sister better? Bonus.
Between a traumatic backstory and throwing himself into continued traumatic situations for his job, Alex is not doing well, but Greer’s determined to help them both through this little vacation away from normal, even going so far as to introduce him to her therapist, even though he insists he doesn’t need therapy. Lol. Men will literally accept every warzone photography gig offered to them instead of going to therapy.
Not only was this the perfect culmination of an amazing trilogy that began my romance reading sprint last year, but it was also a lovely full circle moment for a scene in the first book that you might have missed if you blinked. Great payoff and attention to detail, great (if heartbreaking) description of what a panic attack feels like, two people who look broken fixing each other, photography as flirting, smart-mouthed therapists…. What’s not to love?
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
The Sixty/Forty Rule by Ellie K. Wilde. Several years ago, Jude, an aspiring interior designer, and Theo, a celebrated chef and restaurateur, were thrust together when Theo opened his new restaurant. After an incident at the launch party that begins a series of miscommunications and bad faith assumptions, they assume they’ll never see each other again. Until Theo comes back to launch another restaurant, and Jude finally has the opportunity to take the lead on a design, despite Theo being her nemesis (in her mind at least). He messed with her career, and she doesn’t retract her claws easily, not when she’s so close to her professional dream.
Of course, it turns out Theo doesn’t hate her at all. He’s one of a long line of repressed men who are too intimidated by a pretty girl to be anything but dumbasses. He’s also hiding a severe anxiety disorder from, well, everyone, so it’s safe to say there’s a lot quietly going on up in his messy head that doesn’t always present to the world (or to Jude) as kind or understanding.
In working together, though, it’s clear there’s more than just animosity and in fact both of them need to make some big changes to the way they approach their lives and their work if they’re going to find happiness rather than just the next hollow success.
This is an interesting case of my slightly disagreeing with the format of a book. While my preference is always first person dual POV for romance, as my friend Christina first argued when she read this book, I think this book would have been stronger without the male POV. Really, I think it would have benefited from leaning more into its The Hating Game similarities (in which we think the non-POV hero hates the heroine but really he’s just a bag of nerves with resting bitch face who’s terrible at first impressions), because for much of the book, knowing the hero actually loves and is hugely impressed by the heroine immediately undercuts the tension that would otherwise be extremely fun and hot, and just makes you impatient for them to get it together and get together. If this book wasn’t trying to convince me these two were nemeses, that this is an enemies to lovers story, then I might have gotten over it. But we learn way too early that Theo is just a confused lil cinnamon roll with panic attacks, which then just makes Jude look like an asshole? I’m all for one POV (or both) to assume their counterpart hates them (it’s a central premise of the start of my own romance novel, anyone know a good agent?), but when you set up a premise with as much vitriol as Jude has at the start, I just think you need more there there. You know? Again, I liked this book a lot! And I did like how neurotic Theo was in his own head. But narratively I think it would have been stronger to remove him from the POV, or at least give him more active (rather than passive) shit to add to the tension.
Rating: 4.25/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending brother’s best friend romances! A god-tier trope and you know it.
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
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