A review by brokenrecord
Happy for You by Anyta Sunday

3.0

There were things I liked about this, but it definitely wasn't a top-tier Anyta Sunday, although it had enough good things to remind me of the reasons why I do love a number of her books. I did have the issue I have had in the past with some of her stuff where it feels like I'm kind of being dropped into the middle of things and I don't really know what's going on, and I'm not always clear on how the romantic leads feel about one another or their own sexualities or anything. Like in this one, I wasn't sure what exactly had gone down between Mort and Felix before Mort left for a year (actually, even after finishing the book, I'm still not 100% sure.

Spoiler

Was it just that Felix comforted Mort after Roch rejected Mort and Felix wanted more but didn't think Mort did? Because for a little while I was thinking they had slept together and that was causing the tension/angst, but later on Felix reveals he's a virgin, so that can't have been the case.

), what Mort's feelings for Felix were and how aware of them he was, or how aware of Felix's he was, and vice versa. Also, sometimes characters behaved in ways I think were supposed to be funny but made them feel like they weren't real people. Like, for example, the first time Felix sees Mort after he hasn't seen him for a year, he starts pulling off Mort's shirt and unbuckling his pants (in public!!!) to find a scar on his leg to prove he's really there and not an apparition (

Spoiler

which is part of why I originally thought they had slept together previously, not that that would've fully explained that move, but it would've been slightly easier to accept

), which, like, how would that even prove anything?? Can apparitions not have scars??? It made no sense and it was just really silly, and not in a good way.

But I did enjoy Mort and Felix a lot, their flirting and how Felix grows to forgive Mort for abandoning him, but how he keeps trying to get over his feelings because he thinks Roch will always come first.

Spoiler

The stuff at the end with Roch coming out as bisexual but Mort still choosing Felix and making it clear to him that he loved him and Felix getting over his insecurities was great.

And I liked the twins and Tiffany a lot (even if I was never entirely clear on how old any of the siblings were. Like, the twins were 10, and I THINK it was mentioned they were born when Felix was in high school, but how old is Tiffany supposed to be? How much older are Mort and Roch supposed to be than Felix? It wasn't a major deal, but it did make it a little difficult for me to get a handle on the family dynamics). I do think I liked this a bit more than the previous one in this series (although I also think my feelings about it have cooled a bit in the week and a half since I finished it, which isn't a great sign), but I didn't like either as much as my favorites in Anyta Sunday's Signs of Love series. That being said, she's still an author I'll read basically anything she writes just because despite my complaints, there are some things she does with her romances that I don't get from any other romance author, and the stuff that does work for me works SO well.