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From Mistaken Identity to Steamy Romance

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Patricia Elzie-Tuttle

Contributing Editor

Patricia Elzie-Tuttle is a writer, podcaster, librarian, and information fanatic who appreciates potatoes in every single one of their beautiful iterations. Patricia earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Musical Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Her weekly newsletter, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice offers self-improvement and mental health advice, essays, and resources that pull from her experience as a queer, Black, & Filipina person existing in the world. She is also doing the same on the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast. More of her written work can also be found in Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy edited by Kelly Jensen, and, if you’re feeling spicy, in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Patricia has been a Book Riot contributor since 2016 and is currently co-host of the All the Books! podcast and one of the weekly writers of the Read This Book newsletter. She lives in Oakland, CA on unceded Ohlone land with her wife and a positively alarming amount of books. Find her on her Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkTree.

Today’s book recommendation is a debut adult romance by an author known for his award-winning young adult novel, Darius the Great Is Not Okay. This recently published queer adult M/M contemporary romance manages to have a few tropes. It starts off with mistaken identity; then it’s a no-strings-attached arrangement, then it’s maybe a fling or short-term situation. It’s quite a ride, and I mean that figuratively and literally because, wow, the depictions of sex between consenting adults who are really into it are delightfully explicit.

Book cover of I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram

I’ll Have What He’s Having by Adib Khorram

This story uses dual-perspective storytelling and switches between the two protagonists: Farzan and David. Farzan is Iranian and doesn’t really enjoy his day job as a substitute teacher. He loves to cook and his parents own a Persian restaurant there in Kansas City, a restaurant that is a bit of a cultural nexus for the Iranian community. Farzan is thirty-five, the oldest of three siblings, and he feels like his two younger siblings have it much more together than he does. He’s single, rents an apartment, barely has a job, and feels like he always messes everything up.

The book opens with Farzan’s date canceling and not wanting to reschedule. So, feeling down on himself, Farzan reaches out to his best friends to soothe his hurt heart with french fries and drinks but they are busy. He ends up going solo to a new wine bistro in town, Aspire. It’s loud when he gets there and instead of repeatedly yelling his name to the hostess, he gives a fake name that he thinks the hostess will understand more easily: Frank Allen.

Meanwhile, David is a beautiful Black man and the wine director of Aspire. If he’s not working, studying for the Master Sommelier test is taking up his life. He intends to pass the test then move somewhere like Los Angeles or New York where he can make a name for himself. David takes a peek at the waitlist and sees the name Frank Allen and freaks out because Frank Allen is an important food critic, so he gives this unexpectedly attractive “Frank Allen” an amazing culinary experience, not knowing it’s Farzan. Farzan, of course, doesn’t know why this is happening and he just thinks this incredibly hot guy is being kind to him. They flirt ruthlessly and when Farzan finishes his meal, they end up doing more. Don’t worry, the mistaken identity stuff is cleared up before they have sex. They’re both smitten, but Farzan doesn’t do no-strings-attached, and David has a time limit on how long he’s staying in Kansas City.

I loved this book. I laughed a lot and there was even comedy during some of the sexy parts which I didn’t expect but I appreciated. It’s a light, fun read perfect for the end of summer.


That’s it for now, book-lovers!

Patricia

Find me on Book Riot, the All the Books podcast, Bluesky, TikTok, and Instagram.

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