*4.5 stars*

A sexuality discovery story with best friends-to-lovers and a slow, slow burn... yes, please.

Whew, my first read from Briar Prescott and I fell in love! This was the low-angst romance I needed in my life right now. A sweet, sweet infinitely slow burn, pining for daaaaaaaays, and a demisexual MC. I seriously was in heaven.

Just a warning: The Happy List are not for those who are easily frustrated. It takes a VERY long time for the relationship parts of the story to get going. Sure, I sometimes hate it when we get two MCs who just won't SHARE their feelings, and it gets even worse when one is entirely clueless, but it honestly worked for me here. There was a lot of very sweet chemistry-building and a TON of sexual tension build-up, and I ate that up. I also think that moving from friendship to attraction was just such a paradigm-shift for Gray that he just didn't see it at first. Kai was infinitely patient or just too roped in to stop, but he had to suffer a lot before he saw his attraction being returned. Stick with the story and your patience will be rewarded, I promise.

Anyone who knows my reading tastes knows I love a story when a character is exploring their sexuality for the first time, and man, I was satisfied here. I love it when a character realizes their attractions and goes all in. Gray was confused at first, but once he figured himself out, he was raring to so (same, buddy, same). The book had the perfect amount of steam, and the sex scenes worked. I always like a book more when it doesn't lead with sex, and so it worked out for me here.

Add to the story a very sweet romance-y ended, and you got me hooked. My 2020 happy list has this book on it, that's for sure.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

This was such a sweet friends to lovers book. I adored Kai and Grey's friendship and they fit so well together. The step from friends to lovers was so natural even if Kai stressed out about it at first. I also enjoyed that Grey seemed to place the sexual attraction second and just accepted that being with Kai made him happy. Though he was surprised by being attracted to a guy he didn't struggle with it and it didn't seem to be an issue in their relationship. Overall a really great and fun read with nice steamy scenes.

I’m struggling to decide whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. I found it really slow at first and I found it hard getting to know the characters and who was who. I pushed through though because it seemed interesting and I was getting invested in the relationship between the two main characters (even if I was confused on whose POV the chapter was). After about half way I really started to enjoy the book, and the relationship between Kai and Gray.

This is my third book by this author and it brought me back to Project Hero with how much I enjoyed it. A fun, easy, little to no angst read with best friends to lovers. It was filled with humor and banter and I loved both Gray and Kai along with the side characters.

Gray and Kai have been best friends since forever. Kai is carefree and Gray likes order and lists. After the end of his relationship, Gray discovers that his life has been all work and no play and he makes a list to change that. With Kai's help, Gray begins to loosen up and finds that maybe he's been living his life the way his brother wanted or had raised him to live. With a simple push and realization, Gray discovers that maybe his love/attraction for his best friend isn't so platonic and their relationship shifts. The problem is, Gray says he's having fun and Kai is starting to fall in love with him all over again.

I was completely invested and all in until about 70% of the story. Not because I didn't still love the characters and wanted to see them figure it out, but because once they started being MORE, there was something missing. Their shift happened quickly with the only thing straining being that Kai was worried he was just a phase and Gray was still slowly figuring out the new dynamics. They didn't talk about what it means or what it would look like for them and I guess there was just something that threw me off about it all. Was the sex hot? Absolutely. Did I kinda love that there was no big misunderstanding, but instead a cute little reveal, totally. It just felt a bit underwhelming in the end after such a great build up and I can't really say exactly why.

The other two things that didn't really play well with me was the lack of information surrounding both Kai and Gray's parents (which we get a bit of info with Gray, but nothing with Kai) and the epilogue that didn't really add much except a tiny glimpse into a good future. But it was still, again, underwhelming.

All in all, I enjoyed this story a lot with just a few mixed feelings toward the end. If you are looking for a fun, easy, sexy read that has best friends falling in love then this should definitely be added to your to read shelf.

4.5 stars

Gray is a corporate lawyer who always has a sensible plan for everything. Everything is organized, everything is responsible, everything is boring. Then his childhood best friend Kai moves back to town and moves in with Gray. Kai has had a crush on his best friend for years, but always kept it under control. Until Gray started questioning his life...

You guys, I loved this book! It was FULL of angst. I am a grown ass woman, but I love me some angsty romance! Their banter back-and-forth was great. And the sex scenes are hot as hell! This is not a tame m/m romance, so be warned.

This was my first book from this author, and it won’t be my last. Thank you to NetGalley & BooksGoSocial for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This really is a book full of happiness. Everytime you think that the story is going to use a normal trope, the direction of the book just changes completely because it simply doesn't have the time for stupid unnecessary bullsh*t.

I loved this story and look forward to more in this series. It was very well written from two different prespectives so the reader could understand both points of view which often doesn't work and ends up giving mixed messages. What impressed me most was how well Briar depicted the fluidy of sexuality and how unimportant labels are when it comes to what people feel, like and are. I hope that this story becomes the success it deserves to be.

This was sweet and I gobbled it up in one sitting. I think Gray is probably on both the demisexual and demiromantic spectrums, and I absolutely loved that approach to the friends to lovers trope, which is already one of my all-time favorites.

I also loved the whole idea of the Happy List, what prompts it and how it manifests in Gray's life. I didn't like this quite as much as Project Hero, but Prescott has a knack for making her characters and their motivations feel true to life, even when they're in the middle of the tropiest of romances. (The heat rating's also significantly lower than PH, just FYI :)

There is a lingering sub-trope used here that's one of my least favorites, so that dinged my enjoyment just a little, but I don't think it was enough to affect my rating.

The Happy List is such a cute and heart-warming m/m romance story about falling in love with your best friend and about awakenings; to realize that things you’d taken for granted in your life might not be what you actually need or want, and about being brave enough to risk losing it all for love and happiness.

Gray is the responsible, somewhat repressed, lawyer who’s always done what’s expected of him, even though he’s not very happy neither with his career nor his girlfriend. He’s never really done anything crazy or unplanned. Not until he turns his girlfriend’s proposal down and start realizing that his best friend Kai might be more to him than just a friend. Why else would seeing him with another guy feel like being stabbed in the heart?
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Kai om the other hand has been in love with Gray since they were teenagers, but has finally gotten over it and won’t do anything to jeopardize their friendship. But that’s getting harder and harder to pull off when Gray’s looking at him in a new way…

I loved Briar Prescott’s writing style and the wonderful dynamic between Gray and Kai (even as friends). I loved their banter and the humor, and not to mention the chemistry… It was absolutely sizzling! There were also some really great character developments. I loved the way Gray realized he was not happy at his work, and how he’d never had any real feelings for anyone but Kai. His character development from repressed and stuck in a job he doesn’t like just because it’s what his brother expects of him, to a person who is willing to take risks and put his heart on the line was amazing, and his mix of demisexual and bisexual awakening was so well and realistically executed.

I read this book in one sitting, it was so addictive and I rooted so much for the characters that I just couldn’t bear to put it down until the very end! There isn’t much angst in this book though. No unnecessary drama just for the sake of it, which I really appreciated. Falling in love with your best friend and trying to navigate the way through a new relationship is overwhelming enough.
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All in all, The Happy List is a fast-paced, light, funny and sweet friends-to-lovers tale that will make you smile and warm your heart! I truly recommend it and can’t wait for the second book in the series!

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook review copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 fluffy feel-good stars, rounding up to 5