Title: New Adult (Boy Meets Boy #3)
Author: Timothy Janovsky
Release Date: August 15th, 2023
Standalone/Series: Part of a series, but can be read as standalone
Genre: Adult Fiction – Contemporary – Romance – Time Travel – LGBTQIA+
My rating in stars:
My rating in words:
ADORED IT!
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
Nolan Baker longs to be “thirty, flirty and thriving” in this charmingly quirky LGBTQIA+ romance that’s one part 13 Going on 30 and one part One Last Stop.
WHY CAN’T WE SKIP TO THE GOOD PART?
Twenty-three-year-old Nolan Baker wants it all by the time he’s thirty. Too bad he’s single, barely able to cover his own expenses, and still paying his dues at a prominent NYC comedy club. When faced with his perfect sister’s wedding, Nolan takes it as a wakeup call. It’s time to quit comedy and make good on his practical dreams—most importantly, asking Drew Techler, his best friend, to be his date.
But right as Nolan is about to give it all up, he’s asked to fill a last-minute spot for a famous comedian. Score! He crushes his set, but stands Drew up, misses his sister’s big day, and disappoints his entire family. After major blowouts with everyone he loves, Nolan desperately wishes on a set of gift “magical healing crystals” to skip to the good part of life. When he wakes the next morning, it’s seven years later, he’s a successful comedian, and he has everything he always thought he wanted. Everything, that is, except his friends and family, none of whom are taking his future self’s calls.
With nowhere else to turn, Nolan sets out to find the only person he trusts to help. Except Drew is all grown up now, too. He’s hot, successful…and hates Nolan’s guts. As Nolan works to get back to his younger self—and the life he so carelessly threw away—he’ll have to prove he’s not the man everyone thinks they know in order to regain Drew’s trust, friendship, and maybe, ultimately, his heart.
While part of a series, this book stands alone.
MY THOUGHTS (spoiler-free):
Note: I received an ARC from Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
New Adult was such a delight to read! This is the kind of story that owns my heart and has everything I could want from a book. I laughed, I cried, I swooned. It was light and funny and yet also touching on some tough issues, while always having that uplifting sense of hope throughout.
In summary, New Adult is ’13 Going On 30′ type of story, except the characters are a bit older (more like 23 Going On 30) and also gay. Our main character is comedian Nolan Baker. He’s struggling in his career and when he gets an opportunity for a massive breakthrough, he jumps on it. But to do that, he skipped out on his sister’s wedding, massively disappointing his entire family and best friend/crush. When they don’t understand his decision to prioritize his career over everything else, Nolan makes a wish and magically wakes up seven years into the future. In this future, he is super successful and has everything he ever wanted. Except his friends and family all ignore his calls, his best friend hates his guts and Nolan is not sure he likes the person he’s become in these past 7 years…
There was just so much to love about this book, so let’s wrap it up in a nice overview, shall we?
The cozy time travel romance plot
I’m a sucker for a nice and cozy time travel plotline, and New Adult delivered. It was just so much fun and I loved being along on the ride with Nolan as he’s trying to figure out what happened, how it happened, how he could travel back and whether or not he even wants to. The magic or science behind the time travel is all kept pretty vague: it’s all fun and light, mysterious and slightly creepy. Some people may want more of an explanation, but I personally liked the light air of mystery and magic and didn’t need more. The effect was cozy and I’m all for cozy!
Amazing character growth
While I wouldn’t call Nolan an unlikeable character in the beginning, he also wasn’t the most loveable either. He makes some questionable decisions and unthinkingly hurts the people around him. But throughout the story he goes on a journey of self-discovery as he figures out what (and who) really matters to him. And the further into the story we got, the more I grew to love Nolan. It was a wonderful character arc and I rooted for him so badly.
The sweetest cinnamon roll love interest
Let’s take a minute to talk about Drew. Because Drew is definitely up there among my top favorite fictional love interests. Drew has been Nolan’s best friend for years and since a few years, Nolan has also had a major, silent crush on Drew. Drew is a shy, demisexual, romance-reading bookworm who is loyal, caring and considerate and just the ultimate definition of a cinnamon roll. But when Nolan wakes up in the future he discovers that he also hurt Drew so badly that he now wants nothing to do with him. Can they reconnect and work together to get time back to the way it should be? I’ll let you read that for yourself, but just know I loved their journey together.
Family drama and love
As much as I love me some romance, there is more to this story too. Nolan’s family also plays a big part. They’re a messy family with issues and secrets and things left unspoken that shouldn’t be. The story starts with Nolan feeling like the black sheep of the family but again, the growth throughout the book is pretty amazing. There were so many moving moments here as Nolan works to repair his relationships with his family and I definitely shed a few tears.
Also, the story has a cute dog called Milkshake and a bookstore! I’m just saying…
Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend this story. It’s a funny, sweet and heartwarming time travel romance with a lot of family, friends and heartfelt emotions. I think it’s one I’ll be re-reading a lot.
Tell Me:
Have you read New Adult or will you be reading it?
I love love love time travel romances!! Thank you for putting this on my radar!
This was such a fun one – hope you’ll love it too if you decide to give it a try!
I’ve been seeing people post this on many lists recently but yours is the first review I’ve read and honestly, it sounds so good 😍 I need to get reading Janovsky’s books cos they always look/sound great, I just haven’t picked them up yet. Great review!
Thanks! This was my first Timothy Janovsky but I do have his other books on my Kindle already and I’m definitely diving in quickly now because I LOVED New Adult so much. Hope you’ll love this on as much as I did!
Not a big fan of the time travel troupe. Thanks for sharing.
That’s okay 🙂
Damn that seems such a winner!
It really was 🙂
I think I need to read this book. It sounds good! I just finished an ARC for Amy Lea’s upcoming YA book with a Thirteen Going on Thirty theme and it was good as well.
If you liked the Thirteen Going on Thirty theme, I think you could definitely also love this one! I’ll need to check out that Amy Lea book then too 🙂
I haven’t read this yet, but glad you loved it and even plan to re-read it 🙂
Thanks!