• Having MCs who are closer to 40 
• The representation of Kansas City. Though I've never been, this book really felt like a love letter to the city and it became a character in so many ways
• The representation of Iranian food and culture. That is still not a culture seen in many contemporary romance books, so it's nice to have it here (especially the food, loved the descriptions)
• An M/M romcom written by a gay man
• The initial premise of mistaken identity with the food critic (and it coming full circle at the end), but that plot is ditched almost immediately, which is a bummer

• Although the characters were closer to 40, they (especially Farzan) read much younger. Maybe this is due to the author primarily writing YA up until this point and struggling with that departure/evolution, but they read like they hadn't lived lives up until that point (I'll be diving more into that in the Longed For section)
• The sex scenes. Listen, I am all for having realistic, awkward sex be on the page. That is incredible to me, and I love seeing non-perfect sex depicted. ..This is not this. This sex is weird, and inauthentic, and feels super phony. Why are they basically burping into each other's mouths? Why is one of their friends staring at them through the open window to the outside? Why are they unable to keep their hands off each other when there is so little chemistry on the page (again, more on that later)? 
• The Third Act Breakup. It's not a spoiler that it happens, it's very common in contemporary romance, but it is so silly. <spoiler> First of all, they shouldn't have started dating. Why we get like a quarter of the book of them in a relationship that added nothing to the plot except to instigate a third act breakup is beyond me. And then they break up because Farzan is being too childish? He over reacts because he was denied for a loan that already was a plot point that made no sense! Why did he want to expand in the first place?? He had barely decided that he wanted to run the restaurant to begin with! And then he's all eager beaver to expand and then becomes inconsolable when the loan doesn't go through. Is he trying to prove something? If he is, that is not nearly well enough explored on the page. And then he just gets bailed out in the end! </spoiler>
• Actually, the ending as well. It's not like it's anything egregious, it's just really uninteresting and boring when there were more interesting routes to take available. <spoiler> David obviously passes his sommelier course, because he had absolutely no character growth in that area and was perfect the whole time. So then he obviously doesn't take the job in LA (which omg the LA rep, I have to add that), which is fine. But there's a whole set up of Farzan not being able to manage the restaurant and wanting to be head chef instead - it would have been so much more interesting for their to be some sort of partnership between them, the restaurants, something. Their stories outside of their relationship were so siloed. Did Farzan's friends even meet David outside of kickball one time? Did Farzan meet David's friends from the bar outside of the flimsy plot of him not actually being the food critic? Exhausting. </spoiler>
• The pseudo-portrayal of Los Angeles was frustrating. Yes, there are obviously people who don't like this city, but this honestly felt like lazy jabs. And it wasn't even that David didn't want to move to LA. It was just poking fun at LA for the sake of an easy target

• Any real flaws for any character, especially the side characters. There was not thing wrong with anyone's friends. They were perfect gays with the perfect things to say at any time. Even David's friend from Chicago is like "oh we haven't spoken in forever but that's fine! I'm fine with being used and getting nothing in return L o L". Honestly, David really didn't have any flaws either, leading me to:
• There is no character growth for these men. <spoiler> Farzan gets bailed out at the end, David is a master sommelier, but they have not grown. They are still flat. </spoiler> We don't really get an arc, except maybe for Farzan with the restaurant and the loan. But even then, the restaurant stuff doesn't even come in until 30% of the way through the book!
• The pacing really left something to be desired. I kept thinking I was farther than I was and then getting bummed out that I was only where I was. It was sloggy. 
• CONFLICT. TENSION. There is nothing keeping these two men from dating besides their own miscommunication skills and they are too old for that. 

• I really and truly longed for more mature characters, especially with them being 37/38. And by this I mean that I really wanted a peek into the lives they had led before this book's start. We get that a little bit with David, learning about his job at JP Morgan and everything with Chicago, but with Farzan it feels like zilch. We don't know why he's a sub, we don't know why he wanted to be a teacher,  we don't know who he is. It's so annoying because his family could have been so interesting to see evolve as well. 
• This shouldn't have been a dual POV. David's POV was unnecessary, he would have been better if he was more enigmatic and aloof, as seen through Farzan's eyes and expectations. And, honestly, he was dull and poorly represented. 
• OH also, I really think it would have been interesting for there to have been more of a dive into the class dynamics of the restaurants, and the characters. That could have added a layer of tension and conflict that this book sorely lacked. 
• This is persnickety, but this cover needed to be more differentiated from this author's YA covers. I love this artist's work, and this is nothing on them because it is stunning, but it looks like it's in the same series as the Darius the Great books. Which are very clearly YA and this is very clearly not

This is one of those books where I'm like "Yes yes very cute" and I appreciate things like, oh, say, two adults in their thirties hooking up immediately and falling in love after...

But I think everyone was *too* nice. And *too* cute. And I know that is AWESOME for so many people. Sadly, I am incapable of simply enjoying things that are nice. I am like Emma Thompson in Love, Actually, who needs Joni Mitchell in order to feel. Except I need angsty fiction that wrenches one (1) emotion out of me. Or perhaps three (3).

That said, if you like wine (and I do like wine, and I loved the wine stuff in this) and a cute romcom moment, this will probs work for you more.