Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: Once Upon a You and Me
• Author: Timothy Janovsky
• Publisher: Afterglow Books by Harlequin
• Release Date: 4/29/25
• Genre: Romance
• Age Range: Adult
• Rating: ★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: Charming fairy tale meets spicy bedtime story in this deliciously enchanting age-gap LGBTQIA+ romance. When Taylor Frost’s boss, Amy, flies him across the country to prep for her daughter’s sweet sixteen at the Storybook Endings Resort in the Catskills, the solo mission is well within his wheelhouse. Taylor is excellent at his job—except, he’s probably not supposed to flirt with the resort’s mountain man of a manager, Ethan Golding. Because the rugged older man is also the birthday girl’s father, aka Amy’s ex-husband. Oops. For Ethan, his divorce seemed like the bad ending to his romantic story. And now, making his daughter’s sweet sixteen dreams come true is the closest he’ll get to the kind of magic happiness in fairy tales. Until adorable Taylor has him wondering if maybe this is just the beginning of a more erotic kind of bedtime story…The only problem is Amy. And how very not okay she’d be with the chemistry between her assistant and her ex. If only forbidden flings ever led to happily-ever-afters…

A romance set in a fairy tale inspired resort? Count this Disney fan in. I’ve read all of Timothy Janovsky’s books, and I continue to be impressed with how he manages to make each of his stories unique while maintaining a distinctive style.

There is a neurodivergent character at the center of each of Janovsky’s books. Ethan is an adult who has been diagnosed with ADHD. He says, “Most people think ADHD is reserved for disruptive kids in middle school classrooms. Those people would be wrong.” He doesn’t feel like his ex-wife ever really understood what his diagnosis meant, and she does not take the reality of the way his brain works seriously. In contrast, when Ethan discusses this with Taylor, he says, “It’s amazing you’ve learned this about yourself, and that you’ve claimed peace with how things turned out.” Taylor validates Ethan’s experience, which is so important. Taylor also gives one of the best pieces of advice around mental health I’ve ever heard: “If you treat your brain like a villain, it’s going to act a villain. Treat it like the world’s coolest sidekick.”

I realized as I read Once Upon a You and Me that I haven’t really read many age gap romances at all. My concern is always that there would be an unbalanced power dynamic. While that exists to a small degree since Taylor works for Ethan’s ex-wife, their relationship doesn’t feel unbalanced. While Ethan is older than Taylor, it definitely still feels like Taylor holds his own in their relationship. Ethan is navigating what it means to be a divorced dad and how to relate to his daughter, and Taylor is able to help him with that. At the same time though, the reader can understand why Amy would feel weird about her assistant sleeping with her ex-husband.

While I did like Ethan and Taylor together, my favorite relationship in the book is between Taylor and Samara, Ethan’s daughter. While not necessarily in his job duties, Taylor goes above and beyond to love and support Samara. In addition to planning her birthday party, Taylor shares music recommendations with Samara and supports her dad in picking out a birthday gift for his daughter. Taylor knows how much Samara loves photography and helps Ethan pick out a vintage camera for her. He acknowleges that he spends more time with Samara than Ethan does, and he wants to help and support Samara’s relationship with her dad.

I’ve been reading more and more bisexual representation in romance novels lately, and I’ve been thrilled to see it. Early in the novel, Ethan describes some of the unique difficulties he’s found trying to date, “Dating in Upstate New York for a divorced, bisexual, single dad, who just turned forty us not sunshine and rainbows, storybooks, and sunsets. The past five years have been a montage of awkward conversations, shitty beers in shittier bars and slow head nods from guys named Kurt.” It is important for romances to feature all different kinds of people, and even more important to address issues like biphobia.

Once Upon a You and Me has Janovsky’s signature humor and charm. Several of his books have a magical element, and while this one does not, it does have a nice little dose of fairy tale whimsy. look forward to reading his next book, which is another Christmas romance (A Mannequin for Christmas). Janovsky’s holiday romances are so much fun, and I highly recommend you check them out if you haven’t yet.