It Had to be Him

I so enjoyed listening to It Had to be Him (September 2, 2025) by Adib Khorram that I am certain to purchase it in print to have it for my very own. It is that rare gem, a spicy M/M queer romance that is also fat-positive! I should have expected it from Khorram, whose Darius the Great is Not Okay, though YA, was similarly amazing.

As the book opens in Kansas City, Ramin Yazdani is out for dinner with his partner of several years, Todd, and he’s nervous because he’s about to propose. Devastatingly, Todd declines, telling Ramin that he doesn’t think their relationship is working — he thinks Ramin is boring. Ramin retreats to drown his sorrows with his best friends and ends up booking a trip to Milan, Italy in an effort to become not-boring Ramin.

Elsewhere in Kansas City, Noah Bartlett, coparent of Jake with his ex-wife Angela, finds out that she has decided to change her hard-charging lawyer lifestyle to take over her grandparents’ wine shop in Italy. She is offering for Noah to come along on a family trip so that she can start the process of moving and they can together figure out what’s best for seven year old Jake.

In the best meet-cute I’ve read in a while, Ramin and Noah recognize each other as former high school friends–both in a gelateria in Milan thousands of miles from home. Ramin doesn’t realize Noah figured out he is bi shortly after high school, though he clearly remembers his own crush on Noah, and how kind Noah was when the other jocks made crude racist jokes about Ramin being from Iran.

As Noah is instantly fascinated by Ramin, he remembers that fascination and realizes that it was really a crush. He loves how Ramin listens to and pays attention to Jake, and eventually realizes that Ramin doesn’t know he’s bisexual and that he needs to make the first move. Luckily, they get stuck in a hotel in only one bed so that’s not too difficult!

Will they ever get to be intimate without being interrupted by a knock on the door? Do they have something that will last beyond the magic of Italy? Will Jake stop being angry with his father for what seems like no reason?

Though I’m not into wine, I loved listening to the descriptions of Italy and the food and drink. I loved how they took care of each other. I loved Khorram’s acknowledgement of Ramin’s body dysmorphia (not that he had it, but making dealing with it a part of the story) that Ramin had been in therapy, and how Ramin got through it. I loved that Noah explicitly loved Ramin’s body and acknowledged that his ex-wife, Angela, was a fat woman who was also very driven and who Noah had been extremely attracted to. I loved that Noah had also been in therapy and Khorram acknowledged how he continued to deal with his chosen estrangement from his own parents because of their close-mindedness and hatefulness. There were so many important themes in this book, and the spicy scenes were <chef’s kiss>!!