The Build-a-boyfriend Project by Mason Deaver

The Build-a-boyfriend Project

A Novel

Mason Deaver

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · August 5, 2025

Bestselling and award-winning author Mason Deaver’s adult romance debut follows a journalist in a dead-end job who agrees to teach his disastrous blind date how to be a better boyfriend.

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Who it’s for
A playful, polished romance with enough bite to keep the pages moving.
Genres
Transgender Romance, Fake-Dating Romance, Gay Fiction
Published
HarperCollins, August 5, 2025

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About this book

Bestselling and award-winning author Mason Deaver’s adult romance debut follows a journalist in a dead-end job who agrees to teach his disastrous blind date how to be a better boyfriend. Readers will delight in this sweet and steamy queer romance with trans representation! Eli Francis is stuck. Stuck in an assistant position at the online magazine Vent when he should be a writer. Stuck with a boss who dangles a promotion but would rather he just fetch the coffee.

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Stuck working alongside the ex who has had no trouble moving up at work…or moving on. When Eli’s roommates push him to date so he can get over his ex once and for all, they set him up with Peter Park. Tall, handsome, and unbelievably awkward. The date is a complete disaster, and further proof to Eli that love isn’t for him. But when his boss overhears Eli recounting the catastrophic night, he suggests teaching Peter to be a better boyfriend through a series of simulated dates so he can write an article about it. But Eli has other ideas…Eli plays along, pretending to write the article, while secretly interviewing Peter about growing up queer in the South and coming-of-age dating wise in adulthood. Eli hopes writing this sort of piece will finally get him the promotion he deserves. And in exchange, he will teach Peter how to be a better boyfriend. But the more time Eli spends with Peter, the closer they become, and the lines between what’s real and what’s fake begin to blur. Before long Eli is forced to face his greatest fears to become the writer he wants to be and secure the love he’s always needed.

Romance, With Spark

A playful, polished romance with enough bite to keep the pages moving.

Come here for

  • romantic comedy glow
  • easy-to-pick-up YA romance

Expect

  • light, queer-centered chemistry
  • daily-dip reading that stays nimble

Where it sits

Transgender Romance55%
Fake-Dating Romance32%
Gay Fiction25%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Gay Fiction
  • Contemporary Romance
  • Gay Romance
  • New Adult Romance
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • Romantic Comedy
  • Transgender Romance
  • Workplace Romance
  • Coming-of-Age
Authors
Mason Deaver
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
August 5, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Gay Fiction