This story was a bit of an exercise in frustration, but not in an entirely bad way.

Cabot and Lloyd met and became inseparable at eleven years old, with Cabot coming out to Lloyd in his junior year of high school, and Lloyd not even batting an eye.

But there might have been a reason behind that easy acceptance, seeing as Lloyd is an MC in a *gay* romance and all. ;- )

Yeah, these two had cautiously flitted around one another for seventeen years, without ever divulging how they truly felt, but that all changed when Lloyd fell out a window and Cabot stepped up to help him recover.

Unlike Lloyd, getting dates had never been as easy for Cabot as, well, falling out a window, so when Lloyd's Ma and great aunt set him up on a blind date, he reluctantly agreed.

However, when that shit show, I mean "date", went south, Lloyd was there (and surprisingly possessive) to swoop in and save the day.

And duuuuude, let me tell you, it's been a few years since a side character has been so skeevy that made me want to take a hot shower. In Draino.

But sweet baby Jesus, Malcolm was that bitch to make it happen again. If he was based on a real person, I truly pity the author for ever having the misfortune to cross paths with such an unrepentant, entitled asshole.

The story went pretty much as I would've predicted from simply reading the blurb, without any real deviations from the expected, but I did find myself genuinely enjoying all of the side characters.

The reading voyeur in my was happy about all of the casual nudity and playful flirting between the boys, and enjoyed the limited amount of steam, once the story finally progressed to that point.

I don't really see this book curing cancer or reinventing the wheel, but I found it to be a good filler read, and would rate it around 3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Even with all the dark subjects brought up in this book, Cabot and Lloyd are just so cute together. And Cabot really is clueless as everyone can see Lloyd's affection from 10 miles away. They've been friends since they were 12, and Cabot can only interpret all of Lloyd's affectionate banter as part of being best bros. 

I loved all the side characters including Lloyd's mom and family, and their close relationship with Cabot. Part of the reason he doesn't want to tell Lloyd about his crush on him, is the chance of losing his second family.

I could see this story being fleshed out into full length, but the short length didn't lose anything. In fact, I'm glad it flashed forward in time and didn't dwell on the illness.