Member Reviews

Cat Sebastian has a way of writing the most cozy and sweet queer romances. I loved the 1950s setting.


I didn’t find myself too interested in their jobs or the other drama at work. I really loved the times when it was just them together which we do get a lot of!


The steam level is less than usual which I was surprised by.


Overall, I loved the relationship between Nick and Andy. There was a good amount of history weaved in the story and I always appreciate that.

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I loved this book! It’s only my second MM romance and I don’t typically read historical romance but this one was so adorable and sweet. Andy is the cutest with his scatterbrained self. Nick is grumpy but deep down he’s a softie too which was fun to discover. I loved reading about Nick’s thoughts of Andy from the very beginning and was immediately drawn in to their story. It was enlightening to read about being queer in the 1950’s and what all they had to face and take into consideration with their daily lives. But I loved seeing how strong these characters were despite what they faced and the found family they made along the way. Thank you for allowing me to read and review!

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I just *love* the feeling when you start a book, thinking you’re going to enjoy it, then having it absolutely EXCEED your expectations in every single way. That exciting, overwhelming adoration that settles into your bones with each page. This was my experience with WE COULD BE SO GOOD, the latest release by Cat Sebastian.

Labeled as a mid-century romdram, this story follows Nick, a newspaper reporter who befriends—and subsequently falls for—the newspaper mogul’s son Andy. As they explore their relationship to each other, the world they live in, and bravely embrace their futures, Cat takes us on an incredibly beautiful and satisfying journey that you don’t want to end. To be honest, these are simple words that seem inadequate for a story that I truly, truly loved so much.

Cat’s writing is masterclass and a seamless marriage of humor, heart, and thought-provoking significance. This story feels authentic, relevant, and important. The pacing and the buildup are expertly crafted. I wanted to live inside this story and alongside these characters, and I could hardly put the book down to eat or sleep.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD is the most tender and lovely friends-to-lovers slow-burn, with *delicious* tension — a solid five-star read that you’ll want to pick up again and again.

A huge thank you to Avon and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. WE COULD BE SO GOOD is out now! (Trust me, you need to get this book.)

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We Could Be So Good is SO GOOD. Cat Sebastian is 3/3 with 5 star reads for me. She has the most magical prose that makes you feel all the things.

I always struggle to write reviews when I really love a book and find myself struggling to write a deserving review for, We Could Be So Good. I could list all the tropes: workplace romance, friends to lovers and roommates. I could tell you how much I loved the setting of NYC in the 1950’s and the atmosphere created in Nick’s apartment building. But it wouldn’t come close to the way this book made me FEEL. Nick and Andy gave me all the butterflies and I endlessly adore them.

This book is cozy and soft, witty, and thoughtful, engaging, and tender. I am a puddle for a soft romance and this one is the softest.

Highlights
•Mutual secret pining
•Lots of blushing
•A Bi-awakening from collarbones
•Andy’s competency kink
•Nick’s “Gooey devotion”
•Found family
•Dual POV
•The revolutionary act of Queer Joy

Thank you so much to Avon Books for the early copy!

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Excellent, beautiful read. This stands out for me due to setting and voice.

The setting is late 1950s New York, when being queer is still against the law and the Red Scare is still happening. This was educational, though not didactic. Also lightly woven in was the passive (was it?) discrimination and prejudice against Italian Americans. What resonated about the setting was the way fear permeates Nick's life, and I drew a lot of parallels to the wave of anti-queer legislation flooding our country right now.

Nick and Andy are endearing characters, a classic grumpy-sunshine pairing. The novel is written in alternating third-person POV but in present tense, and that does a lot to help everything feel immediate, even if there isn't a ton of action propelling the plot.

Definitely recommend. I've had another of Cat Sebastian's books on my TBR for a couple of years, and I think it's time to move it to the top.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

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There is nothing in this book I could possibly criticize. Cat Sebastian proves once again that she's the master of queer romance, no matter the time period.
We meet Nick, a reporter for a failing newspaper, just as the owner's son, Andy, joins the ranks of the city beat reporters. Nick wants to dislike Andy, but there's something about him that he can't help but want to protect, so he takes him under his wing. They become fast friends and it quickly becomes obvious to Nick, a very rightly-so paranoid gay man, that he wants more from Andy. He's accepted that he'll only ever get to be in Andy's life as his best friend and has convinced himself he's happy with that. But when Andy's engagement falls apart and he moves in with Nick, both will have to face up to their feelings and what they want from life.
It's a beautiful exploration of emotions, expectations, injustices, and acceptance that puts the characters' inner lives at the forefront of the story. Their personalities are polar opposites, but they're both so perfect for each other that it's a delight to read about them finding strengths and abilities within themselves that they never thought they had.
There's also the low-key love letter to old New York that takes place every time the characters move around. From the fancy neighborhoods to the disappearing ones and the slowly gentrifying ones, it's the old charm of a New York slowly transforming and the small changes and things that are no longer around. You might have never visited New York, but you'll feel like you're walking the streets with Nick and Andy.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the wonderfully romantic and inspiring read!

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I don’t think any review I can write will do this book any sort of justice. It’s so fitting that ‘We Could Be So Good’ comes out at the beginning of pride month. I teared up multiple times reading this. As much as it was a romance, and a perfectly lovely one at that, it’s about queerness. Queerness in communities, families, friendships, work—all aspects of life. About hiding and pushing down who you are, about shame and fear. But also about acceptance, about discovery and love. How love is not only about the fights fought but about the peace deserved.

Cat Sebastian delivers every time, writing complex and layered characters for readers to love and frustrate over and cry for. My favorite parts of her writing are nearly always the side characters and community/family that is built up around our love interests. The happy endings always have a flair of realism to them, which makes them feel all the more deserved.

I wholeheartedly love this book. If you enjoyed Cat Sebastian’s The Cabot’s series, you’ll really enjoy this. If you haven’t checked out that series, read that next after this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I genuinely don’t think I’d change a single thing about this book. I loved Nick and Andy both separate and together and their chemistry was apparent from the very first encounter. The side character were interesting and added to the plot nicely. The romance was perfect and the time period/historical context only heightened it. My favorite Cat Sebastian novel yet!

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Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'd heard about Cat Sebastian's books, but this was my first time reading her work, and honestly, it will NOT be the last. This book pulled me out of a reading slump. It made my cry. It just might end up being my favorite book of the year. WOWEE, what a book.

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian follows Andy, a newspaper mogul's son, and Nick, a reporter at the paper Andy's father runs. They are such sweet, real characters, and I loved them individually and together. I loved the journey each character went on, and how they came to grow together. Ooooh, I just loved this so much. I can't WAIT to read more of Sebastian's work.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for the ARC of this!

I am obsessed with Cat Sebastian’s books, and this one was no exception. I absolutely loved the characters and their interactions. The two had great chemistry and I thought the misunderstandings were so well done. The POVs were easy to follow and keep separate, which I sometimes struggle with. I almost want to read it immediately over again. It felt like a warm hug of a read.

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Cat Sebastian is so good!!! I'm not sure if it was just me, but this book felt especially tender. The found/chosen family themes hit hard for me in We Could Be So Good, I think because of the time period the book is set in.

It's 1958. Nick is a rough-around-the-edges, Brooklyn-raised, Italian-American journalist who holds everyone at arm's length (he's sure that being gay means he will be alone forever in all the ways that matter, so why bother?). Andy is the son of a newspaper publisher and hotshot journalist (who died while in the field, which everyone tells Andy is the way she would have wanted to go). Andy is a mess - as lost in his own life as he is trying to navigate the subway after a life of taking cabs. From the moment they meet, Nick saving Andy from his own clumsiness, there's a connection between them. They quickly become inseparable, and Nick does his best to wall off any feelings that he has. But when Andy stays with Nick after some personal upheaval, Andy starts to realize that his feelings about Nick might be deeper than he was willing to admit.

I sometimes struggle with slow-burn romances because it doesn't actually feel like there's any burning *happening* - I feel like I'm just waiting and waiting for there to be a spark. But the slow burn of this book was perfect because the simmering heat was always there. The level of intimacy between Nick and Andy increases steadily so that by the time romance or a sexual relationship explicitly enters the scenario they're already so deeply tied together.
I think the alternating perspectives were used incredibly well to achieve this. Rather than switching from chapter to chapter, we spend an extended period of time with Nick before switching to Andy and so on. You really get to live in each of their heads and see their feelings develop.

We don't get to know the extended cast of characters super well, but there's enough that I could see why all of these people would be in each other's lives, and imagine how they might exist together in the future. I wish I could go to one of Nick & Andy's dinner parties!

Overall, adored this book and will probably re-read it in the future!

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I received this book at @apollycon with the welcome bag. I was so excited because I really wanted to read this one. I love queer books of any and all stories. This story is about two men who are colleagues at a newspaper in the 1950s. Being gay was not socially acceptable and the threat of being arrested was constantly present. Loved the love these two found from friendship to a broken engagement to living together. One was gay and the other was curious but really only gay for him. Loved the way they made it work after it felt impossible. Need more historical mm and LGBTQ books.

Thank you sourcebooks for the #gifted copy.

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Cat Sebastian has done it again. This tender strangers to friends to lovers is beautifully written. It’s hard to read at times, but overall a wonderful book.

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Nick Russo didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t help but fall hard for Andy Fleming. Andy is the son of a publishing tycoon who own the Chronicle. Andy is from a totally different world of wealth and privilege, and what’s more, he’s engaged to Emily, Nick’s friend. So he’s straight and totally off limits. But Andy is like an adorable puppy that won’t go away and needs constant rescuing so he doesn’t wander out into traffic.Someone has to look out for him in the dangerous world of news reporting.
They strike up an unlikely friendship that Nick is determined will not turn into anything more. Besides, he can have his feelings and no one else ever has to know about them. But when Emily breaks it off and Andy shows up heartbroken at Nick’s doorstep, he can’t help but let Andy in.
But what if Andy’s looks and casual closeness mean something more? Can either of them risk what it might mean if this wasn’t just a friendship?

I absolutely loved this story. I couldn’t put it down. Nick is such a damaged but wonderful person and Andy is adorable and sweet and surprisingly sarcastic and funny! He’s fully accepting of Nick’s sexuality, and I really enjoyed watching Andy’s train of thoughts as he explored his own feelings as he allowed himself to wonder what it would be like if he were queer.
There is some on page homophobia, violence, and remember it’s the late 50s, but there is a real feeling of queer community looking out for each other and creating their own families in the spaces they carve out. It didn’t feel bleak and depressing. Nick struggled, and it was handled well.
Their snarky banter back and forth was fantastic, Cat Sebastian has a gift for that kind of thing. I really liked seeing them both grow as individuals and as a couple. Highly recommend this one if you like determined reporters chasing the truth and falling in love with their adorkable friends.

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I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I was ridiculously excited about We Could Be So Good, because I’ve enjoyed Cat Sebastian’s pivot to more “modern” historicals lately. And while this book is set against the backdrop of the intensely homophobic 1950s, and there are “Certain Readers” who will say a time period like this “doesn’t hold potential for romance,” Cat Sebastian proves these naysayers wrong. She not only explores the more progressive/transgressive side to the 50s as far as queer culture, but also grounds it by imaging how these influences would impact her characters.
Nick and Andy are both wonderful characters, and a perfect execution of “opposites attract” an “grumpy/sunshine.” The two of them complement each other beautifully, and I love how they take care of each other. There are simple, little things, like making each other soup (!) that warmed my heart.
The pace is a bit slow at times, but I think Cat Sebastian masters the balance of a more “vibes-based” central romance against a sometimes turbulent time period. I am more than willing to sacrifice a “bit” of plot and pacing for the sake of a book that doesn’t revel in traumatizing queer characters, especially if you can make the impact of institutional homophobia clear without it, which Sebastian absolutely does.
This is an enjoyable read, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy queer romance and/or a historical romance set with a different time period beyond the standard Regency/Victorian.

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Cat Sebastian’s recent Regency historicals were a bit hit and miss for me, but I’ve really enjoyed the twentieth century historical romances she’s written lately, and now, this new standalone, We Could Be So Good, which is, well, just So. Very. Good. It’s set in New York in 1959, and charts the development of the romance between a hard-working reporter and the son of the owner of the newspaper he works for; the cross-class element is mostly in the background (although far from ignored) and centre stage is given to these two guys working out who they are, who they want to be and how to make that happen. The writing is absolutely beautiful; lyrical and insightful with lots of gentle humour and a wonderful eye for historical detail, and the story is extraordinary in its ordinariness - heartbreaking, uplifting and utterly delightful.

Born into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, Nick Russo has worked hard to carve out a path for himself and has become a reporter at the Chronicle, one of the biggest newspapers in the city. He enjoys his job and is very good at it; he’s sharp, smart and has a good way with words. He’s also gay, and fully expects to live alone for the rest of his life, because that’s the way it has to be. The world isn’t a friendly place to be for queer people - being found out still carries the threat of a prison sentence – and his sexual experiences have been fast, furtive and fraught with a constant fear of discovery. Nick has spent years hiding in plain sight, making sure that when people look at him, they see a guy in a suit who looks just like every other guy in a suit rather than an actual person.

The book opens with a prologue that is one of the best introductions to characters and situation I’ve ever read. Nick, looking for something in the “morgue” (where years of clippings are stored in a mass of filing cabinets) finds another man there, who has somehow managed to get his tie shut in one of the drawers of one of the cabinets and can’t get it open again. It’s Andy Fleming, the somewhat clueless son of the Chronicle’s publisher, and Nick knows he should resent him – he can’t type, he’s doing a job Nick wanted and has probably never had to work a day in his life – but somehow, he just can’t. Somehow, instead, he’s utterly smitten, and ends up taking Andy under his wing, inviting him out for drinks with the other reporters, letting him tag along when he goes out on stories, making sure he doesn’t lose his keys, and generally looking out for him. They’re your classic grumpy/sunshine pairing - grouchy, lonely Nick and scatterbrained, good-natured Andy – and over the course of the next few months, they become good and almost inseparable friends, so much so that other reporters start seeing them as a single unit - NickandAndy or RussoandFleming. That friendship endures, even after Andy starts dating Emily Warburton, a friend of Nick’s, no matter that watching Andy fall for her is one of the most painful experiences of his life.

As weeks turn into months, Andy proves himself to be a more than capable reporter and is now carrying his weight when they go out on a story. But Nick has always known their professional association is temporary because Andy’s dad wants Andy to start taking over the running of the paper, even though Andy is dreading the thought of being responsible for so many people and something so important. He’s well aware of his shortcomings – he’s absent-minded and lacks confidence – the impossibility of living up to his dad’s expectations and his mother’s ability to sniff out a story (she’s a Pulitzer winner), and worries about being entrusted with his father’s legacy. But… it is what it is. And when he realises that his father’s eagnerness to hand over the reins to him is the result of ill-health rather than a whim, Andy becomes determined to step up to the plate, even though he doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready.

It’s March 1959 when, after Emily calls off their wedding, Andy ends up moving in with Nick for a night or two… and never leaves. Nick can’t quite understand why a guy who could afford to live somewhere much nicer wants to stick around, but he can’t deny that he’s pleased to have Andy there. They can be friends and roommates and Nick won’t let his inconveinent feelings get in the way and screw things up between them. He’s become so accustomed to feeling as though he can never have the sort of life he really wants that he doesn’t recognise the signals Andy is sending his way and Andy, who is slowly working out that while he does like women, he likes men – specifically Nick – as well, isn’t sure how to go about making his interest known.

Thankfully, the author doesn’t leave them in this limbo of world-class pining and awkwardness for too long, and soon, Nick and Andy are falling into an easy and completely adorable domesticity neither thought they could ever have. Nick, who is kind of still waiting for the other shoe to drop, is surprised at the ease with which Andy has not only accepted that he’s queer, but seems able to accept this quiet life they’re building as their due, and they just naturally fall into the blank spaces in each other’s lives as if they were made to be there. The care and support they show each other is simply lovely – making soup when one of them is sick, cuddling on the sofa to watch TV, bringing home flowers kind-of-accidentally-but-not… it’s one of those stories where not much actually happens, but it doesn’t matter because the focus is solidly on the developing relationship between the two leads, their thoughts, their emotions, their dreams and their fears – and their unfolding domestic bliss is the highlight of the story.

Nick and Andy’s romance is at the heart of the book, but there’s also an emphasis on family – found and biological – who show Nick and Andy that they’re loved, no matter what. Nick comes from a big, traditionally-minded Italian family (who continually ask when he’s going to bring a girl home) and struggles with wanting them to know who he really is, and not wanting to risk being cast out, while Andy still feels the loss of his mother and has a distanced relationship with his father; their slow move towards a greater understanding of each other is another of my favourite parts of the book.

The 1950s setting is superbly depicted and I liked the nod to queer fiction (notably The Charioteer) and could almost feel Nick’s pleasure at finally discovering a novel featuring queer characters that didn’t end miserably! While being gay in the 1950s was still illegal, there obviously were people around who managed to make their relationships work, and the author strikes a good balance between showing the sadness and anger of those forced to hide who they were and who they loved and the joy and happiness of two people finding each other and working out how to make a life together.

There’s a sub-plot built around a story about corruption in the NYPD that Nick is working on and which he pursues despite knowing he could become a target of those plainclothes cops who entrap and arrest queer men. I admit that I’d expected this storyline to have been a bit more prominent, but in the end, keeping the focus firmly on Nick and Andy and having them realising that they would have to make certain compromises in order to be together made the most sense.

We Could Be So Good is an absolute treat of a read, and possibly my favourite book by this author. Pick it up and be prepared to fall for Nick and Andy as they fall for each other – I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Note: The publisher’s blurb for this book has to be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Comparing books to other books is a common marketing device, but making comparisons that make NO SENSE WHATSOEVER is only going to piss off your audience. The first blurb released described We Should Be So Good as “Colleen Hoover meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this mid-century romdram” “Colleen Hoover“ has since been replaced with “Casey McQuiston”, but it still makes no sense – McQuiston and Sebastian both write queer romances, but any similarity ends there.  As for the Evelyn Hugo reference... no idea.  And don’t get me started on “rom-dram”.

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Sometimes loving a book as much as I love "We Could Be So Good" feels like an emotional disorder. Like it’s a burden to carry this much joy around in my brain and not know what to do with it. Cat Sebastian does everything right with this story, from not making things unrealistically tidy to tidying things up for her characters in a way that defies the attitudes of the time and delivers their future together in perfect pitch.

Nick Russo and Andy Fleming are absolutely mush-brained for each other, only Andy doesn’t know it right away. Andy’s engaged to be married to a lovely woman, who’s still lovely even though she breaks off their engagement to be with another man. Andy is a little bit sad about the loss of the future he had mapped out in his head—wife, kids, etc.—but Nick is right there for him because Nick is /always/ right there for Andy, every day and in every way. Their friendship is peak goals, really, their affection for each other gooey and oozing off the page like some kind of chocolate lava fountain of sweet devotion. Seriously, they connect in all the right ways and for all the right reasons, so kudos to the author for knowing and loving these characters so earnestly. I couldn’t have adored them more.

Set against a New York City backdrop in the late 1950s, the newspaper business takes center stage. If video killed the radio star, it didn’t do print news any favors either. The Chronicle is seeing a decline in its readership in the early days of television anchormen delivering the day’s headlines into people’s living rooms, and Andy being expected to take over at the helm of the family empire, such as it is, is leaving him somewhat paralyzed with fear of failing catastrophically. Cat Sebastian took such beautiful care with the tone and the setting of this story that it played like a background character as Nick, Andy, and the people they would eventually invite into their lives as friends and confidantes stroll through its pages.

"We Could Be So Good" is a story about wanting to live out loud when society demands you be silent. It’s a story about wanting to find your light when society demands you remain in the shadows. Nick grapples so hard with who he is that he’s determined to be alone forever even as Andy burrows under Nick’s doubts and fears and cuddles up against his need and longing to be Andy’s someone special. Andy has some fragile places too, which Nick shores up simply by being Nick. He shows his affection with food, and it’s a language that’s unmistakable.

This book is as heart-melting and soul-stirring as it could possibly be. A happy ending for two men, one of whom was certain he would never have one.

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The way Cat Sebastian does queer historical romance is unparalleled. No matter the decade, no matter the setting, the vibes will always be on point, and she'll have me screaming into my pillow out of love/excitement/frustration/feels I just can't contain inside. Basically, I have loved everything I've read from her and so when I say We Could Be So Good is quite possibly my favourite thing she's ever written, you'll have a sense of how much I loved it!

WCBSG is set in NYC in the 1950s where Nick and Andy are reporters working at a newspaper. Andy's the boss's son and based on that alone, Nick is determined to hate him. That lasts all of 10 mins until he notices Andy's freckles and Nick begrudgingly decides that okay, maybe Andy isn't the worst person in the world, and they instead become fast friends. My fave trope is idiots-to-lovers and lucky for me, both Nick and Andy are oblivious idiots when it comes to each other, in the BEST way. The way that makes you want to crawl into the book and shove their faces together and go "now kiss" at them, self-worth and abandonment issues be damned! They're the best kind of grumpy/sunshine, strangers-to-friends-to-lovers, and I'm already so excited to reread the book because I miss them as if they were my actual friends.

As queer men in the 1950s, Nick and Andy's identities and relationship are direct dangers to themselves if anyone were to find out, and period typical homophobia, as well as internalized homophobia play big roles in the book. This, contrasted with the overwhelming love the guys have for each other, and the oppression of queer people and culture, feels achingly sad and infuriating. It doesn't make the book itself sad though as there's often a wonderful sense of hope and love woven throughout their struggles. However, it does show how Nick and Andy, as well as other queer people at the time, had to fight for and seek alternative solutions to find and keep the love they so deserve.

Like all of Cat Sebastian's books, We Could Be So Good has a nice sense of "eat the rich" and a focus on class differences and inequalities, and this one also has a great ACAB storyline. The writing is funny, sharp, and wonderful to read, and the characters are complex and nuanced.

In conclusion: I would die for Nick and Andy. Read this is you like historical romance, idiots-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine, found family, soup, and/or Stucky.

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Cat Sebastian has a way of drawing me into period romances in a way no other author has been able to do. This reads like the typical Cat book, angsty and heartwarming at the same time. Andy and Nick’s progression from reluctant friends, to roommates, to romance was a natural progression that didn’t feel forced and made for a swoon worthily coupling. The main conflict being the era of 1950s gay stigma could have been a detriment to the progression of their story, but it served as a way of bringing the two together more intensely. I very much enjoyed all of the side characters, and all of the cute romance before we even get ti the two fully admitting their feelings for one another

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OMG, this book was absolute perfection.
Soft historic romance where both main characters are pinning for each other and do anything in their power to make the other person happy (it's the little details!). I am not someone that usually re-reads but I am seriously considering re=reading this book in the near future. I loved the setting (1950s New York vibe), both main characters and how their relationship slowly develops and all their mutual pinning.
Highly recommend!

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