I see why this gets five stars from almost everyone.

These characters were so well-rounded and lovely. And yes, this mid-century New York M/M romance had some angsty moments—but then it kissed them all better. And it was just so freaking cozy.

Also, I’m so picky about third person present tense writing. And I feel like M/M is third person present tense on hard mode? (Can’t say “he” all the time so we get way more “Andy walks… Nick says… Andy is…”). But this writing was nailing it. I was impressed.

The only reason why this wasn’t a five star is because I’m a bad person 😆

Let me explain.

This book tied up all its loose ends. Which is great—if you’re the kind of reader who loves long epilogues and/or side character mini-stories and maybe is an Enneagram Six or Two and/or an Earth sign or a Cancer…

But that’s not me 😆 Blame my Air sign, that I’m an Enneagram 5, or I would take a long Author’s Note (with bibliography) over an epilogue any day of the week.

Every little part of this story was wrapped up and resolved. And though, rationally, I understand that this is excellent writing; irrationally, I was just thankful that the cat didn’t have kittens or something because that would have added at least 50 pages of finding them all loving homes.

Kudos to this book for making me care about all these loose ends as much as it did. But sometimes… I didn’t care much as much as I was meant to 😆