This is the tale of gruff news reporter, Nick Russo, and Andy Fleming, heir to the newspaper that Nick writes for. Andy wants nothing to do with running a newspaper but he agrees to spend a year in the newsroom in the hopes that it’ll become apparent to his father that he’s unfit to run things on his own. What he doesn’t count on, though, is Nick Russo. Nick doesn’t know exactly why he befriends Andy but he just can’t seem to stop himself from rescuing the poor guy over and over again. The two quickly become inseparable and Nick begins harboring a crush he knows he can never act on. For one thing, Andy is straight and for another, with all the hostility toward gay men in the 1950s it would be impossible for them to have the type of relationship that Nick never wanted but suddenly longs for. When Andy lets on that he may have more than friendly feelings toward him, Nick’s got to decide if he’s going to let the fear he’s carried for so long continue to control his life or finally fight back and reach for the life he truly wants.
This book was so charming! Nick and Andy were just the cutest together, even as friends. Andy was pretty hopeless at running his own life, he’s the kind of person who’d lose their head if it wasn’t screwed on. But he was so charming and a genuinely nice guy, it’s no wonder that Nick befriends him and is always taking care of him. Heck, even I wanted to wrap sweet Andy up and protect him at all costs! The fact that Nick is usually so closed off made the things he did for Andy even sweeter. Their friendship was so lovely, even if things never turned romantic between them, I think I still would have enjoyed reading about their relationship. It just made me so happy.
If you like a slow burn, this book features a pretty epic one. I’m talking nearly 200 pages of pining and yearning, and not just from Nick’s side. My heart would hurt for Nick as he dealt with what he assumed was an unrequited love. He convinced himself he was mostly content to have Andy in his life however he could get him. But Andy was going through some self-discovery during this time and I thought it was adorable how timid and almost prudish he was when trying to convey to Nick that he wanted more than friendship. These two have some arguments and some misunderstandings but their friendship is so solid that I never worried that they wouldn’t work things out.
The main angst in this story stems from the world they live in where it wasn’t safe to be in a same-sex relationship. Nick had some pretty justifiable fears about bringing Andy into that world since Andy had the safe option of settling down with a woman and having a traditional family. So it was on Andy to convince Nick that what they found together was worth the risk. I knew that things had been like this back then but it still made me sad to read about people being arrested simply because they weren’t attracted to the “right” gender. I thought this book did a great job of balancing the challenges they faced with love and hopefulness. This was the first book I read from Cat Sebastian but I was thoroughly charmed and will definitely look into her other work!
The Book Boyfriend Addict 