Cat Sebastian has a way with writing soft, slow romances amid mid-century America. If you love her Cabots series, this is in the same line (but does not crossover).

Both Andy and Nick are multi-dimensional and complicated characters that seem to fit well together despite being so different. However, behind the romance, America's violent oppression of sub-cultures in the 1950s is a major theme here, being a major tension for Nick, and mainly focused on the corruption and bias of the NYPD (as if anything has changed today).

While there isn't a huge amount of plot here, as this is very much a kind of day-in-the-life-of story that centers on the romance of these two men, it was a comfortable read that didn't make me wish for more action.

My main gripe is that time seemed to move way too slowly in this book. I'd always be surprised when a character would mention it had only been a week or a few weeks since Andy moved in. The style changes from part 1 to subsequent parts; part one takes place over almost an entire year but then that screeches to a halt and the rest of the book is over just a month or two despite everything that happens. I think this was a mistake by Sebastian as it went from them being friendly acquaintances and an unrequited infatuation (for Nick) that entire year to a full-blown love story and complete sexuality overhaul (for Andy) over just a few weeks.
Andy's sexual revelations should have taken longer since he didn't really think of Nick in a defined sexual way until he starts living in Nick's apartment and then very quickly decides he wants Nick to schtup him - despite being 25-years-a-straight.

Besides that, I loved this and always look forward to Sebastian's more contemporary historical romances and wish she'd stick with that instead of her less stellar Regency era attempts.