I met Matt in second grade, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. We went to the same schools, studied at the same college. When we both got jobs in the same town, we shared an apartment. And when my life took an unexpected turn, Matt was there for me. Every milestone in my life, he was there to share it. And what’s really amazing? After all these years, we’re still the best of friends.
Which brings me to this fragile, heart-stopping moment: I want to tell him I love him, really love him, but I’m scared to death of what he’ll say. If I’ve got this all wrong, I’ll lose him—forever.
Comment: I read one or two positive reviews on this book and, despite this being friends-to-lovers, I felt like trying it anyway, hoping it would be a romantic story. It was cute and sweet but not the brilliancy I wanted to read.
David and Matt have been best friends since second grade. All their lives they have had the support of one another and their families and practically every move, both in their personal lives as well as in school has been in close proximity with the other one.
Now David is sharing all the great moments of their friendship and how that revealed to him something he wouldn't expect: that his best friend has always been the one, even when he never thought it would be so...
There is a reason why, to me, the trope of friends to lovers isn't the best out there: if the friends have been friends for so long, if they have shared so many special and key moments of their lives for a lifetime and if they trust the other person so much, how spontaneous can a sexual and intimate relationship be? How realistic can it be that two people shared so much and never had an inkling they could see each other as more than friends? Then, they do and it's... realistic?
I just can't see it.
Of course, it all depends on the author's ability to convince us, after all things like these must happen daily. However, I must say that while the story was cute and adorable, it was not romantic to me and certainly not convincing.
I'd say my biggest problem was about pace, followed by timing.
The story is told by David and it takes him around 80% of the book to give little installments, let's say so, of his life with Matt since they met in second grade. Throughout these memories of his, we get to see how close friends they are but I still think there could be more depth into everything. It's funny because David is telling us this story as part of NaNoWriMo so along each little scene he adds a note. This means we have glimpses of their past and a little "current" note by David explaining some word or feeling or something.
The fun part is that at some point his mother told him, as a writer he should show instead of tell.
I mean... I bet this story's style was not exactly the best effort to highlight this idea..
I think the story itself is cute, it's sweet we get to see the guys' relationship and their families move along through the years and such but they always behave as friends only. We can obviously see betweern the lines in one or two moments but they don't actively recognize nor admit and not even think about the other as something more than the best friend.
Close to the end, something major happens, David realizes he sees Matt as more than a friend (really?) and they admit they love each other. I mean, OK, this is expected but because so much is spent on them as just friends, this eureka moment comes out of nowhere, in my opinion.
It's just not....romantic, special. They go from one status to the next too smoothly, too easily. I could accept their familiarity and friendship helps but they never saw themselves as gay, nor in relation to one another, nor in relation to other people they dated (all women).
I can accept the friendship helping and the fact we can fall in love with the person, not the gender.
What is more difficult to see in a romance story is how so much is seen of one situation and everything regarding the other is so... rushed and made easy when (I assume) it couldn't be.
It was good to read this, the friendship is really the best part of the story but... as a romance, as a well paced and well timed plot that creates tension in the right moments, it failed for me.
I'll read something else by the author one day, to compare.
Grade: 6/10
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