Charlie Sunshine

More of a 3.5.

It's my favorite best friends to lovers trope combined with Lily's signature snark and banter, so I had a lot of fun reading this book. And Charlie's rants about the importance of libraries were perfect too. I guess I just don't feel that much of an attachment to this series as much as to the author's previous series which are my absolute favorites. It's still quite sweet and entertaining and I'll obviously be reading the next book too.

The book club scene was hilarious, but otherwise I found this book to be cute but monotonous. There were too many repetitive scenes in which the friends/family of the two MCs looked on knowingly or made cryptic comments about how they obviously belonged together while Charlie and Misha insisted they were just friends.

I've read accusations about cis het women who write M/M romances, claiming that they are just writing a traditional M/F romance with one of the men taking on the female role. I've always thought that was bunk, but with Morton's work I can kind of see the validity of the argument. Take Charlie - he's a librarian, he always tries to make people happy, he loves to talk, he is the bottom in the relationship. And Misha - playboy, high-powered financial analyst career, more taciturn, the top. I don't want to get too deep into what is a lighthearted romantic comedy, but at times it did feel like Charlie could have been Charlene without much of a stretch. That doesn't mean Lily Morton shouldn't write M/M books or that I can't enjoy them, but it does make me wonder how the two characters would have been written by a queer male author.

TL, dr: maybe this author and I aren't meant to be BFFs.