I read We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian this past week — a queer romance set in New York City in the late 1950s. It’s a book I picked up at The Ripped Bodice all-romance bookstore in Brooklyn. I’ve read a Cat Sebastian novel or two in the past and I wasn’t disappointed with this one.
The story is about two men in their twenties working at one of the city’s biggest newspapers — one who worked his way into the reporting job after growing up in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood and the other the privileged son of the newspaper’s owner who’s reluctantly being groomed to take over.
They become unlikely friends, they become more than friends . . . but it’s the 50s so there’s secrecy and danger in loving who you want to love. But so much joy, too. And that’s the spirit of this book — queer community, leaning into the happiness you deserve, finding acceptance from places you don’t expect. It’s a romance, so there’s a happy ending.
God bless queer historical fiction with happy endings. One of the characters is actively hating on the published queer books of the era because they were not allowed to have happy endings in order to meet morality standards and get published at all.
One quote in that vein: “But Nick’s tired of dead queers. Nick’s tired of people like him having to suffer in order to provide the right kind of ending. He’s done his time with shame and doesn’t want any more of it.”
I’m glad I bought this novel. I see it as another future comfort reread. Would recommend.
With Love,
Natalie