Book Talk Review; By The Way, I Love You

Such a cute love story

Evan Ruiz is a straight college student hiding a life-changing secret: against all odds, he has fallen desperately in love with his gay roommate and best friend, Tom. 

Evan has only ever dated women, but Tom stumbled into his life with everything he ever wanted in a partner: he is sweet, caring, and beautiful like an Old Master’s painting. After a period of denial and confusion, Evan finally accepts an unexpected reality: he is in love with his best friend, and cannot run anymore. But how can he tell Tom in a way that won’t complicate their friendship beyond repair? 

That’s when he hatches a plan that backfires spectacularly.

Desperate for advice, Evan writes an anonymous love confession and plea for help on Reddit that starts getting shared – and then goes viral. Since the piece holds more than enough identifying characteristics to reveal the truth, Evan knows he must either confess his love to Tom or risk him finding out via social media, which could ruin everything.

Backed against a wall, Evan decides that when Tom returns from his family’s annual holiday trip on New Year’s Eve, he will sit down and profess his love and tell his story, starting from the first day onward. And as the clock strikes closer to midnight, Evan learns Tom is hiding a secret of his own, too…

But will their New Year’s Eve be remembered as a messy goodbye, or a sparkly new beginning?

* 

I read another Seth King book and I am completely in love. Yes, that isn’t a surprise to anyone, but this is different. By The Way, I Love You is a cute, feel-good book that I fell in love with before I even read it. I loved the premise. I’m a sucker for best friends to lovers. By the time I was finished with the introduction I was head over heels for this book.

Evan writes an anonymous post that ends up going viral. All he wants is to open himself up to the fact that he’s in love with his best friend and roommate, and get some advice on what he should do and it takes off from there. Now he’s faced with the issue that Tom might find out about his feelings online. Even though the post was anonymous he included enough facts about them that Tom would be able to figure it out. Poor Evan. Even though he wanted to tell Tom he didn’t want to tell him like that.

When Evan and Tom try to figure out where they stand now that the truth’s out I have to admire the way Seth King writes GFY and bisexuality. I hate the term GFY (Gay For You), to me it’s a box that tries to reduce the feelings a character has for another. Just because a person may not have found other people attractive until this one person doesn’t mean they’re suddenly gay or bi. Sexuality is fluid and ever-changing and all it takes is one person to change the way you see yourself. This isn’t a one-time thing for Seth. When he wrote Straight, he opened the opportunity for people to ask questions about their sexuality. The journey Henry goes on isn’t all that different than Evan’s. Even though they’re two very different people they find themselves in similar situations—falling in love with a man even though they’re “straight”. While Henry and Ty have a lot of hoops to jump through to get their HFN (I have strong opinions about the ending of Stright-ish. I need more), we don’t see Evan and Tom go through that. Instead, we get to see two people who are in love and who are given the opportunity to figure it out. And it’s perfect. Seth King has opened a world in which people are exploring who they are and what they like and showing his readers that it’s perfectly okay to be who they are and it’s okay to love who they love. I hope he continues that because this world needs it.

While this is technically a novella, it is still a complete love story. It’s low angst, it didn’t make me cry (who is shocked?), it’s about two people who find that person who loves them. Tom is worried that Evan won’t be able to love him for who he is. Evan is worried about loving Tom the way he deserves, especially when he’s being opened to a whole new world. I saw their friendship peek out as they talked about their feelings. The ease they had together, the way they were in tune with another. It’s everything a person could hope for when finding love. I’m the least romantic person ever, but it kind of made me envious.

Cute, low angst doesn’t sound like a Seth King book, does it? But I can assure you that it is. It has his flowy, poetic writing and it burrowed into my heart from the first page. Best friends to lovers, newly discovered bisexuality, and love. Read it if you’re looking for something to make you feel all the good things.

*Quote-

“To be loved is great, sure—but to be understood, to be seen—that’s the most profound thing of all.”

“The things we regret are the things that stay alive in us.”

“Love is never a choice.”

“If you trust love, trust it all the way.”

-Abri