American Fairytale

Very good book! I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but I did enjoy all the domestic moments, as well as the development of the relationship between Tom and Milo. They had a magnetic attraction and that came through very well. I liked the nods to fairy tales, such as Tom telling Milo, “te quiero comer,” and I'm sure I'll pick up more of those the next time I read or listen to it (which I'll definitely do).

Overall, it's kind of a reluctant Cinderella plot, but it addresses some of the problems inherent in that setup. Milo, in the Cinderella role, does not want Tom to sweep him off his feet, and that was an interesting conflict. Of course they do find a very fairy-tale-ish happy ending together. I've read a lot of versions of Cinderella since I started reading romance, and I've enjoyed them all.

The main thing I disliked: most of the important side characters in this book are female, and they all have to do a lot of emotional work for the main characters. After Tom and Milo have their big argument near the end, Tom's friend Priya gives him a very long lecture on how he had messed up his relationship with Milo. Tom has two other close friends who are men, but the burden to help Tom straighten out his life was on a woman. This is an extremely common trope in m/m, though, so it isn't really fair for me to complain about this book specifically. Still, that scene did annoy me.

This one seems a little preachier than the first book, in terms of social-justice issues, but that didn't bother me. These plots are about how real-world issues affect people's lives, and that seems reasonable to me. In fact, I like it, because I find it really easy to imagine the main characters as real people with believable problems.

I'm very excited to listen to book 3 now. This is the second romance series I've read of this kind, about a group of friends all finding love (Society of Gentlemen was the first), and I like the format a lot.