Considering how much I’ve already raved about After Hours at Dooryard Books and Star Shipped to anyone who would listen, it is really strange to just now be sitting down to write full reviews of each of the books to share with y’all. I’ve already talked about them in my April Wrap Up and my Tier Ranking post. I’ve raved about Simon on Discord and to Dani and probably to several other people I can’t even think of at the moment. But I’m really excited and grateful to be able to share these reviews with you thanks to the audiobook review copy of After Hours at Dooryard Books that I received thanks to the publisher and Netgalley and for the e-ARC of Star Shipped, though ultimately, I read this through the physical book I got from Aardvark and the audiobook I dipped in and out of via the library? Maybe? Spotify is also a possibility. Either way. Anyway, the final book I haven’t talked to anyone about because I just finished it: The House of Now and Then by Edward Underhill, which was my first book by the author! I’m excited to read more from him in the future. I had both an e and audio review copy, though I actually consumed this purely through the audiobook. It comes out on Tuesday, so that’s exciting! Now, time to dive into the reviews.
After Hours at Dooryard Books
by Cat Sebastian
I love Cat Sebastian’s historicals set in random time periods in the 1900s. I just think she does such a fantastic job of bringing that era to life. For example, I missed an exit while I was driving listening to this book because I had to pause it and go to Spotify to play The Beetles (specifically “Blackbird”) because of a random mention in this book. I know that people feel like pop culture books date contemporary set novels out today, but reading this made me appreciate just how much music really does set a time and place in one’s mind. Or at least, makes a time and place come alive. I love that this book is set in a bookstore and like maybe two city blocks of NYC for the most part, with occasional visits to other places in NYC. I think that this book made the time of the Vietnam War come alive for me in a way that I am not sure that it ever has.
But more than that, I loved Patrick and Nathaniel and Susan and the baby. I love the teenagers who live in the building. I love… honestly, everything about this book. Like to the point that over a month later, I still don’t feel like I’m adequately prepared to describe to you why this book is so good and you need to read it. What I can tell you is this: Patrick has been running Dooryard Books for years when Mrs. Kaplan brings Nathaniel in and basically says to Patrick, “Nathaniel will be here for a month. He would like to be useful.” And Nathaniel refuses to leave the store for so long, but then Susan and the baby are there and then there’s a telegraph that Michael is gone and… This book is so good, y’all. Truly. The grief novel of it all will get me every dang time, but it’s really just about finding joy and being happy and happiness is hard sometimes. I just loved this.
The audiobook worked well for me. I really liked that it was dual narration and really enjoyed JJ Hawkins narration because he talks quite quickly. Joel Leslie’s narration felt on par for how his narration always is, which means you’ll either love it or hate it. I feel fairly neutral, honestly, but I loved the story so much that I didn’t even care. Also, Joel Leslie narrates Nathaniel and I think that was the right choice. JJ Hawkins narrating Patrick meant that his quickness fit well with Patrick’s character. Yeah, honestly, everything about this reading experience was great. I love this book so much.
Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian
I feel like it’s absolutely wild that after loving After Hours at Dooryard Books as much as I did, I then fell even more in love with Star Shipped, but I did. Simon is my everything. Like, not to be dramatic, but that man is so standoffish because he is so anxious all the time and also everything is so loud all the time and his OCD is annoying and his medications aren’t quite right and I would die for him. And then you have Charlie, this gorgeous, golden retriever of a man who went through such a shitty childhood, but he’s an adult now and he’s so GOOD and he doesn’t know why Simon doesn’t like him. But somehow the two of them are on a road trip and they’re pretending to be friends and it’s weird, but it’s good and they both care about one another, but they’re taking the most tentative of steps forward. And I just… everything about this book is perfection. I still can’t tell you about the book beyond a ramble, because I truly love this book so much that there are no words that can do it justice. So… That’s what I have to say. Read this book. Read both of these books actually. And then come yell at me about how wonderful they are because I really feel like they’re going to stay with me forever. Okay, thank you so much.
The House of Now and Then
by Edward Underhill
Let’s set expectations for this book because I think that’s really important. This book is a contemporary fiction novel with a large dose of romance and you can stretch it to call it a romance, but I think for a lot of romance readers, knowing that this is more of a contemporary fiction novel might help them with their expectations. I think you would really like this one if you have enjoyed Ashley Poston’s books, probably especially The Seven Year Slip but I actually DNF’d that one so I can’t really speak to that specifically. The reason I say that though is that this cottage that Harlowe rented for the summer has a bit of a magical twist to it that essentially means that Harlowe has unwanted roommates he doesn’t know how to get rid of, but at least each one is confined to an individual space in the house. Harlowe is pretty fresh off of a break up and wanted to get away from Boston for the summer, which is how he winds up in this cottage near Providence, Rhode Island. He meets his landlady, a trans woman named Dina, and many of her friends, but most importantly, her nephew, Nathan. Throughout the course of the summer, theoretically Harlowe will take this time to figure out what he wants because he has sort of been floating through life it seems, in the wake of his academic advisor informing him that he has no future in academia and subsequent attempts to find his place in academia appear to have proven her right.
This book is very melancholic in tone, something that usually works for me so well. And I think, actually, that is the part of the book that I did like the best. I also loved the big cast of secondary characters. But, honestly, I don’t think this book was quite long enough for everything that Underhill was trying to accomplish. This novel has an element of grief to it, in a couple of different ways, actually, and it’s like we see Harlowe come to the realization that he’s really just been floating through life and doesn’t know what he wants, but we don’t see the work or the aftermath of that. It felt like a moment in time. Actually, there’s a line in this book that references how quickly August is slipping away and I think the main song for this book’s playlist should be “August” by Taylor Swift because truly this book is a moment in time. So maybe it’s okay that there’s no big magic moment where Harlowe becomes this wholly realized person who has transformed from someone floating through life to someone who knows exactly what they want because he’s put the work in for it, but I can’t help but have wanted to see that.
Nathan and Harlowe’s relationship though is really cute. I think it could have used a little more page time as well, but only by expanding the amount of pages in the book. I think, ultimately, that really is what I wish this book had: more pages. I just think that it was a bit too short to accomplish all of the things that Underhill did a fantastic job setting up. If this book had a direct sequel, I would be thrilled.
Anyway, I listened to this book on audio and I thought the audiobook was really well done, although I do think the tone of the audiobook narrator contributed to why I feel like this book has an overall melancholic tone. I would be interested to know if someone who read it purely with their eyeballs would feel the same way. Anyway, a good book, but I wanted more from it!
Closing Thoughts
I really want more books like After Hours at Dooryard Books to not only exist in the world, but also to be on my radar. So if you can think of more books that celebrate Queer Joy while being set in pockets of history where that was harder to come by, please let me know. I think it’s so cool to learn more history while reading. It’s always been one of my favorite things, but I feel like I’m just slowly starting to really let myself remember that. Anyway, I feel like Cat Sebastian’s historical set throughout the 1900s are really the only ones I’ve read that fit that bill.
Also, I would definitely recommend all three of these books. Please let me know if you have any recommendations based on any of the three! And if you have your own thoughts about whether you want to read them or you already did and have thoughts to share, I would love to hear!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 