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A review by indiekay
Wish Lists Lead to This by Kay Claire
5.0
I'm really excited to be putting this book out into the world soon! When I wrote All Roads Lead to This I jokingly said to my book friend something along the lines of, "I know a lot of authors get attached to their secondary characters, and I really hope that doesn't happen to me because I don't want to make a series".....That was foreshadowing, apparently.
Seb and Zea, Cedric's friends and housemates, have quite small parts in the first book (though Zea plays a bigger role), but I grew attached to them very quickly. At some point while writing ARLTT I thought up an idea for a story for Zea (which will be in third and final book in the series), and then I was thinking about Seb. Seb is shy and sweet and helpful - he gives Cedric a lift into work most days and makes lasagne the day they come home from their trip. He loves cats and keeps trying to convince the house to adopt a cat, but one of the other housemates is allergic so they can't.
The idea for this story came from the throw-away line in the first book: Seb wants a cat, Seb can't have a cat, what kind of situation would have to play out for Seb to get a cat? The idea for a romance about fostering kittens soon took form in my head, and then a sudden lightbulb flickered on in my head for his romantic pairing: JJ.
JJ has an even smaller, though significant role, in the first book, as Rueben's ex-fuck-buddy and a catalyst for how Rueben and Cedric end up getting together. We don't see a lot of JJ in the first book, but I thought the character had some potential, and I loved the opposites attract dynamic that Seb and JJ could potentially had: Seb is a nerd, and JJ is a jock; Seb is pretty feminine and JJ is really masculine; Seb's style is a pastel alternative aesthetic, while JJ mostly wears pretty straight-laced boring clothes.
This story takes place in 2022 and COVID-19 is part of their universe. In this book I wanted to bring in some of my own feelings I've had these past two years, in terms of the social anxiety and isolation I've dealt with. The snapshot we get of JJ in the first book is very surface level, because we only see him for a moment from Rueben's POV, and Rueben is pretty dismissive of him. But when JJ gets a chance to tell his own story he is a sweet, lonely, anxious man that is just trying to find his place in the world, and people to care about.
Seb also deals with his fare share of loneliness and mental-health in this story, too, and his friendship with Zea and Cedric play a huge role in this story - if you're a fan of found-family dynamics, these three have that in spades.
A lot of JJ and Seb's issues in this story parallel each other. And they get brought together through the strongest thing in the world: adorable kittens that need a home.
I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Seb and Zea, Cedric's friends and housemates, have quite small parts in the first book (though Zea plays a bigger role), but I grew attached to them very quickly. At some point while writing ARLTT I thought up an idea for a story for Zea (which will be in third and final book in the series), and then I was thinking about Seb. Seb is shy and sweet and helpful - he gives Cedric a lift into work most days and makes lasagne the day they come home from their trip. He loves cats and keeps trying to convince the house to adopt a cat, but one of the other housemates is allergic so they can't.
The idea for this story came from the throw-away line in the first book: Seb wants a cat, Seb can't have a cat, what kind of situation would have to play out for Seb to get a cat? The idea for a romance about fostering kittens soon took form in my head, and then a sudden lightbulb flickered on in my head for his romantic pairing: JJ.
JJ has an even smaller, though significant role, in the first book, as Rueben's ex-fuck-buddy and a catalyst for how Rueben and Cedric end up getting together. We don't see a lot of JJ in the first book, but I thought the character had some potential, and I loved the opposites attract dynamic that Seb and JJ could potentially had: Seb is a nerd, and JJ is a jock; Seb is pretty feminine and JJ is really masculine; Seb's style is a pastel alternative aesthetic, while JJ mostly wears pretty straight-laced boring clothes.
This story takes place in 2022 and COVID-19 is part of their universe. In this book I wanted to bring in some of my own feelings I've had these past two years, in terms of the social anxiety and isolation I've dealt with. The snapshot we get of JJ in the first book is very surface level, because we only see him for a moment from Rueben's POV, and Rueben is pretty dismissive of him. But when JJ gets a chance to tell his own story he is a sweet, lonely, anxious man that is just trying to find his place in the world, and people to care about.
Seb also deals with his fare share of loneliness and mental-health in this story, too, and his friendship with Zea and Cedric play a huge role in this story - if you're a fan of found-family dynamics, these three have that in spades.
A lot of JJ and Seb's issues in this story parallel each other. And they get brought together through the strongest thing in the world: adorable kittens that need a home.
I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.