Spotlight & Giveaway: We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Cat Sebastian to HJ!

Hi Cat and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, We Could Be So Good!

 
Hi! Thanks so much for having me.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

We Could Be So Good is about people who find a way to be happy and cozy despite the world around them being a scary trashfire. It’s a 1950s workplace romance between a somewhat hardboiled reporter and the newspaper owner’s scatterbrained son; they become best friends almost immediately, then things get complicated when they become roommates.

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Before Andy realizes that he’s in love with Nick, he thinks about how spending time with Nick and making him happy makes him feel “like something lovely is about to happen.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Nick is from a big Italian-American family and he has a lot of feelings about whether he actually belongs to his family anymore. He processes these feelings mainly by cooking for the people he loves (he will make lasagna for his entire building rather than express one single solitary emotion) so there are several cameos from dishes I grew up with and things I still make: egg lemon soup, minestrone, enormous jars of tomato sauce that your mother insists you take home with you on the subway so you don’t starve to death.
• Researching this book was very different than researching books that take place hundreds of years ago. First, whenever I was confused about something basic, I could just ask my parents. Second, there are very detailed maps, television listings,restaurant menus, etc., all easily accessible on the internet. I had a 1959 subway map open in a browser tab at all times.

What first attracts your characters to one another?

Andy likes how competent Nick is. He’s a bit of a mess professionally and personally at the beginning of the book, and Nick steps in to look after him and is just really good at it. Nick likes how–nice is a boring word, but honestly it’s accurate–Andy is. Nick’s had a shortage of kind people in his life. They just genuinely enjoy one another.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

One of my favorite lines from the book is when Andy characterizes Nick as “the kind of person who reads a magazine from front to back and then throws it away. It’s amazing what some people are capable of.” It’s a throwaway line, but it made me laugh when I wrote it and it keeps making me laugh when I think about it.

Readers should read this book….

If they want something warm and cozy and with a lot of pining!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m finishing up revisions for another book set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good! It involves a minor character in WCBSG.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 Finished copies of WE COULD BE SO GOOD by Cat Sebastian (publisher to fulfill) US only

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Excerpt from We Could Be So Good:

They stand on opposite sides of the bed, sorting the wrinkled heap of clothes. Nick passes Andy a sock that definitely isn’t Nick’s. Andy passes Nick an undershirt. This is the opposite of seduction. If Nick quits the Chronicle and instead devotes his life to seeking out the least seductive activity, he’ll never find anything worse than folding laundry.
Not that Andy is folding anything. He’s just gathering everything under his arm in a ball.
“You aren’t going to fold that?”
“Definitely wasn’t planning on it.”
“The ladies at the laundry place always fold it.”
Andy raises an eyebrow. “The ladies at the laundry place aren’t here to judge me.”
“What are you going to do, shove it all in a drawer?”
“Got it in one.”
“Barbarian.”
“Set yourself free, Nicky. You don’t need to fold your underpants.”
Nick’s face heats. Like a goddamn twelve-year-old, he’s blushing because a boy mentioned his underpants. “I don’t fold my underpants,” he grumbles.
“No, the ladies at the laundry place do.”
Andy crosses to Nick’s side, dumping his crumpled ball of laundry onto the bed. Nick can’t bring himself to look at him, but out of the corner of his eye he sees Andy lift a hand, and then he feels Andy touch his shoulder before skimming his palm down Nick’s sleeve and taking Nick’s hand.
“C’mere,” he says, tugging Nick to face him. “You’re so nervous.”
“Am not.”
“You could at least look at me.”
Nick does. He flicks a glance at Andy and sees that his cheeks are a bit pink and that he’s biting his lip. “I can’t,” Nick says. “I literally cannot look at you.” He has the urge to close his eyes to hide from whatever is making his heart thud stupidly in his chest.
With his free hand, Andy touches Nick’s face, gently nudging him so he has to turn his head. “I’ve been wanting to do this.” His voice is little more than a whisper.
“Do what?” Nick asks, as if the answer isn’t obvious.
Nick can’t understand why he’s so overwhelmed. He isn’t new at this. Not by a long shot. He isn’t even new to Andy touching him.
“You look like you expect me to pull out a switchblade at any moment,” Andy says.
“Sorry.”
“Are you sure you’ve done this before?” Andy teases.
“Not this.” Nick swallows. “Nothing like this.”
Andy frowns and looks at him carefully. A little too carefully. Nick is being too serious and he’s ruining the mood. If there even is a mood, which Nick doubts.
“If I hug you, are you going to pass out?”
Nick brings a hand up to cover his eyes. “You’re the worst.”
“It’s against all the rules for you to be the worried one, Nick. Come here.” Andy steps closer and puts his arms around Nick’s neck. Nick lets his hands settle on Andy’s back, their chests flush together. He breathes in the unfamiliar scent of Andy’s hair. He must have used different shampoo at the hotel. Nick wants to put him in the shower and scrub him down, and just the thought of that scenario is more than his mind can handle.
“Sorry,” Nick says.
“Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up.” Andy turns his head, pressing his face into Nick’s neck, and Nick can feel his breath, warm on his skin. “I want this. Do you?”
“Jesus Christ.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes.”
“You always smell so good.” As Andy speaks, his lips brush against Nick’s throat, and Nick wants to groan. Andy’s mouth is moving now, up and over, toward Nick’s mouth.
When he finally slides his lips over Nick’s, Nick involuntarily grips Andy’s shirt.
“Hi, Nick,” Andy says, and Nick can feel the smile against his mouth.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life—he’s never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he’ll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can’t deny. But what feels possible in secret—this fragile, tender thing between them—seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they’re willing to fight.
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Meet the Author:

Cat Sebastian writes queer historical romance. Cat’s books have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. Before writing, Cat was a lawyer and a teacher and did a variety of other jobs she liked much less than she enjoys writing happy endings for queer people. She was born in New Jersey and lived in New York and Arizona before settling down in a swampy part of south. When she isn’t writing, she’s probably reading, having one-sided conversations with her dog, or doing the crossword puzzle.
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