The real world skins you alive. It's a hazard of growing up in rural Suffolk... or possibly, it's a hazard of growing up. Either way, the Dorian Andrade and Isaiah Matalon who reunite at a party in Oxford have become equally disenchanted imitations of the boys who used to spend summers eating apples on the riverbank. A lot has changed in the six years since they saw each other. One thing is still the same: the longing for each other's company. But aren't the objects of our yearning so much easier to encounter in the imagination than when they're standing in front of us? GENRE: literary fiction, queer romance TROPES: second chance romance, friends to lovers, mutual pining COMP TITLES: A Little Life, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Call Me By Your Name, basically Wolfstar Muggle AU featured in Ambassador Reads featured in Ambassador Recommendations: Living Beyond Labels Dec 24 featured in Ambassadors: Slice of life featured in ContemporaryLit: Ambassadors' Picks featured in ContemporaryLit: LGBTQ+ Contemporary featured in ContemporaryLit: Literary Fiction featured in lgbtq: ManxMan (NA/Adult Fiction) featured in FreeTheLGBT: Diverse Literature featured in WattpadLitFic: Novels featured in WattpadMulticultural: September 2023 Reads of the Month