#Peter Cabot Gets Lost

[kaleidemaran]

“i told you. i hate not knowing what i’m doing”

[poisindonottouch]

Queer reads: Cat Sebastian

Continuing my queer books you should read, for day 23, I bring you Cat Sebastian. 

Cat Sebastian writes historical romances, set in the 18th century, the 19th century, and the 20th century. I prefer her books set in the 20th century, by far. (I’ve read her other books, and I have a soft spot for The Queer Principals of Kit Webb, but I found the other ones... forgettable. Like, I read them all, and can’t remember the plots. So, uh, not my favorite.)

But these ones. These ones are excellent. 

The three Cabot books take place in the 1958 (I think?), 1960, and 1973 set in the US. They follow a person from the politically famous Cabot family (think the Kennedys), and three queer members who don’t quite fit into the family. Tommy Cabot Was Here and Peter Cabot Gets Lost are novellas that are more about the vibes than the plot, but I love everything about them. Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots is a longer novel, and is also heavy on the vibes, light on the plot. But they’re so sweet, and so soft, and the writing is so good. (also, A+ on the spicy scenes). 

We Could Be So Good takes place in New York in 1959, and shows slice of life in the queer world before Stonewall. The two main characters are Nick and Andy, and they’re idiots for each other. I love them so much. I read this book when it popped up on my kindle at 10 PM the day before it was released (thank you time zones) and stayed up till 3 AM reading it. 

The Page & Sommers books are set in the UK post WWII, and are murder mysteries. Agatha Christie, but make it gay, according to Cat Sebastian’s website. Aside from the murder, it’s also sweet and soft, and James and Leo are also idiots about each other. 

If you haven’t read any Cat Sebastian, or you’ve only read the regency books, check these out. They’re so good. 

[ishipallthings]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Cabots - Cat Sebastian Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Cabot/Caleb Murphy Characters: Peter Cabot, Caleb Murphy Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Moving In Together, Kissing, Dorks in Love, Missing Scene, Reminiscing, Post-Canon Summary:

Caleb opens his eyes, glancing over at Peter—there’s that smile, just for him. Caleb feels his shoulders loosen.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re moving into my apartment, sweetheart, so I definitely think that counts."

My Peter/Caleb fic (from the book Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian) for Marquise for this year’s Rare Male Slash Exchange!

[cartograffiti]

Campus Crush, I'm Yours

Fandom: The Cabots - Cat Sebastian, Peter Cabot Gets Lost Rated: E No archive warnings apply Word count: 1,207 - Featuring: Peter Cabot/Caleb Murphy - “What do you think it would have been like, if Ernie Walsh had introduced us when we were at Harvard?”

This was written for the Battleship Exchange 2024.

[aurorawest]

Reading update!

So as you'll see below I've read a lot of books since the last time I did one of these. I'm not going to write a little blurb for all of them, only the ones I feel strongly about. But I'm going to start including my ratings.

Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert. 4.25/5 stars

Where We Left Off by Roan Parrish. 5/5 stars

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian. 5/5 stars

This book was just. So lovely. Short and fast-paced, but I loved Peter and Caleb so much. I love the time period too. I know this is me being toxic and problematic and showing my internalized homophobia or whatever but I actually really like books set in places and time periods where homophobia is a real and present danger. I think it's because I'm totally a Love Conquers All romantic, so the fact that people dgaf and make a go of being together anyway scratches that itch.

Anyway, good book. I picked up the other two in the series but haven't read them yet.

Let's Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih. 4/5 stars

Literature. Good but pretty sad.

No Gods For Drowning by Hailey Piper. 3/5 stars

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas. DNF

I got 50 pages in before I gave into my hate and DNFed this.

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley. 5/5 stars

I find it genuinely upsetting that Natasha Pulley isn't a household name, because she writes the most beautiful, gutting books that I have maybe ever read. I don't understand how she's able to write what is, on the surface, a completely mundane sentence, and yet there's this roiling sea of heartbreak underneath it.

This is the sequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, easily one of the best books I've ever read, and this one is at least as good.

Natural Enemies by Roan Parrish. 4/5 stars

Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. 3.75/5 stars

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. 5/5 stars

Lovely little novella that read like a fairy tale.

The Prince's Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner. 4.25/5 stars

At first I despaired of ever learning who all the characters were in this book because the first like, 10 chapters were all from a different POV, but I got a handle on all of them and liked it a lot.

Spectred Isle by KJ Charles. 4.75/5 stars

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. DNF

This is the book that made me realize I hate whimsical books.

Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins. 4/5 stars

The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. 3/5 stars

I ranted about this one already but Jesus, Klune. This straight up reads like the kind of stuff I wrote when I was like, 14, and I don't mean that as a compliment to my 14 year old self.

Love, Hate & Clickbait by Liz Bowery. 5/5 stars

!!!!! This book was so good!!!! I picked it up way back when it came out but it only surfaced in the TBR pile in March, and it did not let me down. Thom and Clay are SO unlikable, but you start to like them in a way that's practically insidious because you don't see it coming. By the end, I was totally rooting for them and loved them both. And this is a romcom with a truly great villain, too, which definitely isn't standard in romances.

Red Skies Falling by Alex London. 5/5 stars

Second book in a series that revolves around a culture where falconry is hugely important. If you want fantasy that doesn't take place in fantasy England, check this series out. It has an A+ sibling relationship, a lovely romance, and high stakes. But this one was saaaaad ugh so sad.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer. 3.75/5 stars

I hated this book until about 80% through, and then it subverted all my expectations and I ended up liking it okay. I thought it was just about a pathetic middle aged gay white man (I know I know, that's my type, what's the problem?) feeling sorry for himself, but it was deeper than that. And it had a nice ending.

Invitation to the Blues by Roan Parrish. 4/5 stars

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 5/5 stars (reread)

Bought this edition for the bonus chapter from Henry's POV and for @vkelleyart's end pages. Totally worth it. I love this book just as much as I did the first time.

Threshold by Jordan L Hawk. 4.25/5 stars

So this is a series with like, 11 books? I read the first one and was kind of eh on it. Good enough to buy the second, not enough to buy all 11 or whatever. But the second one was substantially better, so now I've acquired like 5 more of them. I continue to be a sucker for late 19th century/early 20th century settings.

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. 4.5/5 stars

Is gay noir a thing? Because that's what I'm calling this book. Gay noir. I loved the main character and I'm really excited this is going to be a series (I've already preordered the second one). The only reason I knocked off half a star is because some of the side characters were irritating. And as a mystery, it wasn't great, so I wouldn't read this one if you're looking for a really good mystery. It's definitely more about the character development and the relationships.

Though possibly one reason I didn't think the mystery was that good is because it got spoiled for me on tumblr by someone who imo had a pretty shallow read on the book. Honestly not sure if they actually read it or they just skimmed it.

Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly. 5/5 stars

AHHH. THIS BOOK!! This book was so good. So I've been making fun of it for a while because if you look at the cover, it looks like a Stucky AU. And you know what, maybe it was, but at least it didn't read that way, lol. It was really lovely and I'll be using it as a comp for the manuscript I finished last week.

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley. 5/5 stars

I don't even have anything else to say except that you need to read Natasha Pulley's books. Please. If you're reading this post, go get her books. Buy them, take them out of the library, whatever. Do it.

Work for It by Talia Hibbert. 4.25/5 stars

A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files. 4.5/5 stars

Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles. 5/5 stars

Something happened in this book that made me close it and stare into the middle distance, then put it aside until I could process.

Anyway you should definitely read it.

Farview by Kim Fielding. 4/5 stars

Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen. 4.25/5 stars

Currently reading The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

Which I'm enjoying more than I thought I would!

[the-final-sentence]

'Come back with me for a swim and I'll make eggs,' Peter said, and hoped that Caleb could hear his own hidden meaning: always.

Cat Sebastian, from Peter Cabot Gets Lost

[kelliealtogether]

Goodness, Caleb. Your thirst is showing.

[shoukohime]

thank you sm! these are all books I've been meaning to check out, now I definitely will!

can anyone rec me queer novels with a best friends to lovers romance, please? romance only novels are fine same as mystery/crime/historical/sci fi etc with a romantic sub plot.

[voylitscope]

Catch up tag

Tagged for this one twice @thisonesatellite and @dharmasharks! Thank you so both much for the tag! 💞💖

Last song I listened to: Nightshift -- Smallpools.

Last thing I read: I've been doing this thing where, in addition to working through my TBR, I've been hunting down + reading fics from old fandoms that parts of have lived in my brain for years and years. A couple days ago, I found this fic that I was pretty sure had never made the LJ-to-AO3 transition, but I was wrong. So last night I read this fic for the first time since about 2008.

Last movie I watched: I went to a showing of His Girl Friday last week. I'm always a big fan of seeing classics/favorites in theaters.

Last TV show: I've actually been watching a lot of documentaries lately. Show-wise, so many things I'm interested in have an intimidating-feeling number of episodes. So many of the most recent things I've watched, or even rewatched, have been pretty short-watches. I've been hesitating on committing to watching something with a lot seasons/episodes, ha.

Last thing I googled: My pharmacy's hours, because I've been putting off running over there for, like, three days. Mostly because I've also had a fever for the past few days, so leaving my apartment has been a been a bad idea and also everything has felt like The Most Effort! But. Still.

Last thing I ate: A bagel.

Sweet, salty, or savory: Salty, usually.

Sleep: A nap would be nice, honestly.

Currently reading: I am currently in the middle of several things, but I'm most actively in the middle of Peter Cabot Gets Lost now that @booksandabeer has inspired me to prioritize finishing this trilogy of books.

I feel like I am very late on responding to this, and I don't know who has already been tagged. So I am open tagging it back it out to anyone who wants to do it/hasn't done it yet!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

April Monthly Recap:

This month, I was participating in Magical Readathon by BookRoast on Youtube, and I smashed it! I read 13 of the 14 class prompts, as well as 4 quest books, plus four that didn’t count for the readathon, bringing me up to a total of 21 books this month! Clearly life is calming down a little bit and I have more time to read than February/March. Unfortunately, despite my reading quantity, my quality wasn’t awesome - my average rating this month was 3.6, compared to my typical average rating of around 4. This was also my first month without a 5-star read this year. However, I did read and really enjoy Babel, Half a Soul, and Unnatural Magic.

Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian: 4.25/5

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams: 2/5

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske: 4.5/5

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater: 4.75/5

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher: 4.5/5

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian: 4.5/5

Babel by R. F. Kuang: 4.75/5

The Kraken’s Sacrifice by Katee Robert: 1.75/5

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: 2/5, dnf

The Bright Ages by David M. Perry & Matthew Gabriele: 3/5, dnf

An Embarrassment of Witches by Jenn Jordan & Sophie Goldstein: 2.5/5

Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking by Marianne Eloise: 2.5/5, dnf

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier: 4.5/5

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho: 3/5

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo: 4/5

Umbertouched by Livia Blackburne: 4/5

Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff: 2.5/5

The Councillor by E. J. Beaton: 4.25/5

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore: 4.25/5

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin: 4/5

Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner: 4.75/5

Goal progress below the cut:

23 in 2023: 10 [+3]

Read 100 books: 63 [+21]

Translated works: 1 [+0]

Physical TBR: 8 [+5]

Top of TBR: 3 [+1]

Books in Spanish: 0

Read 40% AOC: 22.2% [-4.0%] *BOY is this going in the wrong direction

Discworld books: 1 [+0]

Series: 9 started vs. 16 caught up on/finished [+6/+4]

Storygraph recs: 1 | avg. 3/5 [+0]

Indigenous authors: 1 [+0]

[pretensesoup]

Queer Fiction day 1/30

Okay, book reviews. Let's start with

(Yeah, some people make pretty photos of books. Not me though.)

Key quote: "...while your concern is admirable and this conversation, however much I hate to admit it, was probably a good idea, your worries are unfounded, and you are very dumb."

I got obsessed with Peter Cabot Gets Lost during the Summer of Bad (2022) and read it like 163 times. I know where all the typos are. It has very little plot beyond "two recent college grads drive cross-country and also have sex." Set in 1960, which is a few years before the '60s started to '60, but also a really interesting time in and of itself (Howl had already been published, Kennedy was about to be elected, people still wore hats and gloves and no one wore bell bottoms, cars were boat-sized but didn't have prominent tail fins yet). Here, Sebastian gives us a little taste of this in small diners and motel rooms across the US.

Cat Sebastian does a few things really well in all her books. Class consciousness is a big one, and that happens here as well. Also, there's really excellent consent in her sex scenes, which I love. The characters are on a real voyage of (self-)discovery here, and talk about what they like and don't like, as well as have feelings of joy and embarrassment and love and irritation about everything. Be warned, there is a lot of sex in it if that isn't your thing.

At some point, I started calling Dionysus in Wisconsin "Peter Cabot Gets Lost meets Widdershins." I don't think anyone but me has read all three, but the vibe is there a little bit? Someone please go out and read and get back to me.

Anyway, 10/10.

[kaleidemaran]

road trip romance <3

[xslytherclawx-writes]

hey i’m reading your ravenclaw au (love it so much so far!) and i was wondering if you had a list of older queer literature? because i’d like to start reading more of it!

thank you so much!!!

well, with the caveat of "what defines 'older'?"

first, there's the literature I've titled Ravenclaw AU after:

the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud (less overtly queer works-wise and a lot is meant to be as shockingly disturbing as possible but he did very much run away with Verlaine lol)

the works of Thomas Mann in general - Death in Venice is considered a classic (though I'd look up content warnings if you're sensitive to certain things), but I quoted Tonio Kröger which is a short story

Maurice by E.M. Forster

(Philippe Besson is a contemporary writer, but I'd recommend his works regardless)

Walt Whitman has a few poems on the subject of male beauty etc. that are flowery enough to be quoted outside

Ronald M. Schernikau!!! He died in the 90s at a young age, but regardless, I would consider him of a previous generation of queer literature - born in East Germany, emigrated to the West with his family, moved back to East Germany of his own free will (and studied in Leipzig like truly). I quoted kleinstadtnovelle, but die tage in l. is also highly recommended - though with the caveat that idk if his work has ever been translated and it's not stylistically an easy read for non-native speakers

(Aciman is also a contemporary writer, but again: highly recommended)

Klaus Mann! Yes, related to Thomas Mann (he's his son). I haven't actually read Mephisto though I've owned it for like a decade lol

the poetry of Wilfred Owen

Works / authors that I haven't referenced but would also recommend:

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

Gertrude Stein's works

the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. was the dude shit? yes. but his poetry is amazing.

Gore Vidal!

Larry Kramer!!!

Tony Kushner!

Patricia Highsmith

Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story (and subsequent books) is like... extremely fucked and very much a product of its time, but I think it's very good

and you didn't ask but contemporary works i'd recommend include:

literally anything Cat Sebastian has ever written, especially if you like Ravenclaw AU, because she specializes in coziness (my favorites are Two Rogues Make A Right and Peter Cabot Gets Lost)

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

Olivia Waite's works are very good as well - she specializes in F/F romance

KJ Charles if you like plottier romance (but they are romance)

Again reiterating: André Aciman and Philippe Besson!

I have not read Sarah Waters but people who I trust highly recommend her works.

But if you're looking for books that have similar vibes to Ravenclaw AU, definitely look at Cat Sebastian, even though she's a contemporary writer; most of the older works I've listed are not as, um, cozy.

[wouldvebeensweet]

BOOK RECS ITS MY TIME TO SHINE (i tried to give variety instead of just yelling about the 5 million historical romances i’ve read) ((recent historical romances are so good guys give them a chance))

•the far wilder magic by alison saft

•the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna

•the last housewife by ashley winstead

•rebecca by daphne du maurier

•the magic fish by trung le nguyen

•this way to the sugar by hieu minh nguyen

•a week to be wicked by tessa dare

•beauty tempts the beast by lorraine heath

•wicked and the wallflower by sarah maclean

•the long way to a small angry planet by becky chambers

•peter cabot gets lost by cat sebastian

•recitatif by toni morrison (with the zadie smith intro)

•my monticello by joceyn nicole johnson

•displacement by kiku hughes

•anything by arden powell

also i have been hyper fixated on historical mysteries with romantic subplots recently and ashley weaver’s books and OMG anna lee huber’s lady darby mysteries are *CHEF’S FUCKING KISS*

ALSO i view at as my personal duty to get as many people as possible to read the diviners by libba bray PLS bestie

OH and it was a 4 star not a 5 but emma lord’s begin again is for the mirrorball and this is me trying girlies!! it also has found family and slow burn grumpy x sunshine friends to lovers okay i think that’s it for now have fun reading!! 📖🤓

BITCH THIS IS AMAZING THANK YOU, i'm gonna go add these to goodreads right now!!!!!!

[cartograffiti]

July '23 reading diary

I'm reading so many books these days that I've decided monthly posts would be a fun way to think about what books are grabbing me and shove them in front of other people.

In July I finished 12 books, many of them really lovely.

This summer I've been reading all of Cat Sebastian's 20th century romances, because I'd already read all her 18th and 19th century ones. I like her work a lot, because it's full of really powerful romantic gestures and she writes domestic slice of life as well as crimes. In July I read the last three I needed to have read her whole body of work, and found a new favorite.

Peter Cabot Gets Lost and Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots are the second and third in a romance series that can easily be read out of order, all about estranged queer members of a Kennedys-ish political family. Peter's is a 1960s coast-to-coast road trip about fresh college grads with outstanding grumpy for sunshine chemistry, and it's the one that became my new favorite (my previous favorite was A Duke in Disguise). It has a wonderful ease and warmth to it, and I would have cheerfully read a version twice as long.

His cousin Daniel's book has some odd pacing--the last several chapters all feel like bonus codas to the main arc--but I enjoyed it all so much I don't care. This one's a cozy plot of friends who everyone knows are couple except themselves, starring a music critic and a doctor in New York's East Village in the 1970s. This is a great pick for anyone who feels like romances tend to move too fast, since their relationship is well established when they decide to change it. Their attraction to each other has a lot of emphasis on each other's quirks and their opposing personal styles, which is deeply cute.

The third Cat Sebastian I read was We Could Be So Good, which is her new release. It's a touching story about New York newspapermen in the 1950s, with an astonishing amount of pining. Like, Pacific Northwest pine content. I remarked in my liveblog that I felt like I was watching pandas in a zoo: "Please fuck the whole world would love for you to fuck, top scientists are trying to set the mood for you." This was fun! I prefer her faster-moving and more explicit books, which is most of them, but it's nice to read about a personable couple helping each other over hurdles so they can kiss.

The English Eccentrics by Edith Sitwell is a book I read very slowly and finished this month. It's a very odd work of nonfiction from the 1930s, and I wish I could remember how I first got interested in it. It's an overview of a large number of historical people whose "eccentricity" ranged, for me, from delightful to pitiable to repellent. Sitwell's style is a bit dense and full of opinion in a way that made me question her research when she touched on figures I had some familiarity with, like the con artist Princess Caraboo. More intriguing than informative.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff is a more satisfying nonfiction pick, a memoir follow up to the hugely charming 84, Charing Cross Road. This book recounts American writer Hanff's visit to some of the long-distance friends she corresponded with in the first book. I find the first much more moving, as a person with many similar friendships, and I missed the additional voices of her friends, but it's a slim book and Hanff's humor and observations kept me entertained throughout.

And my favorite nonfiction in July was Girls Can Kiss Now, a book of essays on pop culture and queer identity by Jill Gutowitz. Gutowitz is older than I am, but we're close enough in age for events to feel very relevant to me as an individual, and she writes with a lot of approachability and lightness without sacrificing insight. If you're interested in how rapidly media handling of queerness changed in the last 20 years, this is great.

Threshold and Stormhaven by Jordan L. Hawk. I read Widdershins, the first in this series about Victorian boyfriends solving mysteries about eldritch horrors, in 2015. I never quite wanted to invest in buying the whole series, so I was delighted to find one of my libraries has an omnibus of the series in their e-collection. Hawk is very good at writing horror and sex, solid at writing mysteries, and maybe just okay at interpersonal arcs. These first books have some problems common to inexperienced writers and some pet peeves of mine (notably very irritating romantic jealousy), but they're loads of fun and a good amount of disturbing. Is it silly to nervously roll over in bed to cope with an alien shrimp's dialogue? Yes, but that's a selling point.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn is the first Veronica Speedwell novel, and it took me a few months to read because I kept finding it a bit thin and putting it aside. I liked the resolution very much because it made the stakes I'd been missing real, and since Veronica and her love interest(?) have great chemistry, I look forward to reading the next. Pleasingly similar in tone and setting to Gail Carriger, though not Steampunk.

Frederica by Georgette Heyer. One of Heyer's best, I think. Heyer wrote a fairly narrow set of types for her main characters, and both of the romantic leads here are ones I like, who are natural and immediate collaborators and challengers for each other, plus great siblings and a chase after an out-of-control hot air balloon.

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie, who only wrote books I've thought were great so far. This is a 1969 Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver about the suburban murder of a 13 year old, preoccupied with generation gaps and 60s panics about the still fairly new concept of teenagers, ranging from marijuana and early computer technology to sex abuse and suicide. Great insights on the things people blame violent crime on because they don't want to consider malice, and lovely imagery about a famous garden designer's work. It's been adapted by Branagh as Death in Venice, and I'm very puzzled how they got from A to B. Don't pick this up expecting the vibe of that trailer. Do pick it up.

Thinking about young teens and murder brought me back to the Wells and Wong mysteries, an excellent recent middle grade series I started in the fall to surprise a friend with a treat for the Yuletide fic exchange. The second book is Poison is Not Polite in the US, originally Arsenic for Tea--you might want to look for author Robin Stevens instead of futzing around with varying titles to see whether you can borrow this series yourself. Anyway, both books so far are really strong, with cases that have enough subtlety and meat for me as an adult reader, and excellent writing on mystery tropes, race and class, and the particular frustrations of being about 13 years old. I'm deeply invested in Hazel and Daisy, and I loved this take on a classic house party case.

[aurorawest]

Caleb realized his face must have been doing something regrettable. "Good pie!" he said much too loudly, like he was shouting amen in a crowded church. Peter raised his eyebrows and Caleb shoveled a forkful of pie into his mouth to stop himself from saying anything stupid. -Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian