Welcome to Litsy!

“Do you have anyone running a Super Bowl pool up here?“ Arthur hated football but he couldn't handle another sideways promotion, even if that meant sticking his head up.

“Agent Sims used to do it, but he bashed a fax machine to death with a three-hole punch, then quit. So, that's an open position, as it were.“

I did a comfort reread to spend time with some of my favorite characters.

An ace romance that on the surface seems nothing like a romance, yet it's absolutely a romance.

“I'm sure there's a culture somewhere where silently shoving finger food at someone is an acceptable form of courting. Hobbits maybe.“
“I'm not-“
“Yes, you are and it's adorable.

An excellent series of 2 novellas and a short story. All the stars.

A spy novella without the usual espionage & histrionics, replacing melodrama with a chaste love story between a demisexual analyst & insoluble asexual secret agent who vanishes on a covert op, leaving an almost empty apartment & a library full of Arthurian-obsessed children in his wake. Short & wholesome, with characters that carve a forever place in your heart. With so little ace representation out there, this story will always be special to me.

I loved this book about two lonely men who find each other. It was touching and just lovely in the small moments that lead to the start of their relationship. I‘d read it again.

This quote really resonated with me. As did so much of His Quiet Agent.

They say good things come in small packages. His Quiet Agent is proof of that. This novella has made a home in my heart, and I can't wait to re-read it soon (read: I'll probably cave and re-read it again in the next 24 hours!)

His Quiet Agent is a small but deeply touching novella, overflowing with compassion, empathy, acceptance, and, above all, the cornerstone of every relationship, trust. Arthur and Martin are made up of small moments. Mundane shared experiences, like a duplicate key or a shared lunch, that eventually build into a slow-burn, chaste relationship between two men who find comfort in each other. Throughout it all, undertones of angst & a vast loneliness.

Books I finished in March 2022 📚
Not a fan of Serious Concerns.
Liked The Girl from the Sea, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Night Sky With Exit Wounds.
Loved The Blue Castle, His Quiet Agent, The Ethereal Transit Society, Blacksad, and Pew.

I‘m reading my way through the holidays and tend to go for much lighter fare... of the three books I‘ve read today this one is by far my favorite. Soto packs a lot in this short book and it was very well done. Both protagonists are asexual (one stated and the other inferred) and their romance could be called unconventional by most norms. I really liked Arthur and Martin and wanted more. I hope Soto revisits their story some day in a sequel.