Title: Charlie Sunshine
Series: Close Proximity: Book Two
Author: Lily Morton
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 272 Pages
Category: Contemporary Romance
At a Glance: If there’s ever been such a thing as the perfect book at the perfect time, Charlie Sunshine is it.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Sometimes love is a lot closer to home than you think.
Charlie Burroughs can’t keep a man. All he wants is a good relationship like the ones he sees his friends having, but none of the men he picks ever work out. Despite him trying to be the perfect boyfriend, the men are either threatened by his looks or his epilepsy or a combination of the two. It’s lucky that he has his best friend Misha to turn to. The two of them are closer than peas in a pod and fiercely loyal to each other. He can’t imagine his life without Misha in it.
Misha Lebedinsky is the complete opposite of his best friend. Being the support system for his mum and twin sisters leaves Misha with neither the time nor the inclination for a relationship. Quick and frequent hook-ups are his favourite means of communication and any other pesky emotional needs he has are met by Charlie, who he’s devoted to. He lives a life of happy compartmentalization with no intention of ever changing.
All of this changes when the two best friends move in together. Being in close proximity means that they suddenly start to see each other in a very different light. But Charlie struggles when his drive to be the perfect partner clashes with the fact that he’s in love with a man who knows every little thing about him. And even if he can get past that, can a relationship ever work with a man who’d need a dictionary to tell him what love means?
Review: Best friends to lovers…and all it took was twenty years…Charlie Burroughs and Misha Lebedinsky are a couple destined to happen. Anyone can see that. Except, of course, for Charlie and Misha. It takes them a bit of time and more than a few missed cues to clue in on the fact that they’ve always been everything to each other, that no one else could ever come close to matching—let alone surpassing—their bond, and Lily Morton allows readers a front-row seat to their struggle to find solid footing amidst the changing undercurrent of their relationship.
The dynamic between Charlie and Misha is quintessential Morton. There is a sweetness to their interactions, a heaping helping of snark in their banter, and a mutual, unspoken yearning for each other that inspires both conflict and an intimacy that takes time to define as something other than mere friendship. Misha doesn’t do relationships, never mind falling in love, and yet he adores Charlie fiercely and is protective of him in ways that no one else has ever been, or will ever be. Misha doesn’t acknowledge it, because he isn’t even aware he feels it, but the simple truth is that no one is good enough for his Charlie Sunshine. No one but Misha himself, obviously.
The close proximity trope promised in the series title is fulfilled the moment Charlie moves into Misha’s apartment and sets out to fill the space with more than just Misha’s spare and impersonal, though tasteful and expensive, furnishings. Charlie brings books and love and light and color and life to the space, and he feeds Misha in ways that food alone can’t provide. Their emotional access to each other is as integral as the physical, even before they took it to the next level, and they both learn a few lessons about openness and honesty. Communication becomes a key factor, Misha’s tendency to be flippant causing a crucial rift in a moment when Charlie has made himself vulnerable, and Charlie himself learns the importance of not making unilateral decisions that affect Misha, without consideration for Misha’s input.
Charlie does everything he can to live up to his nickname—up to and including not being entirely honest with Misha, because Charlie doesn’t want to be an additional burden on Misha’s list of responsibilities. Charlie has epileptic seizures, brought on by a head trauma, and while he has adapted to cope with them and tries to minimize his triggers, he has hidden the fact that his “turns” have, of late, begun to increase in frequency. Charlie is ever committed to be the bright light and abiding joy in his and Misha’s friendship—the sweet to Misha’s salty—but it all begins to change course in a moment that leaves Charlie feeling exposed and defenseless in a way he never has before, and Misha’s awareness of what Charlie means to him only grows when Charlie goes to recuperate with his mother, leaving Misha missing Charlie’s warm presence in their home.
If there’s ever been such a thing as the perfect book at the perfect time, Charlie Sunshine is it. Filled with warmth and hope, this thoroughly charming romance delivers everything I’ve come to expect from a Lily Morton novel. The next book in the series has been effectively baited now, and I am hooked.
You can buy Charlie Sunshine here:
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