I went in a slightly different direction for the “Vintage” prompt for this month’s TBR Challenge read. I usually go for an older historical (as in written in the 1960s or 70s), but this time, I decided to read an historical SET in the 1970s; I’ve often seen late-twentieth century historicals labelled as “vintage historicals”, so that’s where I ended up.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots is the third and final book in Cat Sebastian’s series featuring members of the well-to-do Cabot family. We met twelve-year-old Daniel briefly in the first one, Tommy Cabot Was Here (Tommy is Daniel’s father), and now, in 1973, he’s in his mid-twenties, happily pursuing a life outside family expectations (most of the Cabots are lawyers or politicians) and without help from the family money. He’s a music journalist, he lives in a small, run-down apartment in the East Village and in his spare time, he’s begun to create a community garden in a nearby derelict space. Daniel is charming and outgoing, he makes friends easily, he enjoys sex (often with those friends (!) of both genders) and is living authentically and happily among people who love and accept him.

Alex Savchenko’s family fled Ukraine some years earlier and have settled in the East Village in an area predominantly occupied by Ukraininan immigrants. Alex is a doctor – a paediatrician – at a low-cost clinic he and a friend set up in order to provide care for immigrant patients by doctors who speak their native languages. Alex first meets Daniel around eighteen months before the story begins, late at night after Daniel had been involved in an altercation outside a club, and they’ve been friends ever since. Which surprises Alex, because most people eventually get tired of his prickliness and idiosyncrasies and move on to find something better to do. But Daniel is different; he just gets Alex and never has a problem making space for him or accommodating his needs. It’s clear from the text that Alex is neurodivergent (the author confirms in her note at the end that he is autistic, although of course, that wasn’t a widely used term in 1973) – he needs to structure his days more than perhaps most people need to, and to spend more time alone and quiet – and I loved that Daniel has come to know Alex’s rhythms and to understand what he needs to the extent that he can anticipate when Alex needs to be alone and is never upset by it. To Daniel, he’s simply Alex, and he needs what he needs – there’s never any judgment or feeling that Alex should be anything other than he is.

Also clear is the fact that Alex and Daniel are very much in love with each other (some of their friends already think they’re a couple), but neither of them is prepared to admit it to themselves – and certainly not to each other – for fear of scaring away the one person in their life who truly sees them. I suppose that makes this a friends-to-lovers romance, but it feels like so much more than that; best-friends-who-are-already-everything-to-each-other-except-lovers to best-friends-who-are-everything-to-each-other-become-lovers-and-life-partners romance is the best way I can think of to describe it!

“And then there was Alex—the fact of him, the way Daniel shaped his days around a space that Alex might sometimes occupy, the predictable rhythm of Alex’s routine the heartbeat of Daniel’s life. They weren’t a couple, but they were a pair, and Daniel couldn’t imagine dating someone when he had Alex.”

Alex and Daniel’s friendship feels so natural and easy; they’re a perfect fit for each other and into each other’s lives, and they’re so attuned to each other that their progression to lovers feels natural once they each decide to get out of their own way. Their romance is so satisfying because they already have that solid foundation of friendship to build on and they both put in the effort to make their new dynamic work. Once they’ve admitted that they want to be together there are no major obstacles to overcome, although Alex does worry about asking for things because he knows Daniel is so easy-going that he tends to put the needs of others before his own. For his part, Daniel knows Alex doesn’t do tactful lying or small talk so he means what he says and Daniel always knows where he stands.

The story is divided into two sections. The first is perhaps more traditionally structured in that it’s where the familiar beats of a romance occur; the second is more slice-of-life, a series of vignettes of Alex and Daniel’s developing relationship as they’re quietly growing and changing together and leading a happy life surrounded by the people they care about.

Daniel Cabot Sets Down Roots is very much a warm, gentle ‘vibes over plot’ story featuring engaging, endearing leads, a charming, superbly written supporting cast, and a vividly depicted setting full of interesting historical detail that is seamlessly woven throughout. After reading this series, and the author’s other vintage/modern historicals, I’m now convinced that Cat Sebastian could write a book about two guys watching paint dry and I’d enjoy it!