Like Cat Sebastian’s 2023 release, We Could Be So Good, her earlier Peter Cabot Gets Lost is very much a “vibes over plot” story that keeps its focus very much on the development of the opposites-attract romance between the two leads. It’s funny and charming and utterly captivating, and I loved every minute I spent with the well-to-do Peter Cabot and the prickly, down-at-heel Caleb Murphy during their 3000 mile road-trip across the US.

It’s summer 1960, and both young men have just graduated from Harvard. Going there was a foregone conclusion for Peter, because that’s what Cabot men DO, while Caleb had to rely on scholarships and part-time jobs to get by. But now they have their degrees it’s up to them to work out what comes next. Caleb has a job offer in California (at a newspaper) while Peter only knows that he wants to avoid being swallowed up into the ‘family business’ (politics) and that he absolutely does not want to end up on the campaign trail with his dad and its attendant media circus. In fact, he’s done everything he can think of to delay his departure – he’s helped his professor move offices, helped friends pack, packed and re-packed his own belongings – but he’s out of people to help and things to help with, and it’s time for him to head home.

He’s about to start the car when he hears the sound of a payphone being slammed down and looks up to see his occasional classmate, Caleb Murphy, clearly upset, standing a few car-lengths along the street. Peter can’t just leave him there crying by the side of the road and walks up to him, fully prepared to be rebuffed or yelled at, to ask if he’s okay.

Caleb had been relying on his mother being able to send him the money for his bus ticket to Los Angeles, but she needed the money for medical bills when his sister broke her leg, and now Caleb is stuck. He needs to be in LA soon to start his job and has no idea how he’s going to get there. The last thing he needs is for perfect Peter fucking Cabot to see him like this – angry and crying tears of frustration – but the man can’t take a hint and leave him to cry in peace. Then Cabot does the last thing Caleb expects and says that as he’s driving to California anyway (he wasn’t – but he is now) Caleb is welcome to come with him. Caleb immediately bristles at the idea of being treated like a charity case, but he doesn’t really have any alternative. He figures he can probably stand a week or so stuck in a car with someone he doesn’t much like if it will get him to where he needs to be.

That’s the set up for this lovely, grumpy/sunshine tale of two young men figuring stuff out – working out who they are and who they want to be – while shedding their misconceptions about each other and falling in love. The story takes place over just nine days, but the development of the relationship is perfectly paced and their growing intimacy is completely organic, the privacy and close proximity provided by the long days on the road and the shared evenings and nights in motel rooms giving Peter and Caleb the space to get to know each other and to realise that despite their very different backgrounds, they have more in common than they’d ever have thought.

Peter is a total cinnamon roll. He’s kind and thoughtful and sweet and he likes making people happy – but he knows he’s a disappointment to his family, most of whom either barely tolerate him or don’t even give him a second thought. He’s spent his life doing what he’s told and trying to live up to expectations, but has learned he’s never going to meet them, no matter what he does, and, over the last year in particular, has realised that they don’t like him and never will – and, more importantly, that he doesn’t like them either. He’s noticed Caleb in the classes they shared, and maybe developed a teeny bit of a crush; Caleb is clever, confident, driven and comfortable in his own skin, and Peter envies him that because he has yet to work out who he is and what his future looks like.

Caleb comes from a poor family in rural Tennessee. He’s grown up in cast-off clothes and on church charity and has had to work hard to get his education; he’s used to counting every penny, so it’s not surprising he’s resentful of Peter, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and coasts through life without a care in the world. But as the days and the miles pass, Caleb starts to see that Peter is not at all what he’d expected; he’s generous and funny and smart, and Caleb realises that nobody has ever valued those good qualities in him, that his family think of him as second best because he doesn’t fit the established Cabot mold. Realising this triggers Caleb’s protective instincts, and he becomes determined to help Peter to see his own worth before journey’s end.

I was impressed with the way the author navigates the class/wealth disparity between the two leads. Peter recognises the privilege that comes with the Cabot name and works hard to try to find ways to use his wealth and privilege to benefit others, and to be a decent person. I loved that he so clearly understands and respects Caleb’s need to pay his way on the trip and finds ways to show his affection by making small gestures (ordering extra food, buying books and newspapers). And while Caleb appreciates the help he’s received through his life as he’s worked to pull himself out of poverty, he’s reached a point where he wants to stand on his own two feet and not rely on others any more, which is why having to accept Peter’s help is such a blow.

Peter Cabot Gets Lost is, put simply, a comfort blanket in book form. The author perfectly captures the flavour of 1960s America – paper maps, no phones, newspapers at 3 cents a piece – and of the various places Peter and Caleb visit along the way; their chemistry sizzles as their mutual attraction grows, and the banter and the sweetness of their relationship is a delight from start to finish.