Amazon:
From the acclaimed author of Miami Manhunt and Boston Boys Club, comes a witty, new, warmhearted novel of friendship, familia, and finding a place to call home--even in a city where it's almost impossible to get an authentic Cuban sandwich. . .
Carlos Martin is twenty-seven years old and ready for a change. Cuban-born and Miami-raised, the cute but slightly awkward high school teacher figures that Boston is about as far from the crazy South Beach social scene as he could get--and a way to escape the bittersweet reminders of his recently departed mother. Life in "Beantown" is quite a culture shock--until Carlos meets Tommy Perez, another Miami transplant who quickly shows him the ropes. Now, in the course of one wildly unpredictable year, Carlos is going to learn to embrace his newfound independence, as well as his individuality. . .

Will give to GoryDetails.

Received from eponine38 at our release run - many thanks! I haven't read this one, but it looks like fun.

Later: Surprisingly light, this story told from the viewpoints of Cuban-born Carlos and fellow Miami-to-Boston-transplant Tommy, as they forge a friendship, explore the sights and nightlife of the greater Boston area, and deal with families and romance.

I found the writing in need of an editor, in the sense that the author does a LOT of "telling vs. showing" - having his characters explain things to each other that they would both already know, spelling out their reactions to everything instead of revealing them in more character-oriented ways, and tossing in pop-culture references to a truly excessive degree. (There's something to be said for using casual pop-culture in a story when it will help define the characters and/or anchor the story in a given place and time, but there are so many throwaway bits here that it gets oppressive.) I also found the two characters' "voices" so similar that I sometimes had to double-check each chapter-heading to be sure which one was telling the story.

All that said, the story itself was quite sweet, with the two young men determining early on that they were better as friends than potential lovers, and helping each other through personal trials - Carlos grieving the loss of his mother, Tommy worrying over his ex-lover - while expanding their circle of friends and, eventually, getting to meet each other's families on a holiday visit to Miami. The sense of community, friendship, and family was quite strong, and a pleasant surprise. (The choice to tell the story via two first-person narrators had its advantages, but also its drawbacks - most notably, in the handling of the resolution of the on-again/off-again relationship between Tommy and Mikey. This was one of the key plot-points throughout the story, and Tommy certainly had reasons to choose as he did, but we don't get as much of Mikey's viewpoint as would have been helpful there.)

I left this book in the Little Free Library at around 2 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2015 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***