Queried Sick
Social distance makes the heart grow fonder…
Ezra Beaumont never felt like New York was truly his home, which is why he’s spent the last seven years studying abroad at university and backpacking across Europe. Some may say he’s running from his problems, but he just hates feeling stuck.
Then COVID-19 starts ripping its way through Europe. Within weeks, Ezra is back in New York and on lockdown for the foreseeable future. And to make matters worse, the person training him at his new job seems to hate him.
Oliver Wheeler used to love his job at Coleman Press. But starting to train a new hire at the onset of a worldwide health crisis when he’s already overworked is enough to make him snap—especially since that new hire has no prior publishing knowledge.
Yet, somehow, even without experience, Ezra proves not to be as bad as Oliver initially thought. Through a constant stream of bad literature quotes, text exchanges about Oscar Wilde, and Zoom dates to watch television, Oliver and Ezra find themselves falling for each other.
But can a relationship work when CDC guidelines require you to keep your distance?
For fans of Casey McQuiston and Always Only You, Queried Sick is a slow-burn romance about two bisexual disasters finding love while working at a publishing company during the pandemic—complete with grumpy/sunshine vibes, found family, and an attention-seeking cat.
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Content Notes
Queried Sick contains strong language, sexual themes, and content that may be troubling to some readers, including but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine, toxic family dynamics, disownment, biphobia, references to past death, grief, off-page parental death, panic attacks, chronic illness, hospitalization, and coming out. Reader discretion is advised.
Representation: bisexuality, anxiety disorder, chronic illness
Tropes and tags: workplace romance, epistolary, very-brief-enemies to friends to lovers, mutual pining, slow burn, found family, foul-mouthed cinnamon roll, grumpy/sunshine adjacent, the literary quotes are bad on purpose, gratuitous references to The Importance of Being Earnest, beware of potential Game of Thrones spoilers, they’re both bisexual disasters, are you still in forced proximity if you’re socially distanced?
Reviews
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Readers will swoon over Smith’s use of email and text messages to craft the central relationship. She expertly develops their connection without the two men ever being in the same physical space.
— M.A. Wardell, Author of Teacher of the Year
”
Mixing quippy humor and elevated sophistication, this work approaches complicated issues and traumatic events with such care and depth, I found myself ravenously devouring the book in one sitting before immediately flipping back to page one to read it all over again.
— Jay Leigh, Author of Whisper Into the Night
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I loved the format and slow burn of the beginning of Ezra and Oliver’s relationship so much. Each email (the attachments! Truly brilliant) and message, the sense of animosity that melted into friendship and then more… I couldn’t ask for more.
— Dani McClean, Author of Midnight, Repeated
