The Alphabet Lovers - The Alphabet Lovers 1
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Ages: 18+
In the beginning, there was Adam.
Marcos Ferreira’s first love. The first man who made him feel chosen—and the first man to break his heart. What they had was passionate, consuming, impossible to let go of. And too big to keep hidden forever.
Then there was Reese—charismatic, obsessive, and impossible to resist. The kind of relationship that burns hot enough to feel exhilarating right up until it turns destructive.
After that, Marcos builds a life around movement. New city. New beginning. No strings. For a while, it works. Until the exits stop feeling clean, the relationships deepen, and the loneliness catches up.
Then comes Liam, the musician who makes permanence feel less like a trap and more like a future. For the first time in years, Marcos allows himself to believe he may be capable of building something that lasts.
But when an unexpected reunion forces Marcos to confront the relationship that shaped him from the very beginning, he’s left wondering whether he’s ever really moved on at all.
The Alphabet Lovers is a sweeping queer coming-of-age story about intimacy, grief, self-sabotage, desire, and trying to outrun love but always being two steps behind. It will resonate with readers who enjoyed the fragmented intimacy of The Lover’s Dictionary, the candid exploration of connection in Cleanness, and the travel-driven self-discovery of Less.
Reviews
In Smith’s touching debut, Marcos Ferreira is a skilled photographer on the rise. With a best friend who keeps him grounded, loving parents, and a proclivity for traveling the world, he has everything he could ever want—except true love. Sexual liberation and exploration are constants in his life, but finding a partner who checks all the boxes seems impossible. Marcos becomes involved with a variety of suitable men, one for each letter of the alphabet—older and younger, men with children, fellow creative souls—but the relationships always end. Over the course of two decades, this queer romantic novel explores sexual identity, personal and social acceptance, and self-awareness, as Marcos learns to let go and move on from relationships that don’t fulfill his needs. Smith creates a complex but relatable protagonist in Marcos. He tries again and again to find a partner who will accept him for who he is and fit into his life, but his efforts often fall flat. His relationships come with important lessons, however, functioning as emotional mirrors for his own self-worth while nudging him ever closer to understanding what he truly wants in a life partner. Romantic love beats steadily at the novel’s center, but Smith also touches on love’s many other forms: true friendship, family bonds, and, most importantly, Marcos’s growing care and appreciation for himself. What works best here is Smith’s ability to tease out the small moments of connection in relationships that add up to more consequential revelations down the road. In one scene, as Marcos revisits the pull of old feelings despite having moved on, he reveals to a past boyfriend, “you told me you loved me and I never said it back. Not because I didn’t, but because saying it only seemed to make things messy.” The Alphabet Lovers will captivate readers who understand that messiness can be the start of something truly beautiful. Takeaway: Touching queer romance explores connection, acceptance, and self-love. Great for fans of: Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material, Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl.
