De 43-jarige Ted Ainsworth leidt een onopmerkelijk maar ogenschijnlijk gelukkig leven in het kleine kustplaatsje waar hij is opgegroeid, samen met zijn man Giles en hun hond Lily. Supporting characters were just wonderful, including nonagenarian Stanley, feeling ostracised in his care home but opening up to Ted and reminiscing about his younger life when being gay was illegal and the sacrifices that were made. Someone who’s been waiting in the wings too long, but who’s about to dust off a long-ago secret dream and overturn everyone’s expectations of him—especially his own. There’s also a tender moment involving him at the end of the book that provoked the same reaction in me as does that scene at the end of the film, The Railway Children. He masterfully interlaces some dark themes in this novel around prejudice, control and betrayal, among many others, however, they are balanced accordingly with friendship and warmth.

In this respect I was in a similar position to Oskar, a young Polish man, who is on his own personal journey. Matt Cain tackles shame, compassion and self-acceptance beautifully in Becoming Ted, which will come as no surprise to people who've read The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle. And that’s when Ted’s epiphany happens: he knows what he wants to do, what he’s wanted to do, deep down, he realises, since he was eight.Another special ability Matt Cain has is to bring the secondary characters into the story and let them steal a small piece of your heart. Massive thank you to NetGalley and Headline publishing house for accepting me as a pre-publication reviewer. He would love to follow a different path in life but how to tell his parents when they are expecting him to take over from them, having invested so much of their life into it and are struggling with the business financially. Chapters do not flow together seamlessly; in fact, there is a jump between each chapter where some amount of time has passed. First and foremost, thank you NetGalley and John Scognamiglio Books / Kensington Books for the Advance Readers Copy.

His best friend, the flamboyant Andrea, is determined to help Ted - she hasn't forgotten that he once helped her through her worst time. It's a tale of self discovery and emancipation, but it's also deals with a subject with which I am personally extremely fascinated; internalised homophobia. I've often felt that homophobia and misogyny are very closely intertwined - usually when I've heard people make homophobic and derogatory comments, it's been about how someone 'acts like a girl', and there are obviously stereotypes that all gay men are very effiminate.I grew up in Southport, and reading about Ted's surroundings transported me back to my childhood home, adding some nostalgia for me.

Unfortunately he doesn’t even like ice cream – he never has although he has never voiced this to his family (whose motto is ‘Family First’) – guilt and duty keeping him silent.

As a reader, this scene threw me for a loop, as I was expecting some degree of mystery or anxiety to unfold around this letter and the threat, but nope!