[QCrit] MATCHING GREEN OCEANS - Queer Contemporary Romance (87k, Third Attempt)

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the invaluable feedback on my baby behemoth of a first attempt and my second attempt. I think the second was already pretty close, so now I mostly worked on the metadata part and tweaked a few things that were vague about the characters. I'm also giving a try to a different title, because I think the original one might have conveyed sports vibes that the book doesn't even have.

Below is the new version. Appreciate any and all feedback!

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Dear [Name],

Given your interest in [personalization], I'm hoping MATCHING GREEN OCEANS will make a good match for your list.

MATCHING GREEN OCEANS is a dual-POV queer contemporary romance in which two lifelong best friends sign up for a series of scientifically designed dates to reverse-engineer a rival dating app, only for an impromptu trip to a sweltering beach town in Brazil to turn the experiment into a heated new way of seeing each other— a beach read with the summery yearning à la Carley Fortune, but gay and Latinx-flavored. Complete at 87,000 words, the novel will appeal to readers who loved The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun for its authentic portrayal of underrepresented identities in a funny, light-hearted tone, and It Had To Be Him by Adib Khorram for how the lush setting feels like a character of its own and serves as a catalyst for the romance.

Full-time overthinker Nick Morgan is the brain behind America's best dating app. (Sort of. He's just the guy who exterminates bugs.) When a new competitor threatens their top spot, Nick is considered for a promotion to build the next matchmaking model. With no romantic experience to draw ideas from, he decides to complete said competitor’s objectively stupid series of app prompts with best friend and roommate (and actual dating expert) Renan Moraes. The probability of their platonic marriage of sorts becoming something more after nineteen years is 0.01%.

Renan is a serial-hugger and soccer coach. Raised between two countries, he's long forgotten what home feels like—until a drunk birthday wish ends with Nick joining him and his loud family for the holidays. Fake dating wasn’t on his itinerary, but it’s his best shot at making his workaholic friend slow down and fall a little in love with Brazil. (Just Brazil. Obviously.)

Through languid beach days, sweaty dancing nights, a boisterous Christmas, and New Year’s fireworks over the ocean, Nick, whose demisexuality remains a working hypothesis he's never had the chance to test, is (almost) sure the temptation to strip boundaries and swim trunks is an illusion manufactured by the app. Renan, however, has always known exactly how he feels about the only man who sees him past the charm, abs, and accent.

The souvenir they bring home is an unlabeled new relationship, but when they're caught between Nick's once-in-a-career opportunity and Ren's reawakened dream of moving back to Brazil, they must confront whether the trip was the final chapter of a friendship meant to be outgrown, or if their long-overdue endgame is worth playing for.

[bio]