This was such a fun romance! I love celebrity romances, and the queer culture in this and the drag scene was so much fun. Will was a great main character, and I really loved Patrick as well. This book was a very quick, fast-paced read, and I had a great time with it! I would definitely recommend it :)

A queer romance about an actor and a bookseller who become friends and then maybe more as their bond grows.

Queer romances are my favorite but this one did not do it for me. I think there were too many different POVs that were not clearly delineated. Plus I don’t always love multiple POVs in romances.

“Uproarious and touching, ‘We Could Be Heroes’ is an ode to queer joy and a romance that just might save the world.”

I received an ARC of ‘We Could Be Heroes’ almost a year ago, and I can’t believe I waited so long to read it—I completely forgot about my NetGalley account. I'm so glad I finally picked it up because I really enjoyed it. With a similar energy to that of ‘Heartstopper’, the relationship between Will and Patrick is both funny and beautiful. Their journey is one of self-acceptance and prioritizing your own feelings over the opinions of others. It’s cheesy in the best way, and I could definitely see this making a heartfelt movie.

This sounded really cute and fun, and the cover is an absolute delight, but I couldn’t make it more than a few pages in. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to like Audra, but the lack of challenge or pushback on the fatphobic things she implies with her comment about looking a particular way because she doesn’t eat pizza and beer. I’m also kinda side-eyeing that Patrick’s character is called Captain Kismet, when kismet is a principle in South Asian religions, giving me some feelings of cultural appropriation. I didn’t make it very far so I can’t say much about it except I’m sad that it doesn’t work for me.

I am very sad to say, something about this book just didn't click with me and I had to dnf about 25% of the way in.

We Could Be Heroes by Phillip Ellis. This was such a CUTE book and I immediately need seventeen more books just like it.

It’s a great setup for a joke: A superhero walks into a gay bar and gets rescued from avid fans by a drag queen. It’s also where we begin Philip Ellis’s contemporary romance WE COULD BE HEROES (Putnam, 370 pp., paperback, $20). Patrick Lake, who plays the comic book hero Captain Kismet in the Hollywood franchise, is a closeted A-lister with a restrictive morality clause in his contract. The drag queen is Grace Anatomy, a.k.a. Will, who works nights at a bar called the Village Inn in Birmingham, England — where Patrick’s filming the latest Captain Kismet movie — and days at a used-book shop.

A superhero’s mask hides a face but reveals a deeper truth. This is also true for drag queens, of course — and drag artists have long been the staunch heart of the queer community. Patrick, whose face is globally famous but whose self stays carefully locked away, is desperate for anyone who sees him as a person. Will offers him a drag community, a scrappy found family and a yearning for love that more than matches Patrick’s own.

This is one of those everything books: You laugh, you cry. Also, to my great joy, there’s a secondary plotline about postwar comic creators that is a love letter to Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.”

I have been extra depressed for the past few days since the election and desperately needed something to cheer me up. I decided to listen to the audiobook of this (mostly because my libby hold had just come in) while doing a puzzle. And it lifted my mood quite a bit. I cried a lot but it was a cathartic crying, not a sad crying.

The love story, between a closeted actor in popular superhero movies and a drag queen, was sweet and I enjoyed it. But it actually wasn't the main draw for me. What kept me listening, and kept me crying softly, was the sheer queer joy that this story exuded.

There was the more overt queer joy when the drag queens banded together to resist the protestors at drag queen storytime, and also the ending. But there was also the quieter but no less joyful queer joy found in the second timeline between the husband and wife team who created the superhero in the first place, both of whom were queer and forced to hide in the 1940s, and their secret partners. And the everyday joy of the found family groups of queer characters.

It reminded me that no matter what some people want, queer people aren't going away. We're still here. We still love. We can still find joy. And that's exactly what I needed to be reminded of.

*Thanks to HarperNorth and G.P. Putnam's Son's for providing an early copy for review.

I liked this book! It was a little bit all over the place pacing wise - I kept getting lost in the timeframe and the details, but otherwise I really liked the book!

What do you get when you pair a Hollywood action hero actor with a British drag queen? A romance that is off the charts! We Could Be Heroes is sweet, romantic, humorous, and poignant, amongst other things. It also has relevance to situations happening in the US, even though most of the story is set in the UK.

I found it interesting that they had scenes from the past to explain the origin of the comic book series behind the movie that Patrick was starring in. This also ties in with them trying to find a rare comic book.

I was glad to get both Patrick and Will's narratives as I liked seeing what they both were thinking while they were trying to make their relationship work, even with all the secrecy surrounding it. One part actually made me think of The Birdcage.

Some parts felt a bit slow, but the story moved along nicely in general.

Overall, it was enjoyable with fun and memorable characters!

(Trigger warning below.)

Movie casting suggestions:
Patrick: Dan Amboyer
Will: Jonathan Bailey
Audra: Justine Lupe
Jordan: Jordan Gavaris

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TW: Homophobic bullying

what a wonderful and surprising treat! i say surprise because i had heard next to nothing about this book or author before discovering its existence, and upon reading the synopsis, it sounded like it was right on my alley. and i was delightfully correct! drag queens typically means to sign me the hell up, and this charming story of a superhero actor, paired with the origin story of a fake superhero text, swept me off my feet, not unlike lois lane, for lack of a better reference. while i knew i'd have a good time, i wasn't expecting to have as good a time as i did. this was so wonderful and i cannot wait to rec it to friends with similar taste and keep an eye out for phillip ellis's next works.

This was a super fun, quick read. Told mainly in the present, with alternating points of view between Will and Patrick, there are jumps to the past from the point of view of Charles, one of the creators of the character Patrick is playing.

I adored Will and his combination of confidence and self-doubt. He was completely real, whether he was himself in his “boy drag” or was his alter ego, Grace Anatomy. And he surrounds himself with people who truly care about him. His entire found family was amazing, and I loved the way they accepted Patrick so quickly.

Patrick on the other hand feels broken and alone in the beginning. He is closeted because of his career and isolates himself except for his cast mates. Thankfully a truly beautiful bond is built between Patrick, his co-star, stunt double and trainer, and they in turn welcome Will and his entourage to form one big, supportive friend group.

The only character I really have issue with in this story is Patrick’s agent. Her insistence that Patrick needs to remain closeted to be successful and get big box office roles is incredibly close-minded, plus the fact that she’s a member of the LGBTQIA+ community herself just makes it worse.

All in all I loved the story, learning of the creation of the comic and the people behind it, seeing Patrick and Audra go through the filming of the modern day movie, and seeing Will and Jordan go to battle for their drag community. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley on behalf of the publisher for review consideration. I also received a physical ARC through a Goodreads giveaway. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

We Could Be Heroes was pretty good! This caught my eye because the main character is a drag queen and I’m a big fan of drag. I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to romance readers, especially if you like romances with a famous character aspect!

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I saw some reviews of this discussing this as a celebration of queer joy and I have to agree. Will is delightful and I really enjoy the look into his perspective throughout. Seeing Patrick sacrifice his true self for his career is too real and I can only hope our real world is going to move towards this no longer being a trope. The gentlemen fell in love and their friends only wanted to support them. A joyful quick read. 3.5 stars.

4 stars

This was cute and fun while also touching on some rather interesting topics. This gave off some real-life Avengers vibes, but much more gay which I am here for. I loved the in-depth look into queer culture through history. The story is written in a rather interesting way with two separate stories in two separate times, but with a lot of similarities. It shows that queer people have always been here. We have been a part of so many big things, but often, those voices were silenced or stolen because of the risks of the time. This ultimately is a story of self. For Patrick, it's self-acceptance. For Will, it's self-respect and not letting others get away with treating him in a way he definitely doesn't deserve. There is so much community and heart going on here that this felt so comforting to read. It's uplifting and heartfelt. Patrick and Will learn to take back their own power in different ways and not allow others to have power over them being who they are. Overall, I had a great time. This was so much fun.

Something about this book really did it for me, and it is definitely one of my favorites that I have read so far this year! Humorous, witty, and unabashedly queer, I found it easy to dive into the world of Will and Patrick. They are both well-rounded characters and their motivations and why they feel the way they do is clearly seen throughout the book.

I loved the found family aspects of the book, as well as the intercutting story of the truth behind Captain Kismet and how entrenched the book is in queer culture. I sometimes feel as though romance books with LGBTQ+ characters make their characters smaller or try to make them "more palatable" for a mainstream audience as an attempt to prove that queer books can sell well too. I don't see any of that in this book. Patrick and Will both feel incredibly real, they have believable flaws and insecurities and their conversations around that aren't sugar-coated, and I think that makes it easy to tell that this was written by a LGBTQ+ person writing for the LGBTQ+ community.

I hope that more people read this and find the joy and love in it that I was able to see as well!

While I didn't love this M/M romance as much as I did the author's last book, I still thought the late in life gay awakening and the Hollywood actor/writer love story was fun and interesting. Good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like TJ Klune and Timothy Janovski. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

Hello this was adorable. I loved the relationship between Patrick and Will, but specifically I loved it in its larger context as a discussion on what it means to be queer, to be out, to be free and to be free to love in the 21st century. Will's queer family was everything. EVERYTHING. And watching Patrick find his feet as a gay man, find his own queer family, and find the confidence to come out rather than letting other people keep shoving him back in the closet, was the best part of this book. A must read for anyone who needs a timely reminder of how important it is for the queer community to stick together in the days to come, and be ready to fight for our right not just to exist, but to be happy and whole.

I wanted to like this so bad. It had a strong start but it just went downhill after their first kiss. There were one too many plots that weren't fully developed. The whole thing with Patricks agent making him stay closeted yet she faces no repercussions at the end? Will and Patrick were cute but I just wanted more of them.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Superhero movie star falls for local drag queen, it’s a tale as old as time. I’m a sucker for a celebrity romance that provides commentary on Hollywood and the sacrifices that people make living in the public eye, so I had a great time with this book. Patrick is in England filming the second Captain Kismet movie when he meets Will, a local drag queen and bookseller. The two become fast friends, which leads to them secretly dating. But how can this work out when Patrick is in the closet publicly and will return back to the US once filming is done?