To the End of the Line

by Sage Greer

It's been five years since Nicholas Fisher had a falling out with his older brother's best friend Matías Romero. The star of their college soccer team, unnaturally optimistic, and handsome as hell, Matías was seemingly perfect. But brooding, grumpy Nicholas learned the truth the hard way, and he's determined never to fall for Matías's tricks again.

Now a second-year Ph.D. student and newly rooming with his brother, Nicholas just wants to keep his head down and survive the school year. So it's just his luck that Matías is not only moving to Chicago but also needs to crash on their couch for a while.
Despite his best attempts at avoiding Matías, there's only so much he can do when the living room is Matías's temporary bedroom. His reappearance in Nicholas's life, along with a budding romance with a TA, reopens old wounds and upends everything he thought he knew. Nicholas might finally be able to be happy and live, really live. That is, if he can just stop getting in his own way.

A story about academia, siblinghood, and finding joy even when it seems impossible, Sage Greer's debut novel explores the winding, painful, wonderful path toward love and healing.

ebook

Published May 27, 2025

Reviews

[Katelyn Fenech · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a heartwarming story! The characters are so relatable and most of the time get in the way of their own happiness, which often times is one of the biggest life lessons to learn. Accepting yourself for who you are and realizing it’s enough isn’t always easy. Nicholas and Matías are absolutely precious 🥹 Overall a really great read! Loved the elements of found family, post-grad academia, queer representation, and second chances! Cannot believe this is a debut novel! I can’t wait to read more from Sage Greer!

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It probably wouldn't work for everyone, but it worked for them.  Silence, seafood rigatoni, and a show was all the apology either of them needed."

Sage Greer is coming in HOT with this debut novel!  Even though I read the tropes and blurb several times, I still wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this one, but it quickly sucked me in.  Nicholas is just trying to get through his second year of his PhD when he's made aware that his brother's best friend Matías will be moving to their city and is going to sleep on their couch until he finds a place.  Nicholas and Matías had a falling out several years prior, so this interim period is going to test everyone-as if grad school isn't hard enough.  But as the months pass, Nicholas grows in himself and realizes that not all things are as he sees them.
  
I fell in love with the characters from the jump and couldn't wait to learn more about them.  Like, I need a book about Ajay yesterday lol!  The found family is so sweet, not only in Nicholas' immediate friend group, but the extended group as well.  The familial growth between Nicholas and William is so sweet, and seeing them both grow as people was so satisfying and inspiring to read.  The romance plays a very minor part of the overall story, though there is very obvious pining throughout.  Seeing both Nicholas and Matías grow in themselves, which then helps them grow with each other is so sweet and I just want to snuggle them both!

If you're looking for a sweet love story with an incredible found family and an academic setting, To The End Of The Line is for you!

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this in the back of a moving car and not even carsickness could make me put it down! I loved these characters and their world so much and was so sad to be done when I finished it.

This is a heartwarming, character-driven love story - but it's also about complex family relationships, living with grief, and the constant re-figuring out who you are (or can be, if you let yourself) in your late 20s (increasingly my favourite theme as I approach my 30s myself). I loved how 'real' the characters felt, and found the conflicts depicted and dialogues really earnest. Nicholas in particular is a character I think will sit with me for a really long time!

[S. Shybrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Maybe if he managed to crawl inside the other man’s radiance, let himself be swept away by his influence, one day Nicholas could become someone for whom happiness was an option.”

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐ / 5
Spice 🌶️: 0 / 5

As a reader, I tend to be heavily influenced by how I feel at the end of the book. And this ending was just sweet and adorable enough to make up for the struggles earlier on. Overall, this is a wonderful exploration of trauma, healing, and the process of growing into adulthood. And because it focuses on that tumultuous time in our development as humans, there’s a whole lot of emotional angst along the way.

The pain is worth working through, though. Greer has crafted an achingly human and believable lead in Nicholas (even if I wanted to dropkick him more than once…or ten times). And Matías? I wanted to wrap him up in fluffy cotton and protect him fiercely. It seemed obvious to me (and honestly everyone but Nicholas) what he was going through and my heart broke for our sunshine boy.

And the cast of supporting characters? Absolutely divine. I want more from so many of them.

Finishing this took longer than normal for me, though it sucked me in there at the end. It also leans heavily into internal dialogue and explanation despite the POV, which made it hard to wade through at times (the dialogue to prose ratio weighs heavily to prose, particularly in the first 60%).

Fair warning, Nicholas is a severely unlikable and almost painfully oblivious (because of his selfishness) character. He has reasons, but we spend so much time with his petulance and so little time with his self awareness and introspection that it felt difficult to read at times. At the end of the day, he’s broken. But he cares enough to want not to be and that’s a huge first step.

Ultimately, this story worked for me because of how real Nicholas’s flaws felt. This is a man living with the impact of a deeply traumatic childhood loss and its devastating toll on his family. We humans aren’t perfect and Nicholas has to confront his failings at every turn. Has he fully earned his HEA? I’m not sure. But he tried, and that’s enough for me.

If you love a deep, emotional dive into a flawed human’s psyche, a love story with a heartwarming conclusion, and no spice (other than some very wholesome kissing/making out), this is an ideal read for you.

📚Fast facts📚
✨ Friends to enemies to lovers
✨ Soccer / football (recreational)
✨ Grad students
✨ Brother’s best friend
✨ Grumpy/sunshine
✨ Mental health rep
✨ Childhood trauma (loss of sibling)
✨ Closed door
✨ Contemporary MM
✨ Standalone
✨ Third person limited, single POV, past tense (high brow)

I am so grateful to the author and Contrarian Publishing to have received an advanced copy of this story! This is my honest and unbiased review.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicholas is a Chicago PhD student who currently is housemates with his older brother. Past scars are re-opened when his older brother’s best friends Matías comes to live with them. Juggling with his studies and having to live with Matías, Nicholas has to find a way to balance both.

This is a slow burn story that takes a while to get into the heart of the story.

[Andra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me laugh, made me cry, made me feel all the feelings and I’m so grateful for it. It was such a beautiful story of discovery, love, queerness and especially growth for all the characters, it felt like a warm hug and i didn’t want it to end. It was so great.

So happy to have had an ARC of it, and I cannot wait to see more of what Sage puts out.

[Leah Block · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so lucky to copy-edit this book & fell in love with it while reading. I can't wait to own a hard copy in May!