Those Who Wait Review — Is It Worth Reading?

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Verdict: A self-published sapphic slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance with genuinely charged chemistry and a closeted-politician subplot that raises the stakes, held back by a length even its biggest fans keep asking an editor to trim.

Best for: Readers who want a friends-with-benefits-to-romance arc played all the way out with mature, direct communication between the leads, and who don’t mind 600-plus pages to get there.

Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — explicit open door)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.0/5 — a 4.35 Goodreads average pulled down by a length complaint that shows up in nearly every review, including the raves)

Tropes: Friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, secret/closeted relationship, slow burn, bisexual awakening, political intrigue, dual POV, contemporary romance, standalone with series ties.

Those Who Wait by Haley Cass is a self-published contemporary sapphic romance and the first book in the loosely connected Those Who Wait universe, following grad student Sutton and closeted New York deputy mayor Charlotte as a years-long friendship curdles into something neither of them can keep filed under “just friends” once Charlotte’s political career makes secrecy the price of admission.

It holds a 4.35 average across 27,426 Goodreads ratings — exceptional numbers for a self-published title — and an audiobook that runs nearly 21 hours, long enough that at least one listener has publicly given up halfway through. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.

What Is Those Who Wait About?

Those Who Wait is a contemporary sapphic romance built on two genre engines at once: a slow-burn friends-to-lovers arc and a closeted-relationship plot borrowed from political fiction, where being seen together in public is a career risk rather than an inconvenience. That combination means the tension isn’t just will-they-won’t-they — it’s how long two people can keep choosing each other in private before the secrecy itself becomes the thing driving them apart.

Sutton is a grad student who has spent years being the safe, steady friend in Charlotte’s orbit — good at showing up, less practiced at asking for anything back. Charlotte, a New York deputy mayor, has built her adult life around the assumption that a public same-sex relationship would cost her the career she’s spent a decade earning, and she’s never had to test whether that assumption is true. The book runs dual third-person POV, so the reader gets both the friendship as Sutton experiences it and the calculation Charlotte is running underneath hers — and watches the gap between those two versions close.

What Makes This Slow-Burn Friends-to-Lovers Romance Work

• The chemistry: Reviewers call it “intensely re-readably sexy” and “surprisingly fresh” — the friends-to-lovers tension holds up across the entire slow burn rather than resolving early and coasting.
• Direct, mature communication: Several reviewers specifically note the couple talks to each other instead of relying on the genre’s usual miscommunication engine, a structural choice that comes up in nearly every positive review.
• The closeted-politician subplot: Charlotte’s political career gives the secrecy real stakes instead of an arbitrary obstacle, and it’s the element reviewers credit with lifting the book past a standard contemporary romance plot.
• Sutton’s mother: Named repeatedly as the standout of the supporting cast — the rare secondary character reviewers say they still remember after finishing.
• The bonus epilogue: “Forever and a Day,” the extended-epilogue novella, is cited again and again as a satisfying coda rather than a cash-grab extra.

Book Synopsis

Sutton and Charlotte have been friends for years by the time this book opens — long enough that Sutton has learned to read Charlotte’s moods from across a room, and long enough that neither of them questions why they’ve never dated anyone who seriously threatened the friendship. Sutton is finishing a graduate degree and building a life that still has room to be figured out. Charlotte is New York’s deputy mayor, a rising political figure with a career that runs on being liked, being trusted, and — as far as anyone outside her closest circle knows — being straight.

What starts as something neither of them plans for tips into a friends-with-benefits arrangement that both of them tell themselves is manageable, because manageable is what it has to be. Charlotte cannot risk being photographed with a girlfriend; Sutton cannot pretend the arrangement isn’t turning into something she wants to claim in daylight. The bargain works, for a while, because both women are good at compartmentalizing — Charlotte professionally, Sutton emotionally — and because naming what is actually happening between them comes with a cost only one of them is being asked to pay.

That imbalance is where the real question of the book lives: not whether Sutton and Charlotte want each other, which is never really in doubt, but whether Charlotte’s career and Sutton’s patience can survive the same secret for as long as it takes Charlotte to decide what she’s actually willing to lose.

My Review

What Those Who Wait gets right first is the central chemistry, and I want to say that plainly because nearly everything after this paragraph comes with an asterisk. Sutton and Charlotte’s dynamic is the kind reviewers describe as “intensely re-readably sexy” — tension that survives the shift from friendship to something else without ever going flat, built on years of the two of them already knowing each other rather than a spark between strangers. That’s the harder version of slow burn to pull off, and Cass gets it right.

The second real strength is how the book handles conflict. Multiple reviewers single out that Sutton and Charlotte communicate directly instead of leaning on the genre’s usual crossed-wires plotting, and the closeted-politician subplot gives that communication something real to be about — Charlotte isn’t hiding the relationship out of shame, she’s weighing an actual career, and the book treats that as a legitimate cost rather than an obstacle to write around.

Where it struggles is length, and this isn’t a minority complaint — it’s close to universal, showing up in glowing reviews about as often as critical ones. At over 600 pages in paperback and 21 hours on audio, readers describe a book that needs “a good editing trim down,” cite repetitive internal-thought passages, and flag overused words (“smirked,” “quirked”) recurring often enough to notice. One StoryGraph reader DNF’d the audiobook at the ten-hour mark with ten hours still to go. The third act draws out longest — at least one reviewer found the resolution landed with less emotional weight than the buildup earned.

One expectation worth resetting: the political stakes are real but not deeply detailed — Charlotte’s actual politics stay vague, which at least one reviewer flagged directly. This isn’t a book interested in the mechanics of city government; the politician framing exists to manufacture secrecy, not to explore policy. If you came for political intrigue as its own plotline, recalibrate; if you came for the chemistry and the closet as an emotional pressure cooker, that’s what’s on the page.

My honest note: A five-star friendship-to-romance arc trapped inside a book longer than its own tension strictly requires. If you read slow burn for the wait itself, that length becomes an asset rather than a flaw.

Element	In Those Who Wait
Central relationship	Sutton & Charlotte — grad student and closeted deputy mayor, friends-to-lovers
Core tropes	Friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, secret/closeted relationship, slow burn, bisexual awakening
Setting	Contemporary Washington D.C. and New York — the world of city politics
Heat level	4/5 — explicit open door
Series	Book 1 of the Those Who Wait universe — complete standalone arc and HEA; later books follow different couples
Content notes	Explicit sexual content, a closeted/secret relationship kept for career reasons, coming-out and bisexual-awakening themes, a friends-with-benefits arrangement; no self-harm, death, or abuse flagged by reviewers

How Spicy Is Those Who Wait?

romance.io rates the heat at 4 out of 5, in its “Explicit open door” band — one step below its top rating — and an independent review from eyrie.org describes the spice level as moderate, which corroborates the band rather than contradicting it. Reader reviews consistently name the sex scenes as one of the book’s stronger elements rather than a box being checked.

The one thing worth flagging in advance is frequency rather than content: at least one reader found the number of sex scenes excessive to the point of eye-rolling, though that’s a minority view against a much larger chorus calling the chemistry the book’s best asset. No reviewer in this sweep raises a consent or dynamic concern about the scenes themselves. If you want this exact band of heat elsewhere, On the Same Page and Crossing the Line both sit in the same “explicit open door” band.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a friends-to-lovers arc with real, sustained tension, you prefer couples who talk to each other over ones built on miscommunication, you’re drawn to a closeted-relationship plot with genuine career stakes, and you don’t mind — or actively want — 600-plus pages to get to the payoff.

You may want to skip it if: pacing and length pull you out of a book fast, you’re hoping for a rigorously detailed political-fiction subplot rather than a closet used mainly for tension, repetitive internal narration is a dealbreaker, or you want a third act that resolves quickly rather than one that lingers.

In short: a genuinely charged slow burn that asks a real investment of time and gives most readers a real payoff for it.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)

There’s no single viral moment driving new readers to Those Who Wait: TikTok shows active discovery pages for this title and for the newer entries in Cass’s catalogue, but whether that activity is organic or author-seeded isn’t something this research could confirm, and no substantive Reddit discussion turned up. What is verifiable is steadier, and more telling: 27,426 Goodreads ratings at a 4.35 average and 3,408 written reviews, a genuine specialty-press footprint — The Lesbian Review, Queer Media Review, Queer Lit Loft, and Jude in the Stars all covered it independently — and a full audiobook production from Tantor Audio, narrated by Lori Prince across 21 hours and 6 minutes, that extends to the companion novella and the newer books in the same universe. No Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, or Booklist coverage exists, which tracks for a self-published 2020 title with no traditional publisher behind it, but the accumulation across reader platforms and the sapphic-specific review circuit is exactly the kind of slow-build signal that keeps a five-year-old indie title finding new readers.

Prefer audio? Listen to Those Who Wait on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The chemistry, first and by a wide margin — “intensely re-readably sexy” and “surprisingly fresh” both describe the same dynamic. Direct, mature communication is the second most consistent praise point, framed against genre norms that lean on miscommunication instead. The closeted-politician subplot gets credited with giving the book stakes beyond a typical contemporary romance, and Sutton’s mother is named repeatedly as the standout of the supporting cast. Forever and a Day, the extended-epilogue novella, comes up again and again as a satisfying bonus rather than a cash grab. One notable minority view: The Lesbian Review’s only listed complaint was wanting the book longer — the opposite of the majority’s ask.

What readers argue about and complain about: Length and pacing, above everything — the one complaint that shows up in nearly every review sampled, including four- and five-star ones. Reviewers describe a book that “needs a good editing trim down,” call 600-plus pages “unnecessarily lengthy,” and single out repetitive internal-thought passages and overused words like “smirked” and “quirked.” One StoryGraph reader DNF’d the 21-hour audiobook at the ten-hour mark specifically because of the length. Second: the third act — at least one reviewer found the breakup “dragged on” and the resolution “lacked emotional impact.” Third, and more minor: Charlotte’s politics read as vague given how central her career is, and one reader read her behavior during the secrecy stretch as arguably manipulative — a genuine, if minority, dissent on the central romance itself.

The standalone question worth asking first: Those Who Wait resolves completely — Sutton and Charlotte’s arc has a full ending and an HEA, extended by the Forever and a Day epilogue novella, and nothing about it requires a sequel to feel finished. It’s Book 1 of a loosely connected universe rather than the start of a serialized couple’s story: The Snowball Effect (Book 2) and Midnight Rain (Book 3) follow entirely different pairs of characters in the same fictional world. If what you loved was Sutton and Charlotte specifically, Forever and a Day is the only further reading that continues them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Those Who Wait end on a cliffhanger?

No. Sutton and Charlotte’s story resolves completely, with an earned HEA and an extended epilogue novella, Forever and a Day. Later books in the universe follow different couples entirely.

How spicy is Those Who Wait?

A 4/5 on romance.io’s scale, labeled “explicit open door.” Reviewers consistently name the chemistry and the sex scenes as strengths.

Do I need to read the rest of the Those Who Wait series?

No. This is Book 1 of a loosely connected universe, and The Snowball Effect and Midnight Rain follow different couples rather than continuing Sutton and Charlotte’s story. Forever and a Day is the only direct continuation, and it’s a bonus rather than required reading.

Is there an audiobook of Those Who Wait?

Yes — narrated by Lori Prince for Tantor Audio, running 21 hours and 6 minutes, also available on Audible, Chirp, and Kobo.

Is Those Who Wait self-published?

Yes. Both Waterstones and AbeBooks list it as independently published — the book Cass wrote before later signing with Simon & Schuster for a different title.

Does Those Who Wait involve infidelity?

No. Charlotte’s relationship with Sutton is a secret one, kept from the public for career reasons rather than kept from another partner — reviewers describe it as a closeted relationship, not a cheating plot.

If You Loved Those Who Wait, Read These Next

Readers who loved the friends-to-lovers engine here, built on years of accumulated history rather than a spark between strangers, should look at On the Same Page, which runs the same trope at the same explicit-open-door heat level. If it was the mutual-pining tension and the unusually healthy communication that hooked you, The Pining Paradox delivers both without a dragged-out third-act breakup. And if the draw was watching two women hide a relationship because one of them has too much to lose publicly, Crossing the Line runs a comparable secrecy engine through a different power dynamic. For more in this register, browse our Friends-to-Lovers reading list or the full Book Reviews collection.

Why It Made Our Lists

Those Who Wait is featured on our Lesbian & Sapphic Romance on Kindle Unlimited guide.

The Bottom Line

Those Who Wait sets out to write a friends-to-lovers slow burn with real stakes, and it delivers: the chemistry between Sutton and Charlotte holds up across the entire book, the direct communication between them is a genuine structural strength, and the closeted-politician subplot gives the secrecy something real to cost. Set against that: the book runs long enough that even its biggest fans ask for an edit, the third act drags in a way that blunts its own payoff for some readers, and Charlotte’s politics stay more atmosphere than substance. If you read slow burn for the wait itself and don’t mind 600-plus pages getting there, this delivers one of the more satisfying friends-to-lovers arcs in the genre. Check Those Who Wait on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Those Who Wait ranks as a beloved indie sapphic slow burn — genuinely charged and emotionally mature in its central relationship, held back by a length its own fans keep apologizing for, and best approached by readers who want the friends-to-lovers wait played all the way out rather than resolved quickly.

The Evidence Scorecard

Overall ★★★★☆ 4.0/5

• ✓ 4.35 average across 27,426 Goodreads ratings
• ✓ Only about 3% of ratings are 1–2 star
• ✓ Mature communication, real political stakes
• ✓ Length is a near-universal complaint, even in raves

Romance ★★★★☆ 4.4/5

• ✓ Chemistry called “intensely re-readably sexy”
• ✓ No miscommunication engine, leads talk directly
• ✓ Friends-with-benefits arc earns its turn
• ✓ Third-act breakup “dragged on” per one review

Characters ★★★★☆ 4.1/5

• ✓ Sutton’s mother a standout supporting character
• ✓ Dual POV gives both leads real interiority
• ✓ Political-closet stakes deepen Charlotte’s arc
• ✓ Charlotte’s actual politics read as vague

Writing ★★★☆☆ 3.3/5

• ✓ Direct, mature dialogue praised widely
• ✓ Political subplot adds craft depth
• ✓ A minority actively defend the pacing
• ✓ “Needs a good editing trim down” — the loudest critique

Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 4.0/5

• ✓ “One of my favorite books of the year” — multiple reviewers
• ✓ Political-closet stakes raise the emotional cost
• ✓ Forever and a Day epilogue extends the payoff
• ✓ One review says the resolution “lacked emotional impact”

Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5

• ✓ romance.io bands it “explicit open door”
• ✓ eyrie.org corroborates: spice level “moderate”
• ✓ Sex scenes a genuine draw, not filler
• ✓ One reader found the frequency excessive

Ending ★★★★☆ 4.3/5

• ✓ Complete arc for Sutton and Charlotte, no cliffhanger
• ✓ HEA earned by the closeted-relationship stakes
• ✓ Forever and a Day epilogue extends the resolution
• ✓ One review says the third act underwhelms

Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.7/5

• ✓ “Intensely re-readably sexy” — a reviewer’s own words
• ✓ 21-hour audiobook is a genuine second-pass format
• ✓ Forever and a Day gives readers a reason to return
• ✓ 600-plus pages discourage a quick reread

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