In this young adult Grease-meets-Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda story, Sophie Gonzales’s newest novel Only Mostly Devastated tells the story of two boys figuring out how to love each other when circumstances change.
Ollie and Will were meant to be a summer fling—casual, fun, and done. But when Ollie’s aunt's health takes a turn for the worse and his family decides to stay in North Carolina to take care of her, Ollie lets himself hope this fling can grow to something more. Dreams that are crushed when he sees Will at a school party and finds that the sweet and affectionate (and comfortably queer) guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. Will is more than a little shocked to see Ollie the evening of that first day of school. While his summer was spent being very much himself, back at school he’s simply known as one of the varsity basketball guys. Now Will is faced with the biggest challenge of his life: follow his heart and risk his friendships, or stay firmly in the closet and lose what he loves most.
The best word to describe this novel is cute! At first, it seems like just a copycat of the musical, Grease, but Gonzales makes the story her own and puts a modern twist on the musical classic. Ollie and Will aren’t exact replicas of Sandy and Danny, but the resemblance is there. The supporting cast of characters also resembles the rest of the Grease cast, but modern adjustments are made to make these characters more of parallels than doppelgangers.
This YA romance touches upon a lot of the plot points you'd expect: making new friends, adjusting to a new life, kind-of- unrequited love. But there is the underlying theme about learning how to be yourself and also how to be in a relationship with someone. Ollie learns that he can’t force Will to be with him and that relationships are a two-way street. Similarly, Will realizes that keeping his and Ollie’s relationship a secret because of his fear of being outed isn’t fair to Ollie. However, it takes him a LONG time to realize that he’s being unfair to Ollie and it gets a bit trite after a while.
Ollie must also deal with family drama and loss amidst the school and relationship drama. He learns that sometimes life is unfair and too short, so to make the most of it while you can, which helps him to work on his romance with Will.
High school cliches and YA tropes run rampant in this book, so if that's not your thing, then you might want to pass on this book. However, lovers of YA and retellings will really enjoy Ollie’s story and relate to his sarcasm and nervousness about figuring out life and love. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but nothing quite stood out to me to set this story apart from other YA romances.

I don't know if it counts as a genre, but retellings are (and always have been) some of my favorite types of books. I love seeing how authors adapt a story and make it completely their own, sometimes only drawing on the most minimal of details in order to craft a wholly unique story that captures today's audience in ways that the original source material wouldn't have.

However, the funny thing is, that I tend to read a lot of retellings without meaning to. I am a fool, so I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to blurbs and synopsis, which leads to me being completely blindsided when the book I'm reading turns out to be a retelling. I get super excited like I somehow solved a mystery, even though it says right on the back of the book that it's a retelling. This has happened to me countless times, and it's a lil' embarrassing at this point. Why am I telling you all this? Welp. It happened again, folks. I'm a little dummy that had absolutely no idea Only Mostly Devastated is a Grease retelling

Do I love Grease?

Yes.

Did I love this retelling?

Hells to the yeah.

Want to hear why I loved it and why you should read it too? (Of course, you do, this is a rhetorical question).


3 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD READ ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED

1. It's a Grease retelling with LGBTQ+ rep!!

Grease is one of the best musical films out there. Sure it has its issues, but it is a classic. And what better way to pay tribute to a classic than to adapt it to a book that takes place in our times, and features LGBTQ+ representation? Sophie Gonzalez adapts Grease beautifully in this book, she stays true to some of the themes from the original film, while adding more dimension and new characters, making the story 100% her own. I listened to the entire Grease soundtrack while reading this book, and lemme tell you, it enhances the experience. 10/10 would recommend.

2. The characters are all so fleshed out and dimensional!

I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading this book because, despite the complicatedness of Ollie and Will's relationship, both of their characters were fleshed out where you clearly understood both sides of their stories. I think that this is quite a feat, considering that the book is narrated by Ollie, and there was the opportunity for it to be completely one-sided. Many other times throughout the book, multiple characters work through their problems with a sense of realism and maturity that you don't often see in YA. I loved that the characters were portrayed as real people and they dealt with their problems as real people would.

3. Family, Family, Family

Books with families that consist of more than your usual nuclear family have always been a fave of mine. And ones with strong familial relationships of any kind? Perfection. In Only Mostly Devastated, Ollie's family moves so that they can help take care of his Aunt Linda who has cancer. Ollie routinely babysits his younger cousins, and his whole family has such a wonderful dynamic.


There are many many more reasons that I liked Only Mostly Devastated, but some are spoilers so you're just going to have to read the book and find them for yourself. Only Mostly Devastated is adorable, well-written, has wonderfully fleshed-out characters, and I don't know if you got this yet, but it's a Grease retelling.

I truly enjoyed reading this.

I couldn't put it down and just kept on ready till it was done.

I think the main thing that I really liked about this, was that it wasn't just a surface level that you'd except from hearing "Grease Inspired", or at least that I expected. When I think Grease I think light and fun and a good time.

But this was so much more then that. I'm not sure if it's because I could relate to some of the themes in here or if it's because I saw the characters react in a way that I would have in some of the situations they were put in, but this book was just amazing to me and these the teenagers in the story reminded me of, well me, but also actual teenagers with regular problems that they face.

They felt more real to me then teenagers from Movies and TV Shows.

I received a complimentary copy of Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales from Wednesday Books through Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Only Mostly Devastated will be released on March 3rd!
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Ollie and his family visited a lake in North Carolina for the summer to visit with and help take care of his aunt, who is fighting cancer. Over the summer, Ollie had a summer romance with Will at the lake and the two parted, knowing Ollie would go back to California and they may not see each other again. But when Ollie's family decides to move to North Carolina for his senior year to help his Aunt Linda and her family, the possibility of seeing Will again becomes more real. It then becomes extremely real when Ollie finds himself face-to-face with Will at a party the first night of school. The problem is Will isn't out and Ollie may have told his new friends about his summer fling, not realizing they would know Will. And this Will isn't one Ollie recognizes. Instead of the sweet, thoughtful boy from the lake this Will is a bro basketball star and class clown. Does Ollie even want anything to do with this Will?
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This m/m reimagining of Grease is a fun, sweet YA LGBTQ+ story. It isn't all fun and games, though. The story does deal heavily with a family member struggling with cancer, so if that's a trigger for you, you should probably skip this one! Ollie is a relatable and interesting main character, Will is layered and complicated, and there are a number of well-developed side characters that you'll be rooting for too! I inhaled this book after a bit of a reading slump. It pulled me right in! I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a good LGBTQ+ romance!

I was very excited for this book;the premise of this book was intriguing. The characters were likable, but not lovable. I wanted to know the ending, but didn't ever really root for or care about the characters. The story line seemed to drag for large chunks, though I really wanted to know how the book ended.

only mostly devastated is the queer grease retelling we never knew we needed. after spending a summer at a north carolina lake, california boy ollie will is shocked to learn that his parents have decided to stay. in large part it's because his aunt is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, but it's his senior year and he had plans. but silver lining, he'd had this amazing summer romance with a boy named will, and maybe, just maybe things will work out?

except will totally ghosts him. and when ollie realizes that he's accidentally outed will to his new friends, who are all friends with will's regular crew, things get complicated.

will isn't out, but he's trying to figure himself out. because he can't or doesn't want to stay away from ollie. and ollie wants sto give him as many chances as he can.

i inhaled this book in one sitting, and i was shocked when it ended, because i would have gladly kept on reading. this story is so, so good. just absolutely adored it.

**only mostly devastated will publish on march 3, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press (wednesday books) in exchange for my honest review.

This is by far one of the greatest debuts I have read in a long time. I was expecting a cute and fluffy queer romance and wasn't expecting the punch in the heart, but I'm glad it did. This book dealt with some heavy topics in the most realistic way and I appreciate that. Also I got every single Grease reference and I was living for them! Ollie and Will are by far one of the cutest and realest couples I have read in fiction in a long while! I will read anything and everything Sophie writes from here on out!

Also Trigger Warnings for: Terminal Illness, Death of a Loved One, Homophobia, and Internalized Homophobia for those that need these. :)

This was an absurdly adorable re-telling of Grease between two boys in North Carolina. The romance is really sweet, and grows slowly throughout the story. Don't be fooled, though, and think that this book doesn't cover really heavy topics in addition to being an adorable romance. Grief, death, and homophobia are all part of this story, and are handled well.
Being from the South, I enjoyed the North Carolina setting. I do think that there could have been more evidence of the South in this story, because it nearly felt like any small town USA town, which was unfortunate.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Ollie had the perfect summer fling with the perfect summer boy Will. They were at the lake and spent all the time they could together. They just didn't expect to meet again in real life, when Ollie has to move locally to be near his aunt. That's when he meets the real Will, a jock who pretends not to even know him. And yet, Ollie can't forget him.

This was a fun romance to read. I was very excited for it since I first read the summary, and even tweeted about it then, so you can't call this a case of expectations. The whole thing was very built, we have a group of lovely characters, especially Ollie's friends, each with a backstory and their own personalities. We have Ollie's family and his aunt diagnosed with terminal cancer but still very much alive with her children. Finally, we have Will's own issues with his identity and his family. And yet, the writer never lost focus on the romance, which is what at least made me get this book.

What I really didn't like about it was Will himself. It's very easy to understand his situation is hard. No one should be forced out of the closet, so Ollie can't really expect it, but no one is allowed to be a jerk. At the same time, we see Will treat Ollie the way he does when they meet again but it's very obvious he's just a jerk to Ollie. If you go from the summary and Ollie's own description, Real Will was supposed to be the stereotypical jock, but we barely see him act as such, his façade is mostly told and not shown. Because of that, the way he acts toward Ollie makes even less sense. Later on, there is more explanation to why he did it, but I don't think it redeemed him enough. In other words, I never bought Will. He didn't make my heart flutter and to the last page he made me anxious about whether he'd treat Ollie right.

All my issues with the story actually goes back to Will, which is a pity because everything else was perfect. I really recommend it to YA readers, it's a great and entertaining story.

For the first quarter of this book I was rolling my eyes at how contrived it was, but once it started developing the characters and especially after Aunt Linda died it really came into its own. The anniversary of my mother's death is this week & Only Mostly Devastated nailed the grieving process. It captured everything I was thinking & feeling when my mom died. I found it very comforting that Ollie shared my pain. I know this wasn't the main plot, but it absolutely gave the story a depth that was sorely lacking early on. The book had a couple of references to Grease, like naming the main character Oliver, but it could have gotten away with so many more (e.g. why wasn't Will named Johnny?).

Ollie's aunt is sick so his family relocates to North Carolina for the summer to help. Ollie takes on the task of babysitting his cousins since his aunt and uncle can't afford child care with their medical bills. Renting side-by-side lake houses, Ollie takes on the role without complaint. But at the lake, Ollie meets Will. Still dedicated to his family, Ollie ends up having the best summer, including a fling with Will. However, when the time comes to leave North Carolina, Ollie's parents decide to stay to continue to assist his Aunt Linda and her family, meaning Ollie will have to enroll in a new school for his senior year. Yet that's the least of Ollie's problems when he realizes that he now attends the same school as Will who is still not out.

I was pretty sold on this book when I read that it was being billed as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless with the format of Grease, and though I wondered how Sophie Gonzales would deliver on all of these promises, I found that the book satisfyingly achieved this description. Yet it reached beyond this description and did so much more. What was truly enjoyable about the novel was the amount of character development. Every character had flaws, but they are all likable. Overall, the novel has a lot of heart.

As the main character, Ollie is assured since he's comfortable with his sexuality and is out. However, Ollie is also sarcastic and relatable to the reader. His internal dialogue, particularly the moments where he considers what he calls the Great Eternal Being, are often very funny and at times deeply moving. Ollie is also very empathetic and readers are able to see this when he interacts with his cousins, Dylan and Crista; his aunt and uncle; his parents; the rose-gold girls, Juliette, Lara, and Niamh; his band; and Will. As a person, Ollie is also able to read people very well and consider what they may be hiding behind actions or comments. In fact, the growth between Ollie and Lara was one of my favorite aspects of the novel. Overall, Ollie was well-rounded with multiple interests, perspectives, and life experiences that really allowed him to become a part of the lives of the secondary characters and grow himself.

Will Tavares was also well-drawn. As a varsity basketball player, Will has a specific image that he feels he needs to project for both the team and his parents. Since his parents are paying for college, coming out doesn't seem like an option. As for the team, he fears they won't see him the same. Will's journey was difficult, but Gonzales handled his character with sensitivity. The journey that Will takes is one of the best examinations of how familial, cultural, and societal pressure can determine how easy it is to be yourself.

Finally, the rose-gold crew of Juliette, Lara, and Niamh all began as flat characters. Many authors would leave them as such, but Gonzales fleshed out each character, providing them with their own journeys and really showing how Ollie helped complete the group. I loved these three, but Lara was my favorite, even though I initially disliked her.

And though I won't spoil the ending, there's a lot to recommend here. As a coming of age tale, this deals with coming out, sickness, and death. These are pretty heavy topics, but Gonzales's writing and character development offered an even hand on each issue. Overall, this is well worth the read!

I got an ARC of this book.

Apparently my love of Grease is a secret. I found out my partner had no idea how much I loved the movie and the music. I am beyond shocked. I felt betrayed by how little he knew about me. It was a whole production, which resulted in my re-watching the movie and listening to the sound track for hours and hours. So I am beyond ready to tell you just how this compares to Grease in excruciating detail.

But first, lets start with how the book stands on its own. It is a wonderful YA romance that has f/f, m/m, and some m/f as well. There is a little bit of stuff sprinkled in that just made me love it so much more than I expected. The writing was solid. It had clear plots and clear character development. It was obviously based on the ideas of Grease, but imagine if you will that Grease was better. I KNOW? I am shocking myself with this statement considering how much I love Grease.

So now onto comparing it with Grease. I will keep this brief.

Characters: Danny's motivations in the movie for avoiding Sandy and just being a jerk aren't ever really made clear. Will's motives make a lot more sense. He isn't out. He is afraid if he comes out his world will end. He has a stronger character arch because of this strife in his life. So I am much happier with Will than I ever was with Danny. Danny was also not the best guy when he was with Sandy, but Will really did try to be respectful and support Ollie.  The pink ladies were replaced with much more fleshed out characters. Jan is no longer just the "fat" weird girl of the group. She has a plot! Rizzo is just so much more human. Frenchie has a real plot that makes complete sense and doesn't feel like it is dropped and picked up at will.

Plot: Grease is very much a romantic musical. It was generally light and fluffy, but with some darker things like Rizzo's pregnancy plot. The book, however, deals with coming out, death, cancer, and medical issues. There is so much more. The characters, especially the pink ladies/roses get much more fleshed out plots. Their characters have more motivation. Like Rizzo/Lara doesn't just ambush Sandy/Ollie at a school function with Danny/Will. Instead there is actually a reason that happens. It makes sense, it has more meaning. The reason Lara does what she does matters. She is dealing with things the whole book. She has a real life and feelings. Her anger and her meanness are clearly disguising her plot and it is done so well. Rizzo was not the nicest even before her one plot point really began. Plus the ending wasn't about drastically changing who you were to get someone to love you. It was about learning how to support and meet someone half way when it came to being in a healthy relationship. It just works better. 

Music: well the book has no music. That is the only thing I didn't like. However, if you stop at the appropriate scenes to sing the songs, it still works. Though some of the songs have to change a bit. Like the jingle (brusha brusha brusha) that Jan sings doesn't really fit into the book at all. 

So if you like Grease, but you think it could be better then this is the book for you. If you have no idea what Grease is, but you like YA m/m romances, then try this book. It is wonderfully written, tackles important issues in a way that feels natural, and the characters are ones that will grow on you.

I had a very hard time getting through this book. The topic sounded interesting enough for me to be willing to read it, but something in the writing just didn't caught me and thou i read the book i didn't enjoyed it as much as i expected.

This book is all kinds of adorable!!

"It was late afternoon, on the very last Wednesday of August, when I realized Disney had been lying to me for quite some time about Happily Ever Afters. Because, you see, I was four days into mine, and my prince was nowhere to be found. Gone. Vanished."

Ollie and his parents moved to North Carolina from California for the summer when his aunt becomes ill. He spends most of his summer at the beach, taking care of his young cousins. There he meets Will—handsome, kind, athletic, and fun—and it's not too long before the two have completely fallen for one another. But after Will leaves the beach to head home, Ollie never hears from him again—no calls, texts, nothing.

As if that's not enough for Ollie to deal with, his family has decided to stay in North Carolina to help care for his aunt for a year. Now he has to do his senior year in a completely new school, which seems like the worst possible scenario. Then he discovers that it's the same school Will attends, which is fantastic...until he discovers that no one knows Will is gay, and worse than that, this version of Will—the cocky, clownish, closeted bro—isn't someone that Ollie likes at all.

Ollie makes friends with a circle of girls, each with their own challenges to deal with. Will is torn between wanting to spend time with Ollie and overcompensating whenever one of his friends from the basketball team comes by and could possibly suspect the truth about Will. It gets to the point where Ollie is tired of being treated like dirt by Will, tired of being jerked around so Will can maintain his reputation.

Meanwhile, as things with Ollie's family get tougher and tougher to deal with, Will's on-again, off-again feelings become a challenge for Ollie, too. He understands what it's like not to be ready to share your sexuality with others, but Ollie doesn't deserve to be an afterthought. But how many times can he be the butt of a joke from Will's friends or, worse, Will himself? How can he stand by and watch as Will pretends to be someone he's not at Ollie's expense?

Only Mostly Devastated is a really sweet and funny book, with an added layer of poignancy. I like the complexities that Sophie Gonzales gave her characters, so this was a little bit more than just a high school rom-com. Once again, when I read this book I found myself wishing something like this existed when I was younger and wondered whether there was anyone else out there who felt the way I did, and once again I'm grateful we live in a world where books like these are plentiful.

I've got to question the marketing of this one, though: it's being billed as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless in this boy-meets-boy spin on Grease. The only similarity I see between any of those and the book is when Will's new friends realize that the boy he's been talking about is someone from their own school—a slight parallel to that scenario in the movie Grease.

As with many rom-coms, there's nothing earth-shattering about Only Mostly Devastated, but Gonzales' writing is so engaging, and its story is one you want to root for. Can you ask for much more than that?

NetGalley and Wednesday Books gave me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Only Mostly Devastated publishes March 3.

This was a really cute twist on a summer romance. Ollie was an extremely endearing character, and felt like a really honest representation of a teenager who love his family. The ending of this book was the perfect romance story, and again the focus on the importance of family was really well done.
Some elements of the book I found difficult were the conversations with the basketball team, and how easily those characters were forgiven for their offensive language and beliefs. I loved that the story redeemed them but I am not sure they quite earned that redemption in the pages of this book.
4 out of 5 stars

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at St. Martin’s Press. Ollie just had the perfect summer romance with Will, but he’s due to go back home to California before the school year starts. When his aunt’s health takes a turn for the worse, his parents decide to stay in North Carolina to help out. Ollie isn’t thrilled to be spending his senior year at a new school, but he’s hopeful that he and Will can pick up where they left off–that is, until he sees Will at a school party, and the sweet, thoughtful, and comfortably out boy he met at the lake has become an arrogant jock and king of the popular crowd. It’s clear that they can’t be together as long as Will is in the closet, and Ollie is, well, only mostly devastated. Trigger warnings: death, parent death, severe illness, cancer, hospitals, grief, homophobia, fat-shaming, slurs, bullying.

This is exactly as cute as it sounds, plus a couple more things I wasn’t expecting. In terms of contemporary YA romance, I absolutely recommend it for fans of the genre. There’s plenty of angst, hot and cold, mutual pining, and fluffy cutes to satisfy any romance readers. Almost every major character is a POC, there’s a plus-size model who’s always described as the most beautiful girl in the room, and, along with the main mlm romance, there’s also a side character whose bisexuality takes a subplot. Good representation across the board, and while the characters deal directly with fat-shaming, homophobia, and struggling with whether or not to come out, it always felt realistic and respectful.

I love the characters. Ollie’s narrative point of view is consistently quirky and funny (without the bitter sarcasm of some teenage characters), and there are strong friendship themes in the novel with Juliette, Niamh, and Lara. I don’t like it when characters abandon their friends to hang out with their crush, and that’s not the case here. The friendships take at least as much page-time, and they’re as important to Ollie as his relationship with Will. As for that, it’s appropriately complex, and I felt like we really got to know both of them over the course of the novel. Unlike Danny in Grease, who’s just a jerk, Will can’t commit without outing himself, and I felt significantly worse for him. Both Ollie and Will have adjustments to make, and I came away from the novel feeling like they’d both matured some when it came to acknowledging other people’s needs/feelings.

There’s also a strong family message, since Ollie’s Aunt Linda’s battle with cancer is one of the major plots. Lots of crying (on my part, on Ollie’s part, everyone was crying), but I really like how close Ollie is with his family, particularly his aunt and little cousins, and how they don’t just get shunted aside in favor of romance. With one or two exceptions, it feels very much like a snapshot of real life, where everything happens at once and you have to figure out how you can be both sad and happy at the same time. In short, Only Mostly Devastated has pretty much everything readers could want. While there’s plenty of closure for a stand-alone novel, my fingers are crossed for a sequel! I’d like to spend more time with these characters.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I was sent an early copy of Only Mostly Devastated by the publisher so that I could share my review with you!

Ollie and Will had a whirlwind summer romance, but maybe it was meant to stay in the summer. When a family emergency causes Ollie’s family to move to the town where they spent their summer vacation, Ollie is conflicted. On one hand, he doesn’t want to leave his friends and the life he had in California, but he’s also excited at the prospect of reuniting with the boy he became so entranced with over the vacation. When he finds out that his new school is the one Will attends, Ollie cannot believe his luck, but the Will at school doesn’t remotely resemble the boy he spent so much time with. Will refuses to associate with Ollie, leaving him confused and friendless. Maybe romances like the kind they shared aren’t meant to last in the real world.

I absolutely flew through reading this book- it was a more perfect romance than I thought was possible to find on a shelf! Sophie Gonzales wrote a retelling of Grease that I personally favor over the original, especially in its ending! The plot touches on several very serious emotional issues very delicately, with a humanity that actually brought me to tears (and I don’t cry while reading). I wish we had more queer retellings out there like Only Mostly Devastated, because I don’t know what I can read next that will top this book!

You can get your copy of Only Mostly Devastated on March 3rd from Wednesday Books!

My Recommendation-
If you have been needed a sweet romance novel to lighten your heart, Only Mostly Devastated is certain to do the trick. If you are a fan of Adam Silvera, Casey McQuiston or Robin Talley, Sophie Gonzales is an author you are going to absolutely love!

[4.5 Stars]

"Only Mostly Devastated" was an incredible journey. This novel boasts POC representation, queer representation, and a look into the many sides of coming out as lgbtq. I was worried in the beginning that Will's character wouldn't develop and his internalized homophobia wouldn't be addressed but I was proven otherwise when both Will and even Ollie were introspective about their behaviors and started to work through them in a more healthy and non-toxic way. Will's friends however I feel like got off a little to easy but this is fiction so I'm not too hard pressed.

The friendship between Ollie and the girls was very relatable and realistic; with parties, arguments, and bonding I really felt a connection with these characters. Lara and Ollie's shared experiences and slow budding friendship was a personal favorite!

Ollie's family going through the grief of losing a loved one (Aunt Linda) was a visceral experience and I'll not lie, I definitely shed plenty of tears throughout. It was a realistic look into how different people process loss.

Can't wait to see this on shelves!

A charming, quick read with surprising moments of depth and heart!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC of Only Mostly Devastated! (This in no way influenced my opinion of the book, and whatnot)*

I think my actual rating for this book is somewhere in the 3.5-4 star range, but I am giving it the 4 stars regardless because I did enjoy this book a fair amount. It was a fast and engaging read. I read it in two sittings, which is uncommon for me. This story is pitched as Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless, inspired by Grease. I don't see the Clueless connection, but I do think this book is a cousin to Simon Vs. If you're a fan of Becky Albertalli and her writing style, you will definitely enjoy this book!

Plot: The story follows Ollie, who has just been told his summer in North Carolina visiting his sick aunt is being extended into a year-long stay, meaning Ollie will spend his senior year away from his home in California. This doesn't seem all bad, however, as the boy Ollie fell in love with by the lake over the summer, Will, also lives in North Carolina. However, when Ollie ends up at the same school as Will, he realizes that the boy he fell for is a totally different person when he's around his friends than he was with Ollie. Thus begins the very, very, very common "one character is out and the other character is not ready to come out" storyline that has been populating queer YA since Rainbow Boys at least. Which is to say, it's cute and highly readable and arguably more well-written than its predecessors, but it is still more than a little derivative. (SPOILERS IN THE PARENTHESES: speaking of Rainbow Boys, I remember when Jason came out and called Kyle his boyfriend at his own basketball game... you see the connection?)

Writing and Characters: I think the strength of this book is not in the original story, but in the writing. Ollie as a narrator is charming, relatable, likable, and has a distinct and consistent voice. He was the highlight of the story and the only character who I would have wanted to follow around for the whole time (though I also would have really liked to see what was going on in Will's head the whole time). Will was also a pretty good, if not somewhat cliché character. I think Sophie Gonzales does a good job of working within these character types, so even if they aren't super new, they still feel fresh. I was also surprised by how well fleshed-out the relationship between Ollie and Will was. A lot of time in one-off YA romances, it's hard to believe that the characters love each other, or even really know each other. I found the relationship between Ollie and Will to be very compelling, and I was, of course, rooting for them to work things out. The supporting cast feels a little flat and forgettable, but Ollie and Will are the focus of the story and they're the ones who really made it work for me!

Overall: There are two main threads in the story, Ollie's relationship with Will and Ollie's aunt's battle with cancer. At a glance, the two plots are so tonally different that I thought they made the story feel disjointed, but actually I think they were brought together in a satisfying way in the end. Even though I think the book ends a little suddenly and ties things up a little too neatly after the characters spend the whole book struggling--very realistically--with their problems, I was overall pretty satisfied with this book. I would definitely read another book by this author in the future!

TW- terminal illness, homophobia,death of loved one

This was One of my most anticipated books of the year and it was really cute M/M romance, as it is compared to grease you do actually kind of see little elements from that but overall it had its own story and stood out on its own!!! Really enjoyed the characters in this book, even if at some points one of the main characters did annoy me from time to time, but in the end he won me over haha.

Really enjoyable romance which I flew through and loved that even though we had romance as the forefront we also had quite a lot of family dynamics especially with the main characters cousins which I loved reading about, plus the loss of a loved one in this too.

4/5 stars