Will and Oliver meet at the lake and have the perfect summer romance, but they have to say goodbye when it's time for Ollie to go home to California. Then his family has a last-minute change of plans and stays in North Carolina to take care of his sick aunt and her family. Oliver is staring down the barrel of a lonely senior year at a new school where he doesn't know anybody. Until he bumps into Will. But this isn't the Will he knew over the summer. This Will is a popular jock, a basketball star...and straight. Surrounded by the group of girls who adopted him on the first day (and one of whom he's not entirely sure he can trust), Oliver has to figure out how to heal his heart which remains stubbornly and hopelessly devoted to Will. The Will who doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with him. Or....maybe he does? Tell me more, tell me more!

If you couldn't guess from my not so subtle references above, this is a contemporary, gender-bending retelling of Grease and I AM HERE FOR IT. It was SO cleverly done, including many of the familiar plot points from the original story but turning a bunch of them on their heads. In fact, it's really hard to review this book without giving away all the fun it has twisting and turning the original, and part of the joy is seeing where it all goes. So, I'm not going to give specifics. But let me just say that it's modern, it's feminist, it addresses gender identity and sexual orientation with care (including some people being insensitive and getting schooled on what jokes NOT to make), it explores how relationships need to be two-way streets, it talks about grief, it shows a beautiful example of facing life's disappointments and bouncing back, and it touches on body image and sensitivity...and I'm probably leaving out some of the issues it covers, because there's a LOT and it's all really well done.

These characters have depth. UNLIKE the original, they aren't one-dimensional stereotypes. Rizzo is so much more than just a girl with a bad attitude and a reputation to match. Kenickie isn't just a dumb jock with the sensitivity of a brick. And Frenchie...oh, I love what Gonzales did with Frenchie, and in fact, wanted a little more of it. I was just continually impressed as I recognized shades of the OG characters who then developed and fleshed out in unexpected ways.

I don't know how this hadn't been done before because as soon as I read the blurb, it was like, "DUH." This is brilliant and obvious. Of COURSE if Sandy was a guy, Danny (as a "straight" jock) would want to hide the relationship when they got back to high school after their romantic summer away. SUCH a good idea from Sophie Gonzales, and I bet a lot of other authors are kicking themselves for not coming up with it on their own.

I loved it.

***Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the delightful ARC in exchange for my honest review!***

This book is PERFECTION. I had all the feels, and I just loved it SO much! The description intrigued me, but the book itself was so much more than I could’ve hoped for. Ollie, Will, Juliette, Lara, Naimh, Matt, and Darnell are multifaceted and compelling characters who I cared so much about throughout the book. I can’t recommend it enough!