This book is inspired by the musical Grease. I wouldn’t say it was a re-telling exactly because there is plenty that’s different between the two. The basic ideas are the same though: Ollie and Will have a summer romance, with Ollie supposedly going back to California. Surprise, surprise! Ollie’s family stays and him and Will are suddenly face-to-face again…except Will isn’t out, and Ollie’s well, “only mostly devastated.” It would have been interesting to have both of the boy’s point of views, but we only get Ollie’s. It still works though, as I do think we get enough of Will’s perspective as the book continues.

I found the book to be a slower read in some spots, but I still enjoyed it! Ollie’s voice is great, and I loved him as a narrator. He’ll make you laugh throughout, even as he deals with a dying aunt, Will ignoring him, fitting in, and figuring out his senior year. And yes, you may just cry. I know I got all teary-eyed in parts!

This book was absolutely adorable! I heard it was a retelling of Grease, and yes, I can see that. The general premise is there, but there is so much more to this story. On the surface level, Ollie & Will have a summer romance. Ollie was supposed to move back to California after the summer, but plans change. That's where Sophie Gonzales began building her amazing story. 

Ollie's Aunt is is sick with Cancer and his family decides to stay to help. Unfortunately, it's just a matter of time, which is devastating. Ollie is very close with his Aunt and spends alot of time babysitting his very young cousins throughout the book. This all adds such a deeper dimension to the story, in my opinion, while also adding a sweetness that only the little ones can add.

I really enjoyed Ollie's relationship with Juliette, Laura & Neve. In the beginning I was concerned with the girl's cattiness, but real meaningful friendship's developed. And I loved how Ollie found his niche with his music and a band. 

One more thing was, that I appreciated how this book handled the homophobia. "I didn't know." Is never an excuse. 

Highly recommended.

I was expecting rom-com, but this story was much heavier than I expected it to be. I enjoyed the path that Ollie and Will took. While I didn't love the story, I definitely had fun reading it.

A very delightful story that was ultimately pure. It had a rocky start, but it definitely got better as it went.

This is a cute romance although I felt like the pacing was a little slow. I would recommend this book to some friends, but overall the stereotypes were too much for me.

When I first read the blurb, I was instantly sold. Love, Simon + Clueless + Grease = yes, please! Growing up, Grease was one of my favorite movies ever, although I don't think I understood the actual plot until was about 15.

Only Mostly Devastated has some striking similarities to Love, Simon, too. An adorable romance, check. An interesting and lovable friend group that can sometimes be terrible, check! Yet, despite these similarities, this book holds its own and is a solid addition to the list of YA rom-coms.

The story?

As the blurb mentions, Ollie has just had the summer of his life at his family's lake house. Unfortunately, his aunt, who is sick and who his family has been helping out all summer, isn't getting any better and his family decides to stay in North Carolina more permanently. Although Ollie wants to be there for his aunt, he is not thrilled to be moving to a new state and uprooting the life he knows back home in California. Except, he realizes that there is a better chance of him staying in contact with his summer love, Will.

As you may have guessed, it's not long until Ollie runs into Will at his new high school. Things take a turn when Ollie realizes Will isn't everything he imagined him to be, and that their relationship is more complicated than he anticipated. In fact, their relationship may have just become nonexistent.

The characters?

Ollie, our narrator, is extremely likable.He's awkward but never afraid to be himself. Best of all, he's always there for his friends and family. Okay, it's basically impossible to not love him and support him throughout the entire book.

While Ollie is the perfect protagonist, Will is less likable, especially when he seems like two totally different people. That said, it is easy to see Will's perspective and root for the two of them to get together.

Ollie's family dynamics were, perhaps, my absolute favorite aspect of the book. His parents are the perfect amount of loving yet humanly flawed. And his relationship with his cousins is adorable and realistic, especially the more frustrating moments when they are being the over-energetic monsters that kids sometimes are.

All in all?

Only Mostly Devastated is a delightful, heartfelt contemporary that serves up some true-to-life family moments, an adorable romance, and some weirdly awesome friendships. While this book didn't completely steal my heart the way I had hoped, it did capture my attention and prove to be a truly lovely book. If this sounds like your type of book, please pick this one up!

This was such a cute, heartwarming read. It was a big change from I normally read, and a welcomed one at that! This touches on so many issues that are important to today's teens. Loved this!

I'm so glad I requested this one because it was soooo good. This heartwarming read was everything I hoped it would be.

What I loved about this book:

1. This is a LGBQ romcom that had me laughing, crying, and feeling all the feels. This book touches on accepting yourself for who you are and who you love, but it also showsu how stressful it can be for someone to come out of the closet. In my opinion there are not enough LGBQ romances published and I hope this one inspires more to be written and more to be publushed.

2. Y'all had me when you compared this one to Grease. I absolutely loved the movie growing up so it's not shocking I devoured this book in one sitting. Will and Ollie have the picturesque summer romance, but the problem is Will didn't expect Ollie to stay. When Ollie finds out that the kind affectionate Will is closeted and kind of jerk, he's heartbroken. As they both try to figure out who they are and who is important to them you'll fall for both characters the same way you did Danny and Sandy.

3. This book had depth I didn't expect and touches on the complexity of grief and how everyone processes it differently. Trigger warning this book has the C word in it and I may have ugly cried at times.

If you're looking for a great LGBQ romcom that has depth and great character growth, you should definitely pick this one up. It was a well written novel with complex characters you'll love. This was my first novel by this author, but it definitely won't be my last.

A delightfully fun read with engaging characters who had depth and complexity as they handled the various complicated nuances of learning about sexuality in a small town

I was pretty devastated for much of this book, in a good and sad way. It’s marketed as a cute rom com but it deals with pretty serious life issues including high school bullying that was very impactful. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though, it just takes a bit to get there. There’s plenty of characters here that will resonate, LGBTQ+, latinx, feminine power and much more. This was like a cleansing for me with all of the different emotions that it made me feel, it was cathartic and I’m glad I went out of my comfort zone for it.

I received this ARC ebook from NetGalley.

I loved this book! I thought it was such a fun take on such a classic story. It’s the typical summer love unexpectedly following into the real world. This book makes you laugh, cry, get a little stressed, cry some more, but still end up loving it all. I also may be a little biased here because it’s branded as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless in a spin on Grease. Like these are all my favorites so I went in with high expectations and they were met.

Thank you Netgally and the author for the gifted copy. All thoughts are completely my own.

When I read the blurb apparently I blocked out the Grease part. I am not a fan of Grease at all. On that note I enjoyed this book. It had humor, sarcasm, young love.

If you're looking for a cute read with sarcastic characters I'd suggest this one.

Only Mostly Devastated is a warm, funny, sweet book about young love and feeling the need to hide who you truly are. The blurb describes it as a modern day telling of Grease and it couldn’t be more accurate. With our protagonist Ollie we see the story from the eyes of Sandra-Dee…except he is a little bit emo and a boy and gay.

Undercurrent to the love story you have a tale of finding your tribe. Ollie is in a new school in a completely different state and he is struggling to find his place. Throw on top of that another story of a sick relative and you really do feel that Ollie has too much going on for someone so young.

I really rate Only Mostly Devastated. It is a book that deals with difficult issues but also gives you the feel good factor. The writing style is easy and you don’t feel like you are being challenged by reading it but feel like you are one of Ollie’s gang of friends, going through things alongside him.

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales is available now.

For more information regarding Sophie Gonzales (@sgonzalesauthor) please visit www.sophiegonzalesbooks.com.

For more information regarding St Martin’s Press (@StMartinsPress) please visit their Twitter page.

For more information regarding Hachette Children’s Group (@HachetteKids) please visit www.hachettechildrens.co.uk.

For more information regarding Hodder Children’s Books (@HoddereBooks) please visit their Twitter page.

Inspired by my favorite movie ✔

Cute love story ✔

Everyone loving it ✔✔

I was gifted a copy off Only Mostly Devastated by Panmacmillansakids and Pan MacMillan on Netgalley....

I so wish I could say I loved this book. I wish I could say I couldn't wait to see what happens to the characters. But in truth to I did enjoy the book but I didn't love it....

I did love Olie and could related to him. Iwas just as mad at Will as he was.

Only Mostly Devastated is is a cute read where you don't have to concentrate on the book and its plot. Its perfect for a weekend read.

⭐⭐⭐ out of 5 statrs

This book has an adorable romance but also has depth to it with the exploration of grief. I do wish there was more show than tell when it came to the romance, but I still enjoyed this book, nonetheless! Definitely recommend it.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Super cute romance that will keep you all giggly and romantic through the whole thing. It was simply adorable. I absolutely shipped the main characters from page one. I giggled and swooned through the whole thing. This was an adorable read.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Although I had some issues, as it went on I liked it. The writing style was good, the subject was better, and the romance was best of all! It was definitely worth the read.

Ollie goes to North Carolina to help out his sick aunt and her family. While there, he meets Will, his very own Prince Charming. They decide to spend the summer together before Ollie leaves. But as it turns out, Ollie is staying. And lo and behold, Ollie goes to the same school as Will. Who turns out not as Princely as Ollie thought...

Hands down, the best part about this book was the rep! I loved all of it. There's PCOS, there's a fat character, there's bi characters, the love interest is a person of color! I just loved it. All the tags from this is what made me want to read this, and I am so glad those tags crossed my screen.

I also loved that this was funny. Ollie was hilarious. There were times when I found myself actually laughing out loud. It definitely made up for the way I initially felt about him...

At first I didn't care for Ollie OR Lara. Ollie kept pressuring Will to do all of these things but didn't really do anything for Will. Especially have his back on something so huge. But the situation was discussed, and I felt much better about it in the end. I would have liked it more had it been discussed a little earlier and I wasn't hating him for it most of the book, but still, I thought he was ok. As for Lara, I get that you were going through some things, and that was your armor, but still, we don't wanna see Fat shaming ok. And you couldn't even apologize for it? I wanted someone to slap her.

The romance itself though was so swoony cute. I found that even though Will wasn't being his Princely self, that I still shipped them from beginning to end. And at that one part at the end, I actually squealed out loud! I thought they were so cute together. I also found myself squealing at the flash backs and that one time when they were eating. But I don't want to tell all the swoony parts lol

This was a surprise to me. I chose this one because a few people read it and really liked it. But after reading this, I can definitely say more people need to. This swoony book is just what you need to make it through this quarantine!

I could not love this book more!

The cast of characters is diverse and complex. Toxic masculinity and girl shaming are talked about! The friend group is empowering. The fear of judgment about coming out from loved ones. The discussion of life and love are so meaningful! I just absolutely loved everything this book talked about.

The only thing is that it takes 70-100 pages to really start to care for Ollie and the girl's and I found that how a certain character who came out as queer wasn't realistic to what happens to everyone. (The book already has it's truly sad and heartbreaking moments so I understand we didn't need more sadness, haha but it would have been nice to talk about their privilege just a little.)

In the end, they are all lovable characters just trying to find their happiness.
This was incredible can't wait to do a reread!

Favorite quote:
Maybe our Happily Ever After hadn’t worked on the first shot. And maybe Happily Ever Afters weren’t a singular event. Maybe they were something you had to work at, and build, and never give up on, as long as they were something you still wanted.

Well that was lovely. Ollie is such an endearing character and seeing him choose himself first, fabulous. A lot of diversity in here, tough life moments, and some squishy love.

This was a sweet book and a really good reimagining of Grease but queer. Full review to come on my blog soon