I thought this was a good book. I really enjoyed reading it. I liked the characters and plot of the story. I loved how it brought social media and science together to try and make NASA look cool again in this generation. Cal was a good main character. I liked how he is flawed and how he has this idea that he needs to fix people and situation. Leon was also a great love interest. Can not wait to read more from Phil Stamper.

Do you ever read a book so good that you’re mad at yourself for not picking it up sooner? This is how I felt after finishing The Gravity of Us. The story follows Cal, a 17-year-old social media journalist whose entire world is turned upside down when his family relocates from NYC to Houston, where his dad is taking part in NASA’s Mars program. The only bright spot for Cal, who misses his city and best friend, is his new crush: fellow Astrokid Leon. If he isn’t there already, put Stamper on your radar because this is a writer to watch. The Gravity of Us is such a strong debut. Stamper has a real gift for capturing the voices of his characters and making them feel completely human (in all of their selfish, vulnerable, complex, beautiful glory). I listened to the audiobook, which is wonderfully narrated by Michael Crouch and includes a larger cast for the chapters that include segments from the Shooting Stars tv show. The Gravity of Us is a really lovely YA book that I’d highly recommend if you’re in the need for something comforting to read right now.

The Gravity of Us was different and I love how the author took a particular interest of his and wove it into a YA contemporary. It makes it a stand out and for a good momentum to always be pushing the story forward. The book had good pacing and I think started off and ended off very nicely. I also think Phil Stamper is a fantastic writer. His sentences flowed together seamlessly and I would love to be able to write like him. I guess I also like how social media is portrayed positively, but I really don't like how older people were dumb in regards to it and didn't see it as important. I don't think that's true.

But while things were always happening, I greatly disliked the main character. Also, the love subplot was too insta-love. It was just the main character thinking he was cute and then immediately that he would do anything for him, even though nothing happened to let me see why their relationship was important or worthwhile. And this is from both of their ends. I have no idea why Leon would like Cal, he didn't really seem to get him at all. Cal only knew he was in the wrong because Leon would tell him to lay off.

I believe the worst character trait that is too common in YA is characters that regard themselves as always carrying everyone else's burden on their back and that they have to fix everyone else's problems. I hate that! These characters say it over and over again, like they want the audience to pity them, and then do very little to show this other than than try to be the big hero in the end. Unfortunately, this book has this big time. Cal becomes crappy to his friends and so utterly selfish. Every time he thought something like, "and then I did something I never do, I put myself first" I wanted to scream.

But I did enjoy the ending of the book, and the audiobook was great, so I give it a 3 stars.

My expectations weren't that high for this book, and not really for anything in particular.

Let's talk about Calvin. Calvin... now that I think about it is very much like me. He's an obsessive planner. He's that kid you hate because you're floundering with your life while he has the next ten years planned out. So when his dad gets picked as an astronaut for the Mars mission and he has to pack his life up and move to from New York, where all his plans were, to Texas, he's annoyed. Calvin is also pretty selfish, centering his struggle in having to move and having his plans uprooted and ignoring the struggle of his friend back home.

And he GROWS! I feel like it's been a bit since I read a book with such clear character growth. Like, Calvin's point of breaking? That hurt, I was truly rooting for him the whole time.

The romance between Leon and Cal does feel rushed, and the book does acknowledge it (which I'm not sure how I feel about), but there were some real sweet moments that I couldn't help but adore. And I've loved rushed romances before, and the sweet moments made me forgive the quickness of the romance.

The queer aspect of the romance is also very normalized, which I was happy because it being set in Texas, it could've gone a different direction. Both boys are queer and admit they don't have a label for it and are comfortable with it.

Also, there is mental health rep! Calvin's mom has anxiety which is addressed throughout the book, which I was pleasantly surprised at, because I rarely see parent's in YA books have mental illness. Leon has depression and it wasn't a large point of angst or conflict for the relationship.

Now, all that being said, the real star of the book and what really got me was the parts about NASA. No spoilers but there's a section focused on the scientists and engineers and astronauts talking about why they love the program and why space exploration is good and I honest to god started tearing up. It's such a hopeful book. The sentiment here just cuts down to humanity's drive to explore, and I just love that.

4 stars. The beginning was kind of rough, but I fell of this book by the halfway point and the last 30% really solidified the rating.

I received this ARC ebook from NetGalley.

Ok so I didn’t know I needed a teen romance space book but I did. I really enjoyed this book so much. It starts off in NYC which I am such a sucker for and it just goes up from there. I really like the way the story is told from Cal’s point of view and then how it jumps to the outside viewers on Starwatch. The formatting in the ARC ebook was a bit hard to follow so I’m interested to see how it works in physical form.

I loved this story, far more than I expected. The romance between Cal and Leon seemed so realistic as did their personalities. If I was to give this book one word to describe it, I'd use the word "empathy" and that's something we all could include more of in our lives.

This is a book that should have been 100% in my wheelhouse, but it just didn't connect for me as much as I wanted. The first chapter opens with the main character revealing his very "quirky" obsession with cassette tapes. It was a character detail that felt like it would have been at home in a John Green book. Something "unique" to give a character personality when they are otherwise void of it. The relationship between the two characters felt forgone, rather than earned and generally didn't interest me.

While this was certainly not the book for me, I would absolutely love to see others pick it up because it could easily be the book for them. I never want to get to a point where I think "there are enough queer YA books about boys discovering themselves" and I think it's okay that not all of them can be Top Tier on the level of Aristotle and Dante. Queer kids deserve middle of the road, John Green style romance too.

A short excerpt from the linked review:

Stamper doesn’t make it easy for his characters or for NASA. He has done a really good job making a somewhat familiar world like the suburbs new with its stylized reality TV sheen coupled with at least one Tex-Mex dinner off-screen and giant margaritas every native Texan will recognize. He looks at relationships and families just as much as he looks at the romance between his main protagonists.

Stamper’s characters are not punished for their queerness but valued for their gifts. Cal and Leon each offer the reader something that they are able to take with them. They may make us all want to stay in Texas for a while instead of jetting back to the fast-paced life of New York City.

I ended up reading this from my library as the net galley approval came too late for me to download it, but I really enjoyed it! For sure, this isn't the lightest book, but it was a really touching story that everyone could learn from.

Cal has everything he ever wanted. He’s famous on FlashFame for his raw and real journalism, has the best friend someone could ever want, and a lucrative Buzzfeed internship this summer. So what if sometimes his parents fight so much he has to turn to his cassette collection for a reprieve. When his parents tell him they’re moving from New York to Texas for his Dad’s new job at NASA in two days, Carl’s entire world comes collapsing down around him.
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I really enjoyed the setting and premise of this lead up to space exploration, but I really struggled with connecting to the main character. I just felt he was so unlikable and selfish that it took away from my enjoyment of the story. I also had issues with the E-ARC of this because at times the formatting would be all messed up and paragraphs would be completely out of place with information missing, which REALLY took me out of the enjoyment of the book.

Title provided via Netgalley for an honest review.

My overall opinion is average on this title. It was a good story, cute in some places, annoying in others as is the norm with teenage characters. I appreciate the queerness of this story, but it just wasn't all that different, or intriguing. It was very much your normal YA queermance story. The formatting for the ebook was definitely rough on the eyes too.

I really enjoyed the fast pace of this book. Though the characters were “celebrities” and different from normal people, it was still quite easy to connect with them and their struggles. The main character, Cal, was flawed and real, and I appreciated watching him struggle in his relationships like so many of us do. I think many teens I work with will enjoy this title, and I look forward to recommending it to them.

Cal has few friends in real life, but a huge following for his amateur reporting and vlogging. His is crushed when he finds out that his family is moving from Brooklyn to Texas for his father to have a chance at being an astronaut on the first Mars mission. Although he is adapting and making friends, the toxic reality TV coverage threatens their privacy and possibly the whole mission.

I was not grabbed by this book in the way that I had hoped. I liked Cal’s character, and his dedication to unbiased reporting. That was an interesting plot point and a good message to teen readers. I found the space travel premise a little unrealistic, and it seemed to downplay the training of the astronauts and the importance of such a mission. The insta-love between Cal and Leon ruined the romance for me. I think building their friendship and characters first would have helped. There is good representation of mental illness here, as Leon struggles to explain his feelings of depression to Cal. While it is overall a sweet queer romance with an interesting setting, I did not really connect with the plot or characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5 Stars.

This book was a rollercoaster when it came to my feelings, but in the end I ended up smack dab in the middle.

Let’s start off by talking about the characters. For the most part, I enjoyed all of the side characters. I never truly had an issue with anyone... anyone other than our main character, Cal. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t completely hate Cal, but MAN was he irritating at points. I feel he was super selfish, always shrugging off anyone else and only thinking about himself. He is a teen boy, and because of that I give a little bit of leniency, but even then I was shaking my head at him A LOT. On the other end of things, so much responsibility was thrown on him (partially because he put it there), so he seemed very mature for his age.

I really did enjoy the romance in here, specifically loving the love interest, Leon. I really enjoyed Cals best friend, Deb, as well. The communication between Deb and Cal wasn’t completely healthy, but it was touched on and they are teenagers in the end.

When it comes to the plot, I was very eh. I was hoping to get more about how the families were portrayed on the reality show that is such a big part of the book, but I don’t think we ever truly got that until the last 25%. I did enjoy the behind the scenes a lot though, so that part of the story was interesting enough.

The resolution was nice, and the ending was cute, so in the end I feel right in the middle.

How could I not read a love story set in the shadows of an exciting space program? This book is super easy to get into, the whole social media angle that Cal shows is really pitch perfect for a teen audience--and for any audience in 2020. Cal's experience moving to Texas and figuring out his future plans is definitely relatable. And as a cassette tape lover, I loved that piece of it too.

It takes a little longer than I would hope to get some extra backstory on Cal and his family. And the backstory and the organic development of the love story are a little thin. I think this book could have been a little longer and given us more details, because I think these characters are fun to be with but may not stick with me for long.

This was a great book from start to finish. I'm disappointed in myself that it took me so long to finish. I appreciate Phil Stamper's take on a queer love story. Reading a book about two people who have essentially already "come out" and "found" themselves put this novel in a category that few books are in since the "coming out" has already occurred and allowed for a different type of story to emerge.

I also really enjoyed how the love story aspect of the book wasn't necessarily the main focus. Phil Stamper did a marvelous job at intertwining a love story into a story that could have held its ground all alone. Space travel alone is just a fascinating topic and this book handles it lovely.

I look forward to seeing what this author has in store for the future. More romance? More space? Either way, I anticipate great adventures and eager await his next project.

I enjoyed this book for what it was; a YA novel that explores social media and teenage love. It read easily enough and the story was easy to follow. I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would’ve liked and it went at a slower pace than I prefer but overall, well done.

I've heard such good things about this book, and I wish I could say I loved it. I 'liked' it. The first 20 percent felt like a ton happened, but also nothing happened. There was a lot of talk about space that seemed unnecessary. However, the love story is adorable and kind of makes up for the parts that feel random and don't make a ton of sense. It's not a bad book, but I don't think it's the right book for me. I don't regret reading it, but the writing felt like an adult trying way too hard to sound like a teenager.

The cover is really cute though, I love the aesthetic.

While this was definitely unlike any other book I've read, I had a very difficult time relating to our main character, Cal, which impeded my enjoyment of the story. I found him self-centered and didn't think he showed any growth in that area, making it hard for me to care about his problems. There were a couple things he did to people who were supposed to be closest to him, and I didn't feel that he made a big enough effort to show his remorse. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get past my dislike of the MC to fully enjoy this story.

My thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the eARC.

Everything I Loved:

* Space Talk – The Gravity Of Us is obviously a space centered book and I loved it so, so much.

* Reality TV – The premise is so unique to me because it combines a fictional NASA mission and reality tv. If you like reality tv, this is seriously the book for you. There’s also the paparazzi to deal with given this isn’t just any group of people, they’re all competing to go to Mars. It’s very high-profile. I kind of wish we had seen more going on with the paparazzi but it was still good. There was a lot of gossip going on though and I loved it.

* Audiobook – The Gravity Of Us has as full cast and it was so amazing when it came to the gossip show.

* Cal’s Life Goals – Cal is a person who knows exactly what he wants to do with his life, he wants to be a journalist. His online following is outrageous. This causes conflict between him and his dad. Cal not only has to move complete states but he also has to stop doing videos. As you can expect, he doesn’t go down without a fight with that. I do like how it resolved itself.

* Mental Health Rep – Cal’s mom deals with anxiety and Leon has depression. I loved seeing this threaded in so seamlessly. Cal’s mom has a lot of issues regarding the move, especially the reality tv aspect. I can understand her fears because this sounds like an absolute nightmare. Not only does Cal’s dad have to be on tv as the competition goes on but so does the rest of his family. This worries Cal’s mom a lot and we see her really struggle with it. Leon has depression which he talks to Cal about. I loved how the characters were so open about their mental health.

* Leon and His Family– Leon used to be a gymnast and I liked how even though he liked it during his life, he doesn’t make it his life or career. It was nice to do it professionally for a time but he gives himself time to figure out what he wants for his life. I loved Leon’s mom a ton. She was so confident and poise in front of the cameras. Leon’s sister, Kat was a nice addition too but more on her below.

Some Things I Didn’t:

* Deb – I related to Deb a lot. Especially when it came to her home issues. I’ve been there. When you grow up like Deb has, struggling with income, you kind of know what you have to do sometimes in regards with making your own money. It sucked seeing how Deb had to help out her family because she worked but it’s a reality. I wish Cal hadn’t judged her parents quite so harshly because you do what you have to do. This isn’t to say it doesn’t suck when you’re a teen and have to help out financially but…it is what it is. I wish there had been more Deb content but given the Cal’s move, it makes sense for why there wasn’t. Still, I related to that girl a lot.

* Leon and Kat Friendship With Cal – I felt like their friendship with Cal came pretty fast and it wasn’t as done well as I feel it could have been. This is mostly between Cal and Kat, I would have loved to see Kat engage more with Cal. She was underused in my opinion.

*Cal’s Need For Other People’s Structure – As I said, Cal knows what he wants in life and when other people don’t, well, it upsets him. It upsets him a LOT. It upset me how much it upset him because guy, calm down. They’re both only SEVENTEEN. Not everyone knows what they want to be at 17 or 18 or you know, even 28. It was extremely season 5 Paige Michaelchuck. He never stops pushing Leon into deciding to do something more with his life but he gets a little better.