I received an advanced copy of Lab Partners from Netgalley so I could share my review with you!

Elliot Goldman has a fairly typical life as a Highschool senior, but when Jordan Hughes transfers into his science class, his life promises to become much more interesting. When the two are assigned to be lab partners, a certain *chemistry* is found between them. Soon romance sparks, changing both of their lives forever.

You can get your copy of Lab Partners today from Wattpad Books!

I was not personally a fan of this book, because I just couldn’t get into the writing style. It felt as though too many pages were used to say basically nothing, and I found myself to be incredibly bored with the characters and the story. I was quite excited by the premise of the story, which is why it was such a big let down for me. Perhaps I was simply the wrong reader for the story, but I thought the language could have been more succinct and the story more quickly moving.

My Recommendation-
If you are considering reading Lab Partners, I would first evaluate what you like in a book. If you are fond of in depth descriptions, you may enjoy Lab Partners more than me! If you are picker when it comes to story pacing, I would recommend skipping this one.

The LGBTQ+ YA fiction shelf is getting crowded. The characters are fairly well developed. Eli's journey from straight-to-questioning-to-gay seemed a little bit rushed and, bullying aside, angst free. I sometimes felt like the writing got bogged down in unnecessary details. For example, when Eli is first cooking, we got every detailed measurement and ingredient that he used. I liked this book enough. Not sure there's anything new here that we haven't seen elsewhere. A welcome addition, though.

Unfortunately, it was lacklustre. It wasn't bad, and I read it within a day, but it wasn't great either. Elliot likes cooking and is bullied. A lot. It was quite sad to read about, and I am glad I never had to go through something like that. That's why I was glad Jordan came into the picture. There is still a lot of things I don't know about the character, and I would like to know more about him, but the book ended. This book could have explored the characters a bit more, but instead it used a lot of fillers, like explaining in depth how to make pizza, how to do a chemistry experiment, and how to make spaghetti. It made me skim through those pages, and I might have missed essential information here. I understand that Elliot enjoys cooking, and that Jordan likes science, but then still, I don't think it was good filler material in this case. The book could have been much shorter.
Another thing that low-key bothered me was the fact that Jordan tried to convince Elliot that he was gay. I mean, what if he is bisexual? Or demisexual? Or pansexual? Or any other form of sexual? Elliot never mentioned he had feelings for anyone, so he is not necessary gay. Not that it would be bad if he were, but you understand where I'm coming from.
All in all, the book wasn't bad. I wouldn't read it again. But hey, if you can get your hands on it for free during an amazon sale, it's not a bad read.

Whenever people ask what kind of genres I like to read, I always forget to list romance. I think partially because it’s a newer interest for me, and I don’t tend to read in it as heavily as others I like. But give me a sweet romance with adorably awkward people falling in love, and I’ll devour it.Lab Partners by Mora Montgomery ticked all my boxes, and I read it in one day. I loved so many things about this story: how kind and awkward Elliot was, how Jordan helped his self-esteem, the relationship between Elliot and his sister. But, there were a couple things that I took serious issue with and I think are deeply problematic.

WHAT I LIKED
Elliot and his sister Ellie’s relationship
Okay, let’s get one thing out of the way: Elliot and Ellie are way too similar for character names, and it feels obnoxious to make them brother and sister. But since the book is written in first person so we don’t actually see the name “Elliot” on the page that much, it’s not too distracting once you get used to it.

Alright, that aside, I loved their relationship. It totally made sense how intimidated Elliot was by his sister since she seemed to have everything figured out and he has no clue what he wants to do after college. But then you get to see their relationship grow throughout the book as she is the only person in his family who knows about his feelings for Jordan and they become closer. I also absolutely loved the scene when Elliot has started to think he might be gay, and Ellie is super encouraging and accepting. She has some great lines of dialogue that felt like they really addressed the nuance and importance of the situation without being melodramatic.


The authenticity of the plot
I don’t quite know how to summarize this in one line, but basically I really appreciated how it captures how confusing high school can be, especially as you approach graduation, regardless of who you are. The plot focuses on Elliot figuring out he’s gay and if he likes Jordan as more than a friend, which is obviously already completely confusing and a lot to deal with. But in the backdrop, Elliot is a junior trying to decide where to apply for college and what he even wants to study. He loves cooking, but everyone else in his family is very STEM-focused (although that cooking plot line never really goes anywhere, which is disappointing). Additionally, Elliot’s family is supportive and loving, but extremely busy, and almost every time Elliot is at home, he’s by himself, so he’s wrestling with his family relationships and how they’ve changed. It seemed like a very realistic portrayal of how everything is heightened in high school, and how there’s never just one thing to figure out; you’re figuring out your whole life

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Elliot and Jordan’s relationship
This isn’t completely fair. I did like their friendship together, how they supported and backed each other up, especially against the boys who kept bullying Elliot. And when they decided to date, their relationship was also super sweet. I loved seeing Elliot get all flustered, but also sometimes it was Jordan who would trip over himself, and it was all kinds of cuteness. But the transition from friends to dating…It felt off. Jordan kisses Elliot, which causes him to start questioning his sexuality. But instead of giving him space to figure it out on his own, Jordan comes uncomfortably close to pressuring Elliot into deciding within a week or so of their kiss. I get that maybe the author needed the plot to move faster or whatever other reasons there might be, but it felt really problematic to have a character pressure another character into dating them. Even if it was a heterosexual relationship, I would have had some issues, but especially with this being such a huge thing for Elliot to grapple with, I wanted to shout at Jordan, “Will you give him some time?!”

The revenge on the bullies
This is technically a spoiler, but it was a big issue I had with the book so I want to talk about it:

Throughout the book, three boys have been tormenting Elliot and eventually Jordan. It started out for various reasons, but quickly turned to homophobia once Elliot and Jordan started spending more time together. At the end of the book, one of Elliot’s friends does some hacking/social media digging on the bullies and then has a grand reveal when she shames them in front of the entire school. Some of the secrets were good to come out, like how one boy was cheating on his girlfriend. But then she outed one boy, revealing that he had a boyfriend at a different school. The other students began to mock him, and he was ashamed. The whole thing was super problematic. Even if he is the bad guy, outing someone publicly against their will is Not Okay. There were other more personal secrets like that too, such as one boy’s dad being abusive, that were presented as something they should be embarrassed about. I’m fine if the author wants to somehow reveal these backstories to the reader to show that the bullies were more than one-dimensional characters, but having it be a part of the revenge felt cruel and intrusive, especially since there was never any discussion of if a line had been crossed.

Overall, Lab Partners was a fun read and captured some elements of high school life well, but stumbled at the end with some problematic ways of resolving things.

Lab Partners was a cute read. Sadly, in my own life I’ve never fallen madly in love with any of my own lab partners as my life is not fanfiction but this was a gratifying read. I enjoyed the romance aspect of this book, it was just cute enough but not cloyingly so.

A detail I thought was cool that I only realized after finishing the book, is that the main character’s sister, Ellie seems to be based off of the author. They both skipped a bunch of high school to go to college and then university for an engineering degree. Normally when authors put themselves in their word, their character tends to be Mary Sue-ish but Ellie was a complex character.

So my major problem with this book is the amount of detail was disproportionate to the importance. A lot of detail when Elliot is cooking makes sense since that is his main hobby but that sort of detail was unnecessary when describing chem labs (although I might be saying this because it brought me back to my own chem labs which is never a fun time). I really wish there was more closure surrounding Elliot’s passion for cooking to give a more resolute ending. It felt like him figuring out his future was sacrificed for the sake of spending time developing the romance.

The other flaw I found in this book was the love interest Jordan’s response to Elliot figuring out his sexuality. Jordan was very pushy and did not give Elliot the space he needed to actually determine his sexuality on his own which wasn’t great. The book did have aro/ace rep which was nice though.

A major theme in the novel is Elliot dealing with his bullies which was interesting. Not going to spoil the ending but I didn’t expect the method in which the bullying was taken care of.

Final Thoughts:
A cute romance book with a couple flaws. 2.5 stars.

This is a really charming gay YA romance with some really cute and fluffy moments and some well appreciated tropes (pining, friends to lovers, background bet...). It also deals with some very important matters in a very sensible way such as figuring out your sexuality (including gay and aroace characters) and bullying. The novel is honest about it and not at all preachy.
The writing and pacing is a bit clunky at times, especially in the beginning, which is why I'm giving only 3/5 stars.

I think this is an excellent book for teens...whether they're LGBTQ, straight, questioning who they're into, etc. The characters are great, the story is poignant, and has a great message overall. With most teen books, it would have benefited with a little deeper dive into the psyche of the characters, to make the story resonate a little more than it does. One day teen authors will realize that they can delve deeper and not alienate their audiences...and gain even more fans in adults as well. A lot here seemed just at the surface of things and then moved on, which doesn't take away from the overall story, but would have been nice to see "more".

Lab Partners was a quick, sweet read that was quite predictable, but still entertaining.

I felt everything was underdeveloped and stereotypical, from the bullies to family and to the homophobia.

The bullying was very unrealistic, since Elliot would come home hurt and his parents didn’t do anything about it cause he wanted to handle it, even though he couldn’t.

I had trouble liking Jordan. At the beginning he’s very kind and helpful, then he’s suddenly like ’I’ll convince you to be gay’. It was off putting.

I really didn’t like the revenge on the bullies, especially with them outing one of them just to prove a point. That was sad.

I am not going to review this at my blog because I don't really have that much to say. I hoped for a cute, romantic boy meets boy story, but I didn't get that.

Lab Partners becomes bogged down in too much minutiae, and we spend way too much time watching Eliot think about things rather than seeing him achieve.

Some of the contexts are unrealistic -- the amount of bullying, the amazing-ness that is Jordan, and the fact that Ellie goes to a different school. I was asking too many questions about the wrong things.

However, many teens will love this as it's an easy read.

Thanks Netgalley for advanced copy. It's out on March 10.

2.75⭐️

Thanks so much to netgalley for giving me an advanced copy to review!

This was a cute, quick read about a teenage boy named Elliot who realizes he may or may not be gay, but that he is attracted to his new lab partner, Jordan. He is also dealing with an ongoing bullying problem at school that no one really seems to know or care about.

I thought this was a fun one! There were definite moments where I was grinning while reading scenes between Jordan and Elliot. They were very very cute together and that’s what saved this book for me.

However I feel like the author just needed a little bit more practice writing and a better editor. The majority of this book was dialogue, which really prevented me from getting a deeper feel for the characters or really connecting with them a whole bunch. There were also some very repetitive scenes and conversations between characters.

I will give her props though for the conversation between Elliot and his twin, Ellie, regarding Elliot’s gay panic moment. I think that sexualities are so much more complex than they used to be, and seeing the words asexual, aromantic, bi, gay etc explained on page is something some YA readers might find beneficial.

TW: bullying & homophobia

I absolutely loved this book! It was adorable, relatable, and the love story is something I wished I had growing up (but I’m glad I get to see our youth today growing up with these stories now).

Jordan and Elliot are lab partners and when sparks fly between them, you start to see Elliott blossom.

This story of first love is meaningful and inspirational. Give me more stories like this any day!

My response will go live on my site tomorrow at 12:30 pm EST (geoffwhaley.com).

What this books needs more than anything, is a good editor: there were continuity errors, there were issues with over description and there were issues with dialogue. And the saddest part is the story and characters were solid enough, but the editing really let it down.

I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley based on the blurb and the cover.* I mean cute cover, adorable blurb about high school first romance, who wouldn't want to read it right?

What I didn't realize was that Wattpad Books is apparently a direct feeder from Wattpad, a site where you can self-publish stories in a dizzying number of genres, and that was on me not doing my research properly, so I'm going to review the book first and then go into my thoughts on the publisher. Unfortunately, I think a lot of my issues with the book are intricately intertwined on how I'm perceiving the publisher operates.

What was great about the novel? I adored Elliot's obliviousness and selflessness and Jordan's confidence-bordering-on-cockiness and the chemistry was really well balanced (pun[s?] intended). Montgomery may have leaned a little heavily into the bullying, self-acceptance, closet case tropes and she even acknowledges on her site that she had many clichéd ideas (go <a href="https://www.moramontgomery.com/bio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> and click "Evolution"), but a lot of them really worked in her favor. I felt the supporting characters were believable for the most part with the exception of the bullies, who were cookie cutter and their motivations were also pretty cookie cutter, but for a debut novel they weren't the worst I've read.

I also, thoroughly enjoyed Montgomery's inclusion of an asexual/aromantic character, Elliot's twin sister Eleanor, and the talk she gave to Elliot was perfection:
<blockquote>"Take me for example. It took a long time for me to figure this out, but I identify as asexual. And aromantic, if we're being technical . . . That could change at some point—this stuff is all fluid. That's the thing about sexualities: they aren't set in stone. By identifying one way or another, you aren't signing a contract that says this is who you are or have to be for the rest of your life. I identify as asexual now, but there may come a day when I meet somebody and fall in love with them and want to explore my sexuality. And that's okay. Sexualities change as people do. All I know for certain is that this is the way I feel now." (113-4)</blockquote>
However, I wish she would've connected it to Elliot a little more in that allegedly he'd never thought about boys or girls sexually or romantically and if that was the case he should've been googling that shit. I mean unless there's a time shift that I missed and this is set in the past and not present day, I can't think of any teenagers (the Amish maybe?) who don't question, explore, google, hypothesize, their sexuality and when it comes to teen boys, come-on. So by maybe having Elliott acknowledge his own "previously-non-existent-but-still-blushes-at-sexual-innuendos" sexuality with an "oh that could've been me" would've solved this little plot hole and made the ending a little less well that's awkward as hell

Overall, I felt Montgomery did a good job of pacing the story until the last 20-25 pages or so, it seemed to lean into the romance genre trope of happily-ever-after-here's-a-bow-goodnight rather than the young adult teen angst will-they-won't-they-what-happens-when-they-graduate-omg-it's-first-love-will-it-last-forever WTF-ness at the end.

What wasn't so great was the over-descriptions (second quote below) and the stilted (internal) dialogue (first and third quote below).
<blockquote>"The minute hand of the clock hanging on the wall to my right ticked slowly; it was fitting—sitting in science class feeling the actual, physical pressure of time." (9)

"Sighing, I got up off the couch and made my way upstairs to find my charger. In my room, I flopped stomach-down on my mattress and reached for the charging cord, which was plugged into an outlet on the far side of the bed. Finding the end of it, I plugged in my phone and left it on my night stand..." (11)

"I didn't have much reason to come north in my day-to-day life, but on occasion, my mother would take us school shopping at the mall up in Cooper Creek." (175)</blockquote>
These three were pretty cringe worthy and there were a few more, but I had to stop highlighting because I didn't want it to bog down my experience. I won't lie though, I had to take a break after the first 15-20 pages to really think whether I wanted to power through because of these. Ultimately, it felt like the author was trying to write a slightly awkward character and that the poor editing exacerbated it making it a harder read than it should've been. I mean both of these examples above are internal dialogue, but unless you put on a fake posh British accent (no clue where that came from) and you use really formal language when you have your internal dialogue (maybe the author doesn't and that's why it's slightly stilted), who talks like this to themselves?!

Now, for where I had REAL issues with the book was with the editing and I'm blaming the publisher for this one. In general I like the idea of Wattpad's approach:
<blockquote>Through an innovative, data-driven approach not yet seen in the industry, Wattpad Books is poised to disrupt traditional publishing by harnessing data to unleash the most groundbreaking stories from Wattpad directly onto bookshelves.</blockquote>
But if they miss out on some pretty basic industry standards, I'm going to need them to revisit said approach. Maybe, they're banking on the 6 million readers of Montgomery's story as she wrote it, but that's not great for attracting new readers.

Not only could a good editor have helped Montgomery with the dialogue issues above and the over-descriptive passages, but a good copy editor could've caught some of the basic continuity errors and confusing instances where one or two words (like "I said", or "I mumbled" would've provided a lot of clarity. The one example that really stood out was Jordan's apparent ability to visit the same place (aka Elliot's house) for the first time TWICE. Okay, maybe you can explain this away by the extenuating circumstances on the first visit, but I call bullshit and say blame the copy editor! On page 94 Elliot explicitly states: "I was sitting on the edge of the sink in the upstairs bathroom of my house as Jordan assessed my injuries." and then, just over 100 pages later we get this gem from Elliot on page 188: "This was his first time inside [my house], and I couldn't help but become immediately self-conscious about every little thing." Now there are a million <em>other reasons</em> Elliot should be worried about this second visit, so I can imagine why he's anxious but come on copy editor, visiting again for the first time is NOT one of them.

UGH. But at that point I was invested enough in the story that I was finishing come hell or high water and I did, until I regretted it again during the birthday party scene that's the penultimate scene of the book, see aforementioned teen sexuality comments.

<strong>Recommendation:</strong> Overall, this was a decent read for a debut novel. I enjoyed the story and characters, but overall the poor editing brought the story down for me. I'd recommend to the author (and/or the publisher) to hire a set of good editors who could've cleaned up a lot of these mistakes or made strategic suggestions and easily pushed this from a decent 3-ish star read to a definite 4-4.5 star read.

*I received a copy of <em>Lab Partners </em>from the publisher via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

An okay high school story of male friendship that may possible become more. I thought it sweet and something that needs to be written for representation, but overall the story was not too exciting.

Synopsis: Elliot grows up in small town and goes to a small high school with people he has known his whole life. He doesn’t have many friends and gets bullied at school. In walks Jordan the new kid, who takes a liking to Elliot and wants to become friends. And then their friendship develops into more.
I am a fan of the modern day romance but I found this book just a bit “meh”. I didn’t find myself really feeling invested in the characters and felt at times I found myself skim reading. I just felt no real connection to the book, it lacked depth in my opinion.
Thank you to netgalley and WattPad books for the copy of this book.

This was cute and I enjoyed how it talked about sexuality and discovering yourself, as well as bullying and personal circumstances/reasoning of some of the action of the characters.

I'm not sure that I've had the personal experience to comment on the accuracy of the emotion and events that happen.

But overall it was a good story and I'm happy I read it, however, and maybe this is just me, but sometimes it didn't really feel like we were dealing with HS seniors. I felt a lot of the time like I was reading about 14-15 years old, not necessarily 17-18 years.

** spoiler alert ** I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @60%

I have really tried to give all of the ARCs I have received up until now a fair chance and read them in their entirety. But I just couldn't do this. I could have read this fully, but that wouldn't have changed my opinions, which were pretty well solidified around the 100-page mark.

First of all, the writing. First-person, quite simple, easy to read. However, I just got incredibly annoyed by each and every action that was described. Every gesture is penned down. Every step in the process of making pasta and how exactly our MC grabs a pot, every step in a chemistry experiment, including measurements and names of ingrediënts. I felt as if the author wanted to reach a word count goal.

Secondly, I was assuming, when I started reading this story, that we were following middle school students. In my head I was following a boy who was about the same age as Percy Jackson. Not that soon after, I figured out these were 17-year olds. They way these characters speak and behave is really reminiscent of 13-year olds. It just didn't fit.

And lastly, I was really not on board with this relationship, and the way our main character, Elliot, was coming to terms with whatever he was feeling. This all starts with Elliot expressing that it doesn't matter who people love, because people are people and love is love. Jordan, our love interest, apparently thinks that a person advocating for queer rights is, in fact, a queer person himself and decides that this might be a good moment to kiss Elliot. Elliot, as is pretty understandable, is shocked and doesn't know what to do.

He ends up speaking with his sister, who explains that people and sexuality is complicated, that people change and sexuality can be flued. She mentions some "labels" (I didn't know which word to use) that some people identify as. This (as far as I can tell as a cishet woman) is quite alright, actually. But. There's a but. But she also asks him 'How do you know that you're not gay?', which could be a quite innocent and genuine question, but phrasing it like:

<< 'Have you ever been with a guy before?' 'No.' 'Have you ever been with a girl before?' 'No.' 'Ever given either one a remote chance?' 'Not really.' 'Then how do you know?'
causes my skin to itch a little. Some people don't have to 'be' with someone before knowing what label they feel most comfortable with. This "scene" might not even be intended in the way I critisised it, but it just didn't sit right with me. >>

But then! Jordan wants to speak to Elliot and actually forces/drags him outside, where our main character's absolutely not comfortable with.

<< "A string of curse words started to form in my mind and I immediately wanted to give in to my instincts to run as far away as my feet would carry me. Unfortunately, Jordan's grip on my arm kept me from doing that, so instead, I did my best to force down any signs of panic." >>

And then Jordan tries to "convince" him... that he is, in fact, gay? has feelings for Jordan?

<< "You just have to say the words, Eli," he breathed, leaning closer, motioning like he was going to kiss me again. "W-What are you doing?" I stuttered, placing my hands on his chest to keep him where he was. "Convincing you," he said, softly caressing my cheek with his fingers. >>

Basically, this dude harasses him.

<< He was taller than me, so I straightened my spine and looked him straight in the eye. In a surprisingly steady voice, I said, flat out, "I'm. Not. Gay." A deep chuckle resonated in his chest. He leaned in close to my ear. My breath caught in my throat once more as his lips brushed the base of my jaw. I didn't move. I couldn't. "And yet..." he whispered before backing away, exiting the dugout, and disappearing altogether, leaving me standing there alone, confused, and a little flustered. >>

So yeah, this was about the point where I'd had enough and decided that, no matter how amazing the rest of the book could be in some universe, I wasn't going to change my opinions on this book.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


Actual rating: 3,5 stars.


TRIGGER WARNING: bullying, violence, homophobia, homophobic language, internalized homophobia, depression (hints).


Elliot Goldman is a senior and he doesn't know what to do with his future. His father works with investments, his mother is a mechanical engineer and his twin sister Eleanor is so smart she's already going to community college collecting credits while she awaits the right time to start college with her peers.
Elliot doesn't have a passion for science or economy like his family - he simply likes to cook.

Pinecrest is a very small town where everyone knows each other and Elliot is the bullies' target since forever because he can't help to intervene when someone else is harassed - he thinks it's better if Morgan, Nate and Cole pick on him rather than someone else. But he knows he can count on Holly, his only friend at school and in life since she's friend with his sister - the catch is he wants to deal himself with the bullying.

When the chemistry teacher decides to switch the lab partners, Elliot meets Jordan Hughes, a new kid recently moved from New Hampshire.

Jordan is kind, funny and despises bullies - especially when he learn about the abuse Elliot is forced to endure lately. They become friends and they spend time together outside school - it's the first time Elliot has someone to hang out with aside from his sister and Holly.
That peaceful routine gets broken after a brutal beating and after hearing what Morgan, Nate and Cole told Elliot, Jordan kisses him but Elliot goes into a panic. He isn't gay, is he?


"Lab Partners" has an easy and simple writing, almost basic - you read it fast, but the downside is in its lacking of psychological in-depth so you never get over the surface with the majority of characters: the only bully I found interesting is Cole because he was the only one with a different shade in his personality every time we meet him.

I found in this book the same flaws I found in "I Knew Him" by Abigail de Niverville last year: you don't know exactly how much time passes, but you realize is very little and too much is told when it was supposed to be shown. We read Elliot and Jordan hanged out outside of school and became friends, but we don't get to see it so it tastes a lot like instalove and the reader can't help the distance he perceives.

Elliot, to his own admission, never thought about a relationship with anyone - female or male whatever it was - so it's pretty normal for Elliot to be confused after the kiss.
I liked Jordan, on a general thought: he's sweet and protective with Elliot. But there was something I didn't like: even if he left Elliot his own space to figure out his feelings, once or twice he told Elliot he would have convinced him to be gay because that confusion was something Jordan experienced himself when he was going through the same thing. That I didn't like - you can't convince someone to be the person you want them to be when maybe they're not at all.
Anyway, their scenes together are really cute, sweet and tender.

What I liked the most is the speech Ellie gives to Elliot about sexuality: how sexuality is something fluid that can change because it's not set in stone, how many orientations exists out there, how Elliot being gay or attracted only to Jordan wouldn't have change anything about the way they loved him.

"Lab Partners" has certainly some flaws, but it's a good story about discovering your own sexual identity, dealing with your own fears and taking a stand against the bullies, about the pressure when you're eighteen and you're supposed to know what to do with your life, about boosting your self-esteem up even when it seems you're getting left behind - it's a pity we get only hints about the depression suffered from Elliot.

That said, "Lab Partners" is a nice reading when you don't want to deal with something more demanding and you still need something to cheer you up.

I requested this book because I thought it sounded really cute and it was, in some ways. The story itself had a lot of "x did this, then did this, after x saw this" type of writing. It was jarring and definitely took me out of the story. There were things that were put into detail that had absolutely no weight on the story. You are literally walked through how to make a pizza in painstakingly detailed instructions. It was like reading subtitles on a cooking video. I really liked Holly and Jordan as characters. I liked both Elliot (the main character) and Jordan's families. I did not feel though as if the bullying were very realistic. No administration would allow bullying to get to that point. No parent (and I speak that as a parent) would ever allow their child to come home from school with a broken nose and just let it go, teenager or not. There seemed to be a lot of detail in the physical romance, which is fine by me, but also strange in the context of the book because I felt it was the best written part. There's a little instalove in there as well. So all-in-all, it was an okay book. The characters were pretty good. The overall story was okay and I don't hate it.

Do I want to read a story about bullying, way too many unecessary details and descriptions and homophobia? The answer is no. DNF at 52%
Also "this guy's been bullying me for years but my sister refused to go out with him so I guess I sympathise with him now" like seriously???

This was a great book. I think the author did a really good job of covering a wide range of issues from sexuality to alcoholism to bullying, in a way that didn't feel forced. i really enjoyed the setting and our main characters. There were some elements that I would have liked to have been handled a bit differently, but it was an enjoyable and fun read.