I had two big issues with this book: 1) too much gushy romance and not enough music, and 2) the timeline of the story was incredibly unrealistic. The entire story takes place over two weeks during summer vacation. To get from point A to point B during that timeframe was ridiculous. I won't tell you what point B is so as to not spoil the book, but I will tell you that my eyes rolled. Add to this the excess teeny bop romance and I cringed through most of the book. I didn't care that it was two males, it was just too much over the top. I wanted a John Hughes story and I got a teenage Nicholas Sparks instead.

First off, I would like to thank author Jake Martinez, Deep Hearts YA, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.⠀
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Ugh, this book! How badly I wanted to love it.. But I just couldn’t get myself to fully give in to it. I do want to say this may be because I am in my early 20’s. The characters and storyline just seemed so baseline to me. Very childish and dramatic, and the story didn’t seem to progress at all. The main character, Justin, was cringeworthy at times with the tantrums he pulled. ⠀
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I do believe a younger person reading this book may find some comfort within its pages. Some things rang true for me, making me think back to high school and how hard it is to be gay. Struggling with sexual identity is a very real problem for a lot of kids in school, and this book shines a bright light on that. ⠀
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Overall, I’m going to have to give this book three stars. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is out of school/my age. Middle school aged kids would probably find this a better read than I did. It IS always refreshing to see LGBTQ+ characters, though! 🏳️‍🌈

THE MIXTAPE TO MY LIFE by Jake Martinez | Grade: B | No spoilers ahead.

The premise of an LGBT teen from conservative South Texas was one I had not seen done before, so I was eager to read it. Another compelling aspect, after reading about the author, is that it seems to be at least partially autobiographical. Both of these things got me excited for this quick read. However, this read let me down in several ways. The least of which was the plot. I actually genuinely liked the plot. My only criticism of it may be that it could have been fleshed out a little more. At times, it felt a little rushed. And this leads me to the biggest problem I found with this book was the overall sense of underdevelopment. None of the characters seemed to really lift off the page. There was never anything there to make me care about them or what happened to them. Maybe as the author continues to write more novels, his characters will become a little more nuanced and memorable. My favorite part was definitely the main character’s, Justin’s, love of music and all the music references throughout. While this review came out largely negative, there was still a lot to enjoy with this book. A very special thank you to @netgalley and @deepheartsya for an advanced copy of the novel. While I of course appreciated this opportunity, my review is presented without bias.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Guess what? I needed to read this book right now. I needed something to sweep me away from our crazy world happenings. "Mixtape to my Life" had me invested very early on. I liked the setting which was around 1994-1995. The movie Speed was playing at the movie theater. Our main character Justin loves his Walkman and 'old' 80's hair bands. Justin is a gay (in the closet mostly) band kid and his junior year of high school is about to start. His best friend Benny knows about Justin but his family and other classmates do not although they suspect. When Justin gets a new, hot neighbor named Dominic his whole world begins to change. The book was so fast paced and enjoyable. His struggles as a gay teen come across realistically as do his friendships. It is nice to see how much Justin grows a person during the book's time span. The romance is pretty cute. I had one complaint that I hope gets fixed. One of the characters makes a "that's what she said" joke and it does not ring realistic for this time period at all although in fairness apparently this saying starting being used on Saturday Night Live around 1975. While the subject matter touches lightly along some darker topics, it still ends up being a very cute and feel good ending. I highly recommend this one.

i got thru 21% of this and so far:

- mc compared eyes of his crush to eyes of his mom
- mc's friend pulled his pants and underwear down in public, specifically in front of mc's crush's house
- mc admitted to his friend and friend's gf that he never kissed anyone, so the girl kissed him without saying a word about it
- and then made the friend kiss him too, which the mc also didn't see coming
- it wasn't just a peck, they friench kissed

on top of that, the writing is dry and repetitive, and uninviting in every possible way; the mc seems like a pretentious asshole frankly; someone called a dick a 'snake one caries around'; there's homophobia of the 90s'...

there's a pandemic going on, i do not have time for this

4 stars

What a cute and wholesome coming of age story! It shows how 17 year old Justin Ortega goes about discovering how he’s different than what his parents want him to be and how to accept himself for this difference. From loving 80s hair metal bands, playing cymbals in his high school band to loving guys as more than friends, Justin learns to love himself and realizes it’s okay to open up to others. He goes from having one single friend to gaining multiple by the end of the story, even gaining more than a friendship from someone he least expected to come back into his life. I laughed, I teared up and I overall had an enjoyable reading experience. I can’t wait to see what else Jake Martinez writes.

** Thank you to Netgalley for an arc of this story to review in advance **

*My thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC on Netgalley in exchange for a fair review*

The Mixtape to My Life is a YA coming-of-age story about Justin Ortega, a gay 17-year-old boy who, like many people his age, is desperately trying to find his place in the world. He is coming into his sexuality, finally learning to accept himself, even if others are not quite ready to do so yet. Fearful of his family finding out, Justin hides this aspect of his life and escapes into his favorite 80's bands and takes solace from his best friend, Benny. When Benny starts dating a girl from Justin's marching band, and a boy from Justin's past comes back to the school with the same sweet, protective nature that he never could quite forget— his tentative peace is thrown into orbit.

Here we have a classic slice-of-life novel, and from the POV of a teenager comes with it all the melodrama and intense emotion that highschool seems to burn into all of us at that age. Justin at times was selfish, dramatic, and flat out hard to follow but he was also familiar. I could recognize his struggle to control his emotions, the feelings of being left out or made fun of, and perhaps most terrifying of all: What it felt like to fall in love for the first time. There was simplistic, soapy joy in Justin and Dominic's sweet romance that brought a smile to my face. Benny is a brother to Justin in every sense of the word, and his girlfriend Lila was also a generous and loving friend. What I enjoyed about their dynamic the most was the truth of it. How they could be flawed, and angry, and even mean at times but always came back together in the end.

It fell down a bit in the middle for me; the plot muddled and slowed and there were cheesy aspects of the dialogue that painted some of the conversations as insincere where they should not have been. There is quite a bit of whiplash happening in the last few chapters; situations that I was not entirely sure were needed to crunch into the finale as some were left rather unresolved or glossed over.

The read was quick, the characters very much their age and refreshing with it, and of course—happiness wins the day. And isn't that what we all wished for in the end?

The Mixtape to My Life by Jake Martinez has some important messages in it. Justin Ortega is 16 at the beginning of the novel. He's a sweet young man... who already knows that he's gay but hasn't told anyone. At home, he worries that his Mexican father will let the binds of machismo influence the way in which he thinks of his son if he comes out. At school, his best friend Benny has guessed but no one else knows. Well, the bullies think that they know he's gay... they're convinced enough to call him "fag" and worse at school.

I really felt for Justin while he was at school. The bullying was really well-written...and it's an authentic-sounding teenage voice... not the kind of bullying that is often written by adults. There was one person who stood up for Justin in the past and that was Dominic. When Dominic turns up again as Justin's neighbor, there are certainly still feelings there.

The relationship between the two young men is very sweet. It felt a little rushed at times, but maybe that's the youth of the characters. They're certainly in a rush to be together once they realize they are on the same page. Maybe it was because they'd both been thinking about each other since the fateful time that Dominic defended him.

The relationship between Justin and his father is strained. His father isn't an overly emotional man and Justin doesn't want to tell his father that he's gay. That sets up a wall between them that's only exacerbated by the fact that Justin's father is a football coach. he wants his son to be tough, play sports and date girls. And really, if Justin could possibly change, it seems as though he would. I think that's probably a common feeling for a lot of young people when they are struggling with their sexuality.

All in all, this is a nice book. The plot isn't overly convoluted, but the characters are well-developed and the couplings are sweet and believable.