I LOVED this book from the first chapter. This book made me smile, cry and laugh. It was so cute and fun. I loved the main character, Raffy, from the first chapter. He is relatable and interesting.

I was invested in Raffy and Luca’s relationship from the beginning. They were so cute and I liked getting to then go back through how they met and fell out. Writing it this way kept me interested because I wanted to know why they fell out.

I had a little trouble with the jumping around but that was simply because I was listening to the audiobook and if I missed when they said “now” or “then” I would be confused, but only for a second or two.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It was a fun read, but it also had a depth to it. It shared a very important story about Luca who was having troubling coming out. It told this story in a way that was still interesting and heartwarming.

I also released to Raffy felling like he couldn't fully be himself because the people around him didn't support his vision and dream for cosplay.

The audiobook was really well done and the narrator was very compelling and made the story even better.

I can’t wait to go and read more of Ryan’s work.

Audiobook provided by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

La Sala has done it again! Since I enjoyed REVERIE, I was very excited to check out BE DAZZLED... and who wouldn't? Comic Con and cosplay meets Project Runway all tied up in a queer love story? SOLD! And set in Boston? Even better!

I absolutely adored Raffy in all his imperfect, control-freak, anxiety ridden, artistic glory. The detailed descriptions of the costumes are lavish and the only thing that would make this better would be to accompany the story with artwork. Buuuut maybe Netflix or Hulu could get on this to turn it into a movie? Just saying.

While a lot of BE DAZZLED is about the competitive cosplay world, it's also a story about a kid coming to terms with their sexuality all while not knowing how accepting their family will be. And it's about a kid trying to get their parent to see that their talent and interests are valid even if said parent doesn't agree. Raffy and Luca are both struggling with being their true selves in front of their family, and navigating how to be honest with themselves in the process. It gets messy, but I was rooting for these two kids the entire way through.

To avoid any outright spoilers, I will say that I really appreciated how La Sala wraps this up and chose the outcomes they did. All in all this was a really enjoyable read and Pete Cross does a phenomenal job with the audiobook.

After listening to the audiobook I had to take a moment before I could write this review. I wanted to give it the honest review it deserves. Ryan, you tried and you succeeded. There are certain parts I rolled my eyes at overall, this book earned its 3.7-star rating. This is Comic-Con and Project Runway mixed to create a delightful story. Be Dazzled tells the story of the exciting and stressful world of competitive cosplay. If you don't know when doing cosplay things have to be replicated correctly. I honestly had low to no expectations going into this story so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this book. This book gives great detail about what goes into creating quality cosplay costumes and props. I like the overall story itself because the characters honestly annoyed me. Raffy was stressed and whiny, and Luca didn't know what he wanted.I liked May as the supporting role and Ianya made a decent villain. Raffys mom was an art snob for whatever reason and didn't really support him. I just want to point that art comes in many forms. Compared to Ryans first book I liked this one better. Congratulations on your second book job well done. Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to the audio of Be Dazzled.

Be Dazzled is a delightful LGBT+ YA novel of comic con + project runway. The main character Raffy is a compelling lead, hilarious and easy to root for while dealing with tough parental expectations. The novel dives deep into the creativity behind comic con - great descriptions of the fashion and cosplay. I enjoyed the back and forth of "then" and "now", which helped drive the plot forward while providing context. I would highly recommend, especially the audiobook version as I became super invested in the characters and plot.

TW: homophobia

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing a copy to review!

Gah! I loved this book so much! I can't wait to read more books by Ryan La Sala!

The setting was so much fun. I love the world of cosplay and miss being able to attend cons to see all the creativity that people put into their costumes. I would definitely go see Raffy and Luca compete! I thought the addition of Raffy's social media presence was great for the story as well and thought their meet cute was the best!

I enjoyed the switch between past and present and being able to see how their relationship evolved and got through all the bumps in the road. I thought the story was well developed and really shed light on how each person within the LGBTQA+ community has a different story and that all are valid.

The family dynamic between Raffy and his mother was very strained and he always felt that his creativity would never live up to what she see's as "Art". Their relationship was the toughest for me because she is not a very affectionate or supportive of him in ways I believe she should be. On the other hand, Luca's family is more affectionate and supportive toward Luca except when it comes to their beliefs regarding sexuality. They are a religious family which makes it difficult for them to really accept that their son may be part of the LGBTQA community. I thought that having these two different family dynamics makes this story relatable.

If you're looking for a great YA Contemporary than I would definitely recommend this to you. The audio was well done and I definitely recommend it on this format. It really brings the characters to life! Especially when it comes to the well done banter between Raffy and Luca!

This is a really cute story of being bold, getting love, and communication. This was a cute story to read. I loved the changes of then and now chapters. Not a fan of cosplay but this book made it seem fun.

What a fun book! I loved the narrator, fell in love with following Raffy and Luca's story, and the fandom aspects were on. point. This book is such a delight in a dark time.

Grab your glue gun, sparkles and fabric because it is time for CRAFTING with Raffy! Raffy is a normal teenager that may have an obsession with cosplay and creating clothing and accessories with his own two hands. All he wants to do is win the biggest cosplay competition and maybe get over his ex. Although that may be easier said than done. Be Dazzled is Project Runway, Next In Fashion, and Making it sewed together to make one AMAZING BOOK. La Sala is a master at witty conversation that hit deep in the feels and will have readers laughing so much they cry. I can not express enough how incredible this book is. The authentic emotion poured into every character and the world La Sala has built. The plot is a dual timeline, rotating from past experiences to present, each memory giving more depth to the present actions. The characters! readers will fall in love with the fun, adorable, vulnerable Raffy, cheering him on as he tries to prove his artistic value. Luca starts out as the stereotypic jock but over the course of the book morphs into a fully formed character with depth, emotion and growth. Readers will not be able to resist Raffy or Luca's charm and will find themselves illustrated in this book. While this leans heavily on the romantice of two individuals, the book does not make it center stage. Instead allowing for the relationships to fully blosum and in their strength the beautiful story of Raffy is told.

I had high hope for this book and I’m happy to say that I’d didn’t not disappoint.

This book follows the fallout of Raffy and Luca’s past while also keeping pace with their present. I’m always skeptical of alternating timelines due to the fact that sometimes the stories can be confusing to follow. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to keep the two timelines separated. I loved learning about how Raffy and Luca got to the point they did when the book starts.

Raffy and Luca’s relationship was adorable for the majority of their past. They learned to give and take in their relationship and it was nice seeing them navigate through a first love. While I think that coming out stories are important, especially for queer youth, it was also nice to see that wasn’t the only aspect to Luca’s character. I loved the growth that Luca and Raffy experience both as a couple and as individuals.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It’s was a fun and feel good story. I was lucky enough to receive a audio ARC on Netgalley.

Be Dazzled is the sparkly gay book I hoped it would be.

Raffy is a seventeen-year-old gay cosplayer with a passion for craft and a dedicated following. His mother is a big name in the art world and looks down on his work to the extent that he has to hide it from her. Raffy's ex-boyfriend Luca is a bisexual soccer player with a homophobic father and a mother who wants Luca to be straight because it's easier. (For her.) When Be Dazzled begins, they've been broken up for a while and the narrative switches back and forth between the beginning of their relationship and the present, when they're against each other in a cosplay competition.


La Sala balances the romantic arc with Raffy and Luca's family arcs, as well as Raffy's growing into himself as a crafter and artist. The relationships between the teens and their parents are definitely strained and since the book is entirely from Raffy's POV we don't know the full of extent of what Luca's struggling with, which worked well as a way of keeping them apart. I was wondering how or if they'd find their way back to each other, how they could possibly work things out with their parents and, honestly, if one of them would get kicked out.

But I'm a queer romance reader and the ending of this book felt like a hug. Nothing's perfect and it's not a sitcom episode where everything's suddenly fixed and happy, but it was hopeful and joyful in a way I really needed in January 2021.


Narration Notes: The audio narrator was a great choice for the story. His narration captured the full range of Raffy's emotional journey and there were points at which I found myself recoiling away from his mother's disdain. My only regret is that I couldn't see the intricate and lovingly described cosplays, but the ebook wouldn't have helped there!


***


I received a digital copy of this audiobook for review but liked it enough that I purchased a copy of my own.

This was my second audiobook arc and I loved it. The story is compelling and relatable - anxious gay cosplayers and artists? Um, yes, please. Raffy is a bit of a mess and I loved seeing how Luca helped reign in his anxiety and perfectionism. They both have rough relationships with their parents for most of the novel, and though it was maybe a little too neat at the end, I loved seeing their parents come through for them. Because let's face it, we need all the queer happy-ever-afters we can get.

Ryan La Sala made the interesting choice of starting the story in the middle and then with alternating chapters working forward from the beginning to the middle and also the middle to the end. It really worked though, and it was such an interesting perspective, seeing how Raffy and Luca got together, how they fell apart, and how they got back together all at the same time.

The audiobook narrator was excellent and really brought life to the story. He was a bit over-the-top in how he portrayed Raffy but then Raffy is pretty over-the-top all on his own. I'm so happy I was approved for the audiobook arc because I probably would have chosen to read an e-book otherwise and I would have missed out on a fabulous audiobook.

After Reverie and now this, I look forward to anything Ryan La Sala writes.

This book was just SO adorable! I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved just about everything that happened!

I honestly don’t even have the words to describe how cute this book was. Raffy and Luca are just the sweetest cinnamon rolls ever and the parts of them in the past has me SQUEEING.

Profiled as Project Runway meets Comic Con - what's not to love?

I enjoy a non-linear narrative structure, which Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala offered. We learn about how Raffy and Luca ended up together and fell apart. It's a beautiful queer love story that literally sparkles.

I had the chance to listen to the audiobook version of this story, and it really brought the characters to life. I definitely recommend this one.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Be Dazzled is, at its heart, about the joy of creating stuff, about making art irrespective of medium. Raffy, who is the son of an artist-turned-gallery director, has to hide his main passion, cosplay, from his mother because she doesn't consider it art; she treats crafts like it is a hobby, and she tries to direct his creative passions towards something more 'respectable' like fashion design. Raffy, however, is adamant on going to art school (another thing his mother looks down upon), and he wants to win this year's Controverse competition to cement his entry into college. Controverse is a big convention and one of its main events is its cosplay competition, and Raffy, who has been doing this for years, and has his own streaming channel and everything, is aiming for a win, and one of his rivals is his ex-boyfriend, Luca. Raffy's personal arc is about him being ambitious and driven, but he sometimes also forgets to have fun with the process.

Now, this book has two timelines - one taking in the present on the days of the Controverse convention, and the other starting from about 13 months ago, when he first meets his classmate Luca at Craft Club (I guess it is the non-homophobic version of, you know) while searching for rhinestones. At that time, Luca started off as his fan, who regularly watched his streams, and soon fall into a relationship, with Raffy teaching Luca the basics of sewing, and crafting builds for cosplay. In the present, Raffy is participating along with Mei, his other best friend, who is also a webcomic artist come to connect with other artists and sell merch at the convention. The main 'mystery' at the start is how they broke up, and as we go forward we see how their budding relationship was strained a bit by Luca's family not approving of his relationship, and even denying his bisexuality. At the start, the girl Luca is participating with also seems like a rival (in the competition) to Raffy, and her impression is worsened by the fact that she and Luca are doing one of Raffy's idea. By the end, though, we do realize that there is no antagonist, per se, but just circumstances that worked against the characters (though I am still on them using Raffy's idea).

While the book is amazing and full of heart, and love for creating, I especially loved how much detail the author has put into describing Raffy's process itself. And while I know practically nothing about how cosplay is made, I was not overwhelmed by the details, either, nor did I feel they took away from the pacing of the plot. About the timelines, I must say, though, is that the way they align doesn't always work. For instance, we get Luca's and Raffy's reconciliation before we get the full version of the event that finally broke them. It felt like the build-up (I was assuming big betrayal or something) gets to nowhere. Same with his issue with his mom - her snobbishness disappears promptly at the end (though I admit moms do be like that; mine is pretty much the same in taking others' opinion before my own). But, throughout, the book is quite enjoyable and I loved Raffy's journey. Coupled with the brilliant narration by Pete Cross, the experience will leave you delighted.

Nerds and crafters rejoice! This queer YA contemporary is the fabulous, geeky novel that you- and I for that matter- did not realize you needed. I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook. He really did a fantastic job bringing the story and characters to life.

Our protagonist is ambitious, albeit anxious, Raffy is simultaneously very gay and very talented at what he does– cosplay. Raffy is the artistic spiritual animal that I never knew existed and who I aspire to become when I grow up. Though if I’m honest, I doubt I could never be that artistic.

On a more serious note, at the center of the story is the m/m romance between Raffy and Luca, both how they started almost a year before the start of the novel, and how they find their way back to each other in the present. The romance was sweet, wholesome, and everything the doctor ordered to begin to heal from the trauma that was 2020.

While I have never attended a comic con I was fascinated by the dynamics and imagination that went into all the cosplays included in the novel. Also, I have released that I adore behind the scenes glimpses of competitions, be they art, food, or fights to the death.

The aspect of the story that entirely blew me away was Raffy’s struggle with high functioning anxiety. I felt so seen when Raffy struggled to turn off the mental lists and crushing fear of not meeting deadlines. Like Luca did for Raffy, my own husband has done wonders to help me slow down, breath and cope with my anxiety in much healthier and productive ways.

I also empathized with Raffy’s struggle to meet his mother’s expectations while pursuing what he loved and being authentic to himself and following his dreams

Overall, I gave Be Dazzled 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

In short, if you spent your days daydreaming about owning your own dragon, magic wands, or galaxies far far away Be Dazzled should be high on your TBR. More specifically, if you loved books such Geekarella by Ashley Poston and Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner, you needed to read this book yesterday.

Where do I even begin with this book? Well, I was hesitant to even request it because Ryan La Sala's last book (Reverie) was not one I enjoyed. However, the premise for this one? Had me intrigued.
Not only did I love the writing style, but I fell in love with these characters. I was left needing more from them. Like this isn't where their story ends, it can't be. I need more of Crafty Raffy and more of Luca. I want to see as their relationship grows and evolves and the future family dynamics and I just want to see the hints of some partnerships for Raffy form and him turn cosplaying into his career.
I also loved the nostalgia I felt from this book. I may have never been huge into cosplaying with he 50 hour builds but this book has left me wanting to binge watch my favorite anime and finally turn old cosplaying dreams into reality.
All in all, a solid read and one I am glad to have read. Thanks so much Dreamscape Media for letting me review this book. I absolutely adored it!

*Thank you, Netgalley and Dreamscape Media, for the gifted copy. I voluntarily read and am choosing to leave a review*

**This story has queer and anxiety rep, also to me what sounded like disassociation**

This story has alternating timelines for chapters between now and "then". It provides a nice backstory of the relationship between Luca and Raffie.

It was cute, adorable, sometimes sad and frustrating and all over wonderful.

I just reviewed Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala. Thank you Dreamscape and NetGalley for an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Book is available now in paperback and audiobook.

This story is a romance story as much as it is a self discovery story. Raffy and Luca struggle to find themselves as a couple and also as individuals. You are able to see the struggle that these two young men are going through when it comes to expressing themselves. For Raffy it's all about being able to be himself as a creator of cosplay outfits when his mother sees it behind them in the art world. Through the story you are able to see the joy this hobby brings Raffy but through his eye you are able to see how stubbish his mother views it. In another part of Raffy’s story you are able to see the budding romance with Luca. Things here are different since Raffy is open about being gay whereas Luca is struggle to come out because of the view of his family. I love how this story shows two different sides of the coin. I think that RyanLa Sala show cultural appreciation for LGBTQ+ community in such a simple and beautiful way. While at times he lost me in the ComCON world I could feel the world and emotions that his words wove around me.
Pete Cross has away with the spoken language that you can help but be swept along with the story. The combination of Ryan’s written word and Pete’s spoken interpretation of said word is simply put out of this world. I hope to see more from these two.

#DreamscpeMedia #NetGalley #reviewbooks #bookreviews #bookbloggers #booklover #bookworm #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookstagrammer #bookaddict #bookaholic #booknerdigan #readmore #readersofinstagram #readingisfundamental #readingcommunity #bibliophile #bookcommunity #reviewerofbooks #lovethisbook #recommendedreading #youngadultbooks #yabooks #lgbtq #ryanlasalaauthor

This was okay. It wasn't bad and I thought the main pairing was really cute and fluffy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really LOVED this book, its humor, gay, nerdy, artsy and fabulous! The characters are likeable with their own flaws and I found myself connecting with each of them in a different way. I've never read a book about cosplay crafting and competition let alone where it was a main part of the storyline, I found myself cheering on the creative processes and "builds" throughout. I liked that the writing was descriptive but not overly done so that I could still imagine what everything looked like for myself.

I FREAKING LOVED the relationship between Raffy and Luca so much, wasn't too cheesy to me. This book literally had my laughing at times and crying at times and that definitely equals a 5 star read to me! Id recommend this to everyone who is into LGBTQ reads with a little deeper side and a LOT of fun! The only con is that I wish it was longer! UGH this was just soo so good!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are completely my own.