Cover Image: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun

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Member Reviews

This book was simply perfection, filled with sweet, sad, happy and all kind of moments, making you feel every emotion.⠀
Let's start in order... if there's something I love is author's notes and the one in the beginning was excellent, necessary and kind of like a hug. Then we get to the story and, as much as this is a review, I don't think words can be enough to describe how amazing this book is. I was only a 30% into it already knowing that it was going to become a new favorite or, if I was really unlucky, a Huge disappointment but I got extremely lucky!⠀
Sweet love stories are what makes me weak so it's safe to assume I've been the weakest this past days. Jules and Mat are the most lovely couple ever, such a great pair of guys who deserve the world and one another. They have you rooting for them since their first DM, falling in love with their relationship and the love they have for each other.⠀
Then we have the people who have our protagonist's back: his amazing group of friends, sister and grandpa. Can I have them for myself a little? I loved all of them! Everyone unique and supportive in their own way, making sure he feels accepted. Also, not to play favorites between the friends but Lou was for sure my favorite.⠀
The growth Jules show by the end of the book is one of the most satisfactory, hopeful things I've read, with That ending that made me feel like anything was possible, both for him and I; which leads me to say thank you to Jonny Garza Villa for writing a incredible story and for making sure that I will read even their supermarket list! But for real, I hope they know how full of hope and light this book made me feel, how it is everything I ever needed.

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It was very cute and fluffy, interesting on one hand. But on the other hand, they spoke spanish alot and i know just some, so i had to use alot of time to get to know what the others ment. I mean, if it had been a information page it could have helped, or as seen in some books the english transelated on the side. So it dragged it down somewhat. Plus i was awaiting something big..something more. I cannot pinpoint what, exactly. But i really hated how Julìan`s father was, but he had alot of support elsewhere so that made it feel very wholesome.

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This is a feel good type of book. I believe many YA will be able to relate to this story. It’s a quick and easy read which is perfect when you want to curl up with a good book and decompress. Will recommend to my teenage nephew. Enjoyed authors style of writing.

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This is the Queer, Latinx, HEA coming-of-age romance we've all been waiting for! Holy crap, this was so lovely. I don't think I've read a book wherein the author so clearly handled their characters with this much love. Love was everywhere, from familial relationships to platonic love to swoony, mutual pining romance. That's not to say this is a happy book from start to finish. Angst is abundant, but it's handled with such tenderness. And the relationship Jules has to Mexican/Chicanx culture is handed impeccably, with joy and honesty and more love. I cannot say enough good things about this delightful story. A zillion stars.

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I finally found the time to read this and it was such a special book. The representation was beautiful, the story and dialogue felt real, and it just makes you have all the emotions. I can't speak to the LGBTQ+ rep, but I can speak to the Latinx rep. It truly felt like a love letter to my culture and its intricacies. This book was everything I hoped for and more.

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I adored this book. I read it in almost one sitting. As a queer kid who never felt comfortable at home, or even now, I think this will resonate with other teens as much as it would have when I was younger. I grew up when this wasn't commonplace and online/long distance was shunned so I'm happy to see such a positive display of it. Even though Julian has a protective group of friends, I think it's important to show you can find that online as much as you can in person. I hope every teen who feels like they won't ever be accepted gives this book a chance and learns that you can find acceptance in the weirdest of places and it doesn't matter as long as you feel it.

Overall, the book was strong on consent, something that can be missed in a lot of books, and made me laugh on a regular basis. I've already read it twice so it's time you give it a chance.

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The beautiful cover is what drew me to this novel initially, and I was kept captivated by the engaging plot!

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This was such a strong debut! I don't currently teach high school, but will keep in mind when recommending books to teens in my life. Loved this book, and am happy we're getting more queer Latinx YA!

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This book is special. It's brimming with every big rip-your-heart-out emotion, and the relationships are so very sincere. I would read 100 more books in this world! I love these characters.

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I requested this book when my library was lucky enough to talk with Jonny during a Book Talk.

This isn't the typical book I normally read, however, I am not upset that I read it.

I grew up in Texas, and went to high school over 20 years ago. We didn't have many 'out' guys, it was more socially acceptable to be a lesbian. I would hope, 20 years later, it's easier for someone to come out. I'm saying this because I didn't grow up with these situations and Johnny did a fantastic job of writing about someone's experience and I loved this book.

They touched my soul in a way I didn't realize I needed until reading this book and I can't wait to see more from Jonny Garza Villa (who is also one of the funniest humans I've meet in a while as well!) and what they bring.

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Lo siento, this review is sooooo late, but I’m finally catching up with everything I lost track of this summer.

Jules is a fairly typical Catholic school kid: he plays soccer, has a great friend group, and is trying to get into a good college. Because of his strict homophobic father, coming out is not an option, which is why Jules plans to wait until college.

But plans don’t always go as… planned. Luckily, Jules has support from his friends and his older sister and his Twitter crush Mat, a Vietnamese-American teen who lives in Los Angeles. The two boys talk all the time, but falling in love with someone who lives fifteen hundred miles away is completely bananas, right? They’ve never even met in person!

There’s a strong cast of secondary characters, and quite frankly, I would read a spinoff with most of those kids. I have a special place in my heart for Lou, whose voice I could hear based solely on written words.

And how could I not mention Mat? Even though he’s not a POV character, he’s still an integral part of the book. He’s an amazing boyfriend—supportive and caring—I loved the way he and Jules shared their respective cultural background with each other.

This book is an homage to a Latinx adolescence in Texas. The characters frequently lapse into Spanglish, and the descriptions of food had me ready to hop on a plane. This native Californian even smiled at Jules hating on In N Out.

Okay, I’m going to try to keep this vague to avoid spoilers, but as a mom, I appreciated the conversations about safe sex. Sure, kids learn about all that in health class, but it’s always refreshing to see it modeled in the media they consume.

I would absolutely recommend Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun. There’s some pretty heavy content with Jules’ accidental (self) outing, but there are plenty of lighter moments, like the constant banter with Jules and his friends. Jules’ “St. Caucasian” description of his school’s soccer opponents has lived in my head since I first read this book; it makes me smile all the time. Jonny Garza Villa is an amazingly talented author, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.




I received a digital ARC of this book from Skyscape/NetGalley.

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This book was everything I wanted and more. Can't believe I've waited so long to read it but I'm glad I finally did! My heart is warm and I don't even know what to say other than beg you to give this one a chance, I'm obsessed with Jules and Mat, they're now one of my favorite characters.

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I really enjoyed this book! I had no idea what it was going to be about going into it but I absolutely adored it.

The story follows Jules, a gay Latino teenager who accidentally comes out on Twitter during a drunken night. He also meets another gay teen his age online and they form an instant connection! Jules is also dealing with stuff like college apps, a disapproving father, and being miles away from his only online gay friend.

I really loved the friend group in this story. I am always a SUCKER for Found Family, and the way this character finds family in his best friends and sister. I don't know which one of his friends I like more!

I also really enjoyed how this story covered online dating and long-distance relationships. The main character and love interest met over Twitter, and I feel like it's becoming more and more common to meet up with friends that we've met over the Internet. I love how this book tackled this experience!

I didn't give the book 5 stars because of a few minor things. The main character gets into a fight with his best friend for a stupid reason imo. And the main character also has a hard time trusting his boyfriend with the problems in his life (this is so hard for me to understand bc I go to my boyfriend with all my problems lol). And also, the end trailed a little too long for me.

Overall, I really recommend it!

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This was a different type of read for me as this was my first foray into a LGBTQ novel. I have many friends in the community and support it wholeheartedly so I figured I would check this one out!
Premise
Julián Luna has a plan for his life: Graduate. Get into UCLA. And have the chance to move away from Corpus Christi, Texas, and the suffocating expectations of others that have forced Jules into an inauthentic life.

Then in one reckless moment, with one impulsive tweet, his plans for a low-key nine months are thrown—literally—out the closet. The downside: the whole world knows, and Jules has to prepare for rejection. The upside: Jules now has the opportunity to be his real self.

Then Mat, a cute, empathetic Twitter crush from Los Angeles, slides into Jules’s DMs. Jules can tell him anything. Mat makes the world seem conquerable. But when Jules’s fears about coming out come true, the person he needs most is fifteen hundred miles away. Jules has to face them alone.

Jules accidentally propelled himself into the life he’s always dreamed of. And now that he’s in control of it, what he does next is up to him.

I love coming of age stories and I loved Julians story and how it propelled him forward by making that tweet that he initially thought would hinder him, but landed up being a step into a authentic life that he greatly wanted for himself. Mat was a very cute character as well and a great compliment to Julian.
I really enjoyed this one. It was fast read and it was nice to open myself up to reading a different genre than I am used to.

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This book was alright but unfortunately, I didn't connect with this book like I wanted to. I didn't love it and at times, I wanted to get to the end quickly. Now, I feel like it might be because I wasn't in the best mood when I read this. However, this book follows Jules a teenage boy who came out with a tweet and has to figure out how to handle his father who was to say the least not happy with his son. Jules also has a long distance crush with a boy living in L.A. and that was cute.

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

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What can I say about this book? What can I say more strongly than I LOVED IT BEYOND MY LOVE FOR CAKE AND ICE CREAM. And that's saying something cause I'm a fatty. It was AMAZING.

I loved the characters (except for Jules' dad) and immediately fell in love with Jules and Mat. Like legitimately read the book with constant heart eyes because I just wanted everything for them. They were ones that you cheered for and just wanted them to make it and not fail. I loved Jules' friends who had a good amount of appearances and loved how supportive they were of him. And last but not least the family that supported him, that was just wonderful.

And Mat, oh Mat. I absolutely loved Mat. And his family. And his friends (what little we experienced of them).

Above all else, I loved Jules' and Mat's relationship. That absolutely blossomed out of adversity. It brought back so many memories of my own chatting with other LGBTQ people and making possibly real connections that because of this book, made me wonder whether any of those would've worked out had they been followed through and what they would've been like. Hindsight you know?

There was so much I loved about this book but when Jules and Mat meet, that moment, that scene, will live in my mind forever. It was simply beautiful and I teared up.

Aside from it making me want to get better with Spanish (it seriously put my 1 semester of Spanish to the test), it is one that I know I'll be revisiting time and time again and book talking to anyone within earshot.

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An unexpectedly hard hitter. As someone who's been in a long distance relationship (further even than Mat and Julián) I know the ache of that. I was really happy to see the boys get their happy ending. I also appreciated the journey of coming out in this - it happens differently for everyone. And as much as queer people deserve happy endings and gentle stories, they deserve to know they're not alone in their pain, either.

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What a debut! I LOVED this book. The characters that the author molded were so real and so fresh. I loved this world and couldn't stop cheering them on.

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this is definitely one of my favorite books that i've read this year!!! the characters were so relatable and acted and conversed like regular teenagers without feeling forced or cringey like a lot of other YA contemporaries out there. it was also really cool to see the author include many "gen-z" and pop culture references and fitting them so seamlessly into the story.

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This book is Peak Teen.

Jules accidentally outs himself while drunk, and he is immediately thrown into a whirlwind of family relations and friendships changing, a budding romance, all with a heavy sprinkle of finding out what his future will hold.

This was a challenging read on a few fronts for me, at least in the beginning. There's some heavy homophobia, but the one thing I really struggled with initially was how incredibly teen it was written. You know how some YA books almost feel like they're written by adults, for adults? This feels like it's written by teens, for teens. In a good way, though! Like that is some serious skill, and it works incredibly well. For a while I struggled with it because I had a hard time understanding a lot of the thought processes of Jules given that it's been a minute since I was 17, but once I realised that was the problem and it was just that the book was that kind of well-written it wasn't as much a problem as a luxury. It's a whole different beast to read a YA book that actually feels teen, you know?

So anyway, the romance didn't quite work for me. A lot of the time it felt onesided, like one was practically the others' therapist and had to accept some real shitty behaviour from their partner (doooon't just completely refuse to talk to your partner because you're mad at yourself!! this was one of the Very Teen things I had to rewire my brain a lil' for while reading this, and looking at it from an outside perspective I totally get the teenage thinking here, but as an adult it just sat very badly with me) but I am here for the realistic safe sex and discussions thereof! YA in general seems to shy away from that a lot, but not this one. An actual gem.

My favourite, though? All the siblings. Both Jules's sister (who I will protect until the day I pass) and Mat's were just.. *chef's kiss*. Absolutely the responsible adults this world needs who will protect and raise their siblings with love and respect. I loved them so much.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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