Be still, my boyband-loving heart. What an absolutely spectacular time. I enjoyed everything about this.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected to like it but was not expecting to love it! Quite some time after finishing it, I still find myself thinking of these characters quite frequently. I am so glad I picked this one up and so grateful to Netgalley for the gifted e-copy! I don’t know that this is something I’d have picked up if I hadn’t stumbled across it on Netgalley.

I really liked this one and the audio pairing was great! Boy band and gay rep was phenomenal, totally the gen z/wattpad lover in me was thrilled!

Highly recommend anything by sophie gonzales

What a fun concept! Sophie Gonzales has become an auto-read author for me, and this book was more of the same. This felt like a love letter to fangirls (and fanboys) and I appreciated it. Well done, Sophie and Cale!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I expected this book to be my favourite read of 2022. Everyone was hyping it up for me and not to mention it features boybands, LGBTQ+ relationships and Europe. What wasn't there to love? I wanted so desperately to love this book and when I didn't (at least to the extent I expected), I felt a tad bit disappointed. I guess this only proves I shouldn't hold too high expectations.

Let's start off with the things I liked though, I liked how this book shone a light on the restraints of the music industry and the pressure to remain closeted as a queer artist. This was handled really well along with the pressure to fit in with the image PR teams and management want you to uphold and the struggles of trying to play that part. You could see this struggle play out with all the characters from the mains to the sides but in particular with Angel and Ruben who felt frustrated by fame and tried alleviating the stresses in different ways.

The other thing I really liked was the relationships between all the characters and how they bantered on with one another. You could see the mateship between them and how they were really there for one another. My favourite characters had to be Angel and Zach though. Angel because of his boisterous personality and Zach because of his calmness and his love for rock music.

Now for the things I felt could've been improved. Considering this book was set in Europe, I wanted to get more atmosphere and more setting. I understood why this was, but it did create a jump of sorts with the pacing. One minute we were in London and the next, Paris with seemingly no transition in between. Maybe this could've been rectified if only a few tour stops were mentioned instead of multiple like there were in this book?

Aside from that and how I wanted a bit more emotional connection between Zach and Ruben than physical, I thought this book was good but the pacing did let it down at times.

ACTUAL RATING: 4.1 STARS

I have fallen in love with Sophie Gonzales’s writing so I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of this book, which was co-written with Cale Dietrich. I went in somewhat uninformed, and I am not sure if I would have read it when I did if I’d read content warnings in advance. Even so, this was well written and very memorable, and the plot was largely heavy but ultimately uplifting.

Zac and Ruben are two members of a four-person boy band called Saturday. With Angel and Jon, the group has been close friends for a long time and they are maintaining a grueling schedule on their first international tour. Ruben has known he was gay for years but their management company has kept him in the closet. Zac starts to realize that he might also like guys, and Ruben and Zac eventually start a secret relationship with each other. Angel has addiction troubles, and Jon is the son of their manager. The story generally takes place when tension within the group is high and increasing, from the grueling schedule of the tour and the way each of them cope with the requisite expectations.

I am generally a romance reader. I am a firm believer that the genre can represent a wide range of stories, and I would not exclude this book from the definition. I loved the ending of this book on multiple levels, I was just not prepared for the angst that dominated the story for me. Angel's plotline aside, I was very worried that the characters or their relationship would be outed (not by them and not planned), which didn’t happen.

Content notes: drug addiction/abuse, reckless behavior, a character gets hit by a car on page, gaslighting

Throughout June, GeekMom celebrates Pride Month with lots of LGBTQ content. Follow the Pride Month tag to find all the content in one space (including LGBTQ content from previous years) and keep checking back for more throughout the month. Today’s book review is If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich.

Please Note: This post contains affiliate links.
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia/biphobia, drug abuse, toxic relationship (parent/child), alcoholism, addiction, emotional abuse, confinement, forced outing.

At one time or another, I imagine that most have us (at least those of us who identify as female) have gone through the phase of being obsessed with a boyband. It may have been Backstreet Boys or Boyzone, perhaps Duran Duran or the Bay City Rollers (or even The Beatles). Younger readers might be experiencing it now with BTS, or recently with One Direction. Whoever it was—or is—we can all identify with watching a highly polished group of pretty faces singing and dancing on stage while hordes of screaming teenage fans watch on.

If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich is a YA romance told from the alternating perspectives of Ruben and Zach, two teenage members of the globally popular boyband Saturday along with their friends Jon and Angel. The band is managed and produced by Chorus, an agency obsessed with making the boys as popular (and profitable) as possible and so every element of their lives is controlled, from the clothes they wear to their haircuts, what they are allowed to discuss in interviews, and where they are allowed to go.

For Ruben, this has also meant hiding his sexuality. Chorus worries that letting him come out as gay will push away fans who will no longer be able to picture him as the “perfect boyfriend” as well as alienating conservative parents and even whole countries. However, the band is struggling under the pressure their fame has brought them as they embark upon their first tour of Europe. Angel is experimenting with dangerous substances, Jon is struggling to reconcile his Catholic faith with the leering bad boy image Chorus has foisted upon him, and so Ruben and Zach end up relying on one another more and more, causing their friendship to blossom into a romance.

Pushed to reveal their new relationship to Chorus, Ruben and Zach soon find themselves being pulled apart, no longer allowed to perform beside one another or even sit beside one another in interviews lest anyone catch a glimpse of the truth. Quickly, the boys realize that Chorus will never allow them to be themselves, but with everything threatening to fall apart, will they be able to stay together?

If This Gets Out was a fantastic yet frustrating book that I raced through in just a few days. Ruben and Zach were both great characters with unique voices who I was able to identify with almost instantly, and the rest of their band were also given well-rounded personalities so it was easy to recognize each of them and I never found myself getting mixed up about who was who. While they were both in the same situation, Ruben and Zach’s identities gave them both a different perspective. Ruben has known he is gay for years and is frustrated at being constantly silenced and forced to keep his true self hidden. Zach, on the other hand, has only just realized he might be bisexual and feels pressured into revealing such personal details to his bandmates and management too quickly. These conflicting viewpoints keep the tension building throughout the book as the cracks begin to deepen within the band.

I also very much appreciated the ending. While the key event of the finale is obvious almost right from the start, I loved that the book didn’t end on it. Instead, there are repercussions to be dealt with: financial, legal, social, and personal. I suppose this could be seen as discouraging, but I felt it came across as realistic without negating the positive side of what happened.

GeekMom received a copy of this title for review purposes.

I have pretty mixed thoughts on this one, if I'm being honest. As a die hard Directioner, I was DESPERATE to read this book, but when I finally got my hands on it, it didn't quite match up with what I was hoping it would be. While I *loved* the dynamic between all the boys and the (mostly?) realistic seeming portrayal of what it can be like behind the scenes to be in a hugely popular boyband, this book just felt way, WAY too long. Even though I was totally absorbed in the relationship between Ruben and Zach, because this book has such a heavy tone, it really ended up feeling like a slog through a lot of the middle and I am so bummed about it. With all that being said, I do definitely still recommend this book (especially to my fellow boyband fans!). I just recommend going into it minding the content warnings beforehand.

CW: homophobia, underage drinking, drug use, verbally abusive parents/authority figures

If This Gets Out

This was so much fun!! I read 350/400 pages yesterday, and quickly finished it this morning. We follow Ruben and Zach who are two of four members of the boyband Saturday. Ruben is gay and is crushing on Zach. Zach thinks he’s straight until one drunken night when he kisses Ruben.

This deals with the darker side of being famous, and being controlled by your label, and the different ways the boys dealt with it. I loved the friendship between the four of them, and also really loved the romance. This was so hard to put down and I’m so glad I read this one.

*2.5 stars*

Look, I haven't read these authors before, but is If This Gets Out just straight up published fan fiction? I'm not a huge fan-fic reader, but even I got some mega Larry vibes...

If This Gets Out was a book I have very mixed feeling about, fan-fic dubious origins aside. I always enjoy a sexuality discovery story, but famous people books don't often work for me (too much of a distraction) and the fade to black scenes (*wails*)... but there was also something nice about the story, especially if you don't mind extra teenage angst.

Warning: this review may be mostly rambling thoughts.

I know record companies are like the true devils a lot of the time, but I found it extremely odd how Jon's dad was the "bad guy" but also married to Jon's mom who was conveniently clueless about his restrictions? That plotline was badly mishandled. Why even make the head honcho Jon's dad? It made the plot very muddy, IMO.

On the topic of families, I sort of enjoyed the toxic parents of Reuben as I feel like that's scary realistic for a lot of people. It made the story feel a bit different than a lot of "bad parent" stories. Not all parents are overtly bad, but the subtle cuts kill. However, I found Zach's personality and plotlines to be much more underwhelming. Angel was entertaining in a messy way.

Romance verdict? Cute-ish. I honestly wanted a bit more, but I dug them and felt entertained, though the damn fade-to-black scenes irritated me. I prefer either no sex on page, just don't even discuss, or the full thing, baby. The tease and then fade away was not my scene.

Overall, an entertaining read that felt very fan-fiction-ish. I was expecting something different, but I think the story will please YA readers.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

A fast, delightful, engrossing read. I couldn't put this one down because I just absolutely had to know what came next. Two young men and their boyband bandmates finding themselves, their identities and navigating hollywood trying to control their entire lives.

I really enjoyed this book. I am not a huge YA reader but Ruben and Zach stole my heart. I definitely recommend this!

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

I will say that I read this a while ago but my review seemed to never go through so I am having to give this review trying to remember a lot of what happened but I do remember how I felt about the book.

I love Sophie and Cale's writing but it was while reading this book that I realised that books to do with rockstars/bands are just not for me.

*Arc provided by Netgalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review.*

If you've ever read a single fan fiction about a ship for a boy band this book is made for you. If This Gets Out follows the band Saturday, a group of 4 boys who met at summer camp that made it big. As the band itself struggles with the pressures of fame and their ever decreasing freedom, band members Ruben and Zach struggle with their changing relationship.

The nice thing about this book is while it's about Ruben and Zach's relationship it's also a cautionary tale about how if you aren't careful your dreams can become nightmares. The struggles each member of Saturday go through are things that anyone coming up in the music industry would probably be faced with. To go from being relatively unknown to having every moment of your day planned out with no control of even your free time. The dynamic of Ruben and his mother who is so critical of him he doesn't know how to establish and maintain boundaries. It's one of those books that tells a story within a story.

Wow! I put off reading this because I have at least a dozen other YA music artist/band romances in my tbr and I’ve read a dozen more, many of them also with LGBTQIA+ rep, and how could this one possibly be different? But this one was different because it was so damn real.

Ok, I don’t actually know what it’s like to be in a super famous teenage boy band, but this book made me feel like I do. The pressure to fit in, to be what everyone wants you to be at the cost of losing your friends, your family, your job, is not unique to celebrities, but imagine all of that (which everyone surely understands to some degree), but add in the pressures of fame and paparazzi and fans who meticulously watch every move you make and analyze every word you say? The anxiety!! I felt it right along with them. But then the unconditional love from their
people, their friends, their family (whether blood or found), that kind of support system is so incredibly important and beautiful, and I felt that right along with them, too. This was a YA boy band romance but it was so much more powerful than what that implies. I loved it so very much.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one! I really loved the way that coming out is explored in this one, especially given the context through which Zach and Ruben had to do so. With efforts by large corporations to spotlight diverse creatives alongside growing fan bases who seem to feel owed a celebrity's entire life story (and as such, sexuality), I think this book carries an especially important weight for the YA audience in its emphasis on the complexities of having one's identity known for the entire world to see. Ultimately a topical, entertaining, and heartwarming read.

This book is a deft exploration of four friends under the pressure of the music industry, told through the accessible voices of it's two narrators. Each of the boy band members are distinctive and dealing with their own problems that stem from their own intersectional identities, their fame, and their experience in the music industry. A strength of this book is how realistic and developed the characters are. Zach and Ruben have distinct narrative voices that invite the reader into the story and highlights their developing relationship. This book is an important one, even by readers who know nothing about boybands, because it is a story about love (romantic, platonic, and familial) and hopefulness in the face of realistic struggles.

If This Gets Out is an entertaining story about two band members that decide to start dating each other. If you came here looking for a book to entertain and help you escape reality then you have found it with If This Gets Out. Ultimately If This Gets Out is a cute and ultimately uplifting YA romance.
If This Gets Out is about a boyband called Saturday and more specifically about two of its members: Zach and Ruben. These two were the only characters, the other characters mentioned were just names and had no real purpose. At no point did we learn about their past history, like how they became a band or the meaning behind their band name. I think it would've felt more like a book and less like fanfiction if there was a story behind these characters. It was more of an adult vs. "kids" story where the adults were clearly the bad guys. Angel's addiction wasn't properly handled in the story as well. Everything felt almost "too simplistic".
Despite everything, this If This Gets Out was not bad. If you are looking for an easy read that manages to lightly touch upon some important issues, If This Gets Out may be the right read for you.

3.5 stars, rounded up. An LGBTQ story centering around a boy band with two members exploring their sexual identity, fighting homophobic business practices, and falling in love. *swoon*

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Wednesday Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

First I want to start off by saying I enjoyed this book so much I didn’t want it to end. I wanted it to continue like a soap opera. It contained so many different topics like being famous, touring, drug abuse, mental abuse, friendship, friends to lovers. I could go on and on. I just loved how it seemed about a groups so real you question if this is real and what happens in boy bands. When I say that I mean like having to be what they tell you to be. Not being able to do what you want to do but only what they tell you you can do.

If this gets out is about 4 band mates who spend so much traveling that they deal with all types of stuff. They are super famous and are constantly on the watch by paparazzi, super fans and even their band managers.

I just want to thank Netgalley and Wednesday books for providing an ARC for an honest review!!!