I'm so happy I got to read this book already, because I feel like I've already been anticipating it forever. And I loved it even more than I was expecting.

It's clear in this book that it's written by two authors, but in a good way: the perspectives feel distinctly different and I never confused Ruben and Zach with each other - they had very clear voices. But at the same time the book and especially the writing and characterization felt so cohesive - the writing styles matched each other really well.

I'm just living for Ruben and Zach's dynamic. I'm learning that two characters being soft together in a harsh environment is my kryptonite, and that's exactly what we got here. Plus, they grew so much together, and genuinely supported each other, and I loved to see that. That goes for the rest of the band as well - they have their issues with each other, but they genuinely love and support each other.

Ok this is an instant, new favorite for me. Sophie & Cale made me fall in love with these four boys as if they were a real boy band that I am a die hard fan of. The intricacies of what happens behind the scenes in the music industry was both heartbreaking and incredible to see. The writing felt so in sync and I forgot I was reading two different authors at points. I highly recommend for anyone who loves boy bands, drama, behind the scenes insight, or just queer love in general. My only complaint is that it ended. I could read these boys’ forever.

ighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.

If This Gets Out throughly exceded all of my expectations. I was expecting a cute story about two boyband members falling in love and what I read was so much more, as it was also an emotional and intense story about the abuses of the music industry. I was immediately invested in the story and did not want to put the book down until I knew how everything was going to play out. I don’t usually enjoy books from multiple perspectives, but the two perspectives in this book were so well done and both boys were such strong characters on their own that I was never left wanting more. Even outside of the two main perspectives, all of characters, and there are a lot, are distinct and balanced very well. I did feel like the build up to the plot took a long time, however, this helped to develop the characters as individuals and allowed me to become much more invested in them before the plot really takes off in the second half of the book. Overall, I greatly enjoyed If This Gets Out and will continue to think about its characters and message for a long time.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books, St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for providing honest feedback!

I thoroughly enjoyed If This Gets Out. I liked the first section of the book when Zach and Ruben's relationship was being developed. In particular I really appreciated the way Zach was allowed the time to figure out his identity as a bi man, outside of the main relationship. I did, however, find the second part of the novel more engaging, as the plot really started driving the narrative.

What made this book special was the characters. The four bandmates Zach, Ruben, Jon and Angel each had such distinct personalities, which really shone through when they interacted with each other. They were all realistically flawed but they grew throughout the book. And while the majority of the adults in the book may have been unlikable, they were complex and well written characters.

I also really liked the commentary on the boy band formula and the insidious nature of music industry. Specifically when it comes to the treatment of LGBT+ musicians and performers. And I valued how the authors touched upon how young men, especially young pop stars, are expected and encouraged to conform to hyper masculine and hyper-sexualised stereotypes in order to be more appealing to fans. I'm glad young adults are getting books like this which touch upon these issues.

This book was amazing! I loved not just the romance but also the interactions within the band, which were so wholesome! The authors clearly put a lot of thought and research into this book. One critique is that at times I felt like the book just dragged on and
on, and the ending felt a but rushed to me. But I really enjoyed “If This Gets Out” otherwise!

Its 2 in the morning and I am emotional.
This books is special ya'll.
I went in thinking this was just going to be a fluffy Boyband Rom-com,
And I got a wonderful thought provoking soft romance with so much to say.
And this doesn't hold back punches, on the hardships of young stardom,problems with the music industry, the struggles of sexuality,or addiction.
Both Sophie and Cale' writing shown individually and synchronized so well. Both povs never felt fractured or disconnected.
It was JUST lovely.
I wish I could give it more than 5 stars!
I will definitely be reccomending and buying a hard copy when it's released!

I can hear it now - the wild fangirling of every person who shipped each and every member of One Direction. This is their dream come true.

I'm pretty sure this story isn't inspired by 1D (no references that I could find), but it isn't hard to make comparisons. Honestly, being in a boyband (or anything in the entertainment industry) sounds like a nightmare, so it was very easy to sympathise with all four of the MCs. I enjoyed how they each discovered themselves, particularly Zach, and fought to been seen and heard. The character development in this is seriously off the charts. And each of the boys feel so real, so likeable, so relatable.

I'm pretty sure everyone who picks up this book will become a stan of the boys of Saturday. #Zuban

I loved this, it’s a story about two members of a boy band falling for each other. Yes please 🥺🥰. It was cute and wonderful and my nostalgic heart just really melted. I really loved Zach’s character, when I see characters with anxiety who overthink I can’t help but connect with them. And the struggle with always trying to please people. Ugh, I loved watching his character grow throughout the novel.

I seriously need to stop obsessing over fictional bands... First The Ark and now this!! This book was one of my most anticipated books for 2021, honestly I've been DYING to get ah e-ARC and .... THIS DIDN'T DISAPPOINT. It is so good. I loved it ! I'll have to write a more detailed review but for now I just wanted to scream about it.

Everyone is going to fall in love with this book!!

This book is something special. Truly. I could not put it down, I was so deeply invested in the story and the characters and the relationship between Ruben and Zach. You finish the book with so much love for them and their relationship and for the entire band. You know that you read something unique and that it will stay with you for a long time.

I can't describe how much I loved this book. The writing as absolutely amazing. I was captivated the entire time. The characters were alive and bold, coming off of the pages as if they were right beside you. Everything about it was fantastic, I won't be able to rave about it enough! Is it December yet?!

This is a story about hope and not letting yourself and who are go. You should be true to yourself and trust yourself when times are tough. This book is beautiful and everyone needs to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the earc in return for an honest review.

This book was everything I could have wanted it to be. I loved that it focused around a boyband, specifically a manufactured one. I loved Ruben and Zach and how well developed they both are as well as Jon and Angel. I think Zach is my favourite character but they all felt like real life people. I love co-authored books and multiple POV so this hit the spot for me. I loved that Zach and Ruben had very different personalities and backgrounds but they use that to help the other. I loved Zach's journey, not even just his sexuality but him realising that he's lost himself whilst being in the band. I also loved that there are focuses on the pressures of being famous and the covert homophobia from the record label and management and how they cared more about the brand than the actual people. It made me feel so many emotions, especially when everything comes to a head

Sophie Gonzales has done it again! She has teamed up with newcomer Cale Dietrich to pen the love letter to fan girls and fan boys everywhere. While this book will bring up obvious comparison to One Direction mania, I actually found myself thinking of the first wave of mid-90s boy banders and pop-stars. Imagine if Lance Bass or Ricky Martin were allowed to be queer in 1998?
If This Gets Out is a fun peak into celebrity dating culture we can only fantasize about. My only issue with this book is Zach's preoccupation with body image. He makes many comments using disordered eating language and the issue is never addressed. To make a point to bring up a topic that triggering with no resolution seems a bit careless. Other than that I would recommend this book to just about anyone that has looked at an album cover and asked, "what if?"

I've seen this book get compared to fanfiction a lot, and as a queer woman from fandom, I have thoughts. I personally think there are two camps here:


1) People from band fandom who are struggling to separate this book from the familiar premises they've read before


and


2) People from general slash fandom who are used to only getting joy-filled, action packed queer stories without trauma or, more importantly, without "teaching" straight people stuff from fanfic.


For the first camp, there's not much to be said there other than I respectfully disagree that this is about any real band, but can see why it would be difficult for someone to enjoy the story on its own merits if they go in with a preconceived notion that it's about a group of people they feel very strongly about / love.


For the second, I urge people to try to move past the impulse to label books as reading "like fanfic" even though it's usually meant as a compliment (I love fanfic, don't get me wrong) because it sends a message to publishers / reinforces the idea that queer stories that aren't serious and educational and "changing the narrative" in some way are of less inherent value than queer stories that teach cishets lessons. That's ultimately damaging and limiting for queer authors, because publishing doesn't understand that when you say "reads like fanfic" you mean "reads like the entertaining / fun books we only used to get in fandom", publishing just thinks you mean "this doesn't read like a professional book". See what I'm saying?


Anyway, onto the book. Fast-paced, riveting, sort of half-romance half-thriller, if this gets out is an exploration of the hidden underbelly of the entertainment industry. What I think works particularly well about this book is the four boys at the centre of it. They're so well developed and distinct from each other, it's impossible to mix one up for the other. Even their dialogue sounds distinct. It's the friendship between the core four that I fell for, along with the romance between Zach and Ruben (but I'm a sucker for found family storylines, so the friendship for me is the real seller). It's a long book, but I think it needed to be this long. Without it, we wouldn't have had the nuanced explorations, and the relationship between the band members would've felt underdeveloped and shallow, neither of which were ultimately problems here (but I see too often in contemporary YA due to the short word count).


Even when I was afraid the story was going to go down the route of pitting the boys against each other, it still stuck with them against the world, (and, ultimately, them + the world against the true villains), which I appreciated so much. The friendship between the four of them felt unbreakable.


This, plus engaging writing, high stakes, heart pounding scenes, explorations of body image issues, substance abuse, and low self-esteem, made the book a total winner for me, and I've already pre-ordered my HC copy. I can't wait for December!

What happens when two members of a boy band start secretly dating one another? With pressure from their management company to keep it under wraps, as well as controlling every other aspect of the band and their lives, the boys start to want more freedom. I was really eager to read this to see how the book would handle queer boy band members and the pressures of fame.

I felt like there wasn’t enough description of the band or the members to fully paint the picture of who they were. I couldn’t get a grasp on how famous they were supposed to be or really what kind of music they made outside of “pop,” which is too broad of a category. It kind of felt like fanfiction, not of a specific existing band, but just how you’re dropped in without being given much background or explanation of who all the characters are. When I read a book about fictional famous people I want to come away from the story feeling like they were so fully formed that they’re actual celebrities I could look up online. However I never got that feeling with this book.

The part of the book that I enjoyed the most was the commentary on how management companies can end up caring more about the product of the band rather than the members themselves. The 4 boys all have their own personalities that differ from the ones that were given to them as marketing, they want to try different things musically, and they want to come out but their company stops them because they believe that would hurt their brand. The story explores how the stress and pressure of being stifled like this really eats away at the members. I also really liked the depiction of Zach realizing that he’s bi.

I think the book brought up some interesting conversations about how fame impacts young people and how insidious companies end up harming the people under their control. I just wish that there was more development when it came to the band, the members, and the relationship. I think the commentary on fame and how it impacts young queer people would’ve been more impactful if those aspects of the story were stronger.

This sounds so much like fanfiction you can't help but compare it to that.

However the book feels like fanfiction. And not in a good way. I expect a little more from a book than I do from fanfiction. At points this felt a lot like a string of one shots. Fluffy pieces that don't really give anything to the plot other than showing Zach and Ruben get closer to each other. I'd say that roughly the first third of this book sounded like fanfiction. Zach and Ruben were the only characters, the others were just names. Neither of them had anything, though. They had each other and that's it. There were no friends, no family, no one outside of the band. And not even any of their past was introduced, like how they became a band (it's not explained in too much detail) or even how the band got it's name. I think the beginning would've felt more like a book and less like fanfiction if there was a story behind these characters. In fanfiction you already know the characters, in books they're new people and there's really not much to say about who they are. It's not until later in the book there's more. The other band members are introduced to the reader, they hang out. I love that Zach's and Ruben's parents are so large pieces of the story, because whether you like it or not family does mean a lot, especially if you're closeted queer kid in a boy band everyone knows.

The beginning is what I have problems with. The rest of the book? SO GOOD. There's an actual plot! I love how the whole band is looking out for each other, I love how Ruben and Zach both have challenges and they help each other and grow as people. I love that not all of this is a romance. If anyone asks me, I ship Zach and Ruben.

All in all, this is a pretty good book. If I owned this I might even read it again someday when I wanted to get out of a reading slump and wanted something quick and easy to read.
I finished this at 2.30AM and I cried.
Someone might've heard me say I despise romance but love Red, White & Royal Blue. And this is going to that pile as well.

I devoured this in one evening. It felt like fanfiction, which is pretty much the highest compliment I can give, because nothing else keeps me up reading voraciously until 2am on a work night! Well-drawn characters, realistic dialogue, sensitive explorations of sexuality and identity, all set against the backdrop of a demanding boyband lifestyle that felt totally believable.

I did not expect to fall in love with all four primary characters as quickly as I did, but this goes to show how well fleshed out all the characters are. This feels like it was written about a real-life boy band. The growing relationship between Ruben and Zach is written incredibly well, and I found myself rooting for them all the way. I also loved seeing the life and struggles of Jon and Angel, who have been given just as much development time.

As others have said, this book is incredibly important, as it shines on a light on the treatment of people in the music industry, especially young queer people, and it doesn't flinch from that. There's a growing sense of claustrophobia throughout, and you experience that sensation with the band. The book also goes to some unexpectedly dark places, and I appreciate that.

I will definitely be buying this book when it comes out officially and I would reccomend everyone do the same.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for making this available to read early!

Honestly, they had me at “boyband romance”, and I was not disappointed. I stayed up til 5:00am because I had to know what these poor kids were gonna face next.

The characters were real and flawed and relatable. I loved all the boys for different reasons, and they all annoyed the hell out of me for *different* different reasons, as teenage boys are wont to do.

They did a great job balancing the romance and the hard stuff, and boy do they face some hard stuff. The adults in this book are really not great people, man. These kids deserve better!

Overall this was a hell of a lot of fun to read, and seeing Ruben and Zach overcome made me SUPER emotional many times.

Definitely one I’ll read again and again.

For boy band fans. Or haters. For fans secretly hoping for a love story between two bandmates. Or just fans of queer love stories.

I loved Only Mostly Devastated. I didn’t know what to think of The Friend Scheme. Perfect on Paper was nice. And If This Gets Out? It’s so good! On the surface, the story feels like a light and fluffy read, following a boy band on their tour through Europe, where two band members fall in love with each other. It could be just an in-between. A sweet rom-com. A beach read. A cheesy YA. But it’s not. There’s so much going on between the lines, and If This Gets Out tackles so many important topics.

I never liked boy bands. The smooth, too perfect faces. The polished, clean music. The hysterical fans. Archetypes like the bad boy, the boy next door etc. Having to be mass-appealing. The entourage. Until one of the band members suddenly falls off their pedestal. Hard ...

And that’s just what this story is about. Everything in the lives of Ruben, Zack, Jon and Angel is arranged. How they should look, what music they should sing, which moves they should make, what they should say. And coming out to the outside world is not an option.

So, even though he’s out, Ruben is hiding that he’s gay. And when Zack starts doubting his sexuality, he’s got no one to talk to. And when the two of them end up together, nobody outside their bubble can know.

This story is not only about two queer boys in a boy band. It’s also about the band itself, the pressure from their management and record company, even from some parents. Living in hotel rooms day after day, not having free time—like ever, being told what to wear—not their choice, being monitored—continuously, the tabloids making things up—or not. Pressure, pressure and more pressure. And let’s face it, they’re still just eighteen-year-olds.

Cale Dietrich and Sophie Gonzales did a wonderful job showing us the world of boy bands and in general the exploit in the music industry. Is it weird that cracks start to form in nearly all boy bands, including Saturday? Eating disorders, feeling suffocated, drug and alcohol abuse, anger issues, extreme fatigue. It’s almost inevitable that one on them falls of their pedestal in the end, right?

Like I said above, I loved the book and I really, really hope Cale Dietrich and Sophie Gonzales will collaborate in a second book. Because I think they bring out the best in each other!