Well, I am officially a Sophie Gonzales stan (and I need to read Cale Dietrich's other works). As a reformed boy band fan (until a One Direction song shows up on my Spotify, then I'm right back in it), I was super excited when I found out that Sophie's newest book is a queer love story about two members of a boy band falling in love.

I can't get over how immersive this book was - by the end of the first chapter I was wanting to listen to Saturday's music. I really liked that this book had multiple points of view (that of Ruben and Zach) - it was great for building my empathy for both characters and the band as a whole. It also served as an interesting tool for comparing the difference in Zach and Ruben's experiences in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Possibly the most fascinating part of this book was the exploration of the pressures of fame in general and the additional judgement of being a queer person in the media. The way that all of the members of Saturday (the boy band) were treated was horrifying, particularly by their own management. The entire story really highlights the gritty underbelly of fame - everything from the isolation to the control that their management team had over every aspect of their life.

Ruben and Zach were too sweet together - it was impossible not to root for them. Their journey from friends to something more was riddled with unusual pressures - they had outward pressure from the media, pressure from their management team to not come out / get together, and of course the pressures of being a public figure. Their character growth through all this adversity is what made them so endearing. Zach in particular experienced a great deal of growth - between overcoming his people pleaser ways to reckoning with his sexual identity.

If This Gets Out is the perfect book for boy band fans of any age. The exploration of young fame was excellent and the love story was even better. I can't wait to pick up whatever Sophie Gonzales writes next. If you haven't yet, I'd highly recommend her other two books, Perfect on Paper and Only Mostly Devastated.

I loved this book! I felt the same vibe as I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman which is one of my favorite books but they have different approaches. It also made me realise that i love books about boybands and fame.
It definitively became a new favorite and a recomendation I give to everyone.

I was so excited for this book to release and it did not disappoint—I loved it so much! I was such a fan of all four members of Saturday and how their personalities differed from their public personas. This book dives into the dark side of the music industry, especially how restricting and toxic it can be. But I loved that the boys were able to find their voice.

And the romance! Ruben and Zach’s voices were so perfect and I loved how their relationship developed throughout the story. I was rooting for them the entire time!

You’ll want to read this book if you love:
☑️ Boy bands
☑️ Friends to lovers
☑️ Celebrity romances
☑️ Found family
☑️ Dual POVs

Solid 4.5 stars. I love this book! It's so thematically unlike any fiction book I've read, it was engaging and all the characters felt real and true to life. It's hard not to draw comparisons to actual boybands but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

ITGO has been on my anticipated reads for AGES so I was super excited when it became available on netgalley, and I'm really pleased that it didn't disappoint. I'll definitely be buying a physical copy when it comes out in December!

This book will bring a lot of issues in the music industry into light. It's a refreshing read that will open your eye about the complicated issues. But it also brings us courage about breaking into the music industry as well.

This book was made for ME, and it didn't disappoint.

Ruben and Zach are part of the famous boyband 'Friday'. Ruben is gay and out only to his bandmates, Zack likes girls but keeps looking at other guys as well, which is nothing, really... until he and Ruben kiss.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. SO. MUCH. It had everything, from supreme angst to bi panic and clandestine rendezvous. My favorite part was the honesty - there was no excessive miscommunication drama like you'd expect there to be. They just went from being best friends to falling in love, within the terrible limitations of their public, suffocating lives. And I do love books that shatter our illusions over fame and glory, the music industry, and how what you see is rarely what you get. ⠀

Shit, did this trope climb up my favorite list and is threatening to knock out enemies to lovers off the throne? uh yep. I'm one BTS fan-fic and Adib Khorram's next book away from making it a done deal 👌🏾

A book so sweet, full of friendship and families(and love). The perfect book for all the people that still likes to read fanfic and for lovers of YA romance

I absolutely adored this book, the characters were wonderfully written and the story was a fun and interesting read

If I had to sum up my reaction to “If This Gets Out” it would simply be “Holy smokes.”

“If This Gets Out” is the first collaboration book for authors Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich, but you would never guess it based on how well-written and encapsulating this book is.

The book follows a boy band named Saturday which is made up of 4 members; Zach (written by Caleb Dietrich) who wants nothing more than to write music, Reuben (written by Sophie Gonzales) who faces a very critical mother and has been fighting to come out for years with the band’s manager, Jon whose father is their manager, and Angel (real name is Reece) who is painted to be the most wholesome of the 4 but behind the scenes is the worst of them all. The book, while switching between Reuben and Zach’s perspectives, tells the story of a band that is making it big, but sacrificing a lot to do so, and what happens when they reach their breaking points and try to express themselves.

In simple terms, this book is a wild ride. For the first half of the book, nothing insane happens, but it’s just the water getting ready to boil over. The book puts you right into the action with the band getting ready to go on their international leg of their tour, and each member has a lasting impression. You get the sense they have known each other for a while and perhaps have some unresolved tension they need to address—more to come on this later.

As the book progresses, their relationships with each other grow and get plenty messy, which is expected for a group of teenagers who have become international superstars. Each member has a lot they are dealing with, from Angel’s addictions to Jon’s father, they each seem to be having identity issues that are woven well into the book. After stepping away from this book for a while, I can say that the boys’ relationships with each other is one of the main things that stands out in this book the most.

Sophie and Caleb wrote these characters great, but one area that I feel the book lacked a little was the main relationship between Reuben and Zach. I personally loved the band as a whole, and they’re all a mess but compliment each other well. Reuben and Zach though seem to pull away from the group at times and aren’t as aware of what is going on. (Also, they are the two white guys of the group, and to have the other two members of color kind of get the worst of the trauma dump, it feels a little odd.)

Asides that though, “If This Gets Out” is a thrilling book that will have readers coming back later. It’s a power bomb of a book that hits many of the favorable YA tropes and applies them to the backdrop of a boyband story. If this doesn’t excite you about each of the authors, I’m not sure what will, because this book was abaolsutley great, with very minor exceptions to Zach and Reuben’s stories.

Final rating: 4.5/5 rounded up to 5

So I have sat with his book for a few days after finishing it and I've come to the conclusion that I feel pretty ambivalent about it. I have read reviews that harshly criticized it and I read reviews that were super glowing and I fall somewhere in the middle. I didn't dislike this book but I don't know that it's one that I'll come back to. It is fine for what it is but it isn't my favorite. I had a few issues with the pacing and also some unresolved topics that just weren't ever dealt with.

Not going to lie I also think the fact that I had just read Code Blue by NR Walker threw me off. Code Blue is another boy band queer romance book and I felt so much more connected to that band in that cast of characters that I couldn't find the same emotional attachment for If This Gets Out.

It's probably not very fair to compare the two books because they are very different. The ones by NR Walker are adult romance and if this gets out is a young adult / new adult romance. Obviously the themes are going to be different and the characters are going to be different but unfortunately I feel like I'm just going to forget about this one.

I really wish there had been more time spent on the issues addressed in the second half of this book instead of kind of dragging the first half. I needed there to be more discussions around the gas lighting and manipulation and emotional abuse and eating disorders etc. As a whole it was just a little bit too underdeveloped for me

This will be one that I recommend to select groups of people. There is definitely an audience for this book and I think that it has a lot of good things happening as well, but for me, I didn't get too attached to it.

Gay MC, bisexual MC

The queer romance I didn't know I needed! For anyone who has ever fan-girled (or fan-boyed) over the latest boy band sensation, this YA romance will earn a place on your bookshelves.

I had trouble with this book; the writing wasn't for me and I kept stopping and starting, which made me lose track of the plot, simply because it couldn't hold my interest well, unfortunately.

If you ever shipped one direction band members with each other you need to read this book. This story is about two members of the mega successful band, Seven. Ruben is gay but has to hide it from fans to appear as the perfect teen boy heartthrob. Up until recently, Zach thought he was straight until he comes to the realization that Boys can give him butterflies to, especially Ruben. Beyond try to explore their relationship, they have to deal with corrupt management, stardom, and a friend who is headed down a dark path.
I enjoyed this book so so much! It was funny, serious, sweet, and realistic. Sophie Gonzales is one of those authors that just has such an authentic YA voice. Cale Dietrich adds a whole other dimension to this book, that I think really wraps the whole book together. Even though this book is about two pop superstars, the struggles they deal with internally and externally felt very real to the teen experience. This book is perfect for people who enjoyed Heartstopper by Alice Osman or Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuisition.

I feel like this book very accurately showed the struggle with sexuality and the pressure that you tend to put on yourself and the pressure from others as well. I stayed up all night reading this book and had an ache in my chest when it ended. I hope that any person who has and possibly is struggling with sexuality reads this because of how relatable and helpful I found it.

This book was great insight into what it might be like with the pressures of fame and first love. I thoroughly enjoyed all the feelings and fear of coming out for the first time

3.5 stars
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC. I don't have much to say about this book and I think I'm being pretty demanding, but I really enjoyed Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales and If this Gets Out was good, but it didn't meet expectations. It reminded me of my time reading One direction fanfiction and I guess that was the problem, that is not my type of book anymore. The book is okay overall, it's easy to read, I liked some of the characters, and the plot is promising, but it wasn't as amazing as I was expecting. Ruben and Zach's relationship is really cute, and the end of the book made me pretty happy, but it wasn't a memorable read.
I feel that my opinion is unpopular and very personal regarding this book, and for other people it may be a 5/5. In general, I don't regret reading it, I quite liked it, and it was a very fast and fun book to read, I would recommend it.


Spanish-
Gracias NetGallery por el ARC. No tengo mucho que decir sobre este libro y croe que estoy siendo exígete, pero el otro libro de Sophie Gonzales me había gustado bastante y este estuvo bien, pero no alcanzo las expectativas. Me recordó a mi tiempo de leer fanfics de One direction y supongo que ese fue el problema, ya no es mi estilo de lectura. El libro está bien en general, es fácil de leer, me gustaron algunos de los personajes y la trama es prometedora, pero no me lleno. La relación de Ruben y Zach es bastante bonita, y el final de libro me dejó muy feliz, pero no fue una lectura memorable y ese es de los mayores problemas.
Siento que mi opinión es muy personal respecto a este libro y para otras personas puede ser un 5/5. En general no me arrepiento de leerlo, me gusto bastante y fue un libro muy rápido y divertido de leer, lo recomendaría.

Adorable, objectively readable, and just so much fun! I loved both Ruben and Zach, and the two POVs were very distinct. Sophie and Cale know exactly how to do this genre.

3.5-3.75 Stars
TW: Homophobia, drug use, enabling, Overwhelming pressure, mental health, eating disorder and control parent.

The premise of this book reminds me of several boy bands from my childhood that had to go through being held in the closet for most of their career. The turmoil, pain, and portrayal of issues within the music industry were genuine and human.

Seeing what happened to Angel is horrifying because it 100% happens to enable and push problems under the rug for artists to keep control over them and make them dependent on them, and this was very REAL!
I wish that we would have more inside into John's life because I feel like each boy had a great story to tell, and while I loved that, we got to see Zac and Ruben and the amount we saw of Angel. The poor boy was being pressured to have sex appeal and go against his comfort, and it felt so awful.

This story did a lot well, and I liked many of the parts, but it was very long, and some of it felt repetitive within the couple and their problems.

i listened to this audiobook and it was excellent. Love this One Direction fan fiction and how we take a deep dive on boy bands.

I really enjoyed this book. I have been in the mood for contemporary romance and this one didn't disappoint. I grew up in the age of boy bands so reading this was a lot of fun for me. I liked that each character had their own voice and dealt with their own struggles. The story touched on a lot of important themes related to sexuality, identity, religion, and drug addiction but it didn't feel dark in anyway. The storyline was well developed and blended each of these themes together very well. If I didn't know it was a co-authored book I would never have guessed because the story flowed so well together. I picked up the audiobook via the library and I would definitely recommend it to those who enjoy audiobook formats. The narration was well done.

I definitely recommend this one!