This is the perfect spring/ summer read. For my dream chasers you’re going to love this. Also queer Rep was perfect. I can’t wait to read more by Robby.

In this coming of age queer romcom, Harry navigates his sort-of ex, a new boy in town, a one-time hook up, his hopes and dreams for the future, family life, and supporting his best friend when her boyfriend cheats on her as they prepare for their senior year in high school.

This was a cute, fun summer romcom. I found the writing a bit clunky, and I think there could have been a slightly heavier editing hand when it came to what was/wasn't important to include in the prose. It does very much capture the big, all-encompassing feelings of what it's like to be that age, though, so definitely a great choice for mid-to late-YAers.

CW: chronic illness, death of a parent

Thank you to #NetGalley, Robby Weaver, and the publisher for eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Harry is a young screenwriter dying to win a writing contest so he can get into his dream school, USC. He know he can't get in with his grades or SAT scores due to letting both slip to a terrible breakup. The only problem for Harry is it's summer and he's distracted by so many cute guys. Will he fall for his first love Grant or new boy Logan? Better yet and most importantly will he get his screen play done in time for the contest?

I really enjoyed this book and Harry and Logan! They were both very likable and relatable characters. I also enjoyed Harry's relationship with his mom and sisters and their love of ABBA! The only thing I did not like was having parts of Harry's screenplay in between the chapters. I would've been fine with it as one piece at the end, but I found it a little distracting being in between the chapters and also hard to focus on the story. Overall though I enjoyed it!

This is probably a 3.5 for me but I’m rounding up because the way it was written was quite creative.

Our main character Harry is a mess. He wants to go to film school in California but his grades kind of suck and his test scores suck because last year he was heartbroken after his frost love Grant legit moved away and didn’t tell him. So he wants to submit a script to this competition which in his mind if he wins will ensure he gets into USC.

It’s the summer and he needs to focus. But Grant returns full of excuses and apologies. He also meets new guy Logan and Foster who is part of his friend group keeps flirting with him. This is supposed to be the summer of no boys but now he has three.

In between chapters we get bits of his script and each chapter title is a play on a popular romantic comedy (very cute!). Grand disappoints him again. Logan ends up being a gem and Foster is way better than he ever knew. But he’s still procrastinating his best friend is dating a jerk and it’s a lot.

Finally everything comes crashing down. Grant makes a move Logan catches them at a terrible moment and his best friend finds out Harry knew that her boyfriend was a jerk(in his defense he tried to tell her and she ignored him and made him feel terrible so some of this is on her).

Logan dumps Harry. Harry decides he wont enter the competition and Harry finally tells Grant to leave him alone. Logan eventually returns to Harry and Harry decides he might follow Logan to NY for college.

Is it unbelievable? Yes. Especially for a small town in Florida (I grew up in Texas and I can tell you this wouldn’t really happen in a small town in a conservative state). But that’s also what makes it appealing. This SHOULD happen in a small town in a red state. This book seemingly aims to inspire LgBTQ kids in less than ideal locations to dream big, to be themselves and to move forward and onward.

Also grant sucks and really my only complaint is that Harry have him so many chances and believed his lies and then at the end they’re still friends? No teen I’ve ever met is mature enough or idealistic enough to do any of that.

DNF
The writing was very immature and predictable, and very basic. Low stakes and not much was happening. I was bored and couldn’t get myself invested so I just quit.

This was a really sweet, summery book! I loved the romance and the main characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a sweet, summery read. Harry was a very endearing and relatable main character. He is just trying to figure out his way in the world. His dream is to become a screenwriter and knows exactly how he wants to accomplish it.

When his ex, Grant comes back in his life at the same time that new guy, Logan comes to town, Harry finds himself at a precipice. The overwhelming feelings of a chance with Grant again and the beauty of the possibilities with Logan are volleying in Harry’s heart and mind.

This was such a cute read. But I felt that the inserted screenplay scenes took me out of the main story, though I completely understand why they were included… I really loved the dynamics between Harry’s family and that of Harry and his best friend (and the ups and downs the two of them also shared).

This is a quick read and so perfect for a summer weekend. It made me long for the beach.

Heads up: this review is one massive abba Joke, this may not be suited for pun haters.

If You Change Your Mind was a book that seemed really fun. Even the cover was a super trouper. From the romcom and Abba references to the fun story I was the first in line. But mamma Mia, after reading a few pages in I could predict every plot line. The main character was young, sweet, seventeen, and even though he wasn't looking for a king, he knew any guy could be that guy. He decides to take a chance on this guy visiting from out of town for the summer and possibly his ex in a casual love triangle hoping one of them will take a chance on him.

Honestly I felt the stakes were put to the test and failed. We hear things are happening but the author doesn't lay all his love on the character's emotional stakes, rather we get something that feels fun but just a filler read. There were fun moments and as a whole it was enjoyable. But it is true, and everything isn't new, and all I've learned is this was a beat for beat romcom that was way too predictable for me to get invested in the romance or any subplots. Honestly, the only thing that made me feel bad for the main character was that he lives in Florida, and of course he wants to go to LA because he's made up his mind it must come to an end.

In conclusion, thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing. Thanks for all the joy they're bringing. Who can live without it? Me, in all honesty it was fine but I didn't feel I gained anything out of this.

This is a great book. Harry is an aspiring screenwriter and is committed to spending the summer working on his screenplay. He hopes to use it to win a screenwriting competition, which he believes will help him get into his dream film school. Despite Harry's best intentions, he soon gets distracted when he learns Grant, his ex-boyfriend, is back in town, shortly after he meets Logan, new to town. As Harry tries to figure out his feelings for Grant and Logan, all while trying to complete his screenplay, it turns out the summer is as dramatic as one of Harry's screenplays.

This was a fun and heart-warming story. Harry is a great main character, and it is fun to spend the summer with him as he navigates dating, summer jobs, and his future. Highly recommended!

Let's just say I really loved this story and wish I had been as emotionally and psychologically adept at age 17.

Harry is a typical 17yo, he had his first heart break, he gets his first job, he's looking forward to senior year of highschool, and he has his college and future plans all laid out.

He just has to stop getting distracted and finish his screenplay so his dream college and future job can become a reality.

It's a super cute summer YA romance. I love the characters and the way Robby Weber describes them and their interactions really felt authentic and helped me fall in love with them.

I often feel that teen characters in YA novels tend to be a bit mature for their age, and this book is no exception. But at the end of the day, books like this give real life teens positive examples of how to act and respond to situations.

Anyway, it's a great story with fun and totally lovable characters. I absolutely recommend it

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book in advance.

I was initially drawn to the book's premise and packaging, the title is whimsical and the cover art made me feel a longing for a sort of summer I never experienced. Unfortunately, opening the cover is when I started to feel let down. Immediately, I had a hard time connecting with the main character due to the stream-of-conciousness style of writing the author uses. Because the character tended to run with their thoughts, the writing felt aimless at times. Combined with the shifts to the character's in-book writing, there wasn't enough of a continuous thread to keep me engaged.

That being said, the theme and actual plot of the book are lovely, and I think it would be the perfect read for someone. While I may not revisit "If you Change Your Mind," I would certainly keep it as a recommendation in my back pocket.

If vanilla were a book, this would be it. Very safe, non offensive, acceptable gays do safe non offensive acceptable gay things and everyone holds hands and gets along. If you like low angst, this is fine. I really don’t have a problem with it, especially if you’re a teen new to LGBT books. If you like What If It’s Us, you’ll like this. If you told me Adam Silvera wrote this book, I would believe you.

IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND is a fun debut, perfect for summer!

There is so much to love about this book like the beachy backdrop, the teenage angst, and characters that make you want to root for them. Robby made me melt into the story with some really poetic similes and an ending that gave me EV-ER-Y-THING (seriously, the last 15% or so was by far my favorite part)!

On the flip side, there were times throughout where the pacing and the dialogue left me wanting. There were moments when I wished we got me showing vs. telling with regard to Harry's screenplay, but at the same time, I don't think the snippets of the screenplay that were shared between chapters were helpful or necessary.

Although the story is enjoyable, I think it would have been more beneficial to streamline things (i.e. with as much hate as we hear about Harry having towards Grant in the beginning, focusing on that second chance romance might have played out better than having the love triangle + Foster?! who only added to the confusion OR spinning a heartbroken, untrusting Harry after a failed fling from the previous summer into a grump/sunshine trope with just Logan) because the plot often felt muddled.

Lastly, something that was on my mind as I read this debut:
I remember when I started following Robby on Bookstagram (@robbyreads) -- he shared a really cool photo of a hand reaching out of the ocean, grasping a Percy Jackson book -- and I have enjoyed watching him share about books and his writing/journey to publication ever since. I recall him saying something along the lines of wanting to write a book that he wished younger Robby could have had. I can't say I actually know him, but based on what he shares, I feel like it's safe to say IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND exudes "Robby-ness" and would make any version of himself feel not only happy but seen.

Overall, IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND is a good YA contemporary, and I am looking forward to reading more from Robby!

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the ARC of If You Change Your Mind!

I was initially drawn to If You Change Your Mind because of the amazing over and the author's sunny Instagram feed, if I'm being honest. And that yellow sunshiny-day cover is what you get from this book—it's a summer dream, an ice cream cone on a hot day, a magical beach day where you leave smelling deliciously like salt and sand and sunscreen. The aesthetics of this book were incredible‚—Weber's descriptions of little Citrus Harbor and its charming seaside shops were, as Weber clearly intended, straight out of a rom-com. I loved all the nods to the classic romantic comedies from the 80s to today, and our main character Harry certainly incorporates his love of these predecessors into his own screenplay, a queer rom-com twist on a superhero film that he's sure will win him the Reel Sunshine screenplay competition and earn him a ticket straight out of Citrus Harbor to his dream school, USC. Weber cleverly gives the reader just little bits of Harry's screenplay, mimicking the drama going on in the pages of Harry's real life as he deals with his siblings, his ex Grant, his BFF Hailey, and the new cute boy Logan who is always offering him surfing lessons. It's a cast worthy of any rom-com.

And, like a rom-com, it is what it is—sweet, sometimes sickly so, unrealistic to a fault. The drama that swirls around Harry and all his romantic choices and a choice he has to make about the relationship with his best friend happen very quickly, and to me this didn't help to create a lot of great chemistry between Harry and all of the other characters. While the relationships were all adorable and cute, I found myself actually rooting for the ex-BF, probably because they had history and so their chemistry was a little more believable.

All this to say, Weber should be commended for his atmospheric, summer dream descriptions of the seaside town Harry dreams of escaping, and of the very fact that these character's being queer isn't even part of the problem. I absolutely love books that show queer characters living life like everyone else, and their queerness not specifically being a plot point. That is what we call pure queer joy.

As an educator, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this sweet little book to my students, especially for summer beach reading, for the positive queer rep it shows and the very relatable teenager issues is presents without condescension. Teenagers' emotions are real and true, and If You Change Your Mind reminds us of this with sunshine and a happy rom-com ending for everyone.

CWs: Underage drinking, referenced cheating, Alzheimer's disease

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

This book is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a light, easy, summery read full of movie titles, Taylor Swift songs, and queer joy. There's nothing extremely remarkable about it, but there's nothing wrong with that, either. It's a fun read.

Harry's been set his entire life on attending USC in LA for screenwriting. But, after a rather disastrous breakup last summer sent his grades a little lower than appealing for a prestigious school on the West Coast, he's decided his entire future rides on writing the perfect screenplay that will blow everyone away at an upcoming competition and ensure his admission. And that seems to be going relatively okay, until his ex, Grant, strolls back into his life with a (terrible) excuse for their breakup, but he's as charming and lovely as ever and Harry can't remember all of the reasons he has to hate him. And then new guy Logan shows up (or has to be rescued out of a locker) and is perfectly sweet and adorable! Don't forget Harry's best friend Hailey, who is very distracted by her seemingly perfect relationship... And which Harry is in possession of some very disastrous knowledge about. Suddenly it's hard to focus on a screenplay.

If You Change Your Mind is cute. Again, I don't know that it does anything remarkable, and it's largely as formulaic as the movie plots it tends to make fun of. But it's cute, and there's nothing wrong with that. Queer teen reads deserve cute fluffy reads like this. Especially ones that delve into the topic of balancing your future with what you want in the now, and deciding that the goals you had set out for yourself aren't truly what you want out of life.

Three disappointments in my reading:
1. That's... not how Alzheimer's works. As someone whose family has been ravaged by this miserable disease, I just cringe anytime it's brought up in books nowadays.
2. Foster deserved better.
3. The screenplay elements of the story seemed disjointed. Not terrible, but definitely disjointed.

If You Change Your Mind magically weaves together all the best of rom-coms and the magic of a summer beach read. Harry wants everything in his life to be picture-perfect, just like the movies. But when his ex-boyfriend shows up for the summer, Harry must navigate the real consequences the summer before his senior year. This book felt like warm sunshine. Author Robby Weber creates a realistic world where you will root for Harry and swoon right along with him.

Loved the vibes in this one, it was definitely more of a summer read but reading it now didn't take away any of the enjoyment :) The writing was pretty simple but communicated the feelings it needed to, the characters were well fleshed out (which I really appreciate in books), and it made me laugh to myself a couple times. I got to say I didn't feel like the plot was very strong here, it felt more character driven, which I know probably won't be a problem for a lot of people. What I couldn't get myself to like though was the love triangle/more than one love interest trope which I've disliked almost every single time I've read it, so maybe it was me and not the book lol
I would definitely recommend if you're looking for a romcom with cute characters that can be read in one or two sittings!

ARC provided by publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars.

Although this isn’t a new favorite of mine, it was definitely a nice and comfy read for the summertime (even though i read it in winter), or if you’re just looking for summer vibes.

I want to start by saying that this book was beautifully written. I normally tend to stay away from first-person writings, but Weber really pulled it all together and tugged at my heartstrings with Harry. Throughout the story, I could really empathize with Harry's struggles, and his want to leave Citrus. All of the characters were very lovable and the story line was full of twists and turns that really made up the story. I really loved how to author included excerpts of Harry's movie script. I could see the connections between his life and the life he made for Rory.

This has an interesting enough concept and it's charming enough but, like I experienced with Jay's Gay Agenda, it's just not the book for me, which, again, I cannot be more thrilled to experience. Being able to set aside a queer book I'm just not that into because there are so many more to read! What a time to be alive! This seems like it'll do exactly what it says on the tin, I'm just not quite compelled enough to stick out a voice I find a little bit off-putting.

Thanks to Inkyard Press for the ARC!