Judging by the other reviews I may be a bit of a minority here, but I really enjoyed this book! Out of the Blue follows a gay high schooler whose boyfriend broke up with him to immediately date another dude--it's then that a strange person washes up on shore. Sean and Ross start to get to know each other better, leading them to fake date to make Sean's now ex-boyfriend jealous enough to want him back; however, Ross has a secret: they're mer.

I want to start by saying that I wasn't a far of this author's YA debut, Jay's Gay Agenda. I wasn't expecting much coming into this novel, which may be why I was pleasantly surprised: it really seems as though the author took some of the criticisms for Jay's Gay Agenda in stride and used them to improve. Gone are the constant out of touch pop culture references (thank GOD) and in is a more structured storyline and better rounded characters.

I really enjoyed the relationship that builded between Ross and Sean, and I really appreciated the non-binary rep from Ross. In the world of Mer, gender identities don't exist, making all merpeople nonbinary with they/them pronouns, as well as Mer neopronouns which Ross does not employ on land because they're trying to keep their Mer identity a secret.

Some aspects of the novel that made this a 4 star instead of a 5 star: some miscommunication that I felt was pretty unavoidable, she near, close but not quite cheating? Seems like a bit of a pattern seeing as this was also employed in Jay's Gay Agenda. I also thought the writing could've been better, though I found myself pretty satisfied with the writing as is.

Overall this was fun, and I thought worth the read! I usually have a very hard time reading books due to my ADHD and much prefer audiobooks, so it's a pretty high honor that I was able to finish this in just two days! (That and the fact that this book is pretty short which is definitely a strong plus in my book!)

Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for the eARC :)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the E-ARC copy of this book. The rating of this book is entirely of my own opinion.

This was a cute story, and the inclusiveness was refreshing! I liked the chubby/curvy rep, and the fact that the merpeople were by default genderless.

I really loved Out of the Blue going into it and couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. That being said the end of the book did seem to be slightly unpolished and the ending felt rushed. It felt slightly disappointing and left me unsatisfied.

The world building around merpeople and the society was very interesting and well done. You learned more as the book went on which felt very natural, this was probably one of my favorite parts of this book. It switches views between Crest (Ross) and Sean, the two main characters and love interests. The characters have their own problems and character development which was well written for the most part. I noticed some phrases the author repeated a few times close together making it seem slightly stiff at times.

Now time for a simple run down of the plot. This plays of the trope of fake dating. Crest (they/them) a mer has to come to land to fulfill their journey, a coming of age tradition where mers have to go to land for 4 weeks and help a human before coming back on the blue moon. Crest is very reluctant to go, they have a hatred for humans thinking they are all bad, but nevertheless is forced to. When arriving on shore Crest becomes a human, their human name changing to Ross, and meets the other main character and love interest Sean. Sean is a lifeguard who just got dumped by his ex boyfriend Dominic, not understanding why it happened. Sean being the first person Ross meets Ross assumes he is the one he needs to help, and after hearing his breakup story, the way to help is by getting him back with his ex. When Dominic (who is dating another character named Miguel) sees Sean with Crest he gets jealous. Seeing that Sean lies to Dominic and says he’s dating Ross, feeling guilty about saying that Sean confesses to Ross about the lie he told Dominic. Ross being upset pushes him into the water. Sean drags Ross into the water, finds out he’s a mer, freaks out for about 5 minutes then is fine. Now knowing Ross is a mer Sean and Ross begin to fake date to make Dominic jealous. But will this fake dating scheme turn into more?

Cute, magical romance very similar, but much more mature than the graphic novel, The GIrl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag. Very enjoyable!

This book was cute, but not entirely what I expected. The writing will appeal to younger audiences. I found the heart of the story to be sweet and earnest, but I was sometimes put off by the characters' reactions and dialogue which I found somewhat over the top. The merperson lore was interesting and unique.

This book is the delightful, feel-good rom-com I wish I had when I was a teen. Sure we had AQUAMARINE and THE THIRTEENTH YEAR. But I wanted that only queerer and thank you, Jason June, this is it!

Sean is a filmmaker and lifeguard whose boyfriend, Dominic, just dumped him for his EXBFF, Miguel. Crest is a merperson (the mer do not recognize the gender binary) who is tasked with going to the human world for one month, where they must help a human before that month is up. Armed with the fake name Ross, a magical mer house that provides all a human would need, and a sassy attitude, they decide to help Sean win back his ex by exploiting the fake dating trope that no one can resist! But they absolutely will not fall in love. Nope. Not at all.

I truly loved this book. Sean is such a sweetheart and I wanted to pull a Kavya (Sean's best friend) many times and try to protect him from all the mean things going on around him. Crest/Ross is a wonderful mer-out-of-water and their reactions to our world and the things they learn while they're with us really made the book so heartfelt and wonderful.

The one thing the book does so well is the ending. A little less than halfway through we as readers realize something the characters are going to take another hundred pages or so to figure out: There may not be a happy ending for Sean and Ross. How can there be one when Ross will have to give up EVERYTHING they know for love? And how can Sean allow Ross to do that? HOW WILL THIS END? But once again, thank you Jason June, the ending is very satisfying AND without going into details, it is happy.

I also want to add an honorary SIXTH STAR to my rating for having the last word in the book be "BLOWHOLES."

I got this arc from NetGalley, and these opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book so much! As merfolk Crest (Ross) as to journey to land and help a human, they only have one month to do so or they are stuck as a human forever! Sean just got dumber by his boyfriend and wants him back. Luckily he’s a lifeguard and he helps Ross when he washes ashore! Together they set out to make Sean’s ex-boyfriend fall back in love with him, and Ross will get their mark and can return to the sea! As they work together though something else might be brewing! I enjoyed Ross and Sean so much! Ross reminded me of the king of person I’d like to be, that confidence in themselves and who they are! I loved that the merfolk community was all gender neutral, it was refreshing to read about a community in which that was the norm, as an Enby person myself I really enjoyed that! And the way that Ross saw Sean even though Sean is bigger! As a bigger person I appreciated reading the way Ross viewed him and only saw him as beautiful! And Kavya was so wily! Even Miguel was enjoyable! The book also had its heartbreaking moments but the growth of the characters throughout was enjoyable! I can’t wait to have my hands on the actual book! This is a must read for LGBTQ+ book readers!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one is tough to review, largely because I'm so torn between the things I loved about it and the stuff that just really didn't land.

Like, I adored both Crest/Ross and Sean as characters, but their motivations and understanding around their relationship were very hard to follow in moments. One moment they were friends with benefits, the next they were fully in love, then very torn up over whether or not they were manipulating each other, then broken up, then in love, then maybe broken up again? Phew. But nonetheless, I was really invested the entire book in their relationship, and I really enjoyed all the classic fake dating notes. There were also a lot of elements about it that read true to teen relationships and how wildly messy they can be. It was also super sex-positive and there seemed to be roughly zero straight characters, which was great.

That said, the biggest issue for me was that the narrative seemed to be having somewhat of an identity crisis with who the audience was supposed to be. For example, the romance read to me as being upper YA with how much sexual content there was, whereas a lot of the mythology and characteristics of the merpeople seemed very middle grade. Like, it's jarring to go from Ross shouting "What the flick" and referring to their friends with names like Drop and Wave on one page and then hitting yet another description of a raging stiffy the next.

It also felt like some plot points, pardon the pun, were super out of the blue. In general, the pacing and structure of the back half were a bit messy, which was a bummer after such a strong first half, and the ending also felt a little rushed. It would have been nice to get a little clearer resolution with that.

Overall, I did have a lot of fun with this one, but I wish the back half had been just a little more polished.