Romantic comedy obsessed Sean has his world turned upside down when his boyfriend, Dominic, suddenly ends their relationship. Sean is heartbroken and humiliated to discover Dominic is dating Miguel, an old friend and fellow member of Sean's swimming team.

When Sean, working as a lifeguard, responds to someone washing up on the beach, he meets Crest/Ross: a mer on their "journey." The journey is a tradition where each mer spends a lunar month on land to help a human and earn their magic.

Out of the Blue's premise is a standard rom-com trope: use a fake partner to make an ex-jealous to win them back whilst falling in love with the fake partner. Consequently, there is very little surprise throughout the novel — you can even guess how Ross earns his magic. It keeps it interesting that neither Sean nor Ross are your typical protagonists. Sean is a plus-sized cub, and Ross is a gender-queer and somewhat sarcastic.

The main issue for me was the mer-slang and awareness they have of the human world — enough to ensure that there is a mobile 'phone ready in the safe house for each mer on their journey.

All in all, Out of the Blue is an enjoyable quick read. I'm grateful to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

I am a Jason June stan. 100% card carrying fan! This book was just perfect to me.

Aquamarine and The Little Mermaid were some of my fave movies as a kid and this book really makes me think of those (I know it is comped to Splash but I haven’t seen that so I cannot compare it). There even were a few water eggs from TLM that made me go “AHHHH!”

The relationship between Crest/Ross and Sean was just perfection. They are so cute together and I love their banter. I love me a fake dating trope and this one was done (sorry to use this word again in the same review but it is the best one for it) perfectly!

Every mer person must go on a journey when they come of age. One where they give up their tail and walk among humans for one moon cycle. During this time, they are asked to help a human in some way. Crest doesn’t want to go on their journey they know their place is under the sea with the mer. Humans themselves are disgusting polluting beings who have no respect for the ocean and its beauty. Why should Crest take on one of their human names and help one of them out. Yet when Crest meets Sean, they are not expecting to any more then help with a crazy scheme to get back Sean’s ex. Instead, they find a human who not only embraces Crest for all that they are but shows him that not everything in the world of humans is bad. Can Crest help Sean out in time to earn their mark and return to the Blue?
I love how both characters bring such a different view of the world into each other’s lives. I also apricate that Crest can maintain their pronouns with pride. In doing so they can explore who they are more and that is just lovely. To be able to go on such a journey and have those around you embrace who you are with no questions is just something I hope that more people can experience. I also love the ending. I think that both parties picking what they do makes the journey that more special. Though I am interested to see if that is truly the end.
Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children’s books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

What made me read this book in the first place is its really pretty cover. I love its summer and love vibes.
We follow Crest, a young mer, who has to go on a Journey in order to become an Elder. It means that they have to spend a month among humans and help one of them in order for the sea to accept them again. However, Crest expected to hate it but as it turns out, the human world is not that bad, especially with Sean, a young lifeguard who has just been dumped by his boyfriend. I was really into the book until the moment where Sean and Crest realise they are in love. After that, I didn’t really want to know the end as I was scared for them. I wish for a different ending but I also understand what the author tried to do. It was a very nice love story with adorable character though Crest was sometimes quite childish.
I recommend to people looking for a cute romance
4/5

<i>"Were we meant to meet? I believe so, one hundred percent. But I need to live for myself, build my life, follow my dreams, before I can be somebody's partner. I want to find the love of my life, and I think there's a world where Crest could have been that, but I need to love myself -- *live* for myself -- first."</i>

TL;DR: Here's the breakdown of this book:
1% - 60%: Crest hating humans for being awful and whining about how he hates it; Sean moping about being dumped and scheming to get his ex back via rom-com tropes.
60%-70%: the 2 sweet scenes in the book
70%-100%: emotional whiplash from the drama crammed into the last bit.
I saw other reviewers mention the whiplash and they were 100% accurate. The characters are either horny or angry, and go between the two in the span of a few pages.
An intriguing premise -- mer must spend a month on land and perform a selfless act before returning to the ocean -- is boosted by the diversity Jason June crafts, but ultimately falls flat due to one-dimensional characters who have little outside their lust-plot to make them relatable.
<b><i>I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: A Disney Channel Original Movie version of a queer, gender-swapped <i>The Little Mermaid</i>

Genre: True YA* Queer Romance
IDK what genre this actually is. It's supposed to be YA -- and the way the lust scenes fade to black confirm that.
But some of the mer aspects seem very Middle Grade and *before* the fade to black, it's like June is approaching adult content. A bit all over the place.

Romance Meter: 🍆 🍆 🍆 🍆 🖤
The ENTIRE story is "romance" -- more on this below.

Character MVP: ....I guess Sean? They were all a little flat and one-dimensional and hard to connect or invest in.

Verdict: I really, really wanted to love this. A queer mermaid romance featuring competitive swimmers? YES.

But...the execution...just wasn't for me.

A lot of the issues I had with this book, I also had with June's first book, [book:Jay's Gay Agenda|55200702], so it might just be that Jason June is not the author for me.

The strength of this book (as it was for June's other book), for me, was the representation. There is a lot to love about the characters June creates and the diversity they portray. Out of the Blue, for instance, has:
--Sean, a thicc/curvy gay guy
--Crest/Ross, a gender fluid mer-turned-human
--Kavya, a thicc/curvy bisexual Indian girl
--Miguel, a bisexual Latinx guy
And I genuinely do appreciate that -- as well as the celebration of queer love. There isn't any homophobia or slurs hurled at the characters. The diversity is presented as normal and accepted, and June also does really well at "modeling behavior" for readers. Like, there's a couple good conversations about consent, and Crest/Ross has this one moment where they tell Sean what they like (physically) during a makeout session.

But here's where it starts to get a bit tricky for me. I think this was the case in June's other YA novel, but there's a pervasive physicality to this story.
(There's also the *myriad* of questions I have about the mythology of this story, but I won't bring them up because it seems like the mythology wasn't the part Jason June was interested in exploring or constructing. Much like Disney Channel movies, don't think too much about it. Take it at face-value.)

Now, I don't mean that I'm finding fault with two hormone-riddled teenagers having sex as part of an overarcing storyline of romance.

I mean that every time Sean and Ross are together, it's basically entirely physical -- but equated with love. To the point where I kinda-sorta-maybe understand why Ross "loves" Sean; Sean organizes at least 2 dates that are sweet and demonstrate that he's aware of what Ross likes/needs. But I honestly have no idea why Sean "loves" Ross, except that he's attractive.
These characters are very flat:
Sean is the rom-com film director framing every life event (and most of the scenes in the book) as a framing shot.
Crest/Ross is the former mer who hates human and views them as "self-centered, narcissistic blowholes" and spends the first half of the book whining about being on land.
And the entire book is basically them falling in lust and acting on it.

Again, it's not the sex I have a problem with; its the fact that every scene in the book is an opportunity for the characters to make it sexual/physical and then say it's love. There are inklings of other potential plots -- like Sean's interest in film, or swimming -- but they're ultimately just vehicles for physical moments. Like, everyone is *constantly* making out with each other. Which...maybe this is the equivalent of me identifying with King Triton in The Little Mermaid, but it just bothered me that those things are equated like that. Lust and Love are too very separate, albeit intertwined, things. Maybe if we had broadened out more -- spent more time with Kavya or other characters or one dates where they actually talked about things, the "romance" aspect would have come through stronger.
But case in point: at the end, when Crest is trying to decide whether to stay on land or go back to the Blue, this is literally what he's thinking:

<i>I've been having phantom fin movement this whole time, my whole body craving the sea, and those cravings just get stronger and stronger every time I get out of the bath. They get stronger every time I look at the sky, seeing the moon fuller and fuller, knowing my Journey is going to end in just three days.
But my body, this one, the one I have on land, also craves one other thing. One other person. I need Sean. I need to kiss him again. I need to share myself with him one more time before I go.</i>

Like, his decision is really "my authentic self" vs "sex." You'd give up your entire life just because you have good physical chemistry with someone?

I know people criticize Disney's Little Mermaid because they say that Ariel gives up everything for Eric, but at least it was more than just a physical relationship. And that's where this relationship fell apart for me -- I saw very little romance, just physicality-presented-as-love.

***

And the other thing -- I fully admit that this is going to be a deeply personal irritation, but I was a competitive swimmer for most of my childhood and I JUST CAN'T with the details. Like, I get *why* Sean has to be a swimmer - so that his "oneness" with the water can help Ross see him as more than just a "self-centered narcissistic blowhole."
And I did read an ARC so MAYBE the editor or Jason June would have, IDK, checked in with a swimmer to just fact-check stuff.
Like, I don't care if this is "just high school swimming" and not a year-round competitive club:
(1) Boys and girls would have 100% have had practice together -- Kavya *never* seems to be at practice when Sean is.
(2) Also, practices *decrease* the closer you get to a big meet -- like "states" -- not increase. Sean has practice twice a day 2 weeks before his big meet? Nope. That's a shave-and-taper event -- your practices decrease so your energy can increase and you can rest your muscles so you're not exhausted and they don't crap out on you.
(3) Sean would have also shaved. I have never, in my life, never met a swimmer who didn't. It's just part of the culture.
(4) And I honestly don't know how to respond to this last bit. Because while I appreciate what Jason June was trying to do with the body positivity aspect of the story, by having both Sean and Kavya be thicc and curvy...it was just jarring to the image Jason June was trying to present of Sean as this elite swimmer. And I KNOW that the point was that Sean (and Kavya) didn't "look" the part, and everyone underestimated them, but...I also KNOW that to train and compete at that level, you're just not going to be pudgy. And I KNOW that because I was 100% the formerly chubby child who swam their ass off and trained at that level. And even if Sean isn't training with a year-round team, unless something weird is happening with California high school swimming, he placed third in the state. You don't just luck into that; if you place third in the state, you're getting a scholarship to swim at college somewhere -- and your training would reflect that. I was a chubby kid before I started training, and I'm a curvy adult now that I've stopped, but during that time? Swimming burns so many calories, it's ridiculous. My coach would literally tell me to go eat 2 Big Mac meals to replace my burned ones. There's a whole thing about <a href="https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/michael-phelps-10000-calories-diet-what-the-american-swimmer-ate-while-training-">Michael Phelps' 10,000 calorie-a-day diet during the Beijing Olympics</a>. So...it just took me out of the story every time Ross fawned over Sean's hairy bear body.
I appreciate the body positivity, I really do, but I also wish Jason June had done some more research on a swimmer's life. We also don't refer to everything as "heats" all the time -- maybe in California they do...

i liked this, but i didn't love it. all the representation was super great, but the story was just a little off.. aide from the representation, this didn't seem much like a story that was necessary.

15% read - feels on the young side for a YA. I love the idea if queer mer people and the respect for pronouns. At this pinot I'm finding the characters fairly unlikeable which I'm not a fan of. "Hearts not parts" isn't really used by the pan community anymore. I'm interested by possibly parallels of reclusive religions sending young adults of as missionaries though.

This was so cute and I loved the nonbinary representation within the book. There were some issues with the narrative in terms of the intended audience since it flipped between being NA and YA.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

*Thank you to Netgalley and HarperTeen for the eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Confession: the cover of this book sold me. It gave me heavy Splash vibes (funny enough it is mentioned in the book). I have been obsessed with mers my whole life (I believe because I am a Pisces).

We meet our first main character, Sean, after he is dumped by his boyfriend at his job in front of tons of people. It was harsh but his best friend Kavya is pretty badass when she chases the ex off. Switching POVs, we meet Crest (later Ross) a mer. They are beginning their Journey, a time when 16 year old merpeople go to the surface to spend time with us land dwellers. Crest is not happy about this because they have heard stories about humans. Crest washes up on the beach where Sean is the lifeguard, so begins their relationship.

It starts out as a fake relationship trope, Sean wants to get his ex back. Part of Crest/Ross' Journey is they have to help a human, to go back to the Blue (ocean), so that is why they help Sean. This aspect of the plot was fun. Reading about Crest/Ross' experiences were cute. It was obvious what would happen but not in a bad way.

Now, for some things I didn't like about the plot. There isn't one but two instances of the misunderstanding tropes. I'm not a bid fan of that trope. I understand these are teenagers and not adults but still. Also, the getting back the ex plot is a bit toxic (but the resolution fixes that).

The LGBTQ+ rep. is on point in this book. I loved how Crest/Ross was non-binary. The commentary on gender was some of the best lines in the book. It was a true representation of the world we live in.

The end was sweet and not what I wanted but it was what made sense. Not sure if we will revisit these characters again (I soooo hope so) but it was a wonderful read.

I really did enjoy this one even though the mermaid slang got on my nerves. I loved that Sean is plus size because I feel it’s very hard to find good plus size rep for men in YA. The story was cute, for sure, I just wish that teens in YA would stop infodumping a stream of consciousness. I understand it’s a writing choice and it’s deliberate, but with duel POV and both of the characters doing this, it did get a little confusing

*3.5 stars

I was excited for this book. I do enjoy mer aus when I encounter them in fanfiction, so it was easy to assume that I would enjoy the merfolk plot here too.

I loved that the mers have no concept of/don’t care about gender. There is not enough non-binary representation in fiction and it was such a delight to see that Crest/Ross was non-binary. Also the positive plus size representation with Sean was beautiful!

But in all honesty, this was surprisingly a difficult book to get through. Not because it was badly written or the premise wasn’t interesting, but the story and characters never grabbed my attention. There were times where I felt like DNFing it because I was bored with the story.

One of my major problems is with the worldbuilding of the mers. I was confused by the transformation magic. Mers don’t have genders so I don’t understand why their own magic forces them into a gender when they’re on land.

Early-ish on in the story we also learn that basically all other mythical/supernatural creatures are real as well. It made me feel like there is a whole other world we could have explored with the characters but unfortunately got trapped in a cliche fake dating scheme instead.

Despite all that, I am glad I gave June’s writing another chance. Jay’s Gay Agenda was not a hit for me, but Out of the Blue was definitely stronger.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

First of all—“queer mermaid romance” is my new favorite genre. This was wildly cute and reminiscent of all the best romcoms. The magic of their meeting and all the funny one liners, endearing but tough sidekick, the rotten ex, and a miscommunication trope all come together in this book.

I liked it. It was entertaining. But man oh man I hate a miscommunication trope (I am weak and even though I KNOW they’re going to work it out, they stress me out!) that was tossed in and honestly some of the moments felt far too much like movie scenes. I see that this is an homage to all the movies that we love—I think I would have just liked a little more that separated it from those movies.

Note: This review comes from a white, non-binary person.

*Special thanks to HarperTeen and Net Gallery for the eARC of this book*

TW: Infidelity, cheating, temptations to cheat, misgendering, depression

This book cover has me five times over full-on in love with it. Seriously, the colours, the character poses, the shear emotion and mood this cover emotes is beyond my wildest dreads,

Sadly the book didn't quite match up to that cover hype. And that's ok. I mean, some books are allowed to be just "OK" books. There were ideas I loved, and if you like fake dating tropes you'll love this. But there was a lot of little gripes that had me settle on a 'meh' score.

First being the author tended to do a lot of 'telling' rather than showing. For example, he mentions Sean has an "Accountant" persona in language he puts on when embarrassed, he talks too formally and that's a really funny concept and ok to point out the first time it happens. But then, every time he gets embarrassed he always points out "I'm talking like an accountant again" and the joke falls flat. Then there will be repeated phrasing in the same paragraph such as "Ross's movements were fluid... Such fluid movements." and it would make me do a double take to see if I had accidentally re-read the same line twice. A last critique in the regards to the writing is the explanations being in the wrong places. In the beginning we are told mer folk have names like "Kelp" and "Drop" which seemed more fitting to come out of a Disney Jr cartoon than a YA romance novel (nothing wrong with simple names! Just seemed off). It wasn't till the last third of the book we are told that those are not actually the names the mer-folk say, but rather they mimic the "sound of a drop of water" or "of kelp thrashing in the sea". which makes SO much more sense. That should have been brought up in the beginning rather than so late in the book.

Seans best friend also seemed a lot like the token sassy BIPOC for the first half of the book, but then she changes into a important but uncomfortable main character towards the end.

Lastly were the morals. What were they? It just kept (pardon the pun) flip flopping. Was it about true love? Was it about the corruption of humanity? Was it about the flaws of instalove? I don't know, it was honestly all over and the characters kept shifting their views and the final lesson was literally two pages from the end and I didn't know how long that one was going to stick for them in the long run.

I did love the body positivity and having so many queer characters. This is a great step in normalisation for both those aspects.

This was ok, but I was a little disappointed, I think I had big expectations that just weren't met. The characters were honestly really hard to like and I really wanted to like them. I absolutely love the cover though, it's spectacular.

I’m a sucker for any kind of merperson/human "how will they get to be together?!" story and Out of the Blue absolutely delivered.

A charming, endearing, sex positive (June is the best with sex positivity) tail (heh) about a human and a merperson trying to figure out life and how to be themselves while also dealing with heartbreak. I adored Crush/Ross and Sean and their entire dynamic and I rooted for them both as a couple and individually. This book just made me *feel* good and enjoyed all my time spent with these characters.

My only complaint is that epilogue- I wish it would have given me just a *tiny* bit more, but honestly that's just nitpicky because this is just a fun little read and I flicking loved it.

Merperson Crest is on a coming-of-age journey on land to help a human and earn his return to the sea — if they choose to return after experiencing the wonders of twenty-first century Los Angeles. When Crest, who goes by Ross on land, runs into recently (unceremoniously) dumped Sean, it seems their mission is to help Sean win back his ex, and Crest/Ross becomes a willing participant. Of course, there are rules: no human can find out Crest/Ross’s true nature, and if they return to the sea before the month is up, they will have to remain on land forever. Rules, of course, were made to be broken, amirite?

An accidental reveal at the Hollywood Walk of Fame results in a surprising plot twist that I didn’t see coming–well done on author Jason June, it’s difficult to pull a fast one on someone who has been reading YA romance for 35 years. The writing was a little disappointing overall. Although well-plotted using Sean’s film-making interests and Crest’s time constraints to lay out an agenda, there was a LOT of drama: characters yelling and screaming for emphasis or to TELL us emotion instead of conveying and revealing through action. There was consent in the sexual scenes, but also snapping towels and ass-smacking and a violent outburst from another student.

I’m lumping this into magical realism rather than fantasy, but the worldbuilding for under the water and in the Blue was nicely done, simple and complete. Sometimes the merperson lingo or oceanic references were a little too much, and sometimes, Crest’s/Ross’s dissing of human consumption and environmental concerns struck a didactic note (though I am by no means in disagreement with Crest/Ross’s assessments.

I especially appreciated the diversity of the cast; straight people are the anomaly and like L.A., the book is peopled with real people in all colors, shapes and sizes, and it’s mostly NBFD. I wanted to care more about Crest/Ross and Sean than I did, but the ending definitely tugged at my heartstrings. Like most fake-dating tropes, the characters of course come to care for one another (and are wildly attracted!). When they act on their instincts, it’s developmentally appropriate and safe.

I received an advance reader’s review copy of #OutOfTheBlue via #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced digital copy!

Jason June has once again penned a book that I race through because I'm so caught up in the story and the characters. And I'm a sucker for a book that has any type of lore in it, whether it is based upon already established lore or lore cooked up by the author which this sort of had both. This book also falls upon a tried and true romantic trope whereby one character has their heart broken, hatches a crackpot scheme with the other character to win back someone by pretending to be dating thereby falling in love in the process with the fake love interest. This is one of my favorite tropes by the way along with enemies to lovers.

Anyways, Sean is left heartbroken after his boyfriend breaks up with him for his former best friend (GASP). But then meets Ross, a merperson recently sent to land on a month long merperson rumspringa pretty much. They're supposed to help someone by the next blue moon or be stuck in human form forever. Starting off, Ross pretty much hates land and all its people and cannot fathom why anyone would like it up there let alone want to stay. But after meeting Sean, they set on a path to help Sean in order to fulfill their journey and return to the Blue (ocean). But all is not as they think because Sean opens up a world Ross never knew and little by little they discover that land (and some people) aren't as bad as they'd heard. Oh, and did I mention that Ross is non-binary, goes by they/them pronouns, and has a wonderful fashion sense for a recently beached merperson? And Sean is endearing, at times headstrong, emotional, creative, and is written as a protagonist with a larger body type? Win! The only thing I wasn't crazy about was Kavya, Sean's best friend, who introduces a plot twist later on. But what I didn't like about her was that she was inconsistent. We don't get a steady stream of background about her but rather spurts and then some other characters were barely glanced at.

But all in all, another great book by Jason June. The pros outweighed the cons in my opinion and I loved the ending.

I really enjoyed Jay's Gay Adventure and Out of the Blue was just as good, if not more enjoyable. I really loved the mermaid aspect.

I will be purchasing a copy for my library

I thought this was better than Jay's Gay Agenda! I loved the body positivity. To me, I think there was just too much unnecessary drama, that I was just skimming by the end. .

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.