It took me sometime to get through. It felt like I am number four by Pittacus Lore, just a generic brand.

I didn’t not find the characters appealing or the plot. And felt the story line moved entirely to slow.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this one. The Temperature of Me and You was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. This book wanted to be a cross between The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (one of my favorites) and The Bright Sessions by Lauren Shippen.

The pacing and character development never worked for me. It is somehow super rushed and super slow at the same time. The details of the villain of the story don't match up and there isn't enough background to really understand what's happening besides the most basic of facts. The relationship between characters seemed forced and superficial.

The narration was good, I just wish the story had been more engaging.

Growing up in a town who's claim to fame is having the first Dairy Queen in the state, I immediately connected to the place our main two characters meet. I was a bit worried with the heavy handed focus on chemistry at the beginning, but was glad that I kept going. I enjoyed how the mystery slowly unfolded and kept me curious. The close knit friendships and the sweet young love made this an enjoyable LGBT YA read.

I read this ARC via Netgalley.

Dylan is getting tired of his friends setting him up - then the boy of his dreams walks into the Dairy Queen where he works. But Jordan has a secret which he reveals to Dylan when he accidentally explodes an ice cream: his body was chemically altered in an explosion, and now he runs at a hot 110 degrees and can summon flames with his hands. Dylan is struggling to keep it a secret, until he finds himself in too deep...

Fans of Adam Silvera's [book:Infinity Son|34510711] and <i>The X-Men</i> will enjoy this book, as Dylan is quite the romantic at heart and falls hard and fast for Jordan. Dylan's friends seem overly concerned with his love life only to then be annoyed when he's consumed by Jordan, but the group of friends did have a nice cohesiveness. As a reader I also felt like Dylan spent too much time thinking about Jordan without action. The story moved a little slowly, especially since Jordan disappeared in the second half, but a few other storylines were brought in as Dylan tries to take down HydroPro and deal with friendship troubles at school. Overall this was a fun, sci-fi lite romance.

Brian Zepka writes a realistic, heartfelt, and oftentimes humorous cautionary tale of first love and secrets. Every single character is multi-layered and a joy to follow. The narrator of this audiobook was excellent, clear and provided a distinct voice for each character. I really enjoyed this debut and will not think twice about adding Zepka to my auto-buy list!
Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

*Thank you Netgalley and Disney Audiobooks for providing me of an audiobook arc in exchange for a honest review*

The Temperature of Me and You was one of my most anticipated release of 2022 and unfortunately, it felt flat for me.

My main issue with this book was the pacing. The story was slow-paced in the first half, with nothing really happening. In the second half, I felt like everything was happening too fast. I also didn’t connect with the main character nor the main relationship.

I do think the narrator of the audiobook made a good job at keeping me engaged with the story.

2.5/5

I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but I truly enjoyed this YA sci-fi romance. This book had elements of “they are after me”, gaining of superhero like powers, typical pressures of teenage life friendships, and first love. It was entertaining.

What kept it from being a five star read is the inconsistent relationships with parents and guardians. At times I was like, Where are the parents? Why aren’t they freaking out? How can they not see what’s going on? But in other parts of the book it seems they jumped to the other end of the spectrum.

The narrator did a fantastic job in the audio version that I received.

4 stars

Thank you to @netgalley and @brianzepka for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A M/M YA fantasy romance story that gave me a LOT of TJ Klune's Extraordinaries series vibes. I was REALLY looking forward to this book. It sounded so fantastic. Sadly, I found it soooooooooooooooo slow moving and decided to DNF at about 30%. It's very possible this book got better the more you hung in there but I just couldn't force myself to stay listening. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this advance review copy!

This was one of those books about teens with teen problems but also a bit of magic or powers, a sort of subgenre that I love, and I enjoyed it!

The main character, Dylan, had a fun voice that really sounded “teen,” at least to me, who is admittedly not a teen anymore. But I felt like it had a nice spark of personality with just the right amount of irreverence and messiness and imperfection while still being likeable. He made me laugh sometimes, and thinking back to my high school years, I found some things relatable.

I also liked the romance. Dylan and Jordan had an instant attraction/connection, then they spent time together, went on some dates, texted, and bonded over their mutual secret/danger. And in the time that I got to see of them together, I thought they were cute! They had me smiling. I believed that, whether it was really love or not, they felt something, and for them those feelings were big. I could understand and feel that pull they had to each other.

There were some nice friendships in the book too, and they were just as prominent as the romance. And Dylan had a family who seemed to care.

The heat/fire power element of the story was interesting. It added some unusual struggles to the characters’ everyday lives, since they weren’t always entirely in control of the powers, as well as a bit of action and a threat of danger.

The author did a great job of portraying how things in Dylan’s life kind of spiraled when he got involved with Jordan. I could feel the messiness and the distance it started creating with everyone else in his life. Not because it was a toxic relationship, just because of the weird situation with the powers. And then the author also showed Dylan trying to fix things with everyone, which was nice.

There was also some general teen stuff. Like friend troubles, bullying, extracurriculars, etc.

I want to mention a few complaints, or things I’ve seen mentioned by others, though I found them easy enough to overlook. 1) I don’t feel like I got to know Jordan (the love interest) very well, but the book wasn’t really about him, it was about Dylan. 2) Jordan told Dylan about his powers really quickly, but eh. I’ve had people I barely knew spill personal things to me. Sometimes people have something they just can’t keep in any longer. Granted, Jordan’s secret was dangerous to share, but the fact that Dylan kind of already knew or suspected was probably the excuse Jordan needed. 3) The heat powers seemed slightly inconsistent, and it wasn’t explained how the power transferred, but I just accepted all that as part of the premise. And 4) The whole thing with the bad guys felt overly simplistic and a bit cliche, but I just kinda shrugged that off too.

The audiobook narration by Andrew Gibson took me a bit to get used to, it had a sort of slightly dramatic and bitter feel to it, but I did get into it, and now I feel like it was a good choice. His narration brought a personality and feel to the main character that seemed to suit him. Voices for Dylan and Jordan weren’t super different, one was just a bit more gravelly, but girl characters all sounded different from Dylan, and I never got confused who was talking. I enjoyed the audio.

Overall, I liked the main character’s voice, the first love romance, the friendships, the touch and humor and action, and the unique sci-fi powers. It was a story I enjoyed, and it seems exactly like the kinda thing I would’ve been really into as a teen!

2.5 Stars

Thank you to Disney Hyperion and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Dylan has always wanted a boyfriend, but he's into more than he bargained for when he meets the literally hot Jordan during his shift at Dairy Queen.

I was so disappointed by this one. I wanted to like it so much but I just couldn't find anything in it redeemable enough for more than a "meh." The main character is unlikable and misogynistic. He doesn't really have any redeemable qualities and his only personality trait is "want boyfriend now." The plot was okay but nothing special and I've seen similar plots done way better. I didn't care about the characters at all.

I also felt like this was too slow and just drug on. I wish I could have liked this, but it was incredibly mediocre.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Bullying
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, and Vomit
Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

I had to squeeze this one in before Valentine’s Day, and so glad I did! This story started off building the tension and trust between Dylan and Jordan, and things heat up as the book goes on. The characters were relatable to today’s high schools, and the book does a great job of using 21st century pop culture references and terms.

Excited to see how Disney+ adapts the book!

I loved this! I couldn't put this book down and I loved the M/M leads and the evil scientist. It's very contemporary at its core, following Dylan on his average life through his average school and suddenly getting thrown into very unusual situations. I enjoyed this one quite a bit and am excited to see what else Brian has in store as an author.

3 Stars:

Conceptually, The Temperature of Me and You is one of the coolest, most unique books I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, it never reached its full potential for me and I was left just wanting something more the entire time.

You follow 16-year-old Dylan Highmark, an openly gay high school junior, who has a freak encounter with Jordan Ator involving an exploding Blizzard. They begin spending time with each other and Dylan learns that Jordan has a dark secret: his body composition is made up of hydrogen after a horrific car accident involving a Tesla-like company that killed his parents. This causes Jordan’s body temperature to run at a steamy 110 degrees and be able to shoot fire from his hands. Soon, Dylan starts exhibiting symptoms (and ignoring his friends and family in the process), while being hunted by the organization that caused the accident. Together, they have to learn how to live with falling in love for the first time, while figuring out why they have these secret powers.

Like I said, conceptually, this book is fantastic. Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, but when I do, this is the type that I enjoy. High stakes yet fairly simple. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that it was properly executed. I never fully understood how Dylan and Jordan’s body chemistry changed (or how they were able to stay alive - I suppose I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief enough to just go with it). There aren’t enough details about HydroPro to understand why they’re such a big bad (unless you just compare them to big real-life tech companies). The ending felt extremely rushed and not cohesive - stuff happens, it’s incredibly intense, and then it just ends. I wanted more of a resolution to this big build up and I don’t think the pay off was worth it.

I felt like the romance-aspect of this book was almost secondary to everything else going on. Sure, it was the primary thing on Dylan’s mind 24-7, but I didn’t really feel the connection between Dylan and Jordan. It was quite insta-lovey and never truly clicked for me.
I did enjoy the friendships here though. I liked Kirsten and Perry and how they rounded Dylan out - because at times he came across as a little one-dimensional. I also LOVED the character arc with Savannah. Seeing that blossom, even though it happened towards the end, was quite lovely.

The narrator, Andrew Gibson, did a wonderful job bringing this story to life and I’d happily listen to his work again! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the advanced copy of this book.

I did not like this book. The MC is an over-dramatic, whiny, self-centered twink. He is insufferable. His friends are rude as fuck and the mean girl is a caricature. You think Regina George is a mean girl? No. His mean girl characters are laughably mean. I honestly couldn't give a shit about the high school drama bullshit. It was all so superficial and obnoxious. The MC is a mean kid. He has a shitty attitude, a shitty outlook, and is really shitty to other people. Being gay, mean, and skinny isn't a personality. The brooding, mysterious bad boy was a tired and exhaustive journey. Even then, his fire-bending is literally, the only thing exciting to happen. I just could not care less about any of the characters.

Sci-fi with a dash of romance.

Dylan is a bit of an outsider at his school being one of the very few out kids at his school and being just a little different from most kids.

That doesn’t stop his hopes of romance though and they spark to life when Jordan shows up at Dairy Queen after Dylan has closed up and explodes a blizzard.

Intrigued by this Dylan tracks Jordan down and their relationship begins.

Jordan is nervous to share his abilities with Dylan and horrified when they affect Dylan in unexpected ways.

Ok so spoilery but I don’t understand how Dylan contracted Jordan’s powers and no one else did. He spent all that time around his relatives and they don’t get them. And Dylan didn’t pass his on. So what’s up with that?

This book gave me a lot of Flash Fire by TJ Klune and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer of Stone vibes. It was a cute teen and YA book but there were many times I wanted to DNF the book. I am glad I push through and listened to the end since it was a good book but just not my style. It would be better for older middler schools/high school students.

I always hate to give reviews like this but, this book wasn't up to par for me. It was hard to get through and follow. Dylan was a character that I wasn't sure I liked very much, very annoying when it came to Jordan.

This book was so interesting. When I read the description, I definitely did not expect it to have the fantasy/sci-fi twist that it did. It was a fun read, had really likable characters, and a really good build-up to the romance. My only complaint is that the build up was SO big and SO good, the ending felt a little rushed and like the author was trying to tie up the loose ends as quickly as possible. I wanted a little more from the ending. But, was it a fun read and did I enjoy it nonetheless? Yes.

Waiting patiently for my Temperature of Me and You DQ Blizzard, will it be vanilla with cookies? Add rainbow sprinkles and it would be perfect. Maybe a little spice to kick it up a notch.

So many thoughts. Mostly how much I LOVE Dylan. He is such a mess and it is totally relatable. His longing, his loneliness, his friendships, his heartaches, his wins, they were all so real.

I love Dylan's family and friends, their support and love for him is so heartwarming.

Jordan...Jordan, Jordan, Jordan. I needed more Jordan, but what I got was oh so perfect. My one real critique is that we should have had some of Jordan's POV. There is SO much we don't know.

The audiobook was so much fun to listen to, props Andrew Gibson for his awesome narration.

If this is a stand alone it is a 4/5. Lots of unanswered questions.
If this is the beginning of a series, it is a 5/5.

I cannot wait to see what Brian Zepka gives us next!

Thank you to Disney Audiobooks and NetGalley for the pleasure of listening to the audiobook.

#bookreview The Temperature of Me and You by Brian Zepka

☺️ the good ☺️
- Teenage boys in love with super powers 😍
- Dylan works at DQ and this might be the most relatable teenage job ever 😂
- Jordan is overwhelmed the FIRST time he sees Dylan. It’s too adorable.
- Kristin and Perry are Dylan’s badass besties. They’re cheerleaders and smart and loyal and supportive.


🤨 the bad 😒
- I would’ve liked a bit more at the end, but I also kind of liked where it ended 🤷🏼‍♀️
- As an adult, there were definitely points where I was like “TELL A GROWNUP” 😂😂😂


😍 the beautiful 😍
- No spoilers, but the scene at the buffet with S was one of my absolute favorite things ever.
- Dylan and Jordan’s powers were so cool.
- Dylan and Jordan. They’re just so cute together and Dylan is so ridiculously excited to have a boyfriend.
- GSA representation and Darlene as a character. ☺️


rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
my face while reading: 🙂😱😅😮🙂😃🥺😮🙂😃

#bookstagram