Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I love how many nerdy themed books are coming out this year. I need more and more books about anime and fandom asap. It makes me feel seen. I also really liked Eli & their friends. They were super cute. These types of books make me sad that the super tight high school friend group isn’t real.

This book reminded me of Face Off. Did anyone else watch that show? I loved that show. I would watch the live streams from this book too. I love cosplay makeup and this concept is very fun. I appreciated how open everyone was with pronouns, top surgery, & being trans. Everyone was super accepting of Eli.

My only real pet peeve was not really knowing what a lot of cosplays were supposed to be because the anime was made up. I noticed real fandoms alongside fake ones, but it’s hard to visualize what someone will look like if you can’t reference the character. Also “PRINCESS MONONOKE’S” NAME IS SAN!!! I was screaming on the inside during that scene. It was such a cute moment and it was ruined for me.

This was really great for a debut book and I hope there’s more nerdy books to come from this author.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

I loved this story! As a cosplay and special effects makeup enthusiast myself, I found myself fully immersed in this story.
Eli, a non-binary main character, finds themself entangled in a makeup contest with their ex, Zach. Eli struggles with anxiety and money issues as they fearlessly pursue their dream of becoming a special effects makeup artist. Eli is trying to save money to follow their dreams and finally get top surgery while navigating the rocky waters of competing against their ex in the contest.
This "Right Person, Wrong Time" trope is filled with vibrant and believable characters.
Will the competition end in a heated screaming match between the exes or will sparks between them ignite on stage?!
#BreakupMakeup #NetGalley

SUCH A CUTE BOOK and I love the “Right Person, Wrong Time” trope. I loved how Eli & Zach felt like real people. I have been part of different fandoms over the years but have never participated in any cosplays and I love how this book didn’t dumb down what goes into everything while still making it able to be understood. I recommend this to anyone looking for a queer-geeky love story!

As someone who has been a congoer for years now, cosplaying myself and assisting in my younger sibling's cosplays, this book hit a special place for me. Ironically, during the time I received this arc, I'd been searching for my cosplay makeup for one of my sibling's planned cosplays for the summer. The pop culture references were woven in wonderfully to the book, and that, along with the descriptions of cosplay, makeup, and convention vibes, all painted the image of just how amazing and nerdy cons can be, and how they bring people together. It brought back some of my happiest memories with my sibling and my mother attending conventions together.

Zach and Eli are both wonderful characters, and following them as they reconnect, learn to communicate, was tender and touching, all at once. Also, I adore that Anthony chose to write them on a date watching Princess Mononoke. As a Ghibli fan, my heart melted to bits! The tenderness of Eli and Zach in their relationship, particularly in the latter half, is everything. Seeing queer love in its finest, the love, acceptance, the tender and the rough, as someone who only came out a year ago, is so valuable, so wonderful. Bodhi was also a delight to read and get to know! I loved reading about her friendship with Eli, her relationship and interactions with her partner and Zach. Highly recommend this book!

Breakup, Makeup by Stacey Anthony is a cute romance book about cosplay and cosmetics. As a reader and cosplayer, I could relate to the characters' challenges.

Eli Peterson, a self-taught costume makeup artist, is saving for top surgery while seeking a career in makeup. Eli leaps at the chance to attend Makeup Wars, a competition offering a scholarship to the best West Coast SFX school. But, Zachary Miller, their ex-boyfriend and competitive influencer, becomes their biggest competitor.

The book has romance, humour, and drama. Characters are well-developed, likeable, and relatable. Eli and Zach's romance is lovely and swoon-worthy, and their friction provides drama to the plot.

I liked how this book recognised cosplay and makeup artistry as art and self-expression. She portrays these societies with a profound understanding and appreciation.

Breakup, Makeup is a sweet, entertaining novel for romance, cosplay, and makeup fans. Very recommended!
4/5 Stars from me.

***A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.***

Breakup, Makeup soothed my soul. I am big into watching people do their makeup. Reading about Eli and their competitors do their makeup was just as entertaining. The visual descriptions were really strong. Cosplay was such a smart choice because you don't need to know makeup to picture the characters.

This book is the most satisfying combination of silly and serious.

The MCs are all older. They've finished high school. Now, they're out there trying to prove that there are career opportunities for creatives. Eli wants to win the competition for themselves, but also for their parents, who don't believe that makeup can be a full-time job. As someone who doesn't want a typical 9-5, that really resonated with me. I was cheering them on every step of the way.

And the romance, oh my gosh. The romance balances out the heavier elements of the plotline. It's a second chance, competitors-to-lovers romance. What's not to love?

I am obsessed with Eli and Zach. They had the sweetest small moments together. The slow build-up of their romantic reconnection had me gasping, giggling, and screaming. It was that good.

Also, I loved that the trans representation is just there. Eli and the other trans characters just existed. They weren't there to educate. There was no hate, only casual and instant acceptance.

Bottom line: I had a great time reading this and I think you will too.

This book brought together lots of themes I love: geek culture, fandom, make up, complex characters finding themselves, mental health, friendships and support systems.

It's nice to see a protagonist who did the wrong thing, who broke someone else’s heart instead of having their heart broken, and it's also interesting how this affects Eli's friendship with Bodhi, who was friends with both Eli and Zach. Bodhi doesn't keep making excuses for Eli's behavior, even though Eli acted with a certain instinct of self-preservation - and self-sabotage too.

The competition part is not all that amazing, but really liked how Eli grows into themselves as the stakes get higher.

I really enjoyed this book, the writing is simple and easy to read, as is the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Running Press Kids and Stacey Anthony for providing me with an ARC for Breakup, Makeup. I was so happy to have this in my NetGalley Shelf to start for #transrightsreadathon.

I really really enjoyed this book. It made me realize that 'right person, wrong time' is absolutely a trope that gets me hard! I loved Eli, they were such an actualized MC for me. They were genuine to us as readers, certainly not to Zach, but where would the story be without some drama.

I also enjoyed the minor dramas/overreactions from Eli that were understandable and relatable. We have all been there thinking some ones platonic best friend is their lover., right....?

I enjoyed the fast pace of the competition and the book in general. I am not a cosplay guy, except for Bears cosplaying Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians! BUT this is not the sort of thing that you need to be completely across to understand the work and imagery that goes into the competition side of the story.

Will post to socials closer to release date. Available 9 May 2023.

I saw this recommended for the Trans Rights Readathon, so I figured I'd request it, and luckily I was approved in time to read it for the readathon, yay!

I quite enjoyed this. It's an upper YA/NA second chance romance with a non-binary MC who wants to be a special effects makeup artist. If that sounds fun, that's because it was! The story was relatively low-conflict, which is what I was looking for when I picked it up, so that worked out perfectly.

Based on something Zach said, I kind of really want a follow-up domestic novella in which he takes care of Eli after their top surgery. I felt like that was kind of hinted at, but I could be wrong of course! Maybe it's just wishful thinking.

I did think the writing was a little rocky, which took away some of my enjoyment. At times we switched from third person to second person within the same paragraph for Eli's thoughts, but they weren't marked as thoughts, which felt a little jarring to read.

This book gives a great insight into make up artists, cosplay, conventions, and influencers. It's a story of love, heartbreak, and competition. When Eli applies for Makeup Wars, all they want is to win, because winning means a scholarship to Beyond, which will boost their career as a make up artist. When they realise their ex-boyfriend, Zach, has also applied for Makeup Wars - and they both make the top five - the competition ramps up, along with their feelings for each other. Who will win? Who will lose? And can love conquer all?

So, this one is niche. And it's the kind of niche where if you are the target audience, you'll know it. Your reaction to the description 'queer romance about exes competing in a special effects make-up cosplay competition' will be a very accurate predictor of your reaction to the whole book, I think. I would find this very hard to recommend to any reader who isn't already quite familiar with the convention/fandom/cosplay scene, but can imagine that for any teen who is this will be an instant pick-up.

The romance is cute, if somewhat predictable. The depiction of fandom culture and what it feels like as a young person to have found your place in it is accurate, and I think will really resonate with anyone who has shared in that experience.

The one thing that kept taking me out of the story, though, was how about half of the fandoms/characters referenced are real, and the other half are made up. I can see reasons for going either way with a story, but the choice to do this mix felt off to me. This felt especially jarring when it came to the cosplay segments: I found it much easier to get invested in the execution of the costume when it concerned a character from Dragon Ball Z (a real anime), than a character from an anime called Delta Quest (which as far as I can tell does not exist) for whose appearance I'm reliant on the sparse description given.

I do plan to put this in my library because I think I can get it into the hands of some kids who would really connect with it, but your mileage might very much vary.

This book warmed my heart in all of the right ways. I don’t think I knew I needed a queer comic-con sfx romance, but I know now that I could read this again & again & again.