This book delves deep into the tumultuous world of adolescence, with its intricate web of relationships, emotions, and uncertainties and healthy does of boyband drama for fans of If This Gets Out and Kiss and Tell. It paints a vivid portrait of the angst and drama that so often define this period of life, capturing the essence of what it means to be a teenager with sometimes obnoxious levels of angst and immaturity. I really liked this, but it didn't have the same edge that some other similar books have had. I did blow through it in one sitting, though, and I liked the really frank, healthy depictions of queer sexual relationships.

I feel like I should start off by saying that at 28, I’m definitely not the target audience for a YA book but the cover and description really drew me in.

The writing felt kinda clunky at times but overall I liked this book. The ending was great.

This was an interesting book that had me going back and forth on whether or not I enjoyed it. There were plenty of moments where I absolutely could not stand David, but Chance captivated my heart and kept me reading. As frustrated as I got, the story kept me hook, and it’s clear that my frustrations were meant to be there, meaning the author was successful in what he was trying to do. Overall, I did enjoy the book. My biggest problems stem from the fact that some plot points seemed forgotten or left hanging. For instance (minor spoilers ahead), despite these boys losing someone who was such a big part of their lives, once they get together, he seems completely forgotten about. I also didn’t enjoy how David’s father handled, well, anything (David wasn’t much better but at least his issues drove the plot). Still, it was a fun read.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

This had me in a chokehold. It was fantastic. The romance blew me away and the plotline was interesting. I loved our main characters I just wish we could have read from Chance's POV! But this was amazing!

I really liked this one! I've learned that I love books with rockstar type characters, so as soon as I read the synopsis for this one, I was looking forward to it. The moment I got a copy, I picked it up and never put it down.

Which was easy because this one was so much fun! I loved that both of our main characters were flawed. They weren't always likeable, but they felt real. And I loved them for that! Their romance reflected the same. It wasn't always smooth sailing, but the connection between them was always there.

The one thing I wish this had had is dual POVs. I totally get why we didn't get to read from Chance's POV, but I still wish we had it. I've learned that I prefer romances with dual POV, so for me, that's the one thing this could've done better. Just a personal preference though!

I really enjoyed this one, and I expect people to love it! It was a super fun read with an adorable main romance.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

David, Chase and Eli formed a teenage boy band named Darkhearts. But when they were fourteen, David decides to leave the band --- only to have them get signed by a label and catapulted into fame less than a year later.

When Eli suddenly passes away, Chase comes back to town to mourn and regroup. This leads him to reconnect with David, but the two are not on the same page about what the new connection means for their future as a new couple and as a band.

Fans of "Love Simon" and "Royal Red White and Blue" will love this book about two former bandmates and best friends trying to create a future together as partners -- in love and in life. Their relationship is messy and has many

OMG LOVED!!

aaahhhh, truly I'm not one for romance but WOW. this book had me in a total and utter chokehold!

the characters, the story, everything! amazing!

i personal loved the slow-burn romance, and when I saw this was recommended for fans of red, white, & royal blue I KNEW I would end up reading it as soon as possible! <3

highly recommend this read!

I think boyband romances are fast becoming my new favourite sub-genre.
This book was delightful. I loved the peak behind the curtains of the inner workings of the music industry and the fallout of overnight success. Definitely recommend,
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a sucker for a books involving band/musician romance. I love them and cannot get enough. So when I received this ARC from Wednesday Books via NetGalley I was incredibly psyched! In many ways this book lived up to my expectations. It had just the right amount of teenage angst mixed with romance and the trials of dating a popular musician. Bits of the story were predictable, but not in a bad way at all. The MC came across as a little whiney and annoying in some places, but it added more to his characters and made him more relatable. (Honestly, if I were in his position, I'd probably be a little whiney and annoying, too.)

The main place I felt this book fell short was in the relationship itself. I just didn't see the chemistry between the MC and the love interest. They worked well together, but something was missing to make me really root for them to make everything work. It wasn't technically InstaLove since the characters had known each other since middle school, but it had been a couple years since they had even really spoken. They were, as the book pointed out, different people and yet they seemed to overcome all that rather quickly. It felt like they just fell into a relationship. The MC went from being straight to "Oh, shit. I'm in love with my ex-best friend" almost a little too quickly, and I think the chemistry got lost in an effort to throw them into a relationship as fast as possible.

One other thing that bugged me a bit was how the grief of losing a friend was quickly pushed into background. The friend and his death were brought up several times, but every time it seemed like they recovered too quickly or the grief was set aside for later but never dealt with head-on. I felt like the characters didn't get a chance to grieve before being thrust into the romance plot.

Overall, I really enjoyed book! It hooked me right away and I couldn't put it down. If, like me, you are a fan of queer, music centric YA romance, you should give this book a try.

The way Michael Scott from The Office feels about Toby is similar to how I feel about David, the MC of Darkhearts. That "Why are you the way that you are? I hate so much about the things you choose to be" scene specifically.

The first half was okay and even cute. I could see a lot of potential and I thought David was intentionally meant to be unlikeable so there was lots of room for real growth and character development.

However, he spends the next 42% of the book being The Actual Worst and then has an epiphany and magically decides he is now going to not be a shitty person anymore.

Darhearts is definitely YA and a book about teenage boys. I know I'm reading about teenagers but do they have to talk about poop and describe a penis as having the same feel as the inside of a dog ear?

David is horrible selfish, he's jealous and unkind, and he doesn't realize how shitty a person he is until 92% into the book when he's already hurt his bff Ridley and his former band mate Chance.

If this book had ended with David realizing he really shouldn't be with anyone right now, and that Chance deserves better instead of just "I have decided to not be jealous of you anymore, I am now a good person" then maybe I would've liked it better? As it is, I felt David was trying to convince himself he'd changed more than anything.

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter is a moody, sincere, coming of age story that explores the idea of second chances.

The story kicks off with a funeral (as many great stories do) and main character David, coming to terms with the death of a former friend. His friends, Eli and Chance, left years ago to continue with a rock band Darkhearts that David helped start. When Eli dies tragically, Chance and David come back together to mourn their friend and spend time in their hometown. The problem is David never left and Chance never looked back.

I really lived at this story because the characters were so deep for a enemies to lover's romcom type situation. The dynamics of old friendships, new love, not fitting in, the music industry, and questioning your sexuality were all handled wonderfully always an approach that felt so organic and comfortable.

David is an interesting character and I really liked seeing his growth throughout the story. I absolutely loved his friendship with Ridley and how they geeked out together. He's likeable character but you can definitely see his flaws and I'm so glad that he was called out on some of his BS.

Chance won my heart immediately and I was definitely fangirling over this pop star. He seemed so genuine and sweet even when he was being pressured to keep up his rock star persona. I loved being able to see how his family dynamics worked with his fame and how he stole a little bits of private time away to be able to be true to himself.

The found family , second chance romance, and enemies two lovers aspects of this book were done really well and I'm definitely going to look out for more books by James L. Sutter

After the death of an ex best friend/former band mate, two other friends and members of the band are reunited and find comfort in each other as they grieve. David quit his band and lost his friends all in the same day, he also lost his shot at being famous. Two years later and now he’s trapped in an ordinary life, working summers for his dad’s construction business while his former best friends Chance and Eli had become the hottest teen pop group in America... and then suddenly Eli dies. Now David and Chance are thrown back into each other’s lives after years of silence and while dealing with their shared grief over a friend, the hurts of the past, the jealously, the new feelings of romance, are all thrown in the mix as they spend time together and figure out just what they mean to each other now. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me, while the story talks about dealing with grief, it never actually deals with the grief, it never actually talks about the process of grieving and how both friends grieve the loss of their friend, instead it really focuses on the relationship between David and Chance. David is filled with jealously and rage over the fact that his friends left him and became famous, it’s been growing and fester in him, yet at the same time the more time he spends with Chance the more he begins a new feeling he never did before, falling for him. It’s complicated and messy and honestly i just wasn’t feeling the relationship between them. David was dealing with a lot of jealously and Chance was constantly forgiving him, but at the same time I really didn’t see their romance. I was expecting more from this I guess and it just didn’t go where I was expecting it or cover things I wish it had. So while it wasn’t for me, if you are interested in stories about famous x regular relationship, friends to lovers, second chance romance (sort of), then give this a go.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

For a book under 300 pages, it sets out to tackle a lot of weighty topics like grief, identity, resentment, and parental abandonment. For the most part I think this book does a good job of addressing these issues and the messiness that comes with being a teenager and the impacts of fame but I do think that with an extra 20-50 pages some of these issues could have been explored a bit more depth giving a bit more resolution to the conflict and developing out the ending more.

That being said, this was a fantastic debut and I found myself thinking about this book a lot after finishing. Chance and David's story definitely stuck with me, as well as the challenges that they both were facing individually and together. I really love stories about fame/stardom and this book is one of the best YA books that I have read that deals with this topic. It tackles fame from two side, the lived experience and difficulties that come with it (Chance) and the jealously that can arise from being the one who missed out (David). I also really enjoyed that this story was set in Seattle and Sutter did a great job capturing the magic of Seattle in the summer time.

I will definitely recommend this book and I am excited to see what Sutter writes next!

First thing I want to say is this cover is gorgeous!
I’m a sucker for celebrity/common man love stories (If This Gets Out, Kiss &Tell, etc) and the context of this one seemed unique and interesting. David and Chance have a rocky road to travel in this: grieving the loss of the other have of Darkhearts Eli, navigating Chance’s celebrity, and the biggest one…dealing with the envy and hurt of Eli and Chance moving forward with the band after David left. I’m happy with how things played out for David…no spoilers, but the easy route was not taken in regards to the band. The banter and even the arguments between the two felt natural and not forced, which is so easily found in YA romance. I particularly have a soft spot for the text messages exchanged. I’d boy bands and celebrities are your thing, you’ll love Darkhearts

Loved it from beginning to end! Granted, it felt VERY personal because I live in Seattle, but that’s not the point. The writing, the character development, the symmetry, the grief and pain and raw emotion. What a story. So so so grateful for Wednesday Books for reaching out and sending me this ARC. Please please please buy it when it comes out on June 6!

I really enjoyed this book! The evolution of Chance was really powerful and felt organic. I found my perspective changing right along with David. There was enough spice included but it also wasn’t over done. The boy band plot was fun and the tension between Chance’s old life and new fame was well thought out and developed. The only thing that stuck out to me was some of the dialogue between the two main characters - a lot of “dude” included which didn’t feel authentic to the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I so very much appreciate the arc, however this just turned out to not be the book for me. I simply couldn't get into it. But the writing was great and I'm sure the story is wonderful.

This book was a very fun quick read. I liked the plot more towards the end because the beginning was kind of predictable. Some characters didn’t seem fully developed personality wise and some of the relationships seemed rushed. The beginning of the book felt a bit rushed too. I liked the main character’s discovery of how he shares some bad qualities with his mom and getting past that. And I loved the ending of this book! But overall I would recommend this book if you want a cute romance. This book reminds me of this gets out by Sophie Gonzalez. So I think if you liked that book you’ll probably like this. Congrats to James L. Sutter.

I really liked the premise but the resentment portrayed toward Chance Ng over the success he had is over the top and not something our library wants to champion. It didn’t feel like it turned around fast enough.

Age range, this really felt middle/high school (as advertised), which isn’t as much our demographic. It doesn’t break the bounds. Just not a good fit.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

I'm a sucker for a good band-centric book, so I was excited to get this arc. The beginning of the book I really enjoyed. David was funny and I liked his friendship with Ridley. I could understand his frustration with Chance and how everything went down years before. I thought his and Chance's relationship went from tentative, reconciling friends to romance a bit quickly and without much buildup, but I was still eager to see how it progressed.

Unfortunately, that's where things went a bit off the rails for me. It's very clear throughout the book that David still holds a lot of resentment toward Chance, and he thrives off having someone like Chance (ie someone rich, famous, desirable, etc) want him. He himself says multiple times that when Chance does something good or praise worthy like leaving a large tip, it reflects back on him because they're together. The further I got into the book, the more I felt like David was less interested in Chance himself and more interested in how having someone like Chance want him made him feel. The majority of the book is David being resentful and jealous and pushy, and it made it very hard to root for or like their relationship. Now, I get that a big part of David's character development throughout the book was letting that go. The problem is he doesn't have that sudden realization until the last couple of chapters and by that point it was too late to make me really care about their relationship.

I also wished it had delved a little deeper into the impact of Eli's death on Chance. David hadn't been friends with Eli since he left the band so I can understand it not affecting him nearly as much, but Chance and Eli were best friends who had lived in each others pockets for years. Other than a few scenes toward the beginning where Chance is upset, it feels like Eli's death got completely pushed to the side in favor of the romance between David and Chance.

All in all, this wasn't a bad book by any means. It had parts I enjoyed, but I just wasn't invested in Chance and David's relationship.