Thank you to NetGalley & The Publisher for allowing me this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

As soon as I saw this authors promotional reel on Instagram I was hooked. I was lucky enough to be picked for the ARC and got to read it!

This book lived up to the hype I had for it, easily. It was adorable and the characters were so different and likeable. The plot, though romancy/trope-y, was well written and kept me turning the pages for more. If you're a fan of Ouran High School Host Club, this book was made for you.

As I said, I loved the characters. Blaze might easily be my favorite and honestly he towed the line between what could have been a disasterably written character or an amazing one. Obviously I thought he was amazing. The fact that a 3rd rate side character might be my favorite says enough about this book in itself. That being said, Charlie's character was great too. You could feel the authors personal experience as a Trans person shining through and every aspect/complication in this story fed right back into Charlie's character arc in the best ways. The emotional ride this story takes us on is what kept me turning page after page.

I don't think I even have any gripes! Usually, even my reviews for novels I like have at least some gripes but honestly this novel delivered on description, expectation, base standards, and then some. I'm giving it 5 stars & will definitely read more from this author in the future!

This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year and it did not disappoint! The concept for the story is super intriguing and while I thought I knew the story that would be told, I was pleasantly surprised with how it was executed. Because I had preconceived notions of what this book would be, it took me a while to get into but around the 20% mark I was hooked.
What was most surprising about this book was the friendships made in the story. I really loved Robbie, Xavier, Blaze and Luis are all fantastic characters facing their own issues in the book. But I think Blaze was my favorite, especially when they finally make it to the mixer.
I am so glad stories like this are being published and read by the next generation. I wish we had more books like this when I was a teen. I think I would have been much more interested in reading if so. Definitely going on my YA recommendation list.

Charlie is staring at a prestigious boys boarding school as a Sophomore. He not only has to worry about ranking in the top 5 of his class to keep his scholarship, but he's also worried about how his very traditional school will react if they find out he's trans. To add to Charlie's stress, a housing mix-up means he doesn't get the single room he was hoping for. And to make things worse? His roommate is a the first guys he ever kissed and doesn't even recognize him.

Powars creates a wonderful cast of characters that brings so much heart and warmth to the story. Strongly recommend for all teen collections, especially those where rom coms are in high demand.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Book Press for this arc!

I loved this book! Everything was so sweet and heartwarming- Charlie’s friendship with the boys, him figuring out his comfort level, Jasper’s eagerness to spend time with Charlie, and the whole love notes services was just so freaking cute!

I loved that Jasper learned about Charlie’s boundaries and grew as a character to be more humble and let his guard down with Charlie so he could be himself a bit more! He was just a sweetie pie who meant well and wanted a bit of love.

I really enjoyed Charlie’s character and his development. He went from trying to isolate himself and refusing to trust anyone to opening to others and learning what true friendship looks like. The anxiety rep here was amazing.

The plot line was wonderful! I mean a secret group of boys who deliver love letters??? It’s so cute!!

Overall this was a super cute and sweet read. I loved every second of it!

This is less second chance romance and more campy humor. Long lost loves that (spoiler alert!) were never officially dating the summer after middle school. A love interest who is so obnoxious and vain that he decorates with posters and a cardboard cutout of himself and has no idea how his actions or privilege affect others. A twelve-year-old sophomore genius who lives in a fantasy world where he’s an arachnid-fighting medieval knight. A plot based mostly on sending love letters to strangers, from strangers, not on the narrator’s own love life. It’s fun if you’re expecting or on board for all that. I was hoping for something a little more realistic, so the enjoyable bits for me were the narrator beginning to come into himself as a gay, trans teen and starting to find true friendships and a support system, as well as the criticism of a system that is rigged for the benefit of some, even if some events and outcomes were more idealistic than realistic.

This book fully embraces its exaggerated, fantastical tone, making it a fun read for anyone who enjoys heightened drama, unreliable narrators, and big emotional stakes. The over-the-top situations feel like something straight out of high school drama, with plenty of wild, fantastical elements that are more about big emotions than realism.

However, the protagonist’s overwhelming focus on his own thoughts causes him to miss key things happening around him, and the plot hinges on an irrational fear that doesn’t quite ring true. Multiple subplots also feel underdeveloped and don’t really go anywhere, leaving parts of the story feeling unfinished.

It wasn’t for me, but younger readers who enjoy big emotions over realism and a more fantastical take on high school drama might have fun with this one.

This was a super cute book! It highlights the struggles that trans youth still face while keeping the story itself lighthearted and sweet. If you’re looking for a quick, charming YA read, this is great one to pick up!

Hilarious, swoony, and absolutely over the top. I found myself completely hooked by this and had so many laugh out loud moments. Charlie is a transgender teen at an all boy's private boarding school just trying to pass, but a mix up with his dorm has him not only rooming with someone but rooming with his EX CRUSH who was his first kiss. Jasper is a poet with an over dramatic and romantic streak who is absolutely determined to befriend Charlie, despite absolutely not recognizing him post-transition. This is all set at a very exclusive private boarding school that is absolutely bonkers. Everything about Valentine Academy seemed extremely fictional and out there, from the fact that no one is allowed to use phones to the insane focus on rankings (and not just top 10% or a GPA, but literally top 5 students.)

This book does require a LOT of suspension of disbelief. It is incredibly over the top. But I absolutely loved it. I stayed up way too late and was an absolutely zombie the next day because I simply couldn't put it down. The chapters are also very short and quick so this book just flies by. It was such a fun time, filled with wit and humor and outrageous scenarios and heartfelt confessions. The friendships Charlie formed with his classmates are incredibly sweet and the secondary characters in this novel all feel like unique and interesting personalities (if a tad unrealistic.) There's also a really fun heist going on in the center of this plot which I'm always here for. Just an incredibly fun time.

And They Were Roommates was beyond adorable and I fell head over heels for the entire cast of characters. I love when the supporting cast is so memorable that you can’t imagine the story without them and their charm and shenanigans.

Charlie was an incredibly relatable character - I mean who didn’t feel awkward or struggled to find their place and people in high school - and his journey to finding community and a sense of belonging is something I think will resonate with every single reader. I did not envy the immense academic standards and pressure these students had to navigate at boarding school one bit, but I really loved how they rallied around each other.

The romance was sweet, but for me the real star of the book was the friendships that were forged. And!! This a true YA story where teens are being their authentic teenage selves and exploring their independence, feelings about leaving home and familial expectations, and simply embracing the drama, miscommunication, and angst that comes with that stage of life. Teens need books where they can be seen too and I really believe so many readers will find a home and community within these pages.

And They Were Roommates follows Charlie as he moves into the prestigious boarding school of Valentine's academy. After deferring his Excellence scholarship for a year while figuring out some personal business, he thought he'd lost the chance to attend the academy his mother attended. There's only one problem, he's moving into the all- boy campus and will have to hide that he's trans.
Roommates follows Charlie's inner struggles to make himself feel like he's passing, achieve a top 5 ranking to maintain his scholarship, and keep everyone else at a distance so they don't discover his secret. All of which is hindered by his roommate being his ex from poetry camp.
This was such a refreshing read. It was fast paced, relatable, and at times funny. I love the complexity of the side characters truly showing us to never judge a book by its cover. There's elements of found family and finding yourself in the most wholesome way.
Above all else, I love that this book was achieved without ever deadnaming or misgendering Charlie. I was tense the whole time, waiting for someone to slip up, and it never happened. Much needed and so affirming. A much needed table for any youth who feel they need to hide their true selves.

a very good very cute lgbt romance! the pacing was good and i thought the romance was easy to root for with some very interesting challenges. i would recommend this!

title alone, i knew i was going to love this. it has the same energy Page brings to his books: quick, energetic, and hilarious. i was really glad to see all the humor and banter from Build a Boyfriend carry over into this one.

the pacing and plotting were great, and Page does an excellent job with world building. what i'm very impressed with is how he built this community Charlie finds. the entire cast of characters are charismatic and memorable and it made for the group scenes to be fun. special shoutout to Blaze, who made me laugh every single time.

and the romance is warm and full of pining, even when both boys didn't know what was fully going on. Charlie's arc of finding a community and learning to take it easy on himself was great. and i loved everything about how melodramatic and over the top Jasper was about everything. these characters felt alive.

great book. it's like if Dead Poets Society left you feeling loved, safe, and warm instead of emotionally devastated.

Page Powers’s “And They Were Roommates” is the heartwarming YA romance we all need right now. In this poignant second-chance love story, we meet Charlie, the only trans student at Valentine Academy for Boys, who is determined to keep his identity under wraps. But his carefully laid plan is quickly derailed when his private dorm room is suddenly turned into a double — and his new roommate is none other than Jasper Grimes, the boy who shattered Charlie's heart before he transitioned. The catch? Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.

What begins as a reluctant partnership to write love letters for their classmates soon blossoms into something deeper, with Charlie hoping the arrangement will earn him his much-needed solo room. But, of course, spending long nights talking about love and relationships stirs up emotions neither of them expected.

With sweet, low-stakes moments and a feel-good ending, this story is brimming with charm. Sure, there are a few tropey elements, like characters not communicating when they should, but that’s what to expect with a YA romance. Big thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the ARC!

This was such a cute story! I really fell for Charlie and all his awkward teenaged angsting. I did find some of the characters to be a bit pretentious but they are at a prestigious boarding school so I guess it made sense. Jasper took some time to win me over because he is very stuffy and dramatic and I didn't see why he was a good match for Charlie. By the end we got to know him more and I felt for him more. This is definitely a very YA story so if teenagers being angsty and dramatic isn't for you then maybe pass on this one. All the angsting really worked for me though and I related to Charlie's desire to be find a community (while worrying that no one will understand his queerness). These teenagers aren't your normal teenagers but they were perfect for each other and I found it adorable to watch Charlie find a place where he belongs.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This was very cute and wholesome. It’s probably one of my favorite YA romances that I’ve read recently. I enjoyed how the main characters interacted and their past, as well as the representation the book had! The one thing that I wasn’t the biggest fan of was the repetitiveness of the sister school storyline but it didn’t take much away enjoyment-wise

This had me second guessing if it was even a romance. Trust me I love a slow burn but after a while this had me thinking we didn’t have any flint.

Okay but really I feel so bad giving this two stars. This was one of those books where I was having a lot of fun until I just wasn’t. It took a bit for me to really get into the beginning, around the middle I liked, but then the latter half was a massive miss for me.

This book ends up leaning more into contemporary than romance. Majority of the plot surrounds the letter writing, maintaining grades, tutoring, and gym training. I am aware I am not the target audience for this being a 23 year old who’s long since graduated, but a lot of it was just kind of boring. I did however enjoy the idea of the letter writing! I thought the interview bits for the letters were quite funny as well as Jasper attempting to teach Charlie the art of writing them.
I think Powars did a great job encapsulating the stressful high school experience especially with Charlie. I would be ill if the school I went to had a ranking system posted on the wall every single week and my scholarship hinged on making the top five. Also the trans representation felt genuine and very insightful. I appreciate that it didn’t take a traumatic route.

Jasper’s character gives me some mixed feelings. If you really squint he kind of reminded me of Adrien Agreste from Miraculous Ladybug in his clueless nature while also being borderline worshipped by the school. I didn’t mind his massive ego and actually found it quite endearing. But, his main personality trait is that he’s this outstanding poet, when I found his writing to be extremely underwhelming.

The relationship between Charlie and Jasper is a sort of second chance romance situation because they originally met at a summer camp two years prior. However, now that Charlie has transitioned Jasper doesn’t recognize him. I thought this was an exciting premise and kept you on edge waiting for the big reveal but I don’t think it served enough for the romance set up. Quite frankly they didn’t really have any chemistry. There were maybe a couple scenes here and there where I was eagerly waiting for something to progress but then it would just sort of fizzle out. Then towards the end the romance starts to feel extremely rushed… like not them already saying the L word to each other after barely even establishing mutual feelings.

At the end it was fun to finally see the plan with the letters fleshed out but it still just felt overall lackluster. So much work was put into those letters and then it’s all just done and over with in like five pages. Suddenly everyone is all coupled up and happy and that’s it.

I’m so so sad this didn’t work for me because it truly had some great concepts, I just wish certain sections were reworked a bit.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s for providing me with this arc.

Funny, witty, absolutely corny in all the ways promised by the premise.

Jasper was so funny constantly, and Blaze left me laughing so hard sometimes. Like just the language choices across this book that centers so heavily on poetry made it riotous.

Charlie felt so near and dear to me, I could feel his stress over everything coming through in the pages. I also wanted to wrap him in an ambrosia decorated blanket, he deserves it!

It’s everything it promises to be, it’s goofy and awkward and funny and feels like exactly the kind of romcom my teen self would’ve obsessed over.

I loved the tension in this book and the learning to love oneself and another. I think that having the element of learning to write love letters and for him to find his own way to do it was an important step in Charlie's journey to love another.
Jasper was a character, he was hard to like but I think that was the point. Charlie had so much frustration towards him and I felt the same way and when Charlie started letting his walls down for Jasper I think as a reader I did as well.
I kind of wish there was a bit more about how the school was impacted after Charlie told the headmaster that he was trans because I felt as though this was a huge step in his coming out journey.

I was really excited to read this because I liked the last book written by Page Powars. However, everything concerning the plot and characters were just fine. It tried to entertain me, and I didn’t care as much as I wanted too. On a more positive note: very good writing, and lgbt+ rep

I was really looking forward to this, but it ended up just being okay for me. It was a bit over the top and the characters were more like caricatures. If you're in the mood for a goofy, lighthearted YA read, this is the move. It's just not what I was expecting or wanting. It didn't help that I didn't really care for the two leads or feel the romance between them at all either. I didn't hate this, but I definitely wouldn't read it again either