3.5 "oh my god, they were roommates" stars. The cover is gorgeous. The concept is cute and wholesome and mostly well-executed. Pacing was fine; I didn't tear through it, but there was never a point where it felt like slog. I'm always for more trans romance books, especially trans YA romance books. More books about queer found family, especially queer teen found family. I appreciated that while Charlie's transness was definitely a conflict in the book (i.e. him having to hide it), it wasn't *the* conflict. The book was much more about Charlie's personal struggle to open up, accept help, and balance his need for academic success. It was a lovely coming of age. If I'd read this as a teen, I think I would have liked this a lot better. The characters are kids so of course they did things that were illogical or silly. I had to keep reminding myself that I'm adult and this ultimately book isn't for me.

However, Jasper (the main LI) didn't really work for me. He felt almost like a caricature. And I know he's a gay teenage poet™, but he spoke like a bad impression of a Victorian dandy. I know this was intentional because Charlie and other characters had perfectly normal dialogue. There's also another poet character who speaks like this, so I think he and Jasper were just supposed to sound erudite and flowery. It was distracting. I found myself intentionally skimming his dialogue so I could keep up with the scene without having to encounter the awkward language. I kept waiting for the reveal that Jasper's way of speaking/acting was a front he would drop when he and Charlie finally had their big emotional reckoning, but that didn't happen. This is all mostly personal preference, I'm sure, which is why I rounded up to 4 stars. But still, a little disappointing for a book I was looking forward to.

First and foremost, thank you to the publisher and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved this story and it was definitely worth the read!

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read this book based solely on the adorable cover and I was not disappointed on the cute-ness factor. 😆 This story is SO cute and campy, I mean they are literally at a school called Valentine Academy and there is heart decor everywhere. What I most enjoyed about this book was the trans representation and the fun academy setting for a YA romance.

I loved Charlie and the premise of a trans boy getting to go to his dream all-boys school, but at the same time being super nervous and not wanting anyone to get too close to him and figuring out he's trans. He had such a mix of emotions that was compelling and relatable. I also liked Jasper even though he was annoying at first lol. Honestly, I wanted more of Jasper's point of view. I wanted to know more about his inner thoughts and why he was attracted to Charlie. The main romance was still super cute though, with lots of moments of tension and a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, I had a great time with this and it was a lovely YA romance. Would recommend to anyone looking for a light-hearted read with great representation.

And They Were Roommates is a cute story, but it did make me feel like I was back in high school. Back then there were no gays or transsexuals, so it was interesting to see how the relationship between Charlie and Jasper played out. That a male high school student might accept as a lover a guy who is transitioning is a sign of the times. Hopefully.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I flew right through this delightful romp of a book set at a prestigious boarding school, where Charlie is trying his hardest to keep his head down and not catch anyone’s notice… and his roommate Julius absolutely can’t let that happen. Charlie’s having a bit of a crisis because he is a trans guy and doesn’t want anyone finding out, but not only does he have a roommate, it’s his ex-crush from before he transitioned. Julius ropes Charlie into a love letter writing scheme, putting them both in some romantic situations that make Charlie realize his feelings maybe didn’t disappear after his heart was broken.

It’s a goofy and fun read, with some very memorable characters (Robby with his horse trading card lottery system is amazing, so weird and fun!) while also dealing with some heavier topics. Boarding schools are so fun to read about, and the idea that the boys would have a 100 year old tradition of sneaking love letters back and forth with the girls’ school via elaborate subterfuge is amazing. I would love to see what happens next in this world—I’m not sure if the author plans to continue the story, but I’d read it! I’ll recommend this to readers looking for a bit of a romp.

This book is ideal for readers who enjoy humorous and heartfelt LGBTQ+ romances with a mix of emotional depth, witty banter, and the tension of hidden identities in close-quarters settings.

My best descriptor for this book is that it's a warm hug on beautiful fall day! It has strong cozy vibes, but still delivers a lot of positive messages along with a sweet storyline. There's zero smut, and only sweet kisses. There are multiple lgbtq relationships in the storyline.

While the focus of the story is on a trans teen trying to figure out how they fit in the world, it's also about learning to be a good friend, and learning how to be part of something bigger than 1 person.

I think this book should be read by anyone who is lgbtq, a teen, someone who feels out of sync with the world, or just needs a good book to lift their mood.

I look forward to reading more by Page Powars. Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Roaring Book Press for allowing me to read this book before it's release date!

no quote because arc
2.5💫
Look, this wasn’t for me. I got 60% in and the cringe of dialogue was so bad I got a migraine. That said, I think this is a good read for people that were not like Jasper in high school. Unfortunately, I was and I had so much secondhand embarrassment because of that.

**thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free digital arc in exchange for an honest review!!**

This book is described as hilarious and unputdownable, but I found it angsty and slow-paced. It’s well-written but not for me. DNF ~15%.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Delightful story of a young man connecting with his past love before he transitioned. Highly recommend.

thank you to macmillan/roaring brook press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

from the moment the title and cover art for this book was announced, i knew that i was going to love this story. charlie attends the valentine school for boys, a prestigious academy in new york that focuses on success and higher learning, as an excellence scholar. told that he must rank in the top five of his class to maintain his scholarship, charlie strives to stand out in his studies but blend in with his peers, afraid to share with others that he is transgender. things come to a head when he learns that he has been assigned a roommate: jasper, the boy he fell in love with two years ago at camp who broke his heart, who doesn’t know that he has transitioned. to make matters worse, charlie makes a deal with Jasper to join strip - a secret organization that writes and sends love letters to their sister academy - in order to secure a single room. will charlie be able to thrive at valentine while also hiding his true, authentic self?

a its heart, “and they were roommates” is a story about acceptance, found family, and finding your people. i loved living through charlie’s experiences at valentine and the friends he makes along the way in strip (blaze, you will always have my heart). the relationship that develops and evolves between charlie and jasper is beautiful, and i loved their dynamic and different personalities (i mean, who else keeps a cardboard cutout and poster of themselves in their dorm room?) i only just left the world of valentine school for boys, but I’m desperate to go back and spend more time with charlie, jasper, xavier, robby, and blaze. these boys have my heart forever.

4 stars

This was a really fun coming of age queer romance with a very interesting found family of characters. The stress of keeping such a large secret while also fighting to be so high in rankings at an incredibly competitive school was well written. I could feel those emotions coming through the narrator well.

A couple issues I had were 1. why would a 16 year old be considered "sexiest poet" in a publication? That is so concerning. and 2. the cast of characters were very odd. I get that this school was full of incredibly intelligent children and also many rich kids but I just can't imagine there were that many people who talked and acted the way some of them did. Had this been maybe aged up to early college, I think both of my concerns may have not been as much of a problem.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

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

If you don’t know, I’m an anime girlie. I grew up with ridiculous shoujo anime and would eat it up as much as I could. This plays out like the queer shoujo anime I would have wanted to watch then I was that age. It’s ridiculous, funny, sweet, heartwarming, and just everything that makes me smile.

Charlie is someone you sympathize with from the beginning and I was rooting for him. He and Jasper have an annoyance to lovers plot line going on that got cuter and cuter as time went on. The members of STRIP were also just awesome friends. And Luis was really cool too. I loved seeing Charlie realize he had a place with them.

Page does such a great job of mixing humor with anime inspired shenanigans and trans experiences. I loved seeing reading his books and as always look forward to more of them!

I was drawn to this book initially because of the title. Those there for the Vine era, IYKYK. This story was quirky, silly, and nostalgic. It reminded me of high school crushes and the anxiety of being cool enough for said crush to like me back. But, in Charlie’s case, this anxiety is compounded by his recent transition and gender dysphoria.

There are several times throughout this story where Charlie is second guessing if he will be seen as a one of the guys. From his PE class to the STRIP meetings, he feels the pressure of being a teen in a high-achieving academy along with experiencing a boys locker room for the first time.

While his transition affirmed how he’d always felt, his acclimation to his new life presented an extra stressor. I found all of his friends (which he thought he would never have) are supportive of Charlie and like him just as he is. His found family only wished for him to be happy and no longer lovesick for Jasper Grimes.

I loved the parts with Blaze/Bingo; it brought an innocence to this pressure cooker of a high school. A part I was not fond of was Delilah’s comment about how Charlie's life “should be easier now” since he transitioned. While I understand she was upset about Charlie neglecting to ask about her life, it felt odd for the best friend of a trans person to say. But, I am happy their friendship survived in the end.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and would recommend it. I’d like to thank Macmillan’s Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC!

The beginning of this book really seemed like it was trying very hard to present itself as the happier, more queer, more trans-celebratory version of that one story with the awkward self-conscious boy with glasses and curly dark hair who falls for is rivals with the skinny blonde stuck-up full of himself guy who likes to throw his name around while they are forced to deal with each other in a castle-like boarding school that has quirky traditions and is run by unusual adults and uses ridiculous acronyms for any club, department or organization... you know the one in talking about. Or maybe I just read too much fanfiction as a young person who couldn't find queerness like I wanted to in traditional media.

Regardless if the similarities were intentional or not, the story definitely ended up taking on a life of its own. Though I do hope a little bit of parody was intentional here because it had me laughing from chapter one. Eventually though, I came to really enjoy the characters, the setting, the story, the queer experience at the heart of it all. And the exaggerated and ridiculous details that kept it all fun and light-hearted even while address the shame, fear, and trauma that can come with being a queer person or a person that's trying to pass in a cis-hetero-normative world.

So full points for fun, full points for characters and full points for still having a deep and meaningful theme.

Despite the humor and silliness of this story, the writing while still exceptional. It's not high literary or anything but it's also clearly not trying to be and to try to put "purple prose" into a story like this would ruin it. So I think Page Powars nailed the stylistic choices here. Thanks for giving something to binge and make me smile and never falter on anything awkward annoying or unnecessary in the writing.

And lastly, if there is some intentional parody here, kudos for shoving a little trans joy into the universe of she-who-must-not-be-named. I will always give extra bonus points out for that.

This was super cute and funny! A quick read chock full of so many feelings, fun and lovable characters, and a compelling story. This is the perfect kind of YA book that makes diverse reading accessible to so many people.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. I thought this one had an original plot and was excited to read about Charlie's adventures at Valentine and the shenanigans with Jasper.

Unfortunately, I am stopping at the 15% mark. For some reason, I am not vibing with Charlie at all. I don't understand how he could be the Excellence Scholar and (practically) a legacy - what with his mom going to the sister school - and still not know simple things like the fact that the school required first time students to take P.E. or that the students were ranked on a scale of 100. I just thought he'd know more about the school he spent so much time and effort trying to get into. This lack of research annoyed me.

Also, I understand that Charlie is getting used to his transition and finding the ways that he believes he should behave as a boy amongst all boys for the first time but that doesn't mean he gets to be a snob about the . He constantly points out the "rich-kid" behaviors when, as far as I read none of them were flaunting that supposed wealth. Bruh, you knew this was an elite, private academic establishment...what did you expect?

Sidenote: Maybe I didn't read far enough to understand the hate for Jasper but I was LOVING his energy for the bit that I read.

Two stars for a couple lines that made me chuckle and for Jasper's fun personality.

4 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC!

Publishers, stop comparing every MLM romance to RWRB: Impossible Mode.

Summary: On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned.

Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.

What I loved: Charlie! I loved Charlie. I loved how much he tried to make everyone happy but forgot that he was a person who needed things as well. He was so afraid to open up to people, only to find that if he cracked open the door, he had friends who would barge right through and love him. Xavier, my beloved.

What I didn't like: Honestly? Jasper. I feel like first-half-Jasper is so vastly different than second-half-Jasper that it's hard to remember they are the same person. One could make the argument that he was starting to realize OOPS I LIKE HIM and it made him confused and lashing out, but god he was insufferable. I could not imagine the two of them actually liking each other, even maybe 3/4 of the way through. I was honestly rooting more for Charlie and Xavier lol.

But all in all, I liked this book.

Thank you so much to Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book!

This book is such a silly and campy little love story and that’s really something I feel like we need more of. Originally, I was apprehensive with how silly the story it was. It felt like it wasn’t taking itself seriously, but after letting go of that weird idea that every queer book <i>has</i> to take itself seriously, I was actually able to enjoy this book for what it is.

Charlie is already nervous enough for the start of school. He’s a transfer student at The Valentine School for Boys. With his mother having gone to the sister school, he feels a building pressure to do well and, hiding the fact that he’s trans in order to protect himself from the school’s traditional values. This didn’t seem too difficult before arriving, but now he has a roommate. And not just any roommate. The only boy he’s ever kissed, before his transition of course, and also the boy who broke his heart. His saving grace? Jasper doesn’t even recognize him.

This book was honestly so enjoyable. I read it incredibly fast and loved it. There’s so much going on but it all manages to flow together. There are like four different plots going on but it never felt like any of them were being pushed below where they should’ve been on the priority list. The stakes were also never too high which made it a cozier book despite its chaos.

The characters in this book are also really goofy and memorable. There’s a 12 year old who calls himself “Blaze Alpha Destroyer (of Worlds)” and prepares for the day when the arachnids strike back. See what I mean about camp? He’s obviously one of the most notable, but there are so many other characters that help Charlie on this path to self-acceptance both academically and in his identity.

The romance is of course, silly, but it definitely felt real in a lot of ways. Charlie and Jasper are awkward teenagers and that really reflected in their miscommunication and just general awkwardness around each other. It was just super cute.

I will say, I wish this book had taken more of a literary lens. This is entirely personal opinion, but I feel like there was so much “focus”on poetry and literature, but none of those metaphors were continued or expanded upon. I would’ve loved to see more of Jasper’s poetry and honestly, Charlie’s too.

The only plot thing that was a little strange to me was Charlie and Jasper writing love letters for OTHER PEOPLE. Like oh my god go write your own love letters geez. It makes me feel bad for all of those girls that got letters and are suddenly like “why is my boyfriend not as affectionate as he was in his letter?”, but what can you do.

Anyway! I loved this book. It was so silly and helped to remind me that not everything has to be serious all the time. It’s okay to have a little fun.

Book was great! I jasper was quite annoying at first but then I got used to him. Although I loved how jasper just accepted Charlie so quickly.