This was so silly and so camp! Was this life changing literature? No. But it was FUN, and I appreciated it. I did find this a little too juvenile for my personal tastes, even for YA. The characters all felt a little immature in the way they talked and acted. But I loved characters and I found the plot to be enjoyable. I laughed out loud multiple times, and I was really rooting for them from start to finish. This is great Queer and Trans representation.

I appreciated the effort that the narrator put into making difference voices for the characters, but the voice put on for Jasper really gave me the ick. It was giving like, Johnny Bravo or something and felt too pretentious and cartoonish that I started to grimace. Same happened with Blaze, but at least Blaze was meant to be a 12 year old with a crazy persona. Otherwise I enjoyed the pacing of the audiobook a lot.

Thank you NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for sending this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

4.5

Wholesome and beautiful, with all the angst.
This book is about love - all kinds of it. Romantical love, love for friends and what weight that can carry, love for oneself.
It is centred around poetry - literally and in a symbolic way - and somehow manages to capture the feeling of a heart wrenching poem.

Charlie and Jasper are such beautifully unique characters. orbiting around each other, unaware of the many layers they can't see. I loved how this book not only allowed me to watch them entangle from Charlie's perspective, but get an additional POV in the feedback from side character they reflect off.

It was as beautiful as it was intense to watch Charlie stumble his way through a maze of insecurities and challenges, teenage angst and the added layer that comes from being a trans boy at an overly traditional elite all boys school while trying to keep his story a secret.
The constant fear and restrictions, the tip-toeing around, trying not to be a burden, trying to stay out of the spotlight at all costs, hiding all that makes him him just to not be perceived and the loneliness and angst this comes with were so well captured while still claiming the lightheartedness of a coming-of-age high school romance. There is so much warmth in this And They Were Roommates.

I ravaged the audiobook in one go and enjoyed every sparkling and chaotic second of it. From beginning to end, I was so fully immersed in the story, the imagery and the emotions, not least due to the amazing job the narrator did. I could've remained in this story for much longer.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Page Powars for this ALC.

The narrator did a wonderful job!
This was a short and sweet book, it was a nice little romcom to break up some of my more heavier reads.

2.75 ⭐️

YA romances tend to be pretty hit or miss for me, and this fell somewhere in the middle. I received this book as advanced listener's copy, and I immediately sped through the first half. It was fun and fast, and ridiculous in the way all good romcoms are. Unfortunately, I started to lose energy with this book after the first half, and the more silly aspects started to feel like an obstacle for my really being able to get invested in the story and the characters.

Like many romcoms centered around school, this book requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief regarding the educational system. Putting the massive grade inflation aside, there's a huge emphasis put on class rank in this rank in this story, since Charlie's scholarship is dependent on it, but the only class we actually see Charlie struggle with is PE—genuinely so much time is spent discussing his PE grade. There has somehow been a century-long secret love note delivery program by the students with the academy's sister school, that no one in admin has ever caught onto. And the idea that the students at this prestigious boarding school are uniquely intelligent and scholarly, as opposed to incredibly privileged, is never really challenged in any meaningful way. Above all, the most absurd element of this book is that there are multiple famous sixteen-year-old poets known for their poems about love.

As silly of the premise of this book is, I'd hoped it would set up a fun story that still made room to dive into the characters and their relationships with some depth. As it went on though, it seemed to get more caught up with the cartoonish elements of the story. Jasper is introduced as this dramatic, desperate, almost Gaston-ish character, and I'd hoped to get to know him better, but we don't really see any break in this persona until the 90% mark. I'd hoped for Charlie and Jasper's history to be explored in a way that humanized the both of them, but it instead evolved into classic teen miscommunication drama. The rest of the tension of the story revolves around Charlie's intense insecurities both in his academic performance and his social life. Ultimately, the elements of the story this book focused on were just too young for me.

I did sincerely enjoy the first half of this book, and I think it'll work really well for some readers prepared for a silly outrageous time. Unfortunately, it just didn't have the pay-off I wanted.

📖 Bookish Moments:
This book is absolutely ADORABLE! MY Charlie!! He’s such a sweetheart—tender, anxious, and trying so hard to hold it all together. Being the only trans student at this elite, ultra-rigid school is already stressful enough… but add being a scholarship kid who has to keep his grades up? My heart was aching for him. And then the poor boy ends up rooming with his summer fling Jasper—who only knew him pre-transition. The tension!! The anxiety!! I wanted to wrap him in a blanket and protect him.

Now listen… Jasper was a whole damn vibe. He’s a hopeless flirt who has a way with words! His underground love letter schemes and antics had me dying laughing. Absolutely loved him!

I absolutely loved both MMCs and the book!

❤️Read if you love:
Trans MC rep
Forced proximity
Roommate drama
Second chance romance
Boarding school
Love Letter writing
Queer romance

📖 Final Score: 4.5 Stars
🎧 Audio Score: 5 Stars
🎙️ Narration Style: Solo

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy. All thoughts are my own.

Releases May 27, 2025

3.5 rounded up!!!

this book was really adorable over all, i had a fun time with it and thats mostly due to following along with charlie’s adventures and mishaps!! i went into this book knowing nothing but it being YA & that it had an adorable cover and i was SO excited to find out that charlie was trans!!! it made this story an even lovelier coming of age.

i absolutely adored all of the side characters, every one had such fun personalities and i loved that they just took charlie under their wings even though he was persistent about not letting it happen. unfortunately i was not the biggest fan of jaspers for the majority of the book BUT he did start to grow on me towards the end finally.

my biggest hang ups toward this book were 1) the love letter plot, it felt very chaotic and didnt truly make too much sense to me in the grand scheme of things. i really could have done without it to be honest 😅 and 2) i do fully understand this is YA but it felt a little TOO juvenile in a lot of areas and other areas they seemed to randomly become functioning adults with formed frontal lobes lol so it was just like this weird whiplash of over dramatic immaturity to a profoundly mature response.

those things were kind of big so thats where my rating drops but over all i did have a wonderful time with charlie’s story!! i loved how everything worked out for him in the end 🥹