Will these long-lost twin princes be able to take on high school, coming out, and coronations together—or will this royal reunion quickly become a royal mess?

Edward Dinnissen, Crown Prince of Canada, loves getting the royal treatment at his exclusive Manhattan private school and living in a fancy mansion on Park Avenue. But despite living a royal life of luxury, Edward is unsure how to tell his parents, his expectant country, and his adoring fans that he’s gay.

Billy Boone couldn’t be happier: he loves small-town life and his family’s Montana ranch, and his boyfriend is the cutest guy at Little Timber High. But this out-and-proud cowboy is finally admitting to himself that he feels destined for more . . .

When Edward and Billy meet by chance in New York City and discover that they are long-lost twins, their lives are forever changed. Will the twin princes—“twinces”— be able to take on high school, coming out, and coronations together? Or will this royal reunion quickly become a royal disaster?

Review

This book was so much fun! I love stories about unknown twins reuniting, and this one did not disappoint, especially given that it follows two gay twins. The story itself is rife with hijinks, high drama, coming-out angst, romance, royal intrigue, public humiliation, jealousy, and sabotage, which kept me glued to my kindle throughout the book. I enjoyed how the story is told via each twin’s POV, so we get to see the situation from each of their perspectives, rendering each of them relatable to the reader.

I loved how realistic all of the characters were. But what I most enjoyed was the outrageous silliness, resulting in plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for me. The two protagonists each take a delightful journey, resulting in superb character arcs and personal growth that is near-inspirational. I quickly fell in love with both of the quirky, vibrant, and sometimes sullen and confused main characters and enjoyed their moments of self-discovery. I also enjoyed how the tone shifts from light to dark, snarky to serious, happy to sad, and back again.

I was in a bit of a reading slump, and this was the perfect feel-good story to pull me out of it. Snappy dialog, stellar worldbuilding, sweet and relatable characters, hidden family secrets, and a touch of romance make A Tale of Two Princes a standout. I legit had a huge smile on my face from start to finish as I worked my way through this engaging book, and it stole my heart.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

When their now famous ex-boyfriend asks them to participate in a teen reality show, two eighteen year old girls—one bent on revenge, the other open to rekindling romance—get tangled up in an unexpected twist when they fall for each other instead in Never Ever Getting Back Together by nationally and internationally-bestselling and Indie Next Pick author Sophie Gonzales.

It’s been two years since Maya’s ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart.

Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling.

When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes— to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.

Review

Holy. Freaking. Moly. I loved this book! Initially, I was a bit leery of this one because I’m not particularly a fan of reality TV shows. But despite that, I adored this sapphic rom-com/revenge story and had so much fun reading it. It was an enjoyable, humorous, somewhat cheesy feel-good romance that was populated with an amazing cast of characters, each brimming with personality. I loved the distinct multi-layered traits of each of the girls in the show, especially those of our two heroines, who start out by being bitter enemies and end up in love. This is a novel full of fascinating multidimensional characters, starting, of course, with Maya, the funny, snarky, and independent heroine hellbent on revenge. And as icing on the cake, Gonzales gives us Jordy, a vile villain whose interactions with the girls are super cringy and often loathsome.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the way Sophie Gonzales developed the dramatic storyline by slowly weaving together various strands of intrigue, thus bringing all of the characters closer to each other. I especially enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at a reality TV show, complete with its manufactured emotions, fake lines, and scripted scenes (including numerous retakes, when necessary). The author gives us not only a peek into the filming itself but also a compelling glimpse into the lives of the camera crew. In this way, the reality TV aspect of the story felt quite realistic and evocative, and it felt as if I were there witnessing the entire thing.

While the novel doesn’t hold any big plot surprises or weird twists, but it made me smile —and even laugh a time or two — and leave me with a happy feeling right in the middle of my belly. If you’re up for an enemies-to-lovers sapphic rom-com with a revenge subplot and plenty of hijinks and chaos, then you’ll definitely want to check out Never Ever Getting Back Together. Recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

A contemporary YA romance with a paranormal twist: what happens when in between trying to decide which boy is the right boy, a girl finds out the funeral home her family owns might be haunted?

Elaine’s home is a bit . . . different. It’s a funeral home that has been in her family since the 1800s–and it’s why everyone calls her Funeral Girl. And even though she’s lived there her whole life, there are still secrets to be found.

When Xander, a cute new boy with a penchant for ghost hunting, arrives in town, Elaine feels an instant spark. His daring and spontaneous ways help her go from Funeral Girl to Fun Girl. Then there’s Miles, Elaine’s oldest friend, who she’s starting to see in a completely new light.

After Xander convinces her to stage a seance one night, Elaine discovers that her home might be haunted by a kindred spirit–the daughter of the funeral home’s original owner. But who wants to be haunted by the dead when there are boys to spend time with? After all, you only live once. . . .

Review:

This book’s blurb captured my attention right away: a girl who works at a haunted funeral home and captures the interest of a young ghost hunter? Count me in!

Grave Things Like Love is aYA romance novel with just a touch of the paranormal that follows Elaine (aka “Funeral Girl”), who is expected to take over the family funeral business from her parents. She’s not too keen on the idea but has resigned herself to having her future planned out for her. Things change, however, when a young man named Xander comes into town — an intense and attractive boy who is determined to make a name for himself as a ghost hunter. Elaine attracts his attention, and the two begin spending more and more time together, much to the chagrin of her best friend, Miles and her parents.

Now, if you’re going into this expecting a straight-up ghost story, you might be disappointed. The actual ghost encounters play only a small part in the plot. Instead, the story mainly explores Elaine as she begins to discover who she is and who she wants to be and, through Xander’s influence, realizes that she does have choices and can make her own life decisions, even if it means stepping away from her family. All of this, combined with Elaine’s dating dilemmas, lead to quite a bit of high drama. In fact, after a series of bad decisions, Elaine ends up in quite a bit of hot water and soon finds herself in over her head.

Let me also mention that there’s also a bit of a love triangle in the story. Now, typically, I’m not a fan of this plot device, but it was handled exceptionally well in the novel, and I didn’t mind it here at all.

All in all, Grave Things Like Love was a cute YA contemporary with just a whisper of the paranormal. I thought the author did a fantastic job weaving through the intricacies of family expectations, leading to a fun, engaging story with a fair amount of angst. I also enjoyed the tantalizing glimpse into the everyday life of funeral directors, which added an extra compelling element to the story. Recommended!

College law student, Connor, is a bit pretentious, high-strung and what some might describe as being cold as ice. After catching his boyfriend cheating on him and then being dumped, Connor decides to take his best friend Byron up on his offer for a summer gaycation experience to Fire Island.

While at Fire Island, Connor reevaluates his identity and goes through a deep soul searching experience to truly understand himself. While on vacation, he befriends a stranger named Lawrence, who encourages Connor to open up more and become lively. Lawrence proposes that Connor completes a series of wild, fun tasks, which he dubs as the Fire Island Ice Queen Challenge to get Connor to come out of his shell more. Will this frivolous and boisterous vacation at Fire Island be enough to melt the heart of this Ice Queen?

Review

What a delightful story of self-discovery! The story follows Connor who is a tad stuck up and a bit of a prude, who catches his boyfriend Derrick cheating on him. Connor is then subsequently dumped by the cheating jerk. When Connor’s friends offer to take him to Fire Island to help him forget his woes and speed up the healing process, he agrees. There, he examines his identity and decides he’s not completely happy with how other people see him. So he embarks on a quest to open up more and enjoy life — and to prove to himself that he isn’t the person that others see him as.

I loved how Connor’s character grew throughout the story as he began to discover who he was — and what better place to do it than Fire island? In fact, I thought the book also really captured the magic of Fire Island, which I appreciated. There were plenty of zany antics and witty banter in the story which were a lot of fun, and I caught myself smiling and chuckling on more than one occasion.

I loved the idea of Connor finding himself with the help of someone who sees through Connor’s “icy” facade, and I enjoyed traveling with Connor as he began to open up and blossom.

All in all, this ended up being a sweet and sexy heart-tugger of a love story that I really enjoyed. The fast-paced plot makes for an engaging read, and from the very first chapter, I was fully immersed in the narrative. If you like witty banter and wild, rollicking shenanigans, this is the book for you.

A huge thank you to BookSirens for providing a review copy of this book.

Purchase Fire Island Ice Queen from Amazon

Blurb

A delicious story from a new voice in suspense, Lev AC Rosen’s Lavender House is Knives Out with a queer historical twist.

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret—but it’s not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they’ve needed to keep others out. And now they’re worried they’re keeping a murderer in.

Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept—his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.

Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He’s seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn’t extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy—and Irene’s death is only the beginning.

When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.

Review

Part cozy mystery, part hard-hitting historical fiction, Lavender House was a gripping story with a group of fascinating characters. The story takes place in the Bay area in 1952 and follows our main character Andy, a disgraced police officer who was fired after being caught in a raid of a gay club. He’s approached by Pearl Lamontaine, a wealthy and mysterious widow who asks him to figure out who murdered her wife. He agrees and is then brought to Lavender House, where he meets the rest of a created family of LGBT people:

• Pearl, the widow
• Pearl’s son Henry
• Henry’s partner, Cliff
• Henry’s wife, Margo (they married only for appearance)
• Margo’s partner, Elise
• Margo’s mother, Alice (the only straight person in the household)

What’s interesting about the novel is that it takes place during a time when it is quite dangerous to be queer, as we see firsthand during a particularly disturbing scene of violence in the story (consider yourself warned). Because of this, we see some of the impossible choices some of the characters are called on to make in order to protect themselves, their identity, and their loved ones. The story illustrated nicely how one false step can cause you to lose everything: your money, your home, your social standing, and even your life.

Aside from the hard-hitting theme of the difficulty of being queer in the 50s, Rosen also gives us a fun ‘whodunnit’ with plenty of red herrings to throw us off the scent of the true killer. It was fun journeying along with Andy as we discover each character’s possible motives as well as their own struggles with being queer in an unaccepting world. I loved this mismatched group of characters and enjoyed getting to know all of their quirks and idiosyncrasies as the story unraveled. These dynamic characters are beautifully complex, empathetic, and wonderfully rendered and the author really brought them to life in the narrative.

While on the surface, Lavender House is a cozy mystery, there’s real depth to the story, which delves into themes of acceptance, loneliness, homophobia, fear, false appearances, queer love, and found family. Though the story is tough to read in places, the seriousness is balanced by witty banter and several laugh-out-loud moments.

All in all, Lavender House is a well-crafted tale with compelling and vivid characters as well as a compelling mystery to solve. Recommended!

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this book.

A sparkling queer YA romance set in Brisbane, Henry Hamlet’s Heart follows one guy and his sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking journey to love.

Henry Hamlet doesn’t know what he wants after school ends. It’s his last semester of year twelve and all he’s sure of is his uncanny ability to make situations awkward. Luckily, he can always hide behind his enigmatic best friend, Len. They’ve been friends since forever, but where Len is mysterious, Henry is clumsy; where Len is a heart-throb, Henry is a neurotic mess. Somehow it’s always worked.

That is, until Henry falls. Hard. For the last person, he imagined.

From an exciting debut author comes this passionate story of growing up, letting go, and learning how to love.

Review

Half love story, half identity quest, Henry Hamlet’s Heart is a beautifully rendered YA contemporary story of friendship and love, with all of its frustrations, clumsy pining, exhalations, disappointments, and mistakes. I thought this was such an interesting take on the friends-to-lovers trope in which Henry, after being dared to kiss his best friend Len, is suddenly overwhelmed by confusing feelings of wanting and longing for Len. This leads to a fascinating dynamic between the two friends as they try to figure out their feelings, navigate this new sexual attraction between them and figure out what it all means for their friendship. I thought that the story really encapsulated the teenage soul: the self-awareness, the confusion, and the longing. It nicely illustrated how tumultuous first love and raging teenage hormones can be. Additionally, it’s also a love letter to anyone who has felt uncomfortable in their own skin and is unsure of who they are or where they belong.

Additionally, there were lovely relationship dynamics between Henry and his family, as well as Henry and his friends. And while this is a tender and honest exploration of identity and sexuality, it’s also a reminder that love—whether romantic or familial—should be open, free, and without judgment or shame. I loved how loving, and supportive Henry’s family is, and the excitement surrounding the wedding between Henry’s grandmother and her girlfriend Daisy warmed my heart. And readers who like a little messy YA romance will definitely get that in spades — Henry and Len’s interactions are funny, awkward, and sometimes exactly as confrontational as they need to be, leading to a wonderful heart-tugger of a story.

Though at first, it appears as though this novel is simply a fluffy, lighthearted contemporary, there are several serious themes that run throughout the book: friendship, first love, heartbreak, self-discovery, self-acceptance, horrible parenting, and the importance of family. I also enjoyed the low-key themes of art that were at the core of the story.

All in all, I adored this quirky story that contained all of my favorite things: friends-to-loves, mutual pining, witty banter, a supportive family, and wonderful side characters. Recommended!

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

England, fall 1993. Sent against his will, Owen Appletoff arrives at Little Rock boarding school from his hometown of San Diego. Within its high walls awaits Taylor, his handsome golden-haired roommate, with whom a strong friendship quickly blossoms. Meanwhile, Daniel, the sexy school bully, lends a watchful eye to the school’s newest arrival. As the days go by, any harmony Owen sought is torn apart by the strange visions haunting his dreams. The kelpie, a spirit of ancient Celtic legend, has marked him out as a target. In a school where things are not quite as they first appear and everyone seems to be hiding something, Owen, Taylor, and Daniel must put aside their differences to unravel the mysteries of Little Rock.

Review

Full of dark menace and sinister undertones, Little Rock takes place in 1993 and follows Owen Appleton, a new student at a boarding school who is attending against his will. He is, as of yet, confused about his sexuality and finds himself developing romantic feelings for his roommate, Daniel. To add to his confusion, he’s also sexually attracted to the school bully/bad boy Daniel and begins developing romantic feelings for him as well. Normally, I’m not a fan of love triangles, but I enjoyed the way the author handled it in this novel. I soon found myself rooting for the boy I hoped Daniel would choose.

But alas, Little Rock is not solely about a boy falling in love. Daniel soon begins to have nightmares and even visions about a Kelpie, a shape-changing aquatic spirit of Scottish Legend, often in the shape of a horse or with the skull of a horse. The spirit is said to haunt rivers and streams. Daniel soon hears murmurs about a student who had drowned in the lake the year prior, and many say it was a Kelpie that killed him. As Daniel’s nightmares intensify, he is certain that the Kelpie is now targeting him and that perhaps his days are numbered.

This was the first story I’ve ever read that featured a Kelpie, and I feel this really added a compelling element to the narrative. In this way, the author takes the fantasy genre and turns it into something interesting and new — at least, for me. I loved how the author ratchets up the menace, as the narrative turns a bit dark, with an overall sense of foreboding, hints of menace, and a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

In telling the story, the author touches on some tough themes, such as bullying, abuse, murder, and more, though the author handles them with sensitivity. I enjoyed journeying with Daniel, Owen, and Taylor as they navigate a dark and twisting path, investigating old Celtic legends and unearthing dark secrets about their school. All three characters were distinct in their own ways, and I loved seeing their relationships play out on the page.

Let me also add that the original version of this book was much more graphic and much darker than this latest version. The author informed me that he had made some significant updates to the story and had removed the most disturbing sections of it. Thus, you may read earlier reviews that speak of these now absent scenes. Though the story in its current form does touch upon some dark topics, there are no gruesome, gory, or especially disturbing explicit scenes (or at least from my perspective).

All in all, I really enjoyed this unique story. It was heartbreaking in places, a tad disturbing but ultimately hopeful. I like how the tension, drama, and surprising denouement bring this unorthodox novel home to a pretty compelling and satisfying conclusion, and though the story takes place in 1993, I enjoyed how the flowing prose added a gothic, old-timey feel to it. Recommended!

A huge thank you to Álex Beltrán and BookSirens for providing me with a review copy of this book.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Review

Mad Honey is a collaboration between Jodi Picoult, an author whose books I’ve read and loved, and Jennifer Finney Boylan, a new author for me. They each took turns writing chapters, and it was impossible for me to tell whose writing was whom’s.

The story follows Olivia McAfee, a beekeeper who fell in love with and married a cardiac surgeon. But her dream becomes a nightmare when he husband reveals his dark side, so she flees with her son Asher to begin a new life. Years later, Asher, now in high school, begins dating Lily Campanella, a young woman who has recently moved into town with her mother. Lily has had quite a tough life up to this point, but now that she’s met Asher, she feels truly happy. Then, Olivia received a phone call from Asher: Lily has been murdered, and Asher is being questioned by police. As the story progresses, Olivia begins to fear that perhaps Asher is more like his father than she had thought. What follows is a compelling and compulsive murder mystery as two lives are closely examined, and painful secrets are revealed.

Mad Honey is told in alternating POVs and a non-linear timeline by Olivia and Lily. The format works perfectly, and I enjoyed how the story unravels slowly, a little at a time, from each of their perspectives. As we near the center of the novel, what starts out as a basic murder mystery (or so we think) switches into something else entirely — something much deeper and more complex. It transforms into a mysterious, deep, haunting story because, at its core, this novel is about identity, abuse, self-acceptance, intolerance, toxic relationships, and trust. That being said, it’s gut-wrenching at times as the book does delve into some pretty tough topics, but they are handled sensitively and compassionately by the authors. There is a deeper story within these pages, and part of the book speaks to the divisiveness of the world we live in and how, even in these “modern times,” small-minded views continue to exist and thrive.

Additionally, Mad Honey is a novel full of fascinating multidimensional characters. All of them, even the secondary ones, feel real and whole. None of them comes off as mere caricatures or types but are complex and well thought out. What was also impressive was the amount of meticulous research the authors must have done to write this story. I learned a lot about several things from this novel but to say any more about that would lead into spoiler territory.

All in all, I can’t begin to express how much I loved this book. Mad Honey is a cleverly layered, thought-provoking, heartbreaking page-turner by two talented authors that kept me guessing from the very first page and, ultimately, left me shocked, surprised, and thoroughly satisfied when it was over. A brilliant collaboration that gets all the stars from me.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine books for providing me with a review copy of this novel.

Phoenix, May 6, 1946

At close to midnight in the Union Station baggage room, the air is hot, still, and thick. The eleven forty-five Golden State Limited to Los Angeles is approaching rapidly when the baggage handler, Alfred Brody, notices a stray hound dog sniffing around one of the steamer trunks. The horrific discovery of a body inside the trunk can mean only one thing: there’s a murderer among them.

The young woman was certainly murdered, but who did it, and why? Suspects and motives abound as Private Detective Mason Adler investigates. He soon realizes that nothing, and no one, are what they seem to be as he races to uncover the truth and bring the real murderer to justice without becoming the next victim.

Review

This was the third novel by David S. Pederson. Unlike the other two I read, which featured Heath Barrington as the main character, the protagonist in this novel is Private Detective Mason Adler, a 50-year-old gay detective. The story takes place in 1946 in Phoenix, AZ, where the dead body of a woman is discovered in a trunk at Union Station. What’s interesting about this tale is that it’s inspired by a real-life murder in 1931.

In Murder at Union Station, Mason is hired to investigate the woman’s murder, and we travel with him as he interviews the various witnesses and suspects, trying to piece together the last hours of the woman’s life. The story is full of engaging, lively characters such as his sassy next-door neighbor Lydia and the flamboyant Walter as well Emil, the by-the-book police chief with whom Mason has an interesting — and somewhat contentious — working relationship. There was plenty of comical, witty banter between the characters, which lent a fun touch to the story. I also enjoyed the diversity in the novel, which one doesn’t always find in historical fiction: Mason and his friend Walter were both gay, two of the women in the story were a lesbian couple, the porter who transported the body to the station was a Black man, and one of the suspects was neurodiverse.

It was a lot of fun to unravel the mystery of what happened to the poor woman in the trunk as Mason gathered a plethora of clues from the colorful witnesses. Murder at Union Station is well-written, suspenseful, and smoothly plotted, and it kept me guessing until the big denouement at the end. It’s a fast, enjoyable cozy mystery that I enjoyed. I look forward to reading the first book in the Mason Adler series — Murder on Monte Vista. Recommended!

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

Purchase Murder at Union Station from Amazon

What if you were a queer teenage musician outed by his vengeful ex-boyfriend and not a fairy tale princess trapped in a castle tower? What if your wicked stepmother was your ordinary, thoughtless, uncaring mother? What if your fairy godmother was your older brother? What if your Prince Charming was captain of the JV soccer team? Maybe you’d be forgiven for not realizing you were living in a sort of fairy tale.

Faced with the impossible choice of staying home to risk being sent away to Father Sullivan’s special school for exceptionally happy boys or moving in with his older brother in California, 16-yr-old Jack Martin leaves behind everything he knows in Minneapolis to go to San Francisco. He finds himself at a new school with new friends and the freedom to be himself. Then sparks fly when Jack meets Damon, his Geometry tutor (and captain of the JV soccer team.) But Jack wonders if Damon feels those sparks, too. And does their budding friendship have a chance to become something more?

Jack’s On Fire is a heartwarming, modern, queer fairy tale about friendship, chosen family, and young, queer love perfect for fans of Heartstopper. Sure, there aren’t any fairies or wands. But what else would you call it when everything starts magically going your way?

Review

Jack’s on Fire centers on sixteen-year-old Jack Martin (pronounced “mar-teen”), a young musician who ends up being outed by his vengeful ex, resulting in extreme homophobic bullying and abuse at his high school. It doesn’t help that his mother — a bigoted and religious zealot — is threatening to send Jack to a “correction camp.”

Thankfully, Jack’s older brother, who lives in San Francisco, offers to take Jack in, and suddenly Jack finds himself in a new environment where he’s free to be himself and doesn’t have to constantly look over his shoulder. What follows is a delightful story as Jack finds himself falling for Damon, his heartthrob math tutor. The question is: Does Damon feel the same, or is he simply being friendly?

This ended up being such a sweet and endearing queer young adult romance that utterly warmed my heart. The narrative is lighthearted, including an ensemble cast of delightful characters who end up being an essential support group for Jack, including his loving older brother, who supports Jack every step of the way. The souls of the supporting characters beam through like a bright light that zinged straight to my heart.

I loved watching Jack’s journey as he moves from an abusive environment to a free and open one and how he utterly blossomed at his new school. I enjoyed watching Jack as he learned to trust others again after being treated so poorly by everyone in his past.

Now, if you typically go for books with high angst, high tension, and plenty of drama, you might be disappointed with Jack’s on Fire. Though there is light angst throughout and certainly some difficulties to overcome, most of the drama is internal, leading to a sweet, gentle slow-burn of a story rather than a high-stakes one. I personally thought it was refreshing and had just enough angst to make me happy without shattering my heart into a million pieces — it’s the perfect story if you’re looking for a sweet and tender romance.

I felt that the author Owen Lach really nails the teenage soul in this story—the self-awareness, the confusion, the challenges, the raging emotions, and the longing. In this way, Jack’s on Fire is a love letter to anyone who has felt uncomfortable in their own skin and wondered where exactly they belonged in the world. This quirky, heartwarming queer romance will make you believe in love again

All in all, I loved this big-hearted novel and look forward to reading more by this author.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.