Thanks to Riverhead Books for the free advance copy of this book. 

Big Burr, Kansas, is a small town proud of their family values. But when a national LGBT nonprofit pinpoints them as the most homophobic town in America and sends a task force to begin changing hearts and minds, no one is quite ready for what happens next. 

UNDER THE RAINBOW is sharp, funny, and heartfelt. I worried that this premise might mean a book full of character stereotypes, and while some minor characters certainly are, Laskey manages to bring an impressive breadth and depth of experiences to this fairly short book. We see the upheaval from so many points of view, both from locals and from task force members, and no two stories are the same. 

I also appreciated that while the book did end on a warm, changed-life note, it wasn't a sappy "now everyone in town is liberal and open minded" story. Throughout the book it all still felt pretty real, with some folks remaining stubbornly hateful. That didn't keep the book from being funny, though, which was quite the balancing act.