jamgrl's Reviews (197)

This is a very fun, lighthearted, magical romance! I honestly don’t have much to say about this other than it was cute and I liked it.

Obviously, I picked this up because I adored the Netflix series!! The Netflix show added a lot of plot and new characters, but it was still super nice to engage with the source material! It is very sweet and the art style is very soft, with light watercolor like color. The faces are so cute and expressive! It is also a very quick read, so something to lift your mood ☺️. The characters are characterized a bit differently from the show, so that could feel a bit odd if you are coming from it, but the heart is much the same (and some of the scenes are pretty identical!). 

I loved this installment even more than the first!! It was a complete pleasure to see Bitty to come into his own as a leader in his Bitty way, to see our other characters move into new stages of life, and to see new students to come in, as is the cycle of college. (These books really make me so nostalgic for college days 😭.)

Jack and Bitty’s relationship throughout this book is really wholesome. They are very supportive of each other and it is really wonderful to see them work together to decide when and how they will tell who about them and to see them support each other when they are each having a hard time! And of course it is really satisfying to see how Jack’s coworkers and family love Bitty and Bitty’s family loves Jack.

Not that it is all easy! Bitty’s interactions with his parents in this are so real- like I have had these conversations. And Jack and Bitty each dealing with the media and new attention feels very true to the mixed bag of pressure and positivity and negativity coming out can have. I don’t know if this author is queer, but I feel they *must* be based on how real all of this feels.

I do wish we could have seen Jack grappling a little more with the media attention/we could have seen him talking to Bitty about how he feels (his sexuality is also, sadly, vague- like based on his dating history, he seems bi, but he never says it or corrects anyone assuming his gayness, so that’s a little disappointing for this bi, but you can’t win them all, I guess). 

I also struggle with the end… I’m so sorry, I am just too practical to get on board with a certain aspect of the ending 😅 (I would have loved it if there had been a 1-2 year time gap, but I understand how that wouldn’t make sense. I’m trying to come to peace with it so I can enjoy what is a very sweet and wholesome ending.)

All that being said, I JUST LOVE THIS SERIES. I freaking love Lardo and Shitty, they are both my faves, and honestly everyone, including Jack’s supportive agent (?) and the Falconers and Bitty’s mom and the infamous jam feud with Aunt Judy 😂.

This gives me such college nostalgia! A really fun and lighthearted read with a hint of *drama* sprinkled in, but mostly sweet college bonding. The various characters are quirky and fun!

The like the vlog theme and the art is really cute and enjoyable to look at. The book includes pages of tweets at the end which are really funny and add a lot to the story.

It does not have as much romance as I expected (it being labeled “romance”); it is mostly friendship and college shenanigans, with some light pining and hints of romantic gestures. We also get a bit of emotional backstory from our love interest throughout. It ends on a CLIFFHANGER, so I am excited to start book 2 and to finally dig in to the romance! 

This is such a beautiful continuation of the first book. We get to see Ari really come into his own in all of his relationships- learning how to forge deep friendships and connecting deeply with his parents. We see him grapple with his identity and what it means to walk the world as a gay man, all with the backdrop of coming of age during the height of the AIDS pandemic. We also see him navigate school and teachers and think deeply about race and racism. We see him thinking about what kind of man, and what kind of teenager, he wants to be. Thinking about how he wants to build up and support others. About what it means to build community. This book is full of supportive adults giving out their wisdom and a lot of love and heart. I didn’t think that the first book needed anything more, but this book was just as beautiful, if not more beautiful than the first one. Complete with swoon-worthy romance!

This book was really ambitious and I applaud the author for trying to grapple with difficult subjects. For me, it missed the mark. 

It has a strong start with a mysterious build up, but the middle feels aimless- Wendy keeps saying that she is determined to find her brothers, but when Peter gets distracted  every 5 minutes and wants to do something else, Wendy barely argues, which feels very odd. I understand that the goal was to have bonding scenes between them to build romantic tension, but they felt like they were just plugged in without clear in-story reasons. 

The writing style is also not my favorite- there is a lot of exposition and a certain lack of subtlety. I think the twist at the end it really interesting; I wonder if there had been some unexplained hints sprinkled earlier if it would have hit harder- like, I love a scene that leaves you going “what is going on???” that later makes sense when the twist is revealed, making you have to go back! This book wants to make sure you know what is going on a little too often for my taste. There is some mystery, I just think it would have been better if the mystery had been amped up. 

The villain is pretty bland, as is the romance.  I do like Wendy and her grappling with anxiety and grief. However, I think that where her emotions were most important (the climax/resolution) there was not enough focus on them. Wendy tells the reader what she thinks, but it does not feel backed up with emotion.

Overall, I think there are a lot of good ideas in this book and maybe a YA audience would appreciate it more than this old lady.

This was cute and fun and David Tennant’s reading is excellent. I am a fan of the films and this is very different, though it was fun to find some of the seeds that inspired the films. A good one to keep on the back burner for a road trip with kids.