Will Tavares is the dream summer fling—he’s fun, affectionate, kind—but just when Ollie thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairytale ending, and to complicate the fairytale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it’s the same school Will goes to…except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted—and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts “coincidentally” popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again. Right? Right.
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Musically inclined Ollie spends his last year of high school in a new town, watching his beloved aunt die. Oh, and being madly in love with Will, the basketball player he met during the summer who, it turns out, is so deeply closeted that Ollie begins to hate him. As the school year unfolds, Ollie gains true friends, wrestles with understanding Will’s trepidations about coming out, and discovers dimensions of his own as he experiences the ways those closest to him handle anxiety, as well as his own reaction to his aunt’s death. Gonzales turns in a witty, smart, credible, and irreverent contemporary romance that handles all these elements skillfully and with heart. The characters, including Ollie’s new besties—moderately mean bisexual Lara, quiet but focused Niahm, and boisterous Juliette—and his aunt’s two small kids, have their own authentic personalities, and the pace is swift without skipping any essential beats that reveal the rhythms of their intersecting and realistic lives. The power of this fun Grease retelling is that it normalizes the spectrum of sexual orientations. Recommended for all teens.
Gr 8 Up-Musically inclined Ollie spends his last year of high school in a new town, watching his beloved aunt die. Oh, and being madly in love with Will, the basketball player he met during the summer who, it turns out, is so deeply closeted that Ollie begins to hate him. As the school year unfolds, Ollie gains true friends, wrestles with understanding Will's trepidations about coming out, and discovers dimensions of his own as he experiences the ways those closest to him handle anxiety, as well as his own reaction to his aunt's death. Gonzales turns in a witty, smart, credible, and irreverent contemporary romance that handles all these elements skillfully and with heart. The characters, including Ollie's new besties-moderately mean bisexual Lara, quiet but focused Niahm, and boisterous Juliette-and his aunt's two small kids, have their own authentic personalities, and the pace is swift without skipping any essential beats that reveal the rhythms of their intersecting and realistic lives. VERDICT The power of this fun Grease retelling is that it normalizes the spectrum of sexual orientations. Recommended for all teens.-Francisca Goldsmith, Library Ronin, Worcester, MA?(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.