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“After being dumped so his boyfriend can pursue more “serious” guys, a teen boy decides to prove he can be serious, too, by running for senior class president in this joyful romp from the author of The Sky Blues.

High school junior Blaine Bowers has it all—the perfect boyfriend, a pretty sweet gig as a muralist for local Windy City businesses, a loving family, and awesome, talented friends. And he is absolutely, 100% positive that aforementioned perfect boyfriend—​senior student council president and Mr. Popular of Wicker West High School, Joey—is going to invite Blaine to spend spring break with his family in beautiful, sunny Cabo San Lucas.

Except Joey breaks up with him instead. In public. On their one-year anniversary.

Because, according to Joey, Blaine is too goofy, too flighty, too…unserious. And if Joey wants to go far in life, he needs to start dating more serious guys. Guys like Zach Chesterton.

Determined to prove that Blaine can be what Joey wants, Blaine decides to enter the running to become his successor (and beat out Joey’s new boyfriend, Zach) as senior student council president.

But is he willing to sacrifice everything he loves about himself to do it?”

I got an ARC of this book.

Little behind in getting this one done, damn reading slump. I ended up getting a copy of the audiobook so I could listen while I was at work. The voice acting is wonderfully done. That is a solid plus for me in this book.

Overall, the book is eh. Nothing really exciting or noteworthy. There were some little plots that seemed really exciting, but then just sort of didn’t deliver for me. The plot with Blaine being selfish over his aunt could have been wonderful, but it wasn’t enough. Blaine had a job lead for her, but didn’t give it to her because he didn’t want her to leave. It was selfish. It was a wonderful idea. Spoilers ahead until the end of the paragraph. The issue I had is when this plot wasn’t the central plot, it just didn’t exist. Then there was the anti-climatic way it was handled. The aunt was just like “that’s fine” and moved on. Then the aunt got the job and got an apartment. It just felt thrown on since there were no complications or consequences to it.

The main plot of the election was ok. It never really felt like it was going to be earth shattering or anything. I was not surprised by anything that happened. It was such a gentle read. Nothing felt like it happened. There was no real drama or big romance. There wasn’t a ton to keep me reading, thankfully audiobooks just keep going even if you zone out for a few seconds. The story isn’t bad, but it isn’t amazing.

I did really enjoy that there was zero focus on homophobia, coming out, or any of the super basic plots that queer people are allowed to have. Instead, Blaine being queer is a non-issue. Even though this was not the amazing book I was hoping for, it was unique in just how light it was. The world needs more light books. There needs to be more books where a character being queer is not the focus, but a character trait. It was great to see Blaine just being Blaine instead of Blaine being GAY BLAINE. He has a life outside of being queer, he has an identity outside of being queer. Blaine was allowed to be a whole person. It was wonderful.

I want more books like this. I need more books like this. I want more Blaines. I want more guys who are arty, who have broken hearts, who make terrible decisions, but learn a lot about themselves trying to handle their bad decisions. Blaine is far from perfect, but he is a great guy. I wanted to hear his story, even though it wasn’t super exciting. It was wonderful.

The school mascot was the worst part of the book for me. Wizards? Seriously? I am glad it isn’t racist. It just made me laugh so hard. The wizard belt buckle just was a little out there and imaging politicians wearing it was great. So worst/best, hard call.

3 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book.

You can buy the book here.

~Isaiah

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