This book! Funny, sweet, fun, (set in a THEME PARK, hi, the best setting ever). I dare you to read this without cracking up laughing every couple of pages. This is one of the voiciest books I've read in recent years! Lou is hilarious, and charismatic, and totally relatable.

Is she manipulative? Yup! And I kind of love that about her? It's so real. Why should it only be the pure, selfless, thoughtful, wise people who get their own stories? In Hot Dog girl Lou gets to be a little messy, get in over her head, make mistakes, learn from them, try to fix things and make them worse instead, and you'll have the best time following her as she tries to dig herself out of a pit with a shovel. I love her because when I was a teenager, I did ridiculous things when I was in love sometimes too.

Plus, can we all cheer for a healthy love interest who cares about the MC, doesn't play games and wouldn't hurt them? This is the kind of rep we need!

Not only that, but the secondary characters are fantastic. Every one has a distinct personality, and motivation, and you'll find yourself even adoring the 'villains'. This is a book where the good guys do some bad things for good reasons, and the bad guys do bad things for reasons you do really understand, and everyone is just trying their HARDEST and I love them all SO MUCH.

You need this on your tbr, the end.

Also, the author has a very cute lizard for a pet, and all proceeds from this book go towards lizard costumes*

*Unconfirmed, but probable

3.5 stars. This looks like a really fun and fluffy YA summer romance, but believe me when I tell you that it’s more of a soap opera… at an amusement park.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was entertaining and I would definitely recommend it to those who enjoy dramatic characters and scenarios as well as reading about different relationships blossoming and dying.

Just be aware that it’s not exactly a ha-ha book. The heroine is engaging and sarcastic and super straight-forward so I was bound to enjoy her thoughts and super awkward moments, but I can one hundred percent see why she would drive other readers crazy.

The storyline revolves around the fact that the Magic Castle Playland is closing at the end of the summer, so the heroine has taken upon herself the responsibility of saving the park and is trying to recruit others to her mission.

But really it’s a character-driven story. Lou has a crush on Nick who has a princess for a girlfriend who may or may not have a secret that Lou may or may not try to figure out while being told by her best friend she should stay out of it but is there something more going on with Seeley herself?

There is a lot going on, which makes this a fast-paced and entertaining story. Of course, Lou’s straight-forwardness causes conflict and will irk many, but I personally found this to be a worthwhile read and I’m glad to see one more LGBTQIA+ book on the shelves hihi :)

Crap crap crap crap. <-- what was running through my head the further into this I got as I realized this book was not working for me or what I thought it would be

I wanted to love this. From the moment I saw the title and the cover, I wanted to love this so much. It seemed quirky and fun and cute and I wanted it in my face so I could make heart-eyes at it forever. But.

Other than having a bisexual main character, there was.. like.. nothing else I liked? I loathed the myriad of stupid scheming Lou concocted, all of which she roped in or forced her BFF to carry out, I hated the underhanded and really icky ulterior motives in the whole romantic plot that drove the majority of the story, and overall I just found pretty much all the people in the friend group really unlikeable. Or at least not people I could root for. Only the oblivious crush and Lou's best friend came out ontop, really. And by that I mean they were characters I could care about if not for their association with other, multiple, nonsense people. And had I been them, I would've washed my hands of all of it and everyone. Brutal.

Dugan's debut has some good representation and what should have been a fun setting.. but unfortunately I was left feeling pretty letdown by everything that, well, went down.