Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Only Mostly Devastated follows Ollie, a teenage boy who, after a summer fling with Will in North Carolina, finds out that his family is staying in NC instead of returning to California. It's very Grease but gay. I really enjoyed this book. Yes, it follows some tropes, but it flips them around and gives you new perspectives. It also features a lot of bi rep, which I loved, and featured discussions about gaslighting, fatphobia, PCOS, and grief that I haven't seen that often. I'm so glad that my wish for this book was granted because it was a highlight of the month for me.

I'll be on the look out for Sophie Gonzales' other work.

2.5 Stars. This book is cute. A bit too glaringly young adult for me, but cute nonetheless. I liked the characters. Ollie's inner dialogue grated on me a bit.

A story about two boys who spend the summer falling in love only to have to say goodbye.. But wait.. Ollie shows up as the new student at Will's school, where will is NOT out of the closet.

This book was done so well.
At the beginning of the book, I was a little worried because the Grease storyline was screaming at me a little too loudly. However, this story quickly found its way and became one of my favorites of the year and possibly of all time.
The friendship aspects of this book are absolutely amazing; I loved seeing them blossom from Ollie's first day at his new school forward. The relationships are complex and flawed and fantastically entertaining to read about. The character growth from the beginning to the end is just amazing; everyone is working through their own journey and blocks and everyone's path makes sense and feels natural.
Also the topical discussions of this book on the closet and grief and friendship all threaded together so nicely and were talked about with humor and beauty and a little bit of wonder.
I honestly can't recommend this book enough, and I can't wait to read it again.

I binged this book in one sitting. I could not put it down. It made me smile. I made me cry(HARD). And I loved every second. I adore the witty monologue that is Ollie. I smiled so much at his quirkiness. I couldn’t get enough of it. The trials of coming out of the closet are portrayed so vividly. The trials of loving someone still in the closet as well. The death of a family member but also the love and life that comes after, it was written so powerfully. The ending was so perfect and pure. It’s absolutely worth the read. Just do it.

I really enjoyed this book!! I thought the characters were fun and interesting and the plot was different enough from Grease to still be new and exciting. There were a few points where the events were a little predictable but overall I thought it was fun and sweet.

I really enjoyed this book on many levels. The characters were real complete with flaws. There were real emotions and enough reality to bring you into the story and become vested in the outcome. The introduction of sexuality was done with well developed characters who were figuring things out. A well done love story.
For the editors - I did struggle with the timelines. Sometimes things jumped in time and I didn’t know if things were happening or had happened.

I recognize this book's flaws. But boy, was it a fun read.

I cannot say when I recently laughed at a YA narrator like this: Ollie was sassy and had the most ridiculous inner thoughts, and he completely stole the show. I could have done without the romantic drama and tension, just give me a story about Ollie babysitting his cousins and navigating friendships and sexuality. If it wasn't obvious from my previous statement, the romance really didn't wow me for a few reasons. I didn't like Will as a character or a love interest; to put it nicely, he sucked. But I also feel like the way this book is written (mostly in the present but with little glimpses into the past) made it harder for me to get behind the relationship. This could have been executed well, but it seemed rather incomplete. I was reading an ARC, so maybe there will be some changes made to the published version. The rose gold trio was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing Ollie interact with his aunt and cousins. I do wonder at the tone, though, because we've got this lighter, more comedic vibe going on for a good portion of the book, but right beside that is cancer, and these didn't always weave seamlessly together.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Publisher and NetGalley for this early copy!

This was insanely cute! I will be posting a full review closer to the release date. I need to go watch Grease now.

This is YA, and it’s filled with just about every YA trope you can think of. No surprises whatsoever.
But it was still a fun, enjoyable, feel good read. A good palate cleanser from some of the heavier stuff I’ve been reading lately.

Rating: 3 stars--no 1 stars...actually UGH no 2.

I think, at the end of this day, this book is for a very specific audience. Definitely if you’re that person that loves watching Christmas Hallmark movies even though they are the most predictable stories in the world, then I think you’re definitely going to be into this book.

This is the book equivalent of a gay Christmas Hallmark movie.

To put it nicely: it’s predictable. The characters are straight out of High School Musical only with flipped sexualities (and High School Musical was honestly more likable if we’re going to put it like it is).

But to get a more in depth review (I have a LOT of notes in my kindle that I’m not letting go to waste), I think I want to make clear that the first 50% of this book is a lot rougher than the last 50%.

I think the thing that gets me the most about this story--the thing that really grinds my gears, so to say--is that just like any other teen high-school drama, the MC is completely unhealthily obsessed with his love interest. I mean, to the point that I grew to very much dislike Ollie. Ollie puts Will over his friends, over his family, over himself constantly throughout the story. I think I nearly pulled out my hair when Juliette (his only friend in school at this point might I add) is talking to him about her important clarinet audition and he completely tunes her out as soon as Will walks into the hallway.

The notes on my Kindle looked like:
Does this man have NO passion or personality other than Will? When he saw Will at the school, all the horribleness from moving away from home & leaving his friends vanished from his head. So like, fuck the hometown & friends were supposed to believe he cares about? Then we see he enjoys music, once again he is completely ready to ditch it for Will. Literally what the hell.

It gets to the point where it’s just fucking creeeepy. Look at this quote from the book that I highlighted: “Likely, in the near future, I’d be stuck in close vicinity with Will. Will, who’d spent all day every day with me this summer. Will, who now seemed to have developed an acute allergic reaction to me.” This man just stalks THE FUCK out of this poor boy that’s doing everything he can to not be around him. Like, Ollie, you said it yourself, it seems he’s developed an allergic reaction to you, leave him alone and go find some self worth!

I think the catch line of this book is: “Here walks Ollie Di Fiore. Master of his feelings, expert detacher, only mostly devastated.” And I highlighted that and commented: Ollie is a master detacher because he ditches everything, from his passions to his friends, for this fucking man.

I just really, really don’t like Ollie whatsoever. The more I write this review and go over my Kindle notes, the more I feel irritated. I think at some point I got so mad because he was being all pissy with Will for not defending him when Will’s friends were making fun of him, and then in the next scene Lara is making fun of Niamh and Ollie literally has the opportunity to defend her HANDED TO HIM and says nothing. He’s a damn hypocritical, whiny, creepy, tries-too-hard-to-be-funny with no damn loyalties MC.

This story is also riddled with cliches. I started a cliche count, if you’d like to see my collection:
Cliche count 1: move to a new city senior year and have to deal with a new school full of people already friends with each other.
Cliche count 2: late for the first day of school at said new school
Cliche count 3: this is supposedly a small town, but the high school is described as huge.
Cliche count 4: it’s been a week, and yet Ollie still doesn’t know his way to his classes. I don’t know why it is authors seem to assume that new students are perpetually lost.
Cliche count 5: teacher allows five minutes to (and I quote) “catch up on goss.” I think that’s all I need to say about that one.
Cliche count 6: music room is in the basement of the school. Seen that, done that.
Cliche count 7: small town high school has a bunch of instruments just sitting around. I think at one point the kid Sayid literally grabs the school Bass guitar for Ollie to play. Also, let’s do 2 cliches with one stone: of course the MC is into music.
Cliche count 8 (or 9 i guess??): the sports teams stick together like a fucking cult. I don’t why authors have it in their head that all the players follow around their captain all over the schools like ducks with their lettermen jackets at all points of time. ALSO, why are teen authors fucking obsessed with lettermen jackets???

Alright, alright, I’m sick of cliche counting and having to do all that html formatting for it, you guys get the point, so I’m going to move on.

I know you’re wondering at this point, why the fuck I am debating the rating when it seems I obviously hated this story. And I truly did hate this story, but it’s a different kind of hate--to tie everything back together, it’s the same way you hate a Hallmark movie. You hate it because you know what’s going to happen and there seems to be no common sense for miles, but you also can’t hate it because its intentions were pure and it’s just an all around warm movie.

Was this book spectacular? Absolutely not. Would I ever read it again? No thank you. But, do I feel like I completely wasted my time reading it? Well, no. Because at the end of the day, all's well that ends well. The final chapter has that self-reflection bullshit that makes you feel fuzzy, all the characters get what they want, and it’s just hard to one-star-hate a story that never did anything atrocious with itself.

Also, there were some pretty witty one liners that I have to credit the author for:

“Sure, he hadn’t done the one thing I wanted him to do most of all--declare his love for me publicly on the bleachers in a grand musical number--but that didn’t mean I had to knock the baby steps, did it?”

“At this rate, with a little positive manifestation and a sprinkle of mindfulness, we’d be making friendship bracelets and inventing handshakes by New Year’s.”

“‘He’s going to the dance with Jessica,’ he said in a teasing, singsong way. Well, if that wasn’t the worst song I’d ever heard.”

And at least Ollie had enough self-awareness to know that his love for Will was ridiculous, so there's some brownie points:

“Part of me would’ve called it quick, but then I was still moping around after Will like he was my prophesized, meant-to-be true love and not just a summer fling that wasn’t evergreen, so maybe I had no grasp on how long it was supposed to take to move on after heartbreak.”

This was absolutely incredible! Within the first few chapters I was enthralled and I ended up finishing this book in such a short amount of time, even reading on lunch breaks at work!

We follow Ollie as he moves to a new school following a summer romance with a boy he never thought he’d see again...until he sits a few seats down from him in class. But Will pretends like the summer never happened, surrounded by a close-minded town and friends who make gay jokes at lunch. This grease inspired teen rom-com perfectly adapts the classic into a modern, queer story that deals perfectly with the dynamic between two queer characters with completely different upbringings and in different stages of the coming out process. This book also touches on biphobia as well as grief, as Ollie’s family move to help care for his sick aunt in the last stages of cancer.

Despite sad moments, the narration is witty and engaging and pop culture references are subtle and relevant in a genre where they can often feel overwhelming.

I laughed and cried, and overall thoroughly enjoyed my experience reading this book and I will recommend it to anyone and everyone.

This book made my emotions go on a freaking rollercoaster! I laughed, cried, got so mad, and then so happy! I can't put into words how much this book put me through! Definitely, definitely a must read!

Review will be posted on my blog on November 10, 2019. I will post to goodreads...I will review on amazon after publication.

-1-1-1-1-

Oddly enough, I somehow managed not to read that this was inspired by Grease until I was finished the book! I picked up on it for certain! There were some scenes in the story that reminded me of the movie immediately. And let's face it, that's not a bad comparison. The Story of Grease is pretty much engrained in some generations. Time for this story to belong to a new generation!

In this novel, Ollie has fallen in love over the summer break.  He's met the guy of his dreams... even though he probably didn't realize that. He met Will at the summer house at the lake They were immediately drawn together and could hardly tear themselves apart at the end of the summer. 

As reality slams back down onto Ollie, he is told by his par3ents that theif family is needed near his Aunt who is battling cancer. he'll be moving... awaing from his friends, his school, his band... but closer to Will. The problem? Since Ollie and Will parted ways at the end of the summer, Will has gone radio silent. No texts, no calls... nothing.

When Ollie starts at his new school, he discovers that Will is a student there. The problem is that this Will isn't at all like the Will that he fell for over the summer. Will is a sports jock, laughs at gay jokes and basically ignores Ollie.

Let's break this down a bit. Will is one person when he's away from the pressure of school and family... he's another when he meets up with Ollie again. He's in a difficult world. As a jock and coming from a family where machismo is at a peak... Will feels trapped. How do you come out to a family and friends who equate being gay or bisexual with not being "manly enough"?

This story probably depicts the reality of life for some people when they find themselves stuck between who they are and who they want to be. We all struggle with that a bit when we are in our teens and Will and Ollie are no exception. 

One of the things I really appreciated is that Gonzales gently explores both sides of the issue of coming out. Yes, it's important to be who you are if you're going to have any kind of emotional attachment to someone else. It's equally important to come out when you're ready, under your own terms and in a safe way. Gonzales takes care to demonstrate that "outting" is never a good thing... although it can happen unintentionally. I felt like the story was well-rounded... presenting both sides of a relationship that has a lot of challenges to surmount.

In addition to being about coming out and falling for someone... there's a difficult subplot in that Ollie's Aunt is dying of cancer. I lost my Mum to cancer a few years ago and the storyline read as authentic to me. I found it really emotional, bringing me to tears more than once.

This is a great YA novel about summer love and what becomes of it, coming out, allowing people the space to make their own choices, and figuring out how to truly support a friend. It's beautiful, fun and emotional all at the same time. Really enjoyed it.

Ollie and Will have a great summer romance. Ollie expects to leave North Carolina for his California home, but right before school starts, his parents decide to stay. Ollie's aunt (who lives in NC) is very, very sick, and so Ollie becomes chief babysitter to his young cousins. He also has to adjust with a new high school and culture, but Ollie's pretty laid back, and willing to roll with it.

Until he realizes that Will, the boy who stopped texting or calling at the end of the summer, goes to his new high school. Will's a popular football player, and it's quite clear that he is not remotely out. He's also intent on pretending that nothing ever happened with Ollie - at least when anyone else is around.

Okay, okay. Coming out of the closet is personal and hard, no matter what a person's circumstance. I totally understand that. Ollie lives (or had lived in) liberal California, Will's in a tiny town where football will determine his future. But being in the closet is different than acting disparagingly toward people who are queer. Or thinking that someone else is okay with having a clandestine relationship with you, when you are actually making fun of that person with your friends.

And there's where this novel kind of lost me. I wanted a better alternative for sweet Ollie than THAT guy. Instead, there is a compelling friendship between Ollie and a group of pragmatic girls. I especially loved the relationship between Ollie and super-prickly Lara. But there is no romantic alternative. And that made me grumpy.

Can characters redeem themselves after being jerks for 75% of a novel? Sure. Did Will redeem himself? I guess that's a matter of opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

**e-arc kindly provided for review by the publisher and netgalley**

Aw, this was really sweet. Ollie’s voice was so funny without being corny and although a lot of stuff happening to him wasn’t his fault he still found things about himself to work on. There were a few really emotional moments in this book and I got choked up a time or two. The friendship was sweet and the sexuality conversations throughout the book flowed naturally. Also, obviously, the references to Grease were iconic.

I LOVED this story. Grease is one of my favorite movies (although Grease 2 is the superior film) and I instantly recognized the scenes inspired by the musical. Senior year is always an awkward time in a persons life, but this story handled it so well. I laughed, cried, cheered and honestly couldn’t put this book down.

Cute! 3.5/3.75 for me.

The main love interest is a Venezuelan b-ball player which I really loved. The side characters really kept this novel afloat for me especially the girls (for some reason the MC was just okay for me).

Sometimes the writing was off for me (a little too preachy or overly expanded reflections/ explaining..) but overall this was really fun and adorable while still tackling some tough moments (terminal illness and identity stuff).

I breezed through it, which should be telling in itself. I especially love the premise — modern day gay grease is the best idea ever. Sooo if more people want to try their hand at this premise that would be great I would love to read it- send it right along please!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok so this book actually proved me SO wrong in my original assumptions. It's still really fluffy, something I'm iffy about, but I actually reeeaaalllyyy liked reading this. I just love everything that makes the plot a bit more complex, such as drama, family, friendships, etc. It just added in a bit of an oomph that I needed, and I thought this book tackled a lot without making it seem overbearing. Going back to me saying I liked reading this, there's actually a good amount of humour in here that usually hits right. There's still some moments that don't land right, but for the most part they work out. I did have issues in terms of development from our side characters, thus the removal of a star. They didn't seem as fleshed out to me, and I really wish I got to get to know them a bit more in order to really feel the full impact of the book. I say the synopsis stayed true to its comparisons of other large titles. if it catches your eye, i don't think that this book will disappoint.

What a wonderful book! Hard to put down and tugs at the emotions! A complex subject that is presented effortlessly and engages the reader in the story. I recommend this book and am waiting for it's release to grab my own copy! I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. .

This book is probably going to get so much hate for so many reasons. Other people may have 99 reasons to hate this book, but I don't have a single one.

This book was amazing. I honestly don't know when I last read a book I couldn't put down, but it annoyed me when I had to stop reading and go and do Adult Things.

Everything about this book was awesome. From the flawed-but-working-on-it protagonist Ollie to the background characters and events, this book was put together with thought and intention in mind. It references Grease without letting the aforementioned musical ever dominate the book. If you're familiar with the musical, great. There's a few nods to the show. If you've never seen Grease, then you can still read this book without fear.

The tone of the book was fantastic and the emotions it pulled from me? I don't want to spoil a crucial scene in the book, but ya'll, I sobbed. So many tears. My cat thought I had lost my damn mind.

Yes, this book is cliche and filled with teenager things that may not age well. I don't care. For those days when you need a fun YA novel, this book more than fits the bill.