all of my favorite things packed into one delightful book!

i mean, simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda meets grease???? AMAZING. GENIUS. REVOLUTIONARY.

i just couldn't put this down -- it was so fun to read -- and i loved the main couple so much.

more ya contemporaries and rom-coms like this, please!!

Only Mostly Devastated is a super cute, Grease inspiring LGBTIA romance that was the exact light-hearted warm read I was looking for. This modern take of one of my favourite movies ever was done really well. It definitely has Grease vibes and elements but it’s not a direct play for play which keeps it interesting and not super predictable.

“And life was too short to play chicken with something as important as the person you loved.”

I read this book for my Popsugar challenge prompt “recommended by your favourite blog”. It was reviewed by Nen and Jen whose review had me putting it on my TBR. You can check out my Popsugar progress here.

Will and Ollie meet over the summer and have a whirlwind fling, the first time Will has let himself be with a man. Everything is great and going well, but with the summer coming to and end and Ollie going back home it looks like a fling is all it will get to be. But in a bittersweet development, Ollie’s family stays in town as his Aunt suffers through cancer and Ollie finds himself at the same school as Will.

When Ollie and Will see each other again things aren’t the same, as deeply closeted ‘cool kid’ Will brushes Ollie off, he is left hurt, confused and left to fend for himself at his new school.

Ollie is a great character, super friendly and caring, he goes out of his way for both the people he loves and the people he’s just meeting if he sees they need help or support. He takes a lot of shit from some people but doesn’t get whiny or annoying, but still sees opportunities to see the best in people. Will is also super cute and going through different struggles, unlike Will, his family and friends are all doing great and on the outside life seems fine. It’s on the inside that Will is hurting, struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, that he had shoved in a box and closed until Ollie helped him open it. It’s a heart warming story to read both these beautiful boys struggle and yet help each other through in true coming-of-age goodness.

“Maybe out Happily Ever After hadn't worked on the first shot. And maybe Happily Ever Afters weren't a singular event. Maybe they were something you had to work at, build, and never give up on, as long as they were something you still wanted.”

The side characters in this novel were also great, they had their own stuff going on that we got glimpses into and it gave the high school story more layers. These groups of friends are reminiscent of the pink ladies and t-birds but are all dealing with very different issues and aren’t a copy and paste of the Grease dramas. Each one shows a different challenge that young adults face and whilst they are probably more insightful and h=understanding than your normal teens, in a book setting I thought they really worked well together.

“It'll get easier. That's the beautiful thing about the universe. It puts you through trials, but it never gives you anything you can't handle. We grow from these things.”

I felt this novel was well paced and pretty realistic, I didn’t have any contrived drama shoved in my face but rather real issues that resolved in realistic, messy ways. It made me nostalgic for high school, even though the American high school dynamic seems wildly different to what it’s like in Australia.

I’d recommend this one if you like Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda or anything like that. It was a fun high school drama that tackled some real issues but was still packed with smiles and sweet moments.

This book was sweet, and funny, but it also had some serious notes in it and I think that it was pulled off perfectly. When you pick up this book to read, does it follow the theme of many a YA book? Yes, the formula behind this book is nothing new, but the execution is great with engaging characters, and an absolutely lovable romance. The romance in this book was so cute, well developed, and really tugged at my heart strings

Only Mostly Devastated was described as a Simon vs. Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless meets Grease, and I felt like there were elements similar to Simon vs. Homo Sapiens Agenda, but Clueless and Grease? Ehh not so much.

I think what I really appreciated was how the side characters also really enriched the story and we were able to get to know more about them as many authors fall into the trap of making a character soup (introducing many a character, building upon none of them).

All in all this was such a great and quick read and I will definitely be looking out for more books by Sophie Gonzalez.

(I received this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

3/5 stars. This is not a new favorite of mine but it was a pretty damn good book overall. The characters were somehow able to be their own and were fleshed out in pretty good way.

Interesting book, interesting characters.
If you enjoy light reads that deal with reality, this is the book.
It is a great book but I wasn't as invested as I thought I would be.

When I requested this novel I was into the idea of reading this novel but I discovered that I was unable to provide feedback on this book due to the series being archived prior to download and file/download issues. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience of not being to review and thank you for taking the time to provide me an ARC of this novel.

This ya romance was basically everything I dreamed it would be. There’s witty banter, funny jokes, and a well developed relationship at its center. I loved seeing Ollie and Will’s interactions, though I do wish we could have gotten to know a few of the side characters a bit better. Reading from Ollie’s perspective is honestly hilarious, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading!

Good story, couldn't wait to keep reading all what was going to happen. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Fun, quick read that's really great for either a lazy summer day or to curl up with in the middle of winter. Or just whenever you might need a heartwarming story.

My request on NetGalley was approved by the publisher, so thank you Wednesday Books!

My Rating: 3 / 5 🌟

A boy-meets-boy retelling of Grease was definitely the pitch that got me interested info this story and it be honest, I think it was the correct pitch for the book.

Only Mostly Devastated is a story about Ollie that had to move halfway across the country to care for his aunt, where he spent the whole summer there and ended up having a summer fling with Will. And if you've watched Grease before, you know how the story goes.

This story dealt with a lot of elements. First off, it was the fear of coming out in a small town and it also dealt with a heavy issue of a very sick family member. I didn't expect much for the book since it was less than 300 pages and I was right to assume so, as the book didn't really went deep into a particular topic.

Plus, the fact that it took almost A MONTH to finish this book just shows how not invested I was to finish this book as fast as possible.

But all in all, I think it was an okay story. I would definitely recommend it to people but it's definitely something I won't reread again.

This was so cute! Like Grease but gay, and modern, and way less problematic.

I loved the realism of this book. As someone who moved a lot as a kid, and was therefore the new kid at school a bunch of times, it’s a real pet-peeve of mine in books when someone starts a new school and by, like, week TWO they have a group of (or a single) BFFs who they’re super close to, love to bits and it feels like they’ve been best friends forever. And it happens all the time! In this book, while Ollie does make friends pretty much instantly, he takes a long time to actually get close to them, feel comfortable with them, or even talk much in front of them. It’s mentioned several times how he barely speaks at the lunch table, especially when the guys are there, and yesss that was me.

This was an absolutely adorable read. I genuinely liked all of the characters and I thought all of their story lines were well thought out and executed. I laughed just as many times as I cried reading this book and I would reread it anytime I need a pick me up.

Oh Em Gee. This book was good! It was fun, diverse and sucked me into the real life drama of characters that aren’t anything like me (a 30 something mom of young kids) which I always love while reading a new book! Thank you NetGalley for this e-arc!

Yes, yes, yes! I loved this book so much! Only Mostly Devastated is a fun, easy and completely consuming read - I powered through it in one sitting. I enjoyed how much care was taken with the characters and the romance and appreciate how the author dealt with grief and homophobia. Full of all those good YA tropes that you know and love, Only Mostly Devastated is a near perfect read. 4.5 stars.

My review is a little late but better late than nevar.
I will start saying I love the book no questions. I remember when I first read the little synopsis of the back when it was just announced I remember a queer spin on Grease, immediately after reading that I was sold.
Fast forward to when I had the books in my hands and it was everything I wanted the story to be. I love each of the characters the were adorable. I also love that while the book was an adorable mess it also shed light on some serious topics especially regarding the main character sexuality. Overall it was a good mix of fun, sweet and serous. I just became a Sophie Gonzales fan can’t wait to read more of her future works.

Such an emotional roller coaster but I loved every second of it. Ollie and Will are so flawed and real. I have so many feelings, I wish I could read it again for the first time.

*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.* I also listened to portions on Audible.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! There were definite similarities between the book characters and the original Grease characters and story but in a fresh and unique way. This story pulled at the heartstrings in so many different ways!

I really wished I liked this more than I did.

I know this is a re-telling of Grease and I LOVED Grease. But I had a hard time sympathizing with Will as I thought he was being a jerk more than necessary to Ollie.

Ollie also got a little under my skin for allowing Will to consistently treating him like absolute crap.

That being said, I do believe that both had very redeeming traits at the end and I very much liked the nice little bow that everything was wrapped in at the end.

I think the story is closer to 2.5 stars than 3 stars.

Although I read this book in July, I did receive an ARC through the publisher for an honest review.

¿Sabéis eso de que los retelling tienen un abismo a cada lado donde puedes o hacerlo con mucha menos emoción que el original o añadiendo un drama gratuito al original? Pues este retelling de Grease ha caído con todo el equipo por el lado del drama gratuito. Así, donde en el original teníamos una historia sencilla, alegre y con cierta problemática en cuanto a cambiar por la otra persona, en este tenemos la historia de cómo un chaval se enfrenta al cáncer de su tía favorita mientras su chico (que sigue en el armario) juega con él... más o menos.

En serio, si me hubieran hablado del drama del cáncer de la tía antes de coger el libro me lo hubiera planteado muy mucho. La novela empieza situándonos con los dos grandes conflictos de la vida del protagonista: su tía está enferma de cáncer y por ello se ha mudado cerca (pero ya ha pasado el verano allí). Es una justificación mejor que la de Sandy para cambiar de localización, todo sea dicho, pero conlleva un conflicto mucho mayor, sobre todo porque en Grease apenas nos acercamos a las figuras adultas, meintras que en esta novela van a ser fuente de conflicto importante. El caso es que llega a clase y les enseña a unas chicas que se le acercan y se muestran amistosas la foto del chaval con el que estuvo en verano. Y, exactamente como las Pink Ladies en la película, estas le hacen una encerrona para que Will, que así se llama el chico, lo vuelva a ver. Y esa escena sí que está tomada casi de la película... pero como estamos desde el punto de vista de Sandy, el giro de cabeza y el ignorarlo es bastante más drástico. Y a partir de ahí, pues hay algunos toques de Grease, pero pronto nos encontramos con uno de los problemas de poner algo más grave en el plano adulto: se come la escena en cuanto ocurren cosas.

Uno de los detalles que me han gustado ha sido cómo evoluciona Lara, la Rizzo de esta historia, y cómo todas las chicas del grupo tienen algún tema que superar o sobrellevar, ya sea el peso queriendo ser modelo, ya sea la propia sensación de tener que triunfar ya desde el principio en la música que tiene la otra. Consiguen que los personajes sean mucho más definidos que los chicos que aparecen, que son creíbles, pero mucho más planos y menos desarrollados. Incluso el propio Will, aunque tiene un par de notas y apariciones interesantes, no deja de ser insufriblemente plano durante la mayor parte de la novela. Y eso habitualmente no sería tan malo, si no fuera por la seriedad de la otra parte de la trama, el cáncer de la tía, que se utiliza como trampolín para que el protagonista se dé cuenta del carpe diem y de que él también tiene que ceder de vez en cuando. Porque, además, la autora lleva muy mal el ritmo, lo que hace que te acabe solucionando todos los problemas de la parte de Will fuera de cámara y en menos que canta un gallo. Porque los problemas de Will eran uno solo: Will.

En definitiva, he leído novelas románticas juveniles mucho mejores y mucho más interesantes tanto en su tratamiento de los obstáculos como en su ritmo y conclusión. ¿La recomiendo para los fans de Grease? Pues sinceramente, no. Los pocos detalles que unen las dos obras no merecen el sufrimiento que esta lleva unido y que Grease no tiene. Y ese es el verdadero problema: te la venden como una novela alegre y ligerita y te pega en un momento dado con un nivel de drama excesivo.

Oh my goodness this was so good! It was super fun and diverse, which I always am looking forward to while reading a new book and there were many important topics that were tackled within the story.