This was so disappointing. I was so excited for this book, I loved The Love Interest and the concept of this book sounded like something I'd love. I expected this book to be full of drama and keep me on the edge of my seat. But it did nothing for me. I would expect for a book about a child who grew up in a gang to be moody and action filled. This book was just to simple for what it was. This story should have been so much more intense and emotional. Both the main characters and story just felt so flat.

*My thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

It really kills me to say this, but I have to: ⭐ star

The Friend Scheme is a YA about how two boys from rival gangs with a bloody history meet and fall in love. Now they have to choose between their loyalty to their families and their feelings for each other.

This had all the makings of a great book. Romeo-and-Juliet forbidden love, rival gangs, the potential for a great, twisty betrayal and reconciliation...This should have been chock full of great tension and conflict and drama and romance, and unfortunately, it had none of those things.

I rarely one star a book because there has to be just absolutely nothing in it for me at that point. I was really excited about this one and sorely disappointed at the result. The writing was very bland, the dialogue would go on for pages and pages and move the plot absolutely nowhere. Not to mention it came off as extremely childish. For two boys who grew up "adjacent to death", the thought process of the main character was far younger than his seventeen years. There was essentially zero conflict, nothing that lasted, nothing that pushed the characters or made them grow. They were the exact same at the end as they were at the beginning as far as I was concerned.

It was just simply not for me. There was not enough to hold interest. I could barely tell the two leads apart. This one needed some more work.

The trope and the plot of The Friend Scheme are top notch. A romance where between the son of a mob boss and a mysterious boy he meets is used to improve the appeal of the characters, and then they end up falling for each other is basically candy for me. I even enjoyed both of the heroes and their reluctantly budding relationship. As up and down as it may have been. That being said the flow of the writing was what kept me peep sally, from fully investing. I even took some time after I initially finished reading to write this review.

I didn't connect with the story either. Honestly, I think this is largely in part to my inability to separate Matt and Jason, but aside from that, I simply couldn't go along with him working at this bizarre organization that seems like one big inside joke that never seemed funny. The dynamics - on both sides - feature such absolute extremes of good/bad, there's absolutely nothing to even 'take a side on,'

What I did was go back in and read some scenes that I’d highlighted, and reading them as a piece and not as part of the whole made me enjoy them way more. So I think what I’m trying to say is that I enjoyed this read, it’s entertaining in a very unrealistic way and as it’s my first from this author it felt fresh and fun, but the writing style may just not be for me.

The Friend Scheme surprised me, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, which was a solid romance with lots of crime and a dash of drama. Instead, it was a surprisingly thoughtful book about finding and standing up for yourself with a strong dose of romance and some family issues. 

The book follows our main character, Matt as he tries to avoid committing crimes with his mobster family while simultaneously living up to his father's expectations and his older, Perfect Mobster™ brother Luke. He ends up meeting this uber hot guy named Jason and falling for him, while trying to insist that it's just a friendship they have despite both obviously being interested in each other.

I enjoyed this book, it was a quick read, and the plot kept up a pretty decent pace, which I appreciated. I liked that Matt's relationship with Jason didn't completely end up overshadowing his thought process, or his relationships with his family. At the root of Matt and Jason's relationship was a really great friendship that had been built up so that they had a really good connection, and I loved that aspect of it so much. I was really impressed with how much Dietrich's writing and storytelling had improved from his debut, the characters felt much more fleshed out in this one.

My two main complaints aren't awful either, if you're willing to overlook them, then you'll probably love The Friend Scheme. The first complaint is that while Matt still felt more like a teenager than the characters in The Love Interest (who felt like they were in their 30s at times), he still felt...older than he was supposed to be. He made some bad decisions, but he communicated with everyone FAR too well to make him feel like a real teen to me. Not that teens don't communicate, but the way he did was in a way that I feel like you don't learn until you're in your early to mid-twenties, if that makes sense. Most of why he felt like a teen was because he fell into the basic teen boy tropes, which was disappointing.

My second complaint is that I feel like the book has been marketed wrong. It's pitched as a thriller, but it really wasn't. There was almost no crime, and most of the action was used as a way to motivate Matt to change his relationships. The large plot twist is also mentioned in the blurb right now too, which is...confusing to say the least. I feel bad even bringing this up, because it's not Dietrich's fault, but if you're looking for a book that matches how it's being marketed you're going to be let down.

The Friend Scheme is a romantic coming of age novel about family and finding yourself, with a side of drama and a sprinkling of crime. If you're looking for a well developed relationship between two teen boys, and the anxieties of falling in love (albeit, with some other issues), this book is for you. It's got a hopefulness to it that will leave you excited to see what Dietrich writes next.

The Friend Scheme
If you’re like me and was kind of let down by The Love Interest, then pick up The Friend Scheme and fall in love. This action-packed swoon fest was such a joy to read. I loved the development of both boys - even though it was from Matt’s perspective, the reader is able to tell what’s going on with Jason without it being explicitly written out. Big props to Matt’s older brother too, who defies the expectation of just a super macho/masculine guy. The ending felt a little rushed to me and didn’t quite fit with the rest of the story, but the first 80% of the book makes up for it.
Overall, loved this one from Dietrich!

I requested THE FRIEND SCHEME because of the cover and the premise. A queer Romeo & Juliet retelling in modern-day Florida? ABSOLUTELY YES.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the execution of an underworld crime-family in a decades long feud with another family. It was very entertaining during the read. The twist would have been a big surprise if it had not been mentioned in the NG copy (though I believe that's not the case in descriptions on other retailers/Goodreads). Dietrich's writing shows great potential, though I think the execution in this book wasn't quite there yet. I felt at times the dialogue between our protagonist Matt and his love interest, Jason, was a little unpolished, though they were both very likable and I found myself rooting for them. I am very excited to read future books by Cale Dietrich!

I really enjoyed this book! It was sooo good and the overall build of the friendship and then relationship was awesome. Very reminiscent of the slow burn in The Love Interest which I enjoyed also.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you want a m/m Romeo and Juliet, this is basically it….aside from the death, that is. I was excited to pick this up anticipating adventure, action, and romance. From the very first page, the characters and plot fell flat. For a book centered around a mob family, it didn’t have much plotting and high action until the very end when it felt like the author remembered that was supposed to be a major part of the story. Aside from being frustrated about the mob aspect, I was also frustrated with Matt and how cringey and cliche his inner monologue was. I feel like his character could have been so much more than a “typical” teen boy with family and romantic problems. There was an opportunity in Matt’s conflict with his family conflict about masculinity and violence. On top of all of this, I wasn’t particularly inspired by the romance. Matt constantly referenced how connected they were. Personally, the more you have to disclose how connected you are to someone and you do it frequently, it probably isn’t the case. I would rather have been shown their connection than told, repeatedly. This book had so much potential but fell flat when it came to the depth of the romance and the thrill and action promised from being centered on a mob family.

The narrating was *chef’s kiss* spot-on, really felt like I was inside Matt’s head, feeling his feelings and rooting for him 110% through it all. He tries so hard to do right by his family and live up to societal expectations, even as he twists himself into a miserable pretzel in his attempts.

This isn’t so much a story of ‘finding oneself’ - Matt knows exactly who he is and what he wants when we meet him. He just doesn’t think it’s possible to pursue his dreams or to be with the type of person he wants to be with. Societal norms and family obligations have set him up to be a completely miserable 17-year-old, despite being surrounded by family, beautiful beaches, and lots of money. He is unable to share his true self with the world and it’s not very surprising that he has no friends when we first meet him.

It is heartbreaking to have a narrating character be so in-touch with themselves, but to have such low self-esteem and feel so trapped. Matt’s insecurities and awkward moments are the result of the environment he was brought up in; societal expectations and traditions of masculinity, gender, and putting one’s parents’ wishes before their own. He’s constantly in performance-mode; pretending to be what his family expects, rather than what he really is, under threat of his world imploding around him. He truly believes his family wouldn’t just out-cast him, but that they’d actively hunt him down for the rest of his days, should he go against their wishes. That’s the mob for ya.

Readers are introduced to Matt on the day he first meets Jason and it quickly becomes apparent that the boys’ circumstances are similar to ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Their friendship and mutual growing attraction can only flourish if they don’t discuss their families, even though the ‘family business’ is a huge aspect of both their lives. We watch as Matt’s feelings for Jason grow and witness his inner conflicts and self-talk over whether he can continue to hang out with (and make out with) Jason or if he’s betraying his family by doing so. He wants to be smart, he wants to be loyal, to his father who raised him as a single parent and his older brother who looks out for him and gives him advise.

It is easy for readers to become invested in Matt, to feel his feelings, and relate to his situations. It is also deeply satisfying to watch the positive changes he makes for himself towards the end of this book. Hang in there through the rocky parts, it gets better.

I absolutely love this book! It’s not your predictable trope-filled romance novel. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something happens that changes everything. Highly recommend.

I absolutely adored Cale's debut so I was super pumped for his second novel. Although it had his signature writing style, angsty relationships, and intriguing plot, it fell a little flat for me.

I failed to really connected with the characters or be invested in there dramas.

I loved this book so much. I love the dynamic of showing a boy who is pressured to show “masculine” characteristics even though he likes things his family doesn’t understand. The cute interactions between the couple will bring a smile to your face. This book had me really feeling for both leading characters in a Romeo and Juliet situation!

I think the author did a good job with the emotional element but I failed to be really invested in the external element of the plot with the families.

Marked as one of summer's hottest, and most anticipated reads, The Friend Scheme is perfect for those looking for a feel-good, light cliche romance.

The best I can explain for it is that if you love the warm and fluffies of Hallmark Christmas movies, then you'll more than likely love this book with the same amount of heart. It's idealism and perfect companionship with a happy ending for everyone.

Meanwhile, I'm not one for that fanfare. Which is fine. Those books and movies are making money well without me feeding into their capital. However, in my personal review I must point out the glaringly obvious. Which is that the dialogue Dietrich writes is often unrealistic and far too idealized for any real life person to say. Thus, making it hard to fully immerse oneself in the story when every time a character talks you're sent right back out of it with increasingly cringey ways.

Since this was my first book from this author it prompted me to go ahead and look up if this dialogue tick was unique to this book, considering there's a scheme afoot, or if it's a writing trait. Relying on the voices of others, I'm disappointed to note that I'm not alone in pointing this quirk out, it's in Dietrich's past work as well. Bummer.

And yet, I pull through that only to get to my second concern. And possibly the most alarming? Going into this judging by the cover alone I expected the main and his love interest to be of a mixed racial pairing. The artwork certainly shows us a white male with a darker male beside him. And yet, no, nope, wrong, not true. Both Jason AND Matt are "pale skinned" and white. There's multiple written proof of that in the descriptions given to us time and time again. The most that changes is towards the end when Jason gets slightly tanned.

But does that warrant a misleading poc looking character art on the cover? Or was it to be clearly assumed that this one person, whom I gather is Jason on the left there, is just in a major dark spot that changes his looks so drastically?

I mean... honestly I just feel so confused by it. Even more so because I spent most of the book trying to figure out who was who only to come to the realization that the cover completely bamboozled me.

In the end, The Friend Scheme gave me everything I hoped for from it, but ultimately just wasn't my cup of tea.

I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, I really do, but . . . I struggled with this one. A lot. While the concept was cool, I never really felt like it delivered what it was trying to sell. For all the secrets and dangerous mob family business, there never seemed to be much urgency or danger - or at least the writing never felt that way. When I saw part thriller, part romance - I think I was expecting more balance between the too, especially because, based on the summary, the thriller and romance seemed so interconnected. I think it just added to my disappointment when this book felt less thriller and more an overly dramatic teen love story, with just a dash of thriller. Additionally, there were a lot of plot holes that had me scratching my head, because they were either overly simplified or too convenient to help drive the narrative forward.

In addition to this - and this might seem nit-picky, but I get it. Jason is hot. The hottest. There has never been anyone hotter in the world. In fact, we must now change our whole concept of what hot is. I get it. I get it, because every page tells me how hot Jason is, multiple times, too many times. I understand that this is new territory for Matt, but I can't remember anything else about Jason except that he's hot and plays video games. I'm sure there is more to Matt's feelings/attraction to Jason than just the physical - but I don't know that because the only thing that I'm continuously being told is that Jason is hot and I don't think I was ever really shown how exactly their relationship evolved - told? Maybe. But shown? I can't say that I was.

Once again, I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, especially with Matt's struggle coming out and not feeling he can be who he is because of the family he was born to and the mob culture he is a part of. But I almost wish that would have just been the story. None of the twists or turns or trying to be a thriller - because ultimately these elements didn't add to the story, but took away from what could have been a really excellent romance, one that I've never read before, but would have really liked to.

For fans of:

- Mafia vibes
- Escapist stories that take your mind off everything going on in the world
- Pop culture references
- Will-they-won’t-they romances

Review:

“Boys, man. They’ll be the death of me.”

What a difficult book to review! I feel like I read two different stories, to be honest – the first thirty percent of this was engaging, poking fun at some of the mafia stories out there and showed Matt, who isn’t out to his family or friends, trying to navigate his sexuality and fumbling all while keeping his friendship with Jason a secret. Then there was the other half of the book that was just out of character, the tension cranked up to one hundred percent and some things happening that made absolutely no sense, even in this nonsensical world.

There are quite a few plot holes concerning the world building and logic – so go into this with a heavy suspension of disbelief. I had a hard time believing that Matt, who has been groomed to eventually become the leader of the crime family, would just up and leave with someone he doesn’t know and follow them to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

There’s lots of back and forth between Matt and Jason and whereas I enjoyed that will-they-won’t they drama in the first half, in the second it was just redundant. Matt would wonder whether he could trust Jason, then describe him as friend, then as his first love, then back to acquaintance who he didn’t know how he felt about – that could have definitely been edited and made more cohesive to fit the inner journey Matt goes on.

Despite that, I enjoyed Matt’s character and the overall plot of him navigating this life that he doesn’t want to lead and how to live up to his father’s expectations while envisioning an entirely different future for himself. His struggles with understanding whether he wants to be like Jason or be with Jason also reminded me a lot of a few Netflix movies out there and gave me a good chuckle.

There’s also something to be desired when it comes to characterisation and some of the conversations just translated as stilted – I know that these guys are supposed to get to know each other but the way they were talking was as if they were reading from a script. I did like the popular culture references and the two geeking out over their shared love of books, video games and movies!

While I wasn’t too happy with the rushed ending and the characters doing a 180 just to give the protagonist a happily ever after, I still appreciate that Matt manages to make his own way in the world. I just wanted so much more from this book in the end – more world-building, more in-depth personalities, more finetuning of the romance. Nevertheless a quick and easy read, The Friend Scheme shows a lot of potential and will certainly keep your mind off the current news cycle!

*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*

As soon as I read the synopsis for this story, I knew I had to read it. The cover and story line had me so intrigued, I love a good read when sworn enemies fall in love and where lies, deceit, and betrayal are around every corner. That's exactly what this book delivered; however, I have some issues with the execution.

I think my biggest issue with the story is the timeline. On the east coast, baseball is a spring sport. If this story line is set in the spring, then how was Matt able to apply to and get into college in the same year? There was never any transparency on when the story was taking place but college isn't something you can just magically put together, there are letters of recommendation, personal statements, etc. that need to be compiled.

My next issue is that throughout the story, there were what seemed like "hints" about Jason's identity, but they never amounted to anything. For example, Matt saw a leather bound book at Jason's house. It was exactly like his dads...but then this is never brought up again. Did Jason steal it from Matt's house, was the leather bound book in fact Matt's dads?! This happens several times over the course of the story and leaves me wanting closure on these details. Because when I know a book is going to be a thriller, the joy of reading is in those details.

Finally, I don't understand the continuous betrayal that occurs. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It seems that Matt never learns from his mistakes. Some of Jason's plot twists left me with my jaw on the floor and in that regard, it's definitely a page turner. And while I did like how everything ended...I didn't like how we got there. There were too many linger questions, most importantly, how the heck did Jason find him?!

I did enjoy the book, but there were too many loose ends and little details that seemed to get lost. Matt and Jason have some top notch banter and chemistry but there were some unnecessary side stories and details lost that muddled up the plot line. I wish Cale would have focused on Matt and Jason and the family drama exclusively. It almost seemed like he was trying to make too much happen at once and then these little things got pushed to the way side.

This book want bad. It really wasn’t. I don’t think it fit my tastes, but that’s not to say no one will enjoy it. I think the author’s writing style is definitely one of the things I had a hard time reading. In terms of the story, I felt like, it was a bit of let down. I’m sorry. It spent the whole time building something up, and nothing became of it. As for the romance, there really wasn’t enough for me, but maybe I just need more than most. As I said, not bad, but not great

The Friend Scheme takes the reader into the seedy underbelly of an unnamed city in Florida. We see through the eyes of Matt, one of the heirs to the criminal underworld, who is uninterested in the family business. It begins with a heavy Romeo and Juliet feel, does have some interesting twists on this theme. Friend Scheme was a good, fast read. The characters were compelling, but the dialog seemed lacking. The conversations seemed at times to be stereotypical 80s valley girls, and I had a hard time not losing interest because of that. This will be good for some of my lower level readers. Because of some sexual themes I would recommend grades 9-10.

While this was super entertaining and had a ton of great one-liners, I had so many question marks left over at the end and overall was just… baffled by how much potential remained unused.

First of, a warning: For some reason whoever wrote the description thought it would be a good idea to include the major plot twist at the end right there, in the blurb???? Like, what????

The Friend Scheme has an amazing concept – high school student who is the child of a mob boss but isn’t interested in a life of crime is already great by itself, but make them fall for the enemy? Sign me up!

It started out a bit slow, but engaging enough. I found Jason’s appearance to be suspicious and way too easily accepted by Matt, but that was acknowledged on page, so I wasn’t overly bothered by it.

What I loved from the start and came kind of unexpected was the family dynamics: Matt’s dad might have been a crime boss, but he still cared for his sons! The casually domestic scenes were lovely, but also a stark contrast to the equally casual violence this family exhibits, except Matt was fine with the former but not so much with the latter.

Truly the star of the book for me was Matt’s relationship with his brother Luke, who might have been a bit of a douchebag, but also such a great older sibling. I adored their scenes and the love and support that Luke kept extending Matt’s way.

Unfortunately, that sibling relationship completely overshadowed the romance for me. Not that the romance was bad – the beginning was a bit awkward, but once that was out of the way, I actually quite liked how Jason and Matt opened up to one another and learn to be vulnerable with each other, which was important for Matt in particular. I also liked that Matt, who’s sixteen, was allowed to be horny, and express abundant admiration for Jason’s hotness.

But especially towards the end, I found the turns their relationship took baffling. The whole secrecy accusations didn’t make sense, and I was confused where Jason was drawing his conclusions from, and why was all the bad behaviour focussed on Matt when Jason was doing the exact same thing? It was strange and didn’t add up.

When it comes to the flaws I saw in The Friend Scheme, I curiously enough found them to be almost exactly the same things I disliked about the author’s other book, The Love Interest. One of that was about the romance, how the jump from the-big-drama-towards-the-end to happily-ever-after was exactly that: a jump. Nothing in between. No reconnection. No talking it out, making up for their mistakes scene. Just going pretty much straight from split-up to happy-couple in the epilogue with some plot-only chapters in between.

Generally, the ending felt way too rushed. Things happened fast, and they way they came to pass was unexpected – and very anticlimactic. Granted, probably pretty realistic, but it completely threw me, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

My overall bafflement (which, really, was disappointment, except I was too stunned to feel that) stemmed less from that and more from all the surrounding things.
Over the course of the book, so many small threads of side plots, hints and info are given and developed. The most exciting thing about reading The Friend Scheme for me was taking all these hints and bits of info and try to piece them together in my mind, try to figure out where things were headed, who was planning what and had which secret and how it was all connected. I had so many theories and ways it could go, ideas about how things might converge and how they would wrap up.
The thing is, I’m not mad that none of those things ended up happening. I’m always happy to be surprised by a book’s ending, when I couldn’t foresee the way things end. I also don’t dislike the actual ending as it turned out.
No, my bafflement stems from how all of those little side threads, hints, information, little plots at the side…. where all dropped cold. None of the had any sort of conclusion, factored in any way towards the ending, or had any lasting influence on the plot.
That just seems like such a weird storytelling choice to me. Like, why include all those little things and hints that created so much lasting tension and conflict just for them to fizzle into nothing, to not matter in any way?

It’s totally possible I was reading too much into things, but this wasn’t just one or two things but so many! Like, what was up with Cassidy? Was Ryan a Donovan or no? Did the dad ever make the allies content again? Who/what convinced the dad to not go through with the ambush? Any sort of consequence from Jason being who he was? Anything about the moms? And so many others.

All that aside, I think the author’s writing style also just isn’t working for me – I noticed that I tended towards skimming over whole pages a lot. At first I thought this might be due to the slightly awkward formatting of the ARC I received, except I had the exact same issue with the author’s other book, which I bought myself, so I know it wasn’t that.

Overall, the book was still entertaining. I absolutely loved the concept and the characters, and the themes of friendship, discovery, family and obligation it explored. My issues lie solely with the execution, and are probably pretty personal due to my reading preferences.

Next to Luke and Matt’s sibling relationship my favourite thing were the hilarious and on-point one-liners the book had. A lot of them were centered around queerness, but also around sexism and toxic masculinity, as well as other things.

To end my review, I want to briefly talk about the cover. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It gets several small details of the characters right…. and others really wrong. Since it’s illustrated I assumed it would depict the main characters as they are described in the book, which also made me assume that one of them would be a POC. That’s not the case – both Jason and Matt are white and described as very pale on multiple occasions.
It’s strange, because some of the details perfectly depict what’s written on page, while others are really off. I don’t know enough about the process behind getting covers to make a firm judgement, but I was definitely bummed out when the cover didn’t fit what I assumed would be inside.