There was obviously a lot of care and vulnerability in the writing of this book, but unfortunately I felt the characters lacked a bit of depth & dimensionality. Overall this was… fine! Not remarkable, but not terrible either.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Jeremy and Lukas are not good people, and that’s what made this book so compelling. I love messy, petty characters, and those two did not shy away from destroying everything around them or themselves to get what they wanted. One thing I really liked about the book was that Lukas isn’t absolved for his actions toward others just because he’s nicer than Jeremy, or because he’s autistic, or because he had good intentions. His and Jeremy’s war hurt people, and it was nice that the book didn’t skip over that. It’s actually one of the things that made the side characters so enjoyable, as they all have their own problems and desires and aren’t afraid to give the main characters pushback when they’re treating them like side characters. The writing also got into the nitty gritty on certain topics more than YA tends to and did not pull its punches when it came to bullying and harassment. It did feel like the ending went by too quickly though. There was so much build up to homecoming and then it was just a blip in the story, and we didn’t get to soak in all the good feels for as long as I would have liked. I can’t speak to the rep, but I did appreciate getting to understand more about masking and how transitioning can be for some teens. Overall, I would give this one a chance if you’re on the fence because I thought it was a gem.

this book wasn’t for me, but it will definitely appeal to anyone looking for a book about imperfect & messy queer teens that has trans & autistic rep! i definitely appreciated the fact that this book tells queer people that they don't have to be perfect to deserve love & that navigating a world where you don't have much support can leave you to deal with things alone — and not always in the best way. queer stories that balance darkness & light reflect our world in a nuanced way, and i could see the balance between those two things from reading this.

This is a great book if you like incredibly unlikable narrators. I don't so I struggled with it and found most of the side characters/secondary characters far more interesting.

LOVE LOV LOVE more angry queers please! I love messy characters and this book gave us TWO wonderful messy characters. More of this!

This book just didn't work. It had all the ingredients for a hit: LGBTQIA+ representation, ASD representation, enemies to lovers, high school sports, interesting friends & side characters, BUT it just didn't work. It was a struggle to even get thought and almost no on e was likeable. It's hard to get behind a book when the pacing is too slow and you aren't rooting for the main characters. This could have gone through a few edits/rewrite and come out a YA hit, but it felt rushed and incomplete.

I loved this LGBTQ+ YA romance! It was so refreshing to read a trans character with such wit and charm. The added layer of regular high school drama mixed with real issues for trans teens was enticing, engaging, and exciting. I would absolutely recommend this for library teen book clubs!

May the Best Man Win by ZR Ellor was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and I skim read most of it. I do want to give this book another try when I'm not in a reading slump though.

I am disappointed with this book. I was expecting one thing and received another. It had potential but it was not well written.

On the one hand, I really appreciate that this story let the characters be, for lack of a better word, horrible people. On the other hand...they never really *stopped* being horrible people. I kept expecting to see some character development that ultimately never came. I also think this book was incorrectly marketed as a fluffy rom-com--it definitely isn't. I did, however, really appreciate the trans rep, so extra star for that.

I appreciate the representation! And the cover is so good. But the book was just hard to get through and the characters were really hard to like.

Thanks for the copy to review from NetGalley, all thoughts are my own and not a reflection of getting this title for free.

This is a category of genre that I am exploring more and hoping to find titles to share with friends, but this novel felt so draining as it kept going. There was lots of emotion going on with each character and it all hinges on lack of communication. Is it the MC's worry about being rejected? Is it because they are dealing with lots of larger life things and just can't handle one more challenge? In the end, I started to speed up the tracks just to see how the novel would end. I have a feeling of guilt for not loving this title as I know representation for all is important and this novel is a great option for seeing everyone depicted. Maybe being further removed from high school makes me forget what it was like/ is like now. Is this a novel I plan to share with my son, yes. Have I shared it with others, yes.

This book had a lot of bad takes, made me cringe throughout, and altogether made me put it down before getting to the end (I don't push myself to finish books I'm having difficultly enjoying).

Also note: I'm not easily triggered at all, but I know a lot of people are so I highly recommend looking up trigger warnings for this book if you think you may be triggered because there are quite a few potential triggers.

I dnfed this one. I was very excited but it just did not engage me the way I had hoped. I also just got a bit too busy with teaching and did not have the time I wanted to devote to this book.

TW// transphobia, ableism, f slur, r slur, deadnaming, misgendering, mentions of sexual harassment

May The Best Man Win follows Lukas and Jeremy, two senior boys who are both competing for the spot of homecoming king. The catch is that Lukas and Jeremy used to date before Jeremy came out.

This book had been on my TBR since I first heard of it, so I’m glad that I mostly enjoyed it. It wasn’t without flaws, but I found that there were important conversations about what it’s like to be transgender in this book and the story as a whole was really entertaining. I also loved all the fun pop culture references throughout this book.

This book contains trans, nonbinary, autism, gay, and lesbian representation, which was a major reason why I added this book to my TBR in the first place. This representation was included very thoughtfully and the representation brought up important messages about these topics that were extremely eye-opening to me.

As I said though, this book isn’t without flaws. The major part of the book that irked me was the school only acted on bullying if the bullying got physical. I get why it was included in the story, but it brought up a whirlwind of emotions about memories that I’ve been trying to suppress.

The other flaw with this book was that the two main characters had massive issues. I did like them both, but their actions were somewhat unforgivable and they took the rivalry too far. I thought this was supposed to be a romance, but it was painful and disgusting to read some of the actions that they took against each other. I didn’t think Lukas was a bad as Jeremy at first, but at a little bit after the halfway mark I realized that he was taking just as awful actions as Jeremy. I hate to compare a book filled with diversity to a show that wreaks with bad representation, but this book was somewhat like Riverdale in the sense that so many bad things were occurring because of characters that I liked, but I couldn’t stop reading to find out what was going to happen next. It’s sort of like a guilty pleasure? Like I know the characters’ actions were bad and it was hard to read about them, but I can’t knock points for it because I actually enjoyed the hot dumpster fire of a mess that occurred.

Don’t let the cover deceive you, this book is not a cute, lighthearted romance. It’s messy and can be brutal at times, but some of the representation was so important in this book that I feel people should give this one a shot if it sounds interesting. I’m very torn on how to rate this book because I have a love hate relationship with it, but my star rating reflects how much I genuinely enjoyed it.

I did not likethis book as much as i hope i wpuld, the main characters are really frustrating and hard to root for. They were super mean to each other, and they crossed the line so many times. The marketing of the book implies thats a light and fun rom-cpm tupe of read but its actually more dark than that and i think it created a flase expectation going in on the book.

Exes compete for the title of Homecoming King in this adorable YA novel. These messy, messy selfish boys almost let the competition ruin their friendships, their lives, and even their growing feelings for each other after Jeremy broke up with Lucas on the day of his brother's funeral and announced his transition via email. Lucas still doesn't understand why Jeremy broke up with him, and Jeremy is determined not to let Lucas break his heart again. Talking would help, but where's the fun in that? These two are frustratingly selfish at times, but they won me over by the end. And despite the frustrations, this was just a really fun, adorable read.

TW: transphobia, bullying, homophobia, and sibling death

For the most part, I enjoyed this book, but the toxicity of the two main characters and their relationships with each other and others wasn't always healthy. I think the portrayal of "unlikeable" characters is an important one in YA, though, and something I think a lot of teens will appreciate and see themselves and their peers in. Normally, enemies-to-lovers and second chance romance tropes are some of my favorites, but for some reason, I didn't love how they were utilized in this book. That said, I think the book has some fun elements and important content that many teens will enjoy.