I was so excited about this book, it has a pretty cover, an interesting plot and queer characters, but it felt soooo long and boring.

The first half of the book felt really fast-paced and the insta love is not my favorite thing but I was hooked by the story, the romance, and those superpowers. Then in the other half of the book one of the characters just banished and everything turns boring.

It was a funny book with interesting characters that we don't get to know, powers that aren't explained deeper and a happy ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this book so much! It was sweet and cute at parts, but the sci-fi parts of the book were interesting, but the setting was vague, and the book never really said where it was set. I did have some problems with the main character, who came off as whiny and unrealistically and often strange changeability that often did not fit his character at all. I did end up liking Jordan, the love interest, but he quickly revealed all of his secrets to him even though he met him in the same week, and lastly, they didn't seem to have much chemistry. Overall, not bad for a quick read, but also definitely not a favorite. 3.5/5 stars from me!

<i>"Looking back, I now accept that forming a relationship with a stranger is supernatural. Flames and floating are pretty cool, but there's no superpower more profound than being yourself and making someone fall in love with you."</i>

TL;DR: The cover is the best part of this book. A cringey, underdeveloped story about 16 y/o Dylan falling "in love" with Jordan, as they navigate teen angst and getting superpowers from a hydrogen fuelcell company. Or something. IDK.
<b><i>I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: <i>Pushing Daisies</i>' "Dummy" episode + TJ Klune's <i>Extraordinaries</i>
But both of those are better than this.

Genre: True-YA Queer Superhero.

Character MVP: Honestly? None of them. The characters bled together and none of them were particularly likable.

Verdict: 1-star read. Maybe 1.5, for the first two and last two chapters, but definitely rounding down.
I was really, really excited for this one: it had been on my ARC list for a while and then I saw that it was being adapted for Disney+ and moved it up my TBR.

What I Thought I Was Going To Get: a queer YA superhero origin story, where the MCs navigate getting their powers and take down the corrupt company that's trying to use them.

What I Got: Basically 400 pages of Dylan whining and complaining, magically knowing how to use his powers, and action that unfolded in about 3% of the book, near the end.

Which was really disappointing. I so badly wanted to DNF this book, but stuck it out hoping it would get better. Nope. Spoilery Thoughts on what DIDN'T work below:

✖️ -- I was NOT invested in the relationship, or the characters (more on this below)

✖️ -- Dylan was a whiny, self-absorbed protagonist
While 'unlikable protagonists' aren't a deal-breaker for me -- see Margaret Owen's <i>Little Thieves</i>, I did not connect with or care for Dylan at all. He had these weirdly polarized views and then would switch to the other end of the extreme without good reason.

✖️ -- No world-building -- I know it's supposed to be Philly-adjacent, but honestly, it could be anywhere. The most specific details are its cold, there's a Dairy Queen, and there's a Starbucks.

✖️ -- Weirdly crude in some parts. Not enough to be a part of Dylan's character or Zepka's writing vibe, but just enough to be like, "Wow. That was weird and kinda crude" and then back to normal.

✖️ -- Speaking of writing style -- I don't normally mention this, but there were a lot of sentences that were 4-8 words long. Enough so that it stood out to me. Not really a negative, but just contributed to my overall "meh-ness." It gave the writing a choppy, start-and-stop feel; some longer sentences or more varied sentence structure would have improved the flow.
<i>Ugh. This is the most I'm-Clearly-A-Writing-Professor thing I have ever written in a review.</i>

✖️ -- Flimsy plot structure. What is even going on?!?
-where are the parents? Not to be THAT reader, but c'mon. I feel like Zepka was trying to remove them from the plot by making them "cool parents" who don't believe in grounding and buy their kids inappropriate cakes but seriously. They also have a really blase attitude to underage drinking and don't seem to be bothered by Dylan being severely hungover.
-Also. The "evil corporation running experiments on teens" scenario just...didn't work. It was too full of holes for me, and I'm not normally one to nitpick plot holes. But when they start interfering with y ability to read because I'm asking so many questions, I have to mention it.
1. These HydroPro employees are the WORST. They know who Dylan is and approach him a few times, and are apparently tailing two teens, but...I don't know. Don't do anything?
2. I want to appreciate the scientific nature of it, but it just raises too many questions. Like how did Dylan get his powers? Why hasn't Jordan given them to anyone else? IDK. It doesn't seem to matter. You can't call a book scifi and just have half-baked reasons/answers. The believability of sci-fi hinges on, you know, the science behind it.
3. Also, at the end...nothing happens? NO ONE cares that two teenagers are runninn around this suburban town with superpowers? And they just don't do anything with those powers? They just stop using them? I don't buy it.
4. Apparently Dylan stakes out the new HydroPro building, insisting that there are so many ways he can get in, but fails to notice the gatehouse? And then the guard just lets 3 teenagers in to a building late at night without calling or checking on their story? I don't buy it.

✖️ -- Finally, I had 0% investment with this love story. I get that it's teen love but why does Dylan LOVE Jordan so much? And why does Jordan love Dylan? There's not a lot of showing -- just telling, "I love him so much!" I can't wait to see him! -- which makes it hard to understand or be invested in the success of the relationship
I mean, they meet once, where Jordan blows up some ice cream, and all Dylan can do is make "hot" jokes; I feel like the normal reaction would be "WTF? That is NOT normal" and self-preservation would kick in, but nope. Dylan is basically just like, "Oh! Hot sexy boy! I want to kiss him!"
And then he stalks him.
And then Jordan is like, "Yup. You're cute and here are all my super-secret secrets. I have to tell someone, so why not tell this guy who basically stalked me and who I met literally 10 seconds ago?"
Again, I get that its supposed to be YA, and yes, teens can enter into shallow relationships and think with their hormones, but give your target audience some credit.

While I really liked the outline and potential of this story, with the boy with secrets and the boy who's there for him through it all, there was something missing in the actual execution. There needed to be more development between Dylan and Jordan before the powers were exchanged and they had to start working together. I just felt like Dylan became a little too enamored with Jordan too quickly. I know Jordan was a cute, mysterious guy, but there just needed to be something more there. Why does Jordan suddenly decide to share his secrets with Dylan when he's kept his secret this whole time? And then with the exchange of powers, I just didn't understand what was happening, because it seemed like he did it on purpose, since he burned Dylan and seemed to know that they would be able to touch now. But then he was shocked when Dylan started having the same symptoms as him? I don't know, that just needed to feel more accidental than purposeful. The whole plot twist with the doctor and the other doctor was just.... unnecessary and I could see it coming a mile away. There wasn't a lot of explanation for how things happened, or why, or what HydroPro even wanted. I just needed more explanation from this story.

From the description of the story, I was expecting a more toxic relationship, since it makes it sound like Dylan starts cutting himself off from his best friends (I was imagining something like American Betiya), but while Dylan is keeping Jordan's secret, he doesn't completely cut himself off from the people important in his life. Rather, it's a little strange because Perry and Kirsten don't question Dylan about Jordan despite the fact that he initially told them about the fire? It was a little strange.

Overall, I enjoyed Dylan and Jordan being together, and how Jordan finally had someone he could talk to, someone who was on his side. I liked the two of them and the mystery was intriguing, even though it left me with more questions than answers at the end. This was a fun book a little reminiscent of The Extraordinaries.

I wanted to like this book so so much. I loved the premise, having just finished reading TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries, and wanting to read more things like it. And the beginning was fine. Lots of conversation and awkward teenage times. But that awkwardness never faded into likableness and just became annoying. Dylan is entirely unlikable and often disgusting. Sweating and dirty, vomiting way too much for me to be comfortable. He’s just gross and not in the usual teenage boy way. Jordan is better, but he’s a bad influence, forcing Dylan to keep his symptoms a secret even when Jordan admits that he might be dying. Their logic is flimsy at best, plus they keep setting fires and committing arson, without blinking. I get that no one was seriously hurt, but arson is still pretty serious. And the local media and police are even more incompetent than they are in real life, and not in a believable way. The various adults are also incompetent. When Dylan is out sick for several days, or perhaps weeks, no one bats an eye. No one takes him to the hospital, accepting his refusal and going about their own business, even when he keeps throwing up and looking like he’s dying. I hate Dylan, and his friends, who I find equally annoying, and kind of useless.

The plot is repetitive, with Dylan experiencing symptoms, freaking out, recovering, being gross, freaking out some more, ignoring his friends, lusting after Jordan in a sort of love at first sight situation. There are many inconsistencies, especially regarding Jordan’s living situation, where it seemed like Jordan was lying, but it actually might have been poor plotting. It felt like there was a lot that still needed fleshing out, kind of like when video game companies push for a game to be released before it’s ready. This book needed more polishing and drafting to make it better.

I just can’t get behind this book, especially when it’s received so much hype and accolades, as well as a Disney+ adaptation. I want to embrace any queer content appearing in mainstream media but I really can’t get behind this book.

This was such a fun read. I love this story and love this idea. I heard that it is being adapted into a show and I am very eager to see how this is adapted for the screen. The characters were really great and I was sad when the story ended.

The Temperature of Me and You by Brian Zepka follows 16 year old Dylan Highmark as he meets Jordan, a cute boy, who is literally very hot. As Dylan gets to know Jordan better and starts to fall in love he realizes things are even stranger than they seemed at first.

I thought the premise of this story was very interesting with Jordan being this almost super hero like character.
I also liked how so many of the characters in the story were expanded upon and were not just side characters. From Dylan's friends Perry and Kristen to the school mean girl Savanna all of these characters were so full of life and and could have easily been their own characters in their own books.

One thing I did not enjoy though, was how the story never really goes into full details on any of the more science fiction elements. It never really fully explains Jordans powers, how they affected Dylan, or why the bad people in the story do what they do. Additionally, the story seems to end kind of suddenly, and while I love a happy ending, this ending did not seem to be explained at all and to me made no sense.

Overall, I thought the book had some strong elements, I just really wish things could have been explained better and the ending had not felt so rushed.

A cute story about a boy, his friends, and the hot boy he meets. I enjoyed it. It fun and cute. Not world altering, but it was an enjoyable read.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this one. The Temperature of Me and You was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. The first page was so gripping, I loved it! However, the main character was immature and rude. I also found that the book was very slow-paced. The sci-fi aspect was very mysterious and interesting though. I wish the book focused more on the science fiction parts of the story, rather than the 'slice of life' parts, as I found the inner monologues to be boring. Overall, I was disappointed with this book. The original premise is incredible, but the execution was not done very well.

The Temperature of Me and You sounded like your typical romance title, so I was delighted to discover that the synopsis actually promoted the story of a boy who’s a living inferno. Fantastic Four vibes? I'm in.

~★~ What is this book about? ~★~

When the new boy in town–Jordan–wanders into the Dairy Queen Dylan works at, he believes this could finally be his chance at landing a boyfriend. Except Jordan is hiding superpowers, and makes a break for it after he promptly blows up his ice cream. Stil, Dylan is determined to get close to the boy with a strange secret, discovering that Jordan is quite literally hot to the touch. As the two spend more time together, it becomes obvious that Jordan is hiding more than just his powers, and is running from something much bigger than Dylan could imagine.

────── {⋆★⋆} ──────

It turns out this book was closer to what I expected before reading the synopsis: a fun but easily forgettable YA romance with lackluster sci-fi elements. I started off enraptured by Dylan’s internal monologue (rich with the type of teenage humour I love) but it soon devolved into a more typical narrative. All of the characters sort of blended together, without many unique traits to make them stand out.

While I did like the buildup and romance between Dylan and Jordan, the plot was what continued to hinder my enjoyment. I found the villains altogether unthreatening and grew tired of the cat-and-mouse between Dylan, Jordan and HydroPyro (since it seemed to be going in circles). Either way, this was a briefy entertaining book, just one I found to be quite ordinary.

I loved this book, it was so sweet and that characters were interesting. I’m excited to see more from this author as I enjoyed the writing as well.

2.5 Stars

Thank you to Disney Hyperion and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Dylan has always wanted a boyfriend, but he's into more than he bargained for when he meets the literally hot Jordan during his shift at Dairy Queen.

I was so disappointed by this one. I wanted to like it so much but I just couldn't find anything in it redeemable enough for more than a "meh." The main character is unlikable and misogynistic. He doesn't really have any redeemable qualities and his only personality trait is "want boyfriend now." The plot was okay but nothing special and I've seen similar plots done way better. I didn't care about the characters at all.

I also felt like this was too slow and just drug on. I wish I could have liked this, but it was incredibly mediocre.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Bullying
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, and Vomit
Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

The Temperature of Me and You has a beautiful eye-catching cover that will make teen readers want to immediately pick up the story! Fans of Adam Silvera and Mason Deaver will love this book about first love. This book feels like a classic YA contemporary...until it's not! It has such a fun twist on a usual coming-of-age story and setting that younger teen readers will really enjoy.

The story really picks up about halfway through the novel and becomes hard to put down. Readers will root for Jordan & Dylan!

I enjoyed the book. I think that the writing was a bit weak, there was more showing than telling, and that just isn't my favorite. It was a good book overall, and if Zepka were to improve his writing style I would read something else by him.

☆☆☆☆ /5
(english review below)

C'est une lecture au début toute mignonne qui devient entraînante au fil des pages.
¤
Dylan Highmark, 16 ans, pensait que son hiver allait être plein de quarts de travail ennuyeux au Dairy Queen, jusqu'à ce qu'il se retrouve amoureux d'un garçon qui lui plaît bien plus qu’il ne veut l’admettre.
Dylan a toujours voulu un petit ami, mais la banlieue entourant Philadelphie n'a pas beaucoup d'options. Puis, dans les promenades, il y a Jordan, un garçon tout à fait normal (et indéniablement mignon) qui court aussi à une température fraîche de 110 degrés Fahrenheit. Lorsque les garçons commencent à passer du temps ensemble, Dylan commence à ressentir toutes sortes de sentiments, mais lorsqu'il a de la fièvre pendant deux semaines et qu'il tousse soudainement des flammes, il pense qu'il pourrait souffrir de quelque chose de plus qu'un simple béguin. Jordan force Dylan à garder ses symptômes secrets. Mais alors que la pression monte et que Dylan devient distant avec ses amis les plus proches et sa famille, il pousse Jordan à trouver des réponses. Les révélations de Jordan sur les raisons pour lesquelles il est comme ça, d'où il vient et qui est après lui laisse Dylan réaliser à quel point son premier amour est vraiment hors de ce monde. Et si la Terre supporte la vie et l'oxygène, alors seul l'amour peut garder Jordan et Dylan ensemble si longtemps.
¤
Dès le début du roman, je me suis attachée à Dylan, ce jeune homme drôle et en mal d'amour. Dylan ressemble à tous ces adolescents que j'aime retrouvé dans mes lectures feelgood : il est rêveur, maladroit par moment et si attentionné envers autrui. J'ai beaucoup apprécié le suivre dans ses aventures, notamment au fil de l'intrigue lorsque les révélations vont se faire.
L'auteur distille les informations tout au long du roman et capte notre attention. Au début, on a l'impression de n'avoir affaire qu'à une simple romance et finalement... on retrouve bien plus que ça !
Entre pouvoir, amour, amitié et humour, Dylan et Jordan m'ont fait énormément sourire. Leur relation est si forte et attendrissante.
Le rythme lent de l'histoire s'accélère petit à petit et l'auteur offre un cocktail d'action et des événements percutants qui ont nourri mon intérêt pendant ma lecture. Le style d'écriture est plutôt simple et pourtant, je l'ai trouvé plutôt immersive.
C'était doudou, c'était frais, c'était agréable.

------
ENGLISH REVIEW

It was a very cute reading at the beginning and it became more catchy as the pages went by.
¤
Sixteen-year-old Dylan Highmark thought his winter was going to be full of boring shifts at the Dairy Queen, until he finds himself in love with a boy who's literally too hot to handle.
Dylan has always wanted a boyfriend, but the suburbs surrounding Philadelphia do not have a lot in the way of options. Then, in walks Jordan, a completely normal (and undeniably cute) boy who also happens to run at a cool 110 degrees Fahrenheit. When the boys start spending time together, Dylan begins feeling all kinds of ways, and when he spikes a fever for two weeks and is suddenly coughing flames, he thinks he might be suffering from something more than just a crush. Jordan forces Dylan to keep his symptoms a secret. But as the pressure mounts and Dylan becomes distant with his closest friends and family, he pushes Jordan for answers. Jordan's revelations of why he's like this, where he came from, and who's after him leaves Dylan realizing how much first love is truly out of this world. And if Earth supports life that breathes oxygen, then love can only keep Jordan and Dylan together for so long.
¤
Since the first pages, I became attached to Dylan, this funny and lovesick young man. Dylan looks like all those teenagers I like found in my feelgood readings: he's dreamy, clumsy at times and so attentive to others. I really enjoyed following him in his adventures, especially throughout the plot when the revelations are going to be made.
The author distills information throughout the story and captures our attention. At the beginning, it seems to be dealing with a simple romance and finally... we find much more than that!
With power, love, friendship and humor, Dylan and Jordan made me smile so much. Their relationship is so strong and touching.
The slow pace of the story picks up little by little, and the author delivers a cocktail of action and hard-hitting events that fueled my interest as I read. The writing style is rather simple and yet, I found it rather immersive.
It was cuddly, it was fresh, it was pleasant.

Disclaimer : I received an ARC of this book (thank you) my thoughts are my own.

This book was a mixed feeling book for me. On one hand I did not hate it so that was nice, but I did not love it either. The cover is what captivated my attention and it would’ve been a total cover buy if I had seen it in stores.

Story wise, I read this a while back and took some notes since I knew I would not be able to review it right away because of family health circumstances.

Anyhow, the gorgeous cover is pretty much the main thing I remember, the story feels a bit fuzzy. Not remarkable or distinctive enough where something really stood out as WOW. The writing was very much annoying to me, it was so I did this 1 thing, proceeded to do this 2 thing … so on and so forth, it greatly impacted my experience as it made the story and characters impersonal to me. More like seeing them through a fog then getting to know them.

Romance wise, no chemistry, it kind of felt like it was there just cause “why not put in a romance” or “I need to put in a romance”, since the characters felt so one dimensional it was hard to see a reason behind them even being together, they don’t felt like they knew one another.

The potential in this book was really high, but did not deliver for me. It was just meh.

2/5 stars
Bookarina

DNF @ 16%
This was a cute story but I just couldn’t get into the writing style. It felt a bit too young YA for me, and some of the way that the school drama was portrayed just dissuaded me from continuing the book. It seems like a cute book with good representation, just not for me!

I really loved the book a whole lot. It was so fun and very quick to read. Dylan I really loved as well as his two friends. I like Dylan"s boyfriend Jordan but I just feel like i wasn't as connect to him, as I was to Dylan and his friends. But I loved that it wasn't just all romance.
I do wish we had more scenes with Jordan and Dylan and Jordan with Dylan"s friends. I would definitely read more books by this author.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for this review

So. This was a book I read.

Normally in my reviews I like to talk about the plot, or the characters or *something* more interesting than whatever this book was.

I saw the cover and absolutely fell in love with it, because oh my god look at it. I read the first couple pages about hating chemistry and laughed because it was relatable. So tell me why it all went downhill from there???

The only part I only remotely liked about this whole book was the parents. Which is surprising considering they don't even get talked about a lot. I liked how Zepka made them supportive of Dylan's sexuality which isn't super common in queer books. They might be the only reason the book didn't get a 1 star review.

Now for the things I disliked:
#1. There was absolutely no chemistry between Dylan and Jordan. None. Zilch. Nada. I could replace either of them with cardboard cutouts and no one would notice.

#2. The plot. Where is it. There was this really cool concept about superpowers and sci-fi and shady companies and somehow the author made it all really bland. The whole book was just boring.

#3. Side characters. I honestly cannot even remember their names. They were entirely forgettable, seemed to solely exist for Dylan, had no personalities.

#4. The writing. Now generally, I don't like to mention author's writing styles because everyone has unique styles and what might appeal to me wouldn't necessarily appeal to anyone else. Except for the first 70 or so pages, there are the most stunted sentences I have ever read. The conversations are lifeless, and the characters seem to just be there for the sake of being there.

#4.5. Adding onto the writing, the whole book felt like it was a first draft. I think if had been edited a lot more, with more life added onto the characters, maybe it could've been great, but eh.

I honestly could go on about parts I didn't like (seriously, there were so many.) but for the sake of my own sanity, I will restrain.

I will say though, I understand this is a debut novel, and the author was bound to not be at their best. If they do publish any more novels I would be interested in reading those to see if they're any better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Publishing for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I want to start out by stating I don’t think this book was offensive, just lackluster.

I think for a 400+ pg YA text this book could have delivered a lot more or attempted to punch harder and faster.

There are large chunks of this book where nothing is happening outside of monotonous cafeteria everyday gossip that does not impact the story in most occasions. I think the first time or 2 this occurs could helps establish our characters and world, but after it gets quite repetitive.

In addition, outside of Dylan and Savannah most characters do not get flushed out and still to their one archetypical quality that defined many of the decisions they make throughout the text. This is exaggerated to the most with Dylan’s reckless decisions never having true consequences from friends or family members by the end of the text and I am unsure of if his parents were even given names or motives.

Overall, this story would have been self-contained better in a novella and I think another round of edits or too could have helped refine the texts plot and characters to be more clear.