I really enjoyed this. I liked the story telling and the emotions in this book. There were a lot of "what ifs" and I loved seeing these characters navigate all of their feelings and seeing how they were healing.

I struggled to get into this one. I love YA books, but I struggle with books where the kids are too angsty or overly emotional about small things. The main character David doesn’t like the “love interest: due to their past and it just irritated me how he was just willing to be around someone who betrayed him so easily. Then to start having feelings for a person who treated you bad it just triggering. I tried to get through this one but it was a DNF for me.

In Darkhearts, former band members Chance and David are reunited after the death of their fellow bandmate. Old scars of their friendship are poked at, reexamined, and healed as the two fall in love.

This one didn't totally work for me, but I did recommend it to a friend who I knew would love it and he gave it five stars, so take my opinion (as always) with a grain of salt!

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

In James L. Sutter's debut Young Adult romance, former best friends find themselves reconnecting and venturing into something deeper.

World-renowned Korean American rock star Chance Ng reunites with his estranged friend and former bandmate, David Holcomb, following the tragic death of their mutual friend and bandmate Elijah to alcohol poisoning. David's departure from the band before its rise to fame caused a rift that has kept them apart for years. David, having found a passion for woodworking, contemplates a career in carpentry. Despite the somber backdrop of Elijah's funeral, the narrative shines with witty banter and vibrant secondary characters.

Intimate moments between Chance and David are tenderly depicted, imbuing the story with a heartfelt sweetness. David's reflections on his sexuality are portrayed with authenticity and complexity, contributing to a refreshing and sex-positive atmosphere. However, occasional awkward phrasing detracts from the otherwise charming dialogue, and discussions around body image and fat stigma could have been explored more thoroughly.

Overall, Sutter delivers a funny and heartwarming tale that celebrates friendship, love, and personal growth.

💭WOOOOOOOW did this hit me in the most unexpected way! YA books are starting to really raise the bar for me.
This book was hilarious, full of great banter, full of love in every different kind of relationship…. & the LESSONS… the GROWTH, from multiple characters. It was just incredible. Sometimes the characters went through moments of being… not unbearable because that’s too strong, but a bit of an annoyance? But they’re teenagers and it never lasted long because the growth HITS. Also the author did an incredible job writing about navigating confusing parts of life as you enter adulthood, which is not always easy.

This is also great representation of the LGBTQ+ community. The part about “labels,” … like just… IYKYK, you just need to read it. I’ve had friends go through this exact thing but have trouble really explaining it and this hits the nail right on the head.

By my shock, it’s obvious I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did and I can’t believe I took so long to pick it up. Even it’s imperfections where perfect for me; What a fabulous story!

Overall I did enjoy the book even if it didn’t become a new favorite. If you’re a fan of queer YA and a story about teens reconnecting and the pressures of figuring out your sexuality in the spotlight sounds interesting then I say to give this one a try.

This book is about two friends who come together after a tragedy. It deals with a boy band, substance abuse and death. It deals with relationships and forgiveness.

I want to thank Netgalley and St Martins Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not quite the primary audience for this book and I do definitely know that affects my thoughts on it. The concept is cute but it just didn't hit the mark for me. The amount of times someone was referred to as "bro" or "dude" got too excessive... and kind of felt like compulsory heterosexuality. Also docking a star for the HP References which I really didn't understand in a queer romance?
I also felt like there wasn't a whole lot of character development, considering what the plot of the book is I would've loved to see much more. I don't want to say much about the characters lack of maturity because I do realize this is meant to be a young Adult book but immaturity of a character in a YA book tends to work best when there's a fair amount of character growth and gaining of at least a bit of maturity which this book felt like it was missing.
Again I know I am not the primary audience for this book so I can guarantee there are readers who will love this!
Thank you St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for the e-copy

If you're a lover of boy bands, this is a book for you to check out. It's a bit darker and covers some more intense topics such as substance abuse and death that I wasn't expecting in a YA book. However, as a result the emotions were high and I think they were well done.

I actually didn't end up finishing this one. I listened to about 2 hours of the book and still wasn't invested in the characters or the story. I tried reading the ebook as well and gave it to 20% and still didn't really get invested.

Good book. I found the characters really enjoyable and would read again and reccomend to friends and family. Thanks!

Super disappointing. I wanted angst, boybands and drama but all I got was undeserved forgiveness and pettiness. The entire boyband and ex-friend intrigue drew me in but honestly, while the author was painting the main character as wrong or petty, he was right. He had the chance to be famous and he has it again with his friend back but now his friend doesn't want him to be famous? I get the reasoning but the conflict felt so last-minute and unnecessary and I didn't enjoy any of the romance or surrounding aspects.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it! I am giving this book three stars, as I don't want to give it a good or bad rating, since I did not get to it and we have to leave a star rating.

Thank you so much to Wednesday and Netgalley for allowing me an early peak at this hidden gem! I am saddened to see so many One star reviews (because I'm posting this review so, SO late- per normal) because I absolutely adored this one! I feel like I love reading about the drama that happens behind the scenes of a boy band and this didn't disappoint me. Although they are very similar in premise, this book and Kiss and Tell are VERY similar, but different enough that I had no issue telling them apart and I actually ended up liking this one way more. I don't really have much more to offer other than I liked this one very much, loved all the characters, and felt that teenagers were accurately depicted. Highly recommend!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
.
This was a really quick read for me, and I unashamedly love Young Adult books. I have a soft spot for books about musicians; I figured this one would be similar to If This Gets Out which was one of my favorite novels of 2021. Darkhearts deals with grief of losing a best friend, and also the grief of having missed an opportunity. David has never really owned the fact that the band he left found huge success after he walked away.
.
I loved the gay/bi representation in Darkhearts, and Chance was working through a tough time and trying to find balance again. It was David that really killed me, as he was beyond selfish even after he and Chance started dating. He can’t see beyond his own version of history, which made me crazy, but also…he’s a teenager. Everything seems bigger than it is when you’re a teen, but the ending does finally make him see reason.

David lives in the shadow of his ex-band's big break. He dropped out of the band, but his former best friend, Chance, kept it going and became a pop star. When their friend and band member dies, Chance returns to town and tries to rekindle their friendship. This slowly turns into more, but will they be able to get over their past? It's an interesting and entertaining romance set in the shadow of fame.

This was an entertaining story that goes behind the scenes of a popular boy band—one that left one of its founders behind and lost one along the way.

David and Chance reconnect at a funeral—a funeral for someone who used to be a friend to both of them. Chance and Eli left David behind and made Darkhearts a worldwide phenomenon. Stardom found them but left David back home, the driving force of the band left behind to finish high school.

The encounter brings forth many emotions. A reconnection. A past due reckoning. Secrets, regrets and reconciliations. And romance.

Overall the story held my interest. I did feel the main characters could have used more development. I was hoping for some resolutions that didn't come and felt the weight of miscommunication as a plot device was a bit heavy.

Overall a good YA story with some cw for substance abuse, death, exploitation of young artists. 3-3.5 stars

If you are a lover of best friends to enemies to lovers with angst and rock bands, Darkhearts is for you. Larry Stan's will love the boys and if you have no idea what I mean, you'll still love it

Rounding up to 4 stars. I ended up listening to the audio for this and I quite like the narrator - it made for very easy listening. There was a lot I liked about this book. I absolutely loved how there was pretty much zero internalized strife around kissing boys. There were many times I chuckled out loud, and it was ultimately very sweet. At the same time, there was not a ton of depth and there were some small representation things that didn't quite sit right with me. I also had a really hard time buying the whole premise based on their ages (although, reading the author's post about it, sounds like it happens?) And - this is not the fault of the book - heads up that this is one of those misleading blurbs. While there is a thing about David possibly joining the band - it doesn't even come up for the first 2/3s of the book.

Overall I'd say that it's a solid YA novel and was elevated by the audio narration.