This was such an adorable enemies-to-lovers magical teen story with amazing representation! A beautiful and sweet story about figuring out your bisexuality set at a magical boarding school, highly recommended for anyone who loves the combination of a cute queer story with some fantasy on the side!

The story is set at a magical boarding school somewhere below a glacier in New Zealand, where eighteen-year-old Tim Te Maro has just been dumped by his girlfriend and assigned to a life skill project to parent a magical egg together with his nemesis Elliot. But partnering up with his former enemy turns out not to be as bad as it first seems, when it comes with some extra benefits…

I really enjoyed this cute story about figuring out your bisexuality and the enemies-to-lovers trope is one of my absolute favorites! I loved both main characters and the way they opened up to each other and how they explored their sexuality together in such a kind, positive and healthy way, always ensuring the other’s consent. I also really loved all their diverse friends, the representation was simply amazing!

I would have wished for the enemies-part to have lasted a little longer though, and for the world building to have been a bit more developed, especially in regard to the magical system. I also had some issues with the pacing in the second half and how some of the major events remained open in the end.

But other than that, this was such a cute little gem! It gave me a lot of Carry On (SnowBaz) vibes and truly warmed my heart!

Starting this off, on of the main reasons I wanted to read this was the cover. I loved the dynamic it introduced and the subtle details I didn’t get until I had read the book.

Now, onto the book. I loved the setting. It definitely could have and should have been explored more throughout the book rather than just casual mentions (I don’t think we ever learned what defense magic actually was?). It had so much potential and the lack of explanation left a big part of it unfulfilled. The characters had chemistry and I loved their banter, but I wish there was more buildup between them. There needed to be more genuine conversations, especially at the middle and end. They weren’t even enemies at the beginning, as marketed in the “enemies to lovers romance”, more “this boy I don’t really like to lovers” and I think it worked for them but I wish it wasn’t advertised as enemies to lovers.

Also, neither character had a very distinct personality. Elliot was rich and that’s about everything we knew about him. They both had so many nuances that could have been explored with more genuine conversation. Tim mentioned his dad a few times in the narration and even less out loud, which could have been a really interesting dynamic, with Elliot being so far from home and not having magic in his close family, but then everything was solved when he came back with no explanation but plot convenience.

Overall, I did enjoy this but it had so much potential and it was impossible to ignore the thinly fleshed out magic system and characters.

Magical boarding school, gay enemies-to-lovers who do a revenge plan on their exes by taking care of a fake baby. And a lot of sharing the same bed.
This sounded like the perfect list of tropes to me and it did not disappoint! I loved this book! It was everything I hoped it would be. It was cozy and super character focused, which I enjoyed immensely.
The characters were really fun, although I wished the other characters would have gotten more personality. There are a lot of others next to the main pairing and I don’t really got to know them, which was a shame.
Tim and Elliot, however, were brilliant and I was rooting for them. There were bits in their relationship which I didn’t like as much, for example when Tim tried to initiate a conversation on their boundaries and Elliot made him feel made fun of for it. There was generally more communication in this relationship than in most using these tropes, especially in YA with stupid teens as their characters, yet sometimes I hoped they would be more clear on what they wanted. Nonetheless, their relationship was fun to read and watching it grow and develop was glorious.
The whole book at a very fanficy vibe, and I mean that in the best way possible. There’s a reason why I enjoy reading fanfiction and this book captures those elements.
I’m very surprised I haven’t seen anyone else talk about this book, because it’s amazing!

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a eArc of this book! I am extremely grateful.

This book is adorable and funny, and I love the characters and the plot. I also loved the way this book emphasised the fact that you should just be yourself and it also showed how important communication is.

Tim and Elliot were wonderful characters. I loved the way their relationship was used to build them as well. The way the trope of almost fake dating was used also made this book so entertaining to read. The egg baby challenge is always a fun situation to read/watch and I just loved the way this whole aspect was written- it made sure that all the information was there without being overwhelming. It made sure this book was paced nicely. At some points this book might have been too fast paced and I thought that there were some moments that could have done with just a bit more detail (because they were important but almost skipped over).

I thoroughly did love the way magic played into this, but the magic system could have been developed better and used more (I know it wasn’t the main part of the story). I loved the way the magic related to culture, it was quite beautiful. The magic mentioned earlier on in the novel just didn’t quite make sense as it had no further role in the back end of this book. I did however thoroughly love the way it was used for the ending and to solve the problem. The ending of this book was so immensely satisfying.

I will definitely recommend this book to romance lovers, and queer readers (because queer love is amazing!)

Oh My Gosh😻😻😻
This was so so cute. I loved everything about this book. The plot is simple and this is what I would say a perfect Christmas romance💝
Also, the two ML are so cute, especially Tim. Elliot has my 💝
The friends group was so cool.
Absolutely loved it❣️❣️❣️❣️

*2.5 stars* Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues had so much potential. It was definitely a fun and interesting read, but it lacked depth.

In short, this story follows Tim Te Maro, who was recently broken up with and left for another guy, Blake. The boy he hates, Elliott Parker, was left by Blake and teams up with Tim in hopes to get back at their exes. They are assigned with taking care of a magical egg, what could possibly go wrong?

The magic system seemed so cool, it wasn’t fully developed. If there had been some more time spent describing more of the magical aspects, then the magic system could have been better. Also, I didn’t understand the fact that there’s this potentially wonderful magic system that could make for interesting activities, but the author went with the egg-baby assignment.

Now, in all honesty, I didn’t think I’d like this book. I did enjoy it, but I am also able to recognize its faults. I grew insanely attached to Meggan the egg. Now, she was the main instigator for the relationship between Elliott and Tim. She was rooting for them 100%. However, most of the other characters fell a bit flat. Even I felt the main characters lacked depth at times.

This book reads like a fan fiction, and that’s not bad! However, I feel like if there was a developed background and more dimensional characters, this would have been an incredibly intriguing read. This was fun and quick, but not my favorite.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rep: bisexual MC, lot of queer side characters,
enemies to lovers, set in New Zealand

Going into this I was immediately hooked!
This was extremely hilarious and reminded me of Snowbaz for a second or two.
This whole book is set in a magical boarding school somewhere underground in New Zealand.
This book starts with Tim’s gf leaving him…for his nemesis Elliotts friends-with-benefits roommate.
Only Tim and Elliott both planned to partner up for the “keep a magical egg alive for a month” assignment for class with their partners.
Since both of them don’t plan to spend the next month with their exes, they decide to team up for this assignment instead.
But is raising an egg child with your enemy really that much better???

When I started this I was envisioning an enemies to lovers urban fantasy.
What I got instead was a beautiful story about figuring out your bisexuality and experimenting a little…with your enemy.
Tim is an absolute clueless idiot, constantly in his own head, who has a lot on his plate on top of figuring out his sexuality. His father just left and his gf just left him as well. Let’s say he has a few issues. He’s almost 18 and finally wants to find out what it’s like with a boy. No feelings ofc.
Who better to do it with than someone you don’t like? No feelings will ever grow. None. Of course not.
Elliott was such a sweet baby, he just wants to be loved and is a whole pile of feelings deeply repressed.
I loved him from the start and the way he took care of their egg child and the way he lays himself completely open.
I loved the way they start to trust each other and open up to each other.
The way they both learn a lot about themselves and their sexual journey was beautiful to read.
I just loved these two idiots together. Their little gay penguin family with their little magical egg daughter.
They were absolutely adorable.
I especially loved the open communication between them about sex and boundaries ans consent. I loved to see how Tim was slowly figuring himself out and obliviously fell for Elliott.
THEYRE SO SOFT I LOVE THEM!!!!
This is a very, very beautiful story about a bisexual MC written by a bisexual author and you can feel it.

I also really loved the side characters, their friends were super funny and seeing them struggle with their eggs as well was hilarious.

Based on vibes alone this is a total 5 star read for me. It’s seriously one of my favourite books I read this year.
But apart from the magical egg plot and Tim figuring himself out, there really wasn’t a lot of world building and a lot of plot holes and open questions remained.
There wasn’t a lot of magic in this, but what was there was interesting and I really liked the magical system itself.
We don’t get to see a lot of magical classes and apart from helping the plot a little this wouldn’t really have to be a fantasy book at all. I didn’t mind though.
What I didn’t like were that two mayor events of the book remain completely open. I don’t know if this was planned to be a first in a series, but the end was just very rushed and messy and huge themes of this book remain without ANY answers.*
This made the book very messy in the end, and apart from the romance it didn’t deliver much on the plot end.
So all in all I can only give this 4 stars if this will remain a standalone, even if I loved it to bits and I loved the whole romance part and also the end bit of the romance!




______________________
* SPOILERS:
The two questions that remained for me were:
1) What is going on with Tim’s dad? Why did he leave and what happened to him? What is going to happen now?
2) Who the hell married them?! This had to mean something right??

'Tis the season for Drarry with the serial numbers filed off, it seems, though Tim Te Maro does a much more thorough job than Kit Coltrane's All the Way Happy . If the egg-baby senior project -- take care of this magical egg for however long and learn how hard parenting is -- hadn't rung a bell thanks to the many delightful hours I've misspent on the Archive of Our Own, I might well not have picked up on the characters' source. (Though Elliott's blond hair, gray eyes, economic class, and neglectful parents do constitute signal flags. Also -- we're in New Zealand -- Auckland apparently = Slytherins.)

Anyway! This is a fun book, well suited to fans of YA romance. Enemies-to-lovers Lite -- Elliott never seems that bad, though we hear of past bullying by his since-expelled friends; we're told that Tim detests him, but apart from a couple of mild imprecations we don't get a gut sense of mutual loathing. Tim Te Maro is essentially a romp, or at least that's how it came off for me: nothing terrible befalls anyone, none of the Maori characters encounter racism, Tim's classmates respond with a big *yawn* to his coming out as bi.

I'm not complaining about any of that! There is, of course, Heartsickness, as the title indicates: Tim falls hard for Elliott once they enter into an egg-baby-parents-with-benefits arrangement. Much internal wailing results. As usual in these sorts of stories, a little communication would do the MCs worlds of good, but we can't have that! After a while, the TEENAGE DRAMA started making me laugh. There's a little twist at the resolution, though, which I appreciated because it gave the boys a future that was both happy and, given that they're 17-year-olds, realistic.

This book will obviously be targeted by right-wing nutjobs just for featuring a love story between two boys. That was strike one. Strike two: the boys have sex. A lot of sex. And they are not each other's first partners. The sex is all fade-to-black after the kissing, but attentive readers -- and who's more attentive than a reader hitting puberty? -- will easily work out the specifics. Strike three: my goodness, people in New Zealand are far more relaxed about alcohol than people in the U.S. (to generalize, anyway).

About that last: I grew up at a time when the drinking age where I lived was 18. Also, my culture of origin is one where alcohol is served as a matter of course, with dinner and at celebrations. I had my first small sips of my parents' wine or brandy when I was still in single digits. I'm of the belief that the taboos around normalized drinking in this country serve only to produce young adults who have no idea how to manage alcohol socially. The kids in Tim Te Maro do an amount of drinking that raised even my eyebrows and they take some stupid risks (none of which involve driving, though). As for consequences -- well, they get (view spoiler) hungover! Which, honestly, is probably the most realistic thing in this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks, Netgalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
I truly enjoyed this book. The narrative sweetly throws you between reality and what's inside the mind of your protag Tim that you easily get addicted to the story from the very first page. The story is more focused on the enemies-to-lovers relationship between Tim and Elliot and the supporting characters around them are also flashed out well. Not much world-building around the magic system though which is actually very interesting. If you're fan of Rainbow Rowell's novels like me this is a perfect story for you. ^^ Definitely recommend it!

I enjoyed reading this!! The description calls this RWRB x The Magicians and it is not like either one of these, and I wouldn’t really call it enemies or rivals to lovers - maybe “two people who just aren’t friends in a mildly antagonistic way” to lovers. It is very fluffy (it is about two teens raising an egg baby). Nothing much really happens, other than the two main characters hooking up and dealing with their feelings. Most of the misadventures that move the plot happen off screen and though there are hints at potentials for conflict or malice or mystery, there are almost none of these things. What makes this book quite good though, is the relationship between the Tim and Elliott as their bond develops. Do not come into this expecting high stakes and magical battles, the magic system is pretty bare bones and the side characters are definitely all side characters who only exist as they are needed in the main characters’ lives. Tim and Elliott are sweet though, and this was a nice, quick read!!