I'll be honest, there's almost an entire star solely for how much queer and trans joy in finding yourself there is on the pages and how much it had me grinning for that.

As a YA queer-coming-of-age, it's great, taking a lot of teenage angst and experiences and putting it through the pressure cooker of a band trip. My favorite part was definitely the scavenger hunt in the bookstore, with Leo and Abby getting to experience other people just accepting them and letting them be and having fun.

As an adult, however, I definitely had a lot of anxiety about the two of them skipping out on so much of their planned trip and making their friends cover for them, and the realizing from both of them that they were in love with the other after a day did feel rushed, but hey. Teenagers.

I did love Leo's description of when everything clicks into place during a marching band performance - it's how I always feel during a good chorus performance, and it was nice to see it reflected here.

This book was perfect start to finish. I didn’t like some of the characterization, but that was more of a personal preference than a general opinion. I thought the plot was original and well executed, and the characters were so cute. Abby and Leo definitely have my heart, and I loved the natural discussions of gender and sexuality without too much awkward exposition. This is definitely something I’d reccomend to younger queer audiences.

Leo and Abby are both traveling to New York with their high school marching bands for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. While on their sightseeing tours, they end up together on the wrong subway and ultimately decide to spend the day together going around Manhattan.

This was a really cute story about two queer teenagers falling in love with each other. They only know each other for one full day, so it is very instalove, but cute nonetheless.

Near the beginning, Leo says his phone is crappy and the battery is at 30-something percent. Yet he's still using it often to text, facetime, and use Google maps and the phone somehow does not die for an entire day. That's even more unrealistic than instalove.

Dash and Lily meets Ferris Bueller is a very good comparison for this.

I look forward to Edward Underhill's next book.

CW: mentions of transphobia and homophobia, mention of deadnaming

Rep: queer main character, trans character, ace side character, queer side characters, nonbinary side character.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

this book delivered on exactly what it claimed to be! a short, sweet insta-love about finding your place in the world as a queer teenager, complete with a dramatic final make-up and make-out scene, gratuitous descriptions of new york city at christmas, and a satisfying ending. not anything groundbreaking, but it didn’t need to be - there are 20 billion books with this exact plot and heterosexual couples. the gays deserve a win here.

<i> I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. </i>

I will be withholding all reviews and promotion for St. Martin's Press titles and their imprints until the publisher addresses the concerns of BIPOC and Muslim creators who are being stalked, harassed and feel unsafe due to the actions of a racist employee.

I wish I could submit a review for this book as trans voices need so much support but I will be withholding my review until SMP and Wednesday books meet the terms of the boycott and address the harm their employee has caused.

I adored Edward Underhill’s ALWAYS THE ALMOST so I happily accepted the opportunity to read THIS DAY CHANGES EVERYTHING. I love how Underhill incorporates music into his work, in this book the focus is high school marching band. As a former marching band geek, I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect and was more than a bit jealous that these bands got to play at the Macy’s parade in NYC. But the heart of this story is friendship, romance, and the universe (fate versus coincidence).

Abby is questioning her sexuality after developing feelings for her best friend Kat, while Leo is going through a tough time trying to be seen and accepted as a boy. Abby and Leo get on the wrong train and end up on a whirlwind adventure in NYC. The reader has to suspend disbelief at some of the turn of events, but I found it to be an enjoyable queer fantasy for two teenagers learning more about themselves and each other over the course of a day.

THIS DAY CHANGES EVERYTHING is a sweet YA story with a positive message, and a book that could change everything for young readers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending an eARC.

5 stars

Dear Edward Underhill, your books and characters are ADORABLE, and I am already looking forward to reading who and what you write next!

Ugh! The cuteness! Abby and Leo share perspectives in this extremely charming YA romance. Both are members of their high school marching bands, and both schools are off to New York for a little Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade pageantry. Oh, and they're also going to have an unexpectedly game changing day (see the title of this book!) with each other!

Readers start with Abby, who has big plans for this trip. She's somewhat recently realized that she's in love with her best friend, Mia, and she's going to get into some related grand gestures while they're in New York. In addition to the usual fears that might surround someone who was making such a vulnerable reveal, this is all made more challenging by the facts that (1) Abby doesn't know if Mia is queer and (2) Abby isn't out. There are a lot of feelings, and seasoned readers will hold their breath at times.

Leo has his own struggles, but they are not romantic. While his immediate family knows he's trans, his extended family (I laughed always at 'Ex Family') is NOT aware of his identity. They will learn about it when he's on TV for the parade, though, and there's a lot of strife around how his parents will react and how his extended family will behave. He is also constantly reminded of how absurd folks are on this trip as he finds himself bunking with girls and wondering about his safety in various restrooms, for example.

Abby and Leo have a lot on their minds when they find themselves together on the wrong train. This fateful separation from their respective bands/tour groups gives them space to think and, well, *other things*.

I loved so much about this book. It's a fast paced, easy read that centers on both a really sweet romance and some difficult but real life issues for both characters. The representation is also nicely handled and is informative but not didactic, which I think will appeal to readers with varying levels of understanding.

The ending wraps a bit abruptly, but this adds to the magic of the titular super important day.

I absolutely recommend this one and look forward to sharing it with my students in the near future.

I will always support authors with queer youth representation. I’m so happy to see more of it every year.

So, to be completely transparent, I only got this ARC because it was up for grabs on NetGalley. I did not like Underhill's debut, whatsoever, but I have read sophomore books and liked them. I figured I'd have another go-around and hoped I'd like this one.

You see my rating. I obviously didn't.

One thing I will say is that I liked that it wasn't instalove. Abby and Leo's first convo was awkward and weird, reflecting what I would feel was the realistic reaction anyone would have if they got lost with a stranger. But the story is suppose to be about strangers connecting and falling in love, and yet all I saw while reading was the lack of genuine chemistry between our leads. If anything, I either found them both annoying at best or boring at worst; the grumpy/sunshine dynamic taken to the extreme always irritates me. I had to skim near the end because I was just so done being with these characters.

The story also suffers because of the lackluster romance. I'm normally fine with two characters doing nothing but talking and exploring the setting, as long as they're both charming and interesting, of course. Without that, the story just drags and it isn't fun, anymore. The side characters were bland, too, their main elements essentially boiled down to distractors and cheerleaders for the leads to finally get together. The one part with side characters I liked the most was when Abby and Leo wet book hunting with a queer club. I would rather have read a book about the club than what is shown in the book.

Again, Underhill's writing is just fine but nothing exciting. I completely forgot the author has music degrees, because, again, the main character(s) can play music (Leo on snare and Abby with clarinet). The music playing scenes were a little better this time around, but I still found it boring.

Overall, this was just meh. I think I won't be reading anymore of Underhill's work, even if their ARCs are free to grab on NetGalley.

Such a cute book! This is the kind of book that I wish I had when I was a teen. I admire the quirks in the author’s writing, and the story was magical. It makes me want to believe in the Universe!

I’m looking forward to buying this book once it comes out!

Abby and Leo are so darn cute! I loved this story. It flows so well and the queer rep was amazing! I’m so happy to have had the chance to read it. Abby wants her love story in New York and also just wants to go back home. But they instead come together for an adventure around NYC. Such a magnificent story that makes me want to go to NYC too! The beginning was a bit slow but it picked up after the first 50 pages or so!

4/5 stars! Recommend for the queer rep, NYC adventures, love and friendships!

**Thank you to NetGalley for the free review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily!

Engaging and escapist. A recommended purchase for public YA and HS collections where romance is popular.

I wish I could enjoy this authors work, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work for me. This was me giving the author a second chance after disliking his first book, and I don’t think I’ll be reading anything else from him in the future.

Abby and Leo are two queer teens trying to discover who they are and where they fit into the world while on a trip to NYC, where both of their high school bands will be performing in the Thanksgiving Day parade. They are thrown together when they both get on the wrong train, taking them away from the comfort of their friends and into a magical whirlwind of a day in the city. Abby had planned to confess her feelings to her best friend, Kat, on the trip by giving her a copy of their favorite book that she had annotated specifically for her. In their rush to get back to their groups, Leo causes Abby to lose the book on the train. They spend the rest of the day trying to save Abby’s epic magical moment with Kat.
This book had me grinning and giggling and tearing up from start to finish. I loved getting to know these characters and watching them come into their own as the day goes on. This book is full of queer/trans joy and I hope that it finds its way into the hands of queer youth everywhere!
I would love to read more about Abby and Leo as their journeys continue!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A lively account of two queer teens lost in New York and falling in love despite themselves along the way, This Day Changes Everything is an excellent sophomore novel from Edward Underhill. I will admit that rom-coms are not usually my thing, but this was quite charming. All of the characters were quite endearing and relatable. The setting was fun, seeing Abby and Leo basically careening around so many different places in the city in their epic quest. Having never been there myself, I may not have been able to picture everything perfectly, but the prose was still transporting. I also loved learning more about experiences in high school marching band; this book made it sound so fun! And I definitely appreciated the Kansas City connection, since I'm from there.

This book had so many excellent and important themes that I'm glad were addressed. The main characters successfully went from completely lost at the beginning of the book (both literally and metaphorically) to figuring out maybe not everything about themselves and their situations, but enough, by the end. Underhill also doesn't shy away from discussing the difficulties faced by queer youth in states like Missouri and North Carolina, and also takes the time to emphasize the importance of community in the face of those kinds of situations. I also appreciated how labels were not treated as necessary here, because while they can be helpful, more people should know that they are not the be-all-end-all of queerness. And the representation of many different types of queerness! Finally, I found the concept of liminal spaces interesting, and enjoyed how it was deployed in the story to advance both the plot and character arcs. I had never thought of things in that way before.

Though I would have enjoyed having an epilogue seeing where Abby and Leo (and their friends) ended up, it did make sense to end the story there, considering that moment, and the book overall, was a liminal space. The space between before and after became a joyful and hopeful way to conclude this story, and should serve as a reminder to all queer youth that they can get, and deserve to get, their own epic love stories, no matter what kind. And find so much joy and serendipity along the way.

This book made me kick my feet giggling it was so precious. I'll write a more eloquent review later but all I really have to say is: READ IT.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for gifting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

I was very excited for this book, but the plot ended up making me way too anxious once Leo and Abby decided to intentionally skip their schools' itineraries to do their own thing. I loved the idea of it (and really hope things worked out for both characters) but I found myself too fixated on everything that could go wrong to be able to enjoy the ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read a digital ARC.

This Day Changes Everything is a fun read. Its all about making connections and self discovery.

I finished This Day Changes Everything yesterday morning, and "you exist to me" is literally all I can think about. I wish I had better words to say how in love with this book I am and what a vital, moving tale Edward Underhill has crafted, but (unlike him) I don't have those words, so this little review's going to have to suffice.

This Day Changes Everything is the queer Hallmark movie I so desperately want to exist. Told in the alternating POVs of Midwestern marching band kids Abby and Leo, TDCE takes us through one big whirlwind day in NYC before the performance of their lifetime in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. While Abby cannot wait to perform in the parade, the thing that's giving her butterflies is the thought of spending a whole day in NYC with her bestie, Kat, who she is secretly in love with. Abby and Kat are both obsessed with The Hundred Romances of Clara Jane, a fictional romance novel about a woman who lives the same day over and over until she finds her dream guy, and Abby plans to give Kat her annotated copy, filled with gushing confessions, on this trip. The problem? No one in Abby's town is queer, and she fears not only Kat's rejection, but what queerness means in a small town.

Leo, on the other hand, dreads everything about the parade, mainly because Leo's family will be seeing him perform...and this extended family has no idea that he is trans. His only concern is making it through the parade without being outed on national television and with constantly being a Logistical Headache on this very gendered tour (think: bathroom situations AND rooming situations). And then...he gets lost on the tour. He and Abby end up on the same train, and neither one of them can make it back in time. After a TON of NYC subway confusion, Abby decides to make the best of being lost and wrangles Leo into a "THRoCJ" tour, trying to find a souvenir for Kat at each stop in the book.

The set-up is adorable and Underhill uses it so well! As someone who gets lost every time I'm in New York, I was cracking up at their derailed tour, and I love how many famous hallmarks of NYC appear on the pages (The Strand and its queer book club was my favorite by far). The chemistry between Abby and Leo is incredible, and their discussions of queerness and unpacking what this romance means to them is something that had me tearing up. Everything, from fearing familial judgement to not being "queer enough" to having no clue what labels fit and questioning whether labels should fit at all, is covered, and (unlike how some YA books can come across as textbook-y with this kinda stuff) it felt so natural and woven into the plot, which is how it should be!! Representation matters, and representation that represents the messy mess of teenage queerness, but ALSO the abundant joy of it, makes me want to shout from the rooftops. I want to shove this book at every queer, questioning, etc, teen and be like "please read this." I am a whole-ass twenty-five year old adult and I was sobbing because of how seen I felt.

This Day Changes Everything is the kind of book that may truly change everything for the teen who picks it up. This is a stunning, literary rom com and I will most certainly read anything Edward Underhill writes next.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's/Wednesday, and Edward Underhill for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review! Literally everything that comes from St. Martin's/Wednesday is incredible. You all are my dream publishers, I hope you know that!!

Side note: reading this right after Thanksgiving absolutely slaps. My only beef with this book is the February publication date. This is a holiday book, I rest my case.