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.

Abbey and Leo's story deals with coming of age and coming out, finding queer community, and falling in love, all in the backdrop of New York City. The story is so sweet and vulnerable and also a little nerdy (former band kids will especially enjoy) - I loved it.

While yes this book book is YA, it very much lends to its younger YA audience - being an adult reader I can appreciate that, while also recognizing that it may have been too young for me personally to enjoy fully. For audiences 18 or younger, especially queer youth, this is such an excellent story.

Outside of how well this book offers rep - there were a few stylistic choices and subjective preferences I struggled with that ultimately landed me at a 3 star with this one:

While I loved how this was a short and sweet read - the insta-love feel of Leo and Abbey's romance made me feel a bit removed from it. While I felt the portrayals of their character growth was beautiful, it also felt very minimal - we didn’t get a ton of time to explore them as people or get to really know them deeply. I've read novellas where I could feel the weight and impact of a person's depth accomplished by the writer in a very short time. With this story, I kept feeling frustrated that so much time was being eaten up with content repetition.

I was not a huge fan of the ending - I won’t spoil anything but I felt more could have been done to really round the story out - it felt abrupt and I was not expecting to turn the page to find the acknowledgments. I would have loved an epilogue.

A massive thank you to — and NetGally for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After reading Always the Almost, I was extremely excited to read Underhill's sophomore novel. I have to say that This Day Changes Everything did not disappoint! Leo and Abby are such lovable little queer teens getting ready to play with their respective schools at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When they meet after accidentally getting on the wrong train, they set off on a magical journey across NYC. Leo is coming t terms with just hoe broad of a coming out he will have on national television, and Abby is reckoning with having feelings for her (maybe?) straight BFF. I absolutely adored how natural the pacing and characterization felt, and how Leo and Abby spoke so plainly about their hopes and fears. Edward Underhill's writing has continually charmed me, and I look forward reading whatever he writes next!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
Overall entertaining read. My first by the author. I own another book, I should read it soon.
I loved that as readers we were taken through New York with these characters. I liked the setting and I liked the storytelling.

If you enjoy rom coms that are queer you will enjoy this book. I had a little bit of an issue with the pacing, especially with knowing that the main characters had a chance of being found out with what they were doing. I loved the discussions about being queer within the novel. This was an extremely wholesome novel and would definitely recommend it to younger audiences! 

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Both Abby and Leo’s bands have been chosen to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, where Abby is excited about the opportunity, Leo isn’t as much. For Abby, New York is her chance to tell her best friend she’s in love with her with a huge romantic gesture–an annotated copy of their favorite book. She has it all planned out. On the other hand, Leo is afraid of getting outed as trans to his entire extended family and just wants the day to be over.

After they both get on the wrong train, Leo causes Abby to lose her book. Separated from their bands, they decide to spend the day in New York getting Abby souvenirs to give her best friend instead. But the more they spend time together, the more they realize that maybe there’s a spark.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of This Day Changes Everything by Edward Underhill to review! Underhill’s debut, Always the Almost, was such a great read, so I was excited to pick this one up.

Let me start by saying: why didn’t this come out in November? I can think of very few YA books set around Thanksgiving, and I think a November release date makes so much more sense. I get that it’s a romance, so that’s probably why it’s coming out in February, but still. It would have made such a great November book!

Anyway, the characters in this are so well-rounded and realistic. Both of them come from smallish towns, trying to figure out how to best live their queer identities where they don’t know a lot of queer people. For Abby especially, getting to be in New York and see the possibilities gave her the confidence to come out to her friends. On the flipside, Leo is out, but has a lot of anxiety around his extended family seeing him and accepting him. They both work well as narrators, and Underhill creates distinct voices for both of them.

This book is being pitched as Ferris Bueller meets Dash and Lily, and honestly, what a great description. You get a bunch of fun adventures roaming around New York city, all the while you can tell that Abby and Leo are growing feelings for each other. It’s such a fun, lighthearted story, with a supporting cast that is there for their friends, no matter what.

With this and his debut, I think Underhill is carving out his place in the YA queer romance genre. I can’t wait to see what else he does next!

As a former marching band kid, this book was everything I wanted in a contemporary romance! When Leo and Abby get separated from their bands during a trip to NYC for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, they form an unlikely friendship and decide to explore the city together. But when they start discovering romantic feelings for each other, what will it mean for their future? 👀

More than anything, I loved how unapologetically queer this book was! With a trans main character and another discovering their queerness, it’s an adorable exploration of what being queer means and how finding queer community can make a world of difference for teenagers. The characters deal with family issues surrounding their gender identity, living in places where being out isn’t popular or accepted, and understanding what “label”, if any, is the best fit for them.

The romance between the two was so cute. Grumpy trans boy meets sunshine queer girl on an epic quest over the course of a single day. They follow the plot of her favorite book around the city. The magic of New York during the holidays was vividly described—I really felt like I was there. ❄️

I highly recommend adding this to your tbr and preordering it! The book releases on February 12, 2024. I wish I’d had this book as a teenager! ❤️ A huge thanks to the publisher and author for giving access to a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this, a rare book where a trans guy gets a girlfriend but the author is clearly so concerned that writing trans m/f is not "queer enough" that the characters drip with his own insecurities. But since they both lack a backbone or a personality this insecurity make up most of who they are during the book.

I'd buy kids falling in love in a day because they're extra like that but older teenagers? Especially one who already start the day madly in love with someone else?

This book is a disappointing combo of undeveloped themes. Leo being "too much" is genuinely interesting to explore