Ugh I'm so frustrated, I was so ready to love this one to bits and yet... too many shortcomings and things I just can't get over.

I'm dreading this but okay, I'm ready. Let's get down to business.

Jude is an agender Cupid (they/them) who is on probation because he fell in love with a boy and ended up kissing him - which, as you can imagine - is a pretty big nono in the Cupids community. But he took some more classes, paid his dues, and is now ready for his next assignment: bringing together trans boy Huy and his ex-best-friend-who-secretly-had-a-crush-on-him, Alice. He has one month to enroll in their high school, become their friend and figuring out how to make them talk to each other again and bring the spark back.
However, the more they get to know Huy, the more they are captivated by this beautiful, sweet, kind Vietnamese boy and they are dreading the moment the mission will be completed and they'll have to leave behind their new teenage, the boy they're falling for and their new best friends and forever forgotten.

I will say right off the bat one incredible positive thing about Mason Deaver's books: whether I love them with my whole heart (The feeling of falling in love) or I find them just okay (I wish you all the best), they're always so bingeable - you could easily read them in one sitting or in a couple of days because they flow so well and have an addictive sort of component to them that I can't quite explain but somehow works! Especially when they nail the audiobook narrator, which is the case with this one because my goodness Meyers Max was just incredible and totally deserves recognition.

HOWEVER. If you put aside for a moment the wonderfully done trans rep (and queer rep in general), the book is pretty average, eye-roll inducing and contains many YA tropes and elements I thought we would have left behind by now.

The first thing that annoyed me quite a bit is the same thing that made (or, better yet, was supposed to make) this book unique: the Cupids.
Mason Deaver decided to introduce a sort of magical/paranormal (??) element to the story by having Cupid characters but somehow forgot to give us any relevant information on them, no worldbuilding, no explanation as to why they exist or how they came to exist or even more generally how the whole Cupid business works.
All we know is that they're not human (and yet they live on Earth, do not have any specific magical powers/abilities and eat/sleep/walk like all human beings?!) and that they get assigned to couples to bring them together.
Uhm okay. Is that supposed to be sufficient?
- How about where do the assignment come from? What is the criteria for giving out these assignments? Is it believable that a teen Cupid gets assigned an adult couple? Mmm.
- Where do the Cupids come from? The only bit of information we're given about this is that Jude was taken by their family and they don't remember their parents. Does that mean you become a Cupid? Are you born a Cupid and can you be born from humans? Do those humans know or do Cupids make forget them all about their newborn child? Or, if the parents are also Cupids, then why are the newborn Cupids taken away from their parents?
- Where do they get the money from to live on Earth and pay rent? Are they angels and is there a bank in Heaven to which they can bill their expenses? Because Jude and Lia (their handler/fake sister/supervisor) live in an apartment in San Francisco and they're renting it from someone and they go to restaurants and eat food so there has to be money involved, right?
And so many many more questions that you can't but ask yourself and you get no answer to whatsoever throughout the novel and, I'm sorry, but that bothered me quite a bit because if you decide to not write just a contemporary novel but to add something different to it... well, then I want you to do it properly and in a way that can satisfy the suspension of disbelief and make it realistic and believable to me when I'm reading it.

The second thing that annoyed me to no end is something that is - very unfortunately - pretty common in young adult books but that I really was not expecting to find here is the cluelessness of the MC to their love interest's crush.
The synopsis reads (and I quote): "As a cupid, Jude thinks they understand love a little bit more than the average human. It makes sense -- Jude's been studying love their whole teen life.", which makes sense, right?
And YET Jude is completely blind to the fact that Huy pretty much obviously only has eyes for them and Alice is developing a crush for someone else and that (view spoiler), like hello? Were you not supposed to be an expert at all things love related?!
That plus the oh so lovely (I'm being sarcastic) YA trope that you're a teenager, you've known someone for less than a month and you already know for sure you're in love and you might be together forever and you're willing to give up everything and everyone you know for that person... Yup, that too.

The last thing that sealed the "this Mason Deaver book wasn't really *it* for me" deal was the ending.
What kind of ending was that. In a way, it was coherent with the very few rules about the Cupids world that had been explained, but at the same time it opened the door to so many more questions related to this alternate reality of our world that the author created and with a deus ex machina sort of twist it further compromised the precarious believability left in the story. It felt like an easy, unsatisfying - and perhaps the only one possible? - way out.

I know it seems like I'm destroying this book: I'm not. I had a good time, I listened to it whenever I could and I was involved in the story and the characters' lives and I was rooting for them and so on and so forth.
I'm just speaking like someone who deeply believes this author can do and accomplish so much and had great expectations from this book but ultimately ended up being disappointed as a result. This felt like not one but 10 steps back from what they had done in The feeling of falling in love and that's what I wanted to find in here and didn't.
I'll keep reading whatever Mason Deaver comes out next and I hope they'll keep on growing as an author and publish so many more great queer stories but this one undoubtedly is my least favorite book by them.

Thanks to scholastic and netgalley for the ears copy of this book!

I continue to be a fan of Mason Deaver. This is only the second book I’ve read from them, but they write thoughtful, character-driven, queer YA stories (currently; I’m very excited about their next work which seems will be in the adult romance genre). Despite being past the YA age range, I can still appreciate a well-written book and this is one I would have loved to have had when I was in high school. I think I also need to give Mason kudos for writing YA books that truly are for young teens - this is a book about and specifically for them.

Jude as a character is so sweet and I just wanted to wrap them up in a blanket the whole time I was reading. The other characters - Cal and Huy and Alice and Neve - were well realized and distinguishable too. I feel like I could read another 300 pages about them all! I feel like maybe the Cupid thing and the dynamic between Jude and Leah could have been developed more, but ultimately I still had fun with this. It’s a cute little book and def one I’d immediately suggest for queer teens.

Okay, Cupid is an incredibly sweet book with excellent representation. I enjoyed the MC a lot of the overall narrative as we navigated through the story. I think this was a cute read with some great deeper themes sprinkled throughout. Overall it was very enjoyable!

This is the first book I’ve read by Mason Deaver, and it was a sweet one.

Okay, Cupid is a very cute YA rom-comish book where our main character Jude is having a bit of a hard time being a Cupid.

The concept of Cupid in this world was something that I truly loved. When I think of Cupid I always thing of stereotypical cherubs in diapers with wings, but here we have cupids that are blending in with society, and doing subtle things in their targets life to complete their tasks.


I really loved the story as a whole. We see our MC Jude faced with the “do what’s expected of you or do what best for you” dilemma. Since Jude is still a young Cupid we see him face the complexity of his fears, his greater responsibilities, and choosing the unknown.

I still have mixed feelings about the ending mainly because it kinda broke my heart. I’m not going to spoil it because it was a big decision made by Jude in the end.

Now I have to backtrack and read I Wish You All Best!

4.25 stars!

a super interesting premise that i enjoyed a lot! i really loved the characters, with great diversity and representation all throughout the book.

docked a few points because i’m a little bummed about the last like 15% of the book maybe? the last chapter made up for it a bit!!

This book put me through so much emotional distress . . . and I loved it.

Mason Deaver has been one of my favorite authors for a couple years now and I couldn't have been more excited for Okay, Cupid. The idea of having cupids in our lives to match up humans, then be forgotten they ever existed in their lives sounds like the perfect story, except when cupids fall in love themselves. It broke my HEART hearing about these rules and knowing the direction this story was going.

Something that I really appreciated about this book is the fact that these character's sexualities and genders weren't the main focus the story, it was about people in love. LGBTQ+ stories shouldn't always have to be a coming out story with homophobia and transphobia, and I think that's why I've always liked Mason's books. (I'm aware that their first book I Wish You All the Best is a coming out story, but that's not what I'm talking about here.)

This book tugged at my heartstrings HARD, and I wasn't expecting it to affect me so much. I will be thinking about Okay, Cupid for the next couple of WEEKS, maybe even MONTHS. It's going to make me lose my mind (in the best way possible).

Last summer, Jude, a Cupid in training, fell in love with a boy at camp. It was … well, it was a disaster. Cupid’s aren’t meant to fall in love, they’re meant to inspire it, to help humans find it. One kiss was all it took and the boy Jude was in love with no longer knew Jude even existed, the entire memory of Jude erased in a heartbeat, and Jude was left heartbroken.

Now, it’s time to get back on the horse and get back to work. Rachel, Jude’s mentor and the sister who raised them, has a new job for Jude. Jude’s going to be going to high school for a month to help two young humans — Huy Trinh and Alex Tran — fall back in love. Somewhere, between middle school and high school, they lost that spark and are now not even talking to one another.

Going to human school sounds like fun! Making people in love is Jude’s calling. This should all be a piece of cake … until it isn’t. Jude’s life is spiraling and they don’t know how to fix it, or if they even want to. Is it so bad to want a little love of their own?

Jude is a non-binary and transgender Cupid who struggles more with their Cupid identity than they do with their gender. Discovering who they were was hard, yes, but there was an easy answer at the end of the question: Jude was going to be Jude, and that involves clothing that feels right, makeup, and a gender-neutral pronoun. Whether they want to be a Cupid anymore is a harder question.

Being a Cupid, Jude gets to help people fall in love and, as a fan of every Romcom ever made, Jude loves love. The mystery of it, the fun of it, the meet cutes and first kisses, the rush of joy and delight … it’s Jude’s addiction. But is that because they’re a Cupid, or because they want to fall in love? When a Cupid makes a couple fall in love, their task is done. The people they interacted with forget the Cupid ever existed, as their memories are wiped clean and they embark on their new life. It makes it hard to make friends outside of the Cupid circle; it’s isolating and emotionally draining.

Then there’s high school. There, Jude meets Alex and Neve, Alex’s best friend, along with Huy, a young man who is also transgender. Making friends with Alex and Neve is work, but making friends with Huy is … easy. They share a sense of humor, they’re both transgender, and when Huy smiles at Jude, their heart stops. Huy is handsome, charming, kind, perfect. He’s the ideal love interest in every high school love story, and Jude is working so hard to get him back together with Alex, focusing so tightly on the goal, that they don’t have time to think or realize that they’re falling in love with Huy themself.

This is about coming of age and falling in love all at the same time, as Jude has to decide for themselves if they want the life their parents and family have set out for them, or if they want to make the leap and become human. It’s also a story with a very open ending, leaving it up to the reader to decide what they think happens. That may not be to everyone’s taste, but it did work for me.

The romance is sweet and slow, the friendships feel grounded, and both the writing and the pacing were solid. I appreciated that this story has no angst, no anti-anything, and is just a good mood in book form. If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it.

Link to interview for Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/mason-deaver-plays-cupid-with-their-characters/

This book was an absolute treat! A T4T romance that used magic to explore a tender and funny queer love story. Like Deaver's previous work, this book balanced humor and joy and flirty banter with the big big feelings of being a young person in love. This is a great addition to Deaver's body of work, and I look forward to more readers connecting with this book!!

*3.75 Stars*

As a Cupid, Jude's entire path has been drawn for them. They can't fall in love or kiss anyone. This has not worked out for them lately and this last job is not helping. They're doing a long job in a school and they're making friends and trying their best not to fall for the person they're meant to help fall in love.

I loved that this had a non-binary MC, but I wasn't really convinced by the rest. I wasn't all that enthralled by the plot and while I did like some of the characters, I didn't fall for them like I thought I would. I was expecting a bit more from the whole story I think. A bit more depth, a bit more layers? I was also let down by the ending. It was not what I expected and I do usually like an unexpected ending, this was pretty disappointing. It was a fast read, which I always appreciate but it left me feeling like it could have been more...

This book was so cute. I haven’t read many books with cupids but this book was so fun and complex. I loved Jude and seeing them adjust to high school life and make friends was amazing. The book was so good and I highly recommend reading it. I also loved the way the book ended since it gave so much hope while not having things wrapped up perfectly in a bow.

*thank you NetGalley and push scholastic for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book and how it touched on the feelings of the trans and nonbinary community. I also loved Jude and how he was able to build relationships with everyone he meets but they was definitely clueless to love when they’re supposed to be a Cupid 😂😂.

The premise of Cupids ensuring certain people get together in our modern-day world is so exciting and very well executed. I loved the lore of Cupids and knowing how they fit in with society. The author also explored the downsides of the same - how Cupids aren't left with much freedom in their lives, how they move on from one group or couple to another, being forgotten altogether. This comes to form a huge theme in the book but we'll get to that later.

The book explores through other Cupids how humans are messy and below Cupids, as in they need their help in falling in love and are truly not worth forming messy relationships with. And while Jude has their own family amongst the Cupids, they can't help but wonder what it would be like to live a human life with friends and school. Jude's new job of ensuring Huy and Alice get together explores this desire.

I thoroughly enjoyed the various themes that were explored: the freedom to be who you are, what it means to fall in love and the humanity of it all. I think the author does a great job of making this a light-hearted and cute book while still grounding the story in these philosophical and social topics.

And if you're a foodie, prepare to salivate because the amount of delicious food, especially Vietnamese food (two of the side characters are Vietnamese) that was described certainly made my mouth water.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, because I've enjoyed Mason Deaver's previous books, and I'm always SO here for a T4T (non-binary x trans guy, in this case) romance. Unfortunately, it was mostly just okay.

I wanted to love this so badly, but the book just didn't work for me for two reasons. One is personal preference: I found the writing to be very mediocre and not up to speed for an author with several books out. The humour and the characters' voices kind of grated on me, and they annoyed me, which is very much a personal issue, but one that made me enjoy the book a lot less.

The second reason is that I didn't think the book was fleshed out enough in any way. The concept of cupids was so interesting, and it was such a fun idea to add a supernatural element like that, but the story was really lacking in world building and background. I also didn't feel like the characters had enough depth, which explains why the romance didn't draw me in.

Hey Jude….

This was the most precious read ever?! So emotional. So sweet. Absolutely swoon worthy too. Mason Deaver can do no wrong, this book just confirms my love of their words!

Okay, Cupid by Mason Deaver is an adorable trans-for-trans YA romance. Our MC Jude is a nonbinary cupid who must pretend to be human and navigate the complexities of being a teenager and high school relationships.

As a cupid, they are supposed to help Huy and Alice fall back in love, so Jude befriends both of them. It quickly becomes clear that Huy and Alice may not be meant for each other, but their friendship deserves a second chance. Somewhere in this mess, Jude ends up having a crush on Huy; however cupids shouldn’t fall in love with humans, so if Jude kisses Huy, he’ll forget all about Jude's existence. I loved the cute story and characters but one issue I had was that because of the kissing clause the book puts itself into a bit of a corner, making the happily-ever-after impossible.

That said Mason Deaver once again excels in weaving a compelling narrative with relatable characters. Overall, Okay, Cupid is a charming, feels-inducing read.

(Thanks NetGalley and Scholastic for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own)

Thank you @scholastic @mason_deaver @coloredpagesbt for including me in the book tour and free book to read and review.

🤔in your relationships are you the one to admit your crush or your partner?

Rating 5/5☆
Physical Hardback
311 pages
Pub day January 2, 2024 - out now
scholastic
Gr avg. 4.02/5⭐

*swoon*
This book was the absolute perfect one to start off 2024 with. The very first page had a line that captures my attention something like "love is so magical except humans.... always getting in their own way, letting their anxieties and fears distract them, never being bold enough to make that move..."

That is so accurate how many crushes weren't told you like them what's the harm in letting people know you have a wee crush on them... how many relationships start with someone making the first move...

Deaver is a master of taking words and making them into beautiful books and with the most incredible cast of characters that you root for and cheer on the entire time.

Suggest giving this one a try

3.5 rounded up to 4

This was a really good book with a unique premise!! Jude is a cupid, which means that they help humans fall in love. They get sent to a high school for their next assignment, but what happens when Jude can’t keep their emotions from getting in the way?

The best part of this book was the characters. Each character was so unique and I loved all of them!! My favorite was probably Alice, she was super relatable to me, but I also liked Huy. Everyone’s friendship by the end of the novel was super fun to read about.

Everything about this book was really good, and it would have probably gotten 4 stars… until the ending. It wasn’t a HEA, but more of a sad ambiguous open ending. I don’t really mind that, I like that it wasn’t necessarily happy, but I wasn’t really going into this book thinking I wouldn’t get a happy ending.

This was really cute! I enjoyed the premise of cupids helping humans fall in love, though as the story went on it became clear that the cupids don't think highly of humans. With the exception of Jude. I liked how Jude starts to question not only his feelings and his role in the lives of humans, but the entire system and the way cupids look down on human emotions. I loved the high school setting and the friends that Jude makes. Each character is vibrant and authentic, their personalities and stories practically bubbling up from the pages. The love stories that unfold are sweet, complex, and worthy of their own romcom. This book also feels like a love song for San Francisco - its unique neighborhoods, its melting pot of cultures, and its never ending buffet of foods to try. Overall this is rich and highly enjoyable tale of love in its many facets.

"Okay, Cupid" by Mason Deaver is a delightful read that captures the essence of teenage love and the complexities that come with it. The protagonist, Jude, a cupid in training, navigates the intricate web of emotions while attempting to matchmake two estranged best friends.

Deaver masterfully weaves a lighthearted narrative, infusing it with wit and charm, making it a story I wish I had encountered during my formative years. The book cleverly delves into the uncertainties and nuances of relationships, presenting a fresh perspective on the trials and tribulations of teenage romance.

Jude's journey through high school, trying to mend the broken bond between two friends, offers a refreshing take on the intricacies of young love. Their attempts to stay detached and follow the rules of matchmaking while dealing with their own emotions make for a captivating and endearing storyline.

The book's exploration of the complexities of love amidst the backdrop of adolescence is both heartwarming and relatable. Overall, "Okay, Cupid" is a cleverly cute and heartfelt tale that effortlessly captures the essence of love, friendship, and the messiness that often accompanies both. It's a must-read for anyone navigating the tumultuous waters of teenage relationships.

Thank you NetGalley, Mason Deaver, & Scholastic for the ARC!

A very cute story with a hopeful ending. I did read this in about 24 hours and it was a nice, easy way to start off my 2024 reading.

Jude and Huy were very cute and I also enjoyed Jude’s friendships with Neve and Alice. I wish we had gotten a glimpse into the future to see where all the characters ended up.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.