I really enjoyed this book! It feels like it truly fits into the subgenre of the romcom, the romance is a central focus but it’s also not the only focus of the story. The cupid elements were a little bit removed from everything else in my opinion, but they work to expose some of the heart of the story which was ultimately the best part. What works best about OKAY, CUPID is the genuine heart of it, the uncertainty, the quiet longing, and the joy of finding new friends. I’m not quite sure I can say this is my favourite Mason Deaver book (though it upsets what I might have thought was my favourite) and I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes romcoms or any of Deaver’s other books!

Even though I’ve been looking forward to this book since it was first announced, it also surprised me where I wasn’t really expecting it. It falls into a lot of classic not-quite-tropes of the romcom, but through a lens of queerness that makes it feel genuine and a little bit unique. I’ll admit, I’m growing out of the YA romance in a lot of senses, but I still had fun and felt like even if these characters were highschoolers, it didn’t feel locked up in that aspect. It’s a lot of not-quite-first love and realising that maybe the feelings were there long. It’s two trans people falling in love, and making a choice not just because of a crush or a relationship but because of the way love reveals something deeper and more expansive and more human.

The best part of this book for me was the friendships, and the way that romance spawns from friendship. A lot of Jude’s exploration is what it means to be human, and I think they arrive in this place wherein the love and occasional loss become that moment. Also as a side note, the way that Jude feels and talks about gender and identity felt really relatable to me personally and I loved to see this more nuanced take of being trans/nonbinary! As a whole, I think this book is fun and a great addition to romcoms while still being it’s own enjoyable thing; go check it out!

Thank you to Netgalley for this book. I didnt care for this book i liked the characters and the beginning. But the ending just kinda ruined it for me. Its not a bad book just not one for me to like.

I couldn't put this book down! It was so cute. I easily fell in love with all the main characters, especially Huy. I laughed and cried and even though the story went in the exact direction I thought it would, I still loved it. Lots of diverse characters and a trans protagonists. I loved the representation. A great, light, YA read to start the year out on. 5 out of 5 recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with an eARC of Okay, Cupid in exchange for my honest review!

While I significantly prefer Mason Deaver's I Wish You All the Best, I had an enjoyably breezy and fluffy time with Okay, Cupid. It gets me vibing with an ensemble of lovable characters and makes it easy to root for them to find joyful endings. It's particularly fun to follow Jude and Huy scenes together, and the queerness of this book just feels so natural and cozy to dive into. The nods that this lends to movies and rom-com fare (including The Devil Wears Prada) puts a smile on my face as well. At the same time, though, this isn't warming my heart as much as I want it to; I'm not clicking with it as much as I had with I Wish You All the Best. I believe the lack of fleshed-out worldbuilding for the cupid system plays a role in that, leaving me feeling detached from the narrative at certain points.

Overall, I'm officially rating Okay, Cupid 3.25 out of 5 stars, which I'll round down to 3 stars. I wish I could have come out of it with a more strongly positive reaction, but it's still a fluffy good time. I'll continue to await more of Deaver's work.

This is my first book that touches so heavy on transgender themes. I really enjoyed that aspect, as someone who doesn't really know much about it.

The story itself is very YA, but I loved it. Boy falls for boy, boy can't have boy, and you can guess from there.

Seeing the story play out, there was a few times I could feel my heart breaking for our MC's. I really felt connected to them, and was rather sad when it ended. I'd love to follow them around in a second book!

Mason Deaver does it again! Honestly anything they write I know I’ll love and this was no different! This is definitely their lightest book and I absolutely adored! Everything from the characters to the setting was so vivid and fun!
Also Jude!!! Jude is one of my favorite main characters that I’ve read about in a minute! Even though they are a Cupid and their problems should not be so relatable, Mason delivers them in the most relatable way possible!
My only big complaint about this book is that I wish we would have gotten a little more of an explanation on how the Cupid magic works.

3.5⭐️ - I didn't quite connect with a decent portion of this book. I think the lack of consistency with Cupid/Cupid rules pulled me out a bit. I very much enjoyed the setting though, as well as the friend group. And I absolutely loved the ending. The ending earned at least an extra half star for me.

Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours and I Read YA for sending me an advanced copy of this book to review.

After falling for a human, kissing him, and losing his memory because of their Cupid Magic, Jude is desperate to make up for their past mistakes and make their Cupid mentors proud. But when their next assignment takes them to a high school and requires them to make friends they've never had before, everything might just go wrong again. Can Jude resist falling in love and do their job, or will they mess things up once again?

This one was very enjoyable. I always love Mason Deaver's books and am glad this wasn't as heartbreaking as some of their others. I loved Jude a lot but I REALLY loved Huy. I also enjoyed the other friends that Jude made at the high school and other characters in the novel. I thought the romance was cute and charismatic with a touch of forbidden-love.

The parts of this book that worked best for me were the non-fantasy sections. I enjoyed the friendships and school days and romance and doughnuts. I didn't love the cupid parts as much and I think maybe it's because it was such a small focus that it never really felt explained. There are parts that are just chocked up to Cupid-Magic and none of it is ever put into detail. I also didn't love the way it ended.

All in all, this was a pretty good read and I loved the romance part of it (T4T!). I definitely recommend this book if you're in the mood for an adorable teen romance with some light fantasy elements.

3.5 stars- What I liked was the feeling of being transgender in America today, it’s not good but in the case of Jude in California, not the worst it could be. It’s the quintessential teenage high school romance where one player is a transgender non-binary non-human Cupid, who’s tasked with getting the other, a trans-masculine guy, to fall in love with the girl of their dreams. High school is messy and high school romance is messy as well. I liked the characters but not the plot. Cupid could have been replaced with a human as little to no explanation of Cupid’s world occurred. Thanks to Scholastic/PUSH and NetGalley for the ARC. I received an advance review copy and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Jude’s a cupid whose job is to help people find true love. They’ve had a rough time recently, but things are back on track and they’re ready for their next mission. Next up, Jude’s heading to high school to help two former friends and first loves find their way back to each other. Sounds simple and straightforward, right? In matters of the heart, things rarely are.

At its core, OKAY, CUPID is a story about love, life, and following your heart. It’s a testament to love itself - the hope and promise of love, falling in love, and being in love. It’s that sweet, satisfying, messy kind of YA romance that manages to be introspective and thoughtful without being overly or unnecessarily dramatic. Mason Deaver touches on classic coming of age themes with a fresh, modern perspective that doesn’t shy away from topics like gender identity, social justice, mental health, generational trauma, and familial expectations.

Deaver is a talented storyteller who brings vibrant, diverse characters to life in a captivating story layered with emotion. Jude confronts a fair number of existential questions, and I enjoyed the ups and downs of their mission as they fight to balance duty with desire. There’s a magnitude to everything happening throughout the book that conveys its significance without coming across as heavy, even when it’s tugging at your heartstrings.

I also really loved the friendships in this story and how they capture the challenges of growing up and learning about life. There’s a raw, naked vulnerability that shines through that made me appreciate the open and honest communication taking place, even when it’s hard. I was struck by how friendship can be as important and impactful as romantic relationships, and it’s tough to imagine where Jude, Huy, Alice, or Neve would be without it.

mason deaver has never let me down. gosh i'm so in love with this book and it's the perfect read to end 2023/begin 2024 with. this was my 100th book :)

ya know, we tend to throw the word romcom around a LOT and sometimes when it's not appropriate. but this is a true romcom, hitting all the highs and emotional swells that come with the genre.

it's FUNNY, with every character having hilarious and quick banter. it's the kind of dialogue that has a rhythm to it and jumps off the page.

and whew the romance. obviously with a book based around cupid, there's going to be big romantic moments. and there are. but the best stuff comes from the small, introspective moments between Jude and Huy.

gosh i loved it. so much. i usually ugly cry at least once during Mason's books and this was no different.

so many wonderful themes about identity and putting yourself first and taking risks.

love love love!!

ALSO: love that Mason acknowledged the weird time frame at the movies when all the awards movies are done and the spring blockbusters haven't started yet. some strange in between of hoping to find something good. and i love, of all movies, MOONFALL was referenced

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I was greatly looking forward to Okay, Cupid since I really enjoyed Mason Deaver's previous works. I was curious to see how Deaver would approach the fantasy genre since their other books were all contemporary. The concept of Cupids seemed interesting plus I was already on board with a non-binary main character.

Jude is a Cupid and in a bit of trouble after his last assignment went sideways. Now they're faced with uncertainty about their ability to fulfill their cases, but they've been given a new challenge of playing Cupid for two high school students. But of course, things just can't go smoothly this time around either.

This was a really cute book overall! I really liked the friendship between Alice, Neve, Jude, and Huy, and I loved the diverse character representation with queer, nonbinary, and trans POC characters. One extra tidbit I enjoyed were all the different pop culture references (particularly the K-pop ones for me. Jungkook gender envy is so real). I admit I didn't love this one as much as some of Deaver's other works though. The pacing felt a bit slow to me, and I wish the Cupid system was a bit more explained. Not much worldbuilding is provided since it takes place in the present day, but I think the readers could have been provided some more details and information about the fantasy aspect. I liked the idea of the Cupids, but I found myself with many questions like how are Cupids chosen? Are they birthed into it? Are they immortal? How does assignment delegation work? Can Cupids play cupid with each other? Also, I don't mind a good open ending, and while I didn't dislike how the book ended, I still had a lot of remaining questions about Jude and Huy.

But overall, it was an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute, fun, queer YA novel, and I would definitely still read/request anything Mason Deaver writes.

I really wanted to be into this story more but right from the beginning the story felt forced. Jude is a Cupid and there to help people get together. The background of Cupids wasn’t really explained well enough so I didn’t understand why everyone around Jude felt so strongly when Jude seemed very conflicted right from the start. Cupids only had a few more abilities than humans and never really told us how they picked couples. All the people in their life only wanted to keep Jude in that life even though they struggled with it. I enjoyed when Jude was connecting with other friends and forming close bonds with Alice, Neve and Huy. I didn’t understand what would really change once Jude became a Cupid seeing as how for most of the book Leah was never around. The ending was my favorite part because it felt like that was obvious from the start but left me wondering what happened to the other Cupids. It’s not a bad read, just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the arc.

Thank you to netgalley and Scholastic, PUSH for allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed the main characters journey throughout the book.

The ending left me in complete awe! What a unique concept. I devoured this book in two sittings. I loved the queer rep, I loved the Trans* rep, I loved the well thought-out diversity. Mason Deaver writes such meaningful stories, and I’m so glad this book is my first read of 2024.

i love mason deaver's writing and this was a really fun, romcom-y book that anyone who loves lighthearted, fluffy romance would love. jude was a great main character and i loved seeing their story progress. i loved having a nonbinary character who just was themself and seeing them be so unconditionally loved and accepted by everyone in their life. and their love story with huy was so cute!! overall, i had a good time reading this book, but parts of it fell a little flat for me. while i really liked the concept of cupids out in the world, getting people together, the trajectory of jude's duty to their role to wanting to quit felt forced at times, like there wasn't any reason at all for them to stay as a cupid and you were waiting the whole book for them to figure it out. i did like the ending being kind of ambiguous because i loved being surprised, but i also would've liked a little more clarification on what happened. did jude and leah lose their memories? are they not cupids anymore? regardless, i still had a great time and would definitely recommend this book to someone looking for a fun YA romance. i received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing book, seriously. I've read one other book by Mason and they are just a phenomenal author. I was hooked from the first chapter, just wanting Jude to be happy and find where they belong. It was so good seeing Jude get to live a normal teenage life for a while and figure out what they wanted from life and who they really wanted to be. This book is so good and the story is amazing and draws you in so hard from the first page. Alice, Neve, Huy, and all the other characters Jude meets along the way are also so likable and so relatable, and throughout the book, I just wanted them all to be happy. I also just generally loved Alice, Neve, and Huy, they're just so amazing, I can't.
I also always try to guess where the book is gonna go when I start one, but I gotta be honest, I was totally wrong here. I got about halfway through and the plot point I thought was going to be the end was happening so I was totally just along for the ride from then on just seeing where Mason was going to take the story. And honestly, the direction the story actually went was so much better than where I was thinking it was going and it had so much more impact. It was just an all-around truly amazing book all about finding yourself and where you actually fit in the world and your life even if that means potentially starting over to have the opportunity to do what you really want. 11/10 recommend, incredible.

I loved Mason Deaver's "The Feeling of Falling In Love", so I slammed the request button for "Okay, Cupid" on NetGalley so fast after reading the synopsis. A cupid that falls in love with one of the humans he's been assigned to pair up with someone else? Come on, what a fantastic premise. But... this unfortunately ended up being just okay to me. 😓

Things I liked:
• queer rep
• Vietnamese rep
• peak teenage energy (the emotional dramatics!)
• the banter between Huy and Jude
• accurate portrayl of what high school is like (or at least what it was like in frofor me)

Things I didn't like:
• a good amount of modern references that will probably seem dated in 10 years
• like zero world building - we learn nothing about cupids aside from that they're forbidden from forming genuine relationships with humans
• the typical romance book <spoiler>third act miscommunication breakup</spoiler>

So while "Okay, Cupid" wasn't for me, I would still recommend it to a teenager who enjoys young adult queer romance and who is maybe looking to dip a pinky toe into fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and PUSH Scholastic for the e-ARC! 💌

bad formatting for galley, unable to read. the premise is extremely cool and i’m a big fan of deaver’s “the feeling of falling in love,” so i will be picking this up when it comes out.

What an adorable queer romance!! It suffers from a problem lots of vaguely supernatural romances do where the worldbuilding falls a little flat. The concept of Cupids and where they came from and how they work are all very nebulous concepts. But, if you’re willing to put that out of your mind, the story is filled with endearing characters and a heartwarming romance.