And They Were Roommates by Paige Powars is a fun, lighthearted read that embraces classic tropes with charm. While the story leans heavily into familiar rom-com setups and the main character can be a bit frustrating at times, the book's humor, engaging writing, and heartfelt moments make it an enjoyable ride. The banter and chemistry between the characters keep things entertaining, and despite its predictability, it’s the kind of book that feels like a comforting escape. If you’re looking for a feel-good, trope-filled romance with a dash of chaos, this one is worth picking up!

Overall, And They Were Roommates was an unfortunately mediocre read for me. There were so many elements of this book that I loved- the over-the-top romantic setting of Valentine Academy for Boys, the fantastically fleshed out ensemble of quirky side characters, and the smaller plot lines of academic burnout and beginning to find what you're passionate about in high school. I particularly loved Jasper as a character and specifally the love interest, because he feels very real in how silly and dramatic yet sincere he was. However, unfortunately being in Charlie's POV is what made this book a miss for me. I think I am just tired of YA books with trans characters that seem almost afraid of being trans. So much of Charlie's worries stem specifically from being outed, and while this is understandable at an all boys academy it also makes him snappish and rudefor seemingly no reason to many characters that are reaching out with genuine friendliness. This is especially prevalent with how he interacts with Jasper, which Charlie justifies as fair since Jasper broke his heart years before the story starts. However, Jasper does not recognize Charlie and so does not have the context for why Charlie is being rude to him. There's also a storyline about Charlie and his best friend Delilah that didn't feel as though it had genuine emotional stakes, and was resolved in a way that felt shallow as a reader. I really wish that this story had been more enjoyable, especially since there were so many specific details and moments that were genuinely delightful, but unfortunately experiencing the narrative through Charlie's eyes just didn't work for me.

Page Powars write a book I dislike challenge - challenge FAILED! I devoured every page of "And They Were Roommates" because sometimes you just need to read fanfiction tropes in full-length, well-written novel form. Since reading Powars' debut novel, I have been eagerly awaiting another book, and this one didn't disappoint at all. Some of the themes were similar to "The Borrow a Boyfriend Club" in that there is a secret society and a rich love interest, but it didn't detract from the plot at all, and I think that secret societies might in fact be a niche interest of mine now (please write more of them please).

I think the thing I like most in Powars' writing is that even though I didn't come out as trans/nb until later in life, I get to experience what that life is like for trans characters who discovered who they are at a younger age. It allows those of us who came out as adults to live vicariously through these carefully and lovingly created characters that come to life when Powars puts pen to paper.

Plus at the end of the day, who doesn't enjoy a forced proximity trope? If you haven't already pre-ordered this one, you should!

I have found my favorite read of the year so far!!! I read and loved Page Powars' debut novel so I was over the moon to see he was writing another. I said this in my review of his first book the borrow a boyfriend club, but i just think Page Powars and I have the exact same humor. Everything in this book just hit! The humor? HIT. The setting? HIT. The plot? HIT. The characters?? HIT HIT HIT HIT. I was so excited by just the premise alone, and it was executed so well. I loved Charlie and jasper so much it's not even funny. They felt like such real people, especially Charlie. The way Charlie's emotions were portrayed were just really relatable and felt real. Jasper is just iconic, he's so silly and goofy but also true to himself which i loved. More than anything i just found myself constantly thinking about this book whenever i was away from home. It was living r e n t free in the brain mush. Adding Page Powars to the roster of grocery list authors.

100% requested this arc because of the cover and title and i don’t regret it! it was such a refreshing story about trans youth and the nuanced feelings that often come with being trans (i would know!). i think it was done in a really respectable way in the sense that the mc wasn’t reduced to his transness and was still allowed to flourish in other ways that charge the story forward. i love a well written diverse friend group as well! super admirable characters that made the read a lot funner.

very thankful to have received a copy of this arc and i hope others are able to enjoy it :)

I loved this so much. The setting of St. Valentine's Academy was so fun; I loved all the personalities of STRIP; I loved both Jasper and Charlie. Funny and tender all at once!

This book truly has my DREAM romcom premise. I've been excited to read another roommates-to-lovers since Funny Story, AND it's queer!! However, I'm just not the ideal reader for this author's writing style, which is unfortunate, but I'm certain other readers will connect with this book.

I went into this book with only a basic idea of what it was about so I was a little caught off guard by the secret society and prep school vibes but I really enjoyed it! The secret letter writing/delivery really added another level of tension to the book and also created a great opportunity for Charlie and Jasper to have to spend time together.
Jasper was such a funny character. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him at first, with his very flowery, pretentious way of talking and the fact that he had a giant cardboard cutout of himself in his room but I ended up really liking his character. He was always looking out for Charlie even if it didn’t seem like it at the time.
Poor Charlie had WAY too many things on his plate. Between trying to keep up his grades to worrying about jasper figuring out who he was and getting kicked out of the school.
I liked the slow buildup of the relationship between Charlie and jasper - from dislike to kind of friends to dating. It felt very natural and was really enjoyable to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press for the ARC!

I was really excited to read this but unfortunately I found it too cringe/unbelievable in a book where the tone seemed serious. In the first few chapters, his roommate was recognized as The Sexist Poet of the Year and is a famous poet at age 16, he has posters of his face and a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself in his doom room, and the barrier between the girls and boys schools is called a cockblockade and referenced multiple times in his thoughts. Also, the MC started an English tutoring program in NYC that gained thousands in nonprofit support in 1 year. I didn’t like either the MC or the love interest. I think this book would have been better if they were college students to make referencing their past fling 2 years ago make more sense. Either that or I’m just too old for this book.

This was such a sweet book. I loved all the characters dearly, especially Jasper, I just wish we got to learn more about them. The book was mainly focused on the “tutoring” club, secretly a letter sending club, and while that was entertaining I was disappointed that that was all the book mainly discussed—of course barring the moments related to the roommate mishap. There was also a lot of unrealistic things in this book which were easy to overlook for the most part because of the overall chaotic and fun vibe of the book, but I think some things could have been avoided. I think it would have better served the book if it had just been set before phones were a thing, because I can’t see how any schools in todays era would just take students phones for a whole semester. But aside from that, this was so cute and I adored the romance and overall trans rep in this book. Super well done!

Page Powars is so genius for this one. I could feel the academia stress in this book, and it's good to draw attention to that but mostly my brain was fixated on this roommate romance. At times this was also really funny, like the STRIP acronym. Will continue to read whatever this author writes, such amazing trans & queer rep!!

A boarding school romance with a hidden identity, a misunderstood past, and elements of Cyrano de Bergerac or Twelfth Night. Humorous characters and hijinks.

On his first day at Valentine Academy for boys, the last thing trans boy Charlie expects is for him to get a roommate. And his roommate to be the boy he had a fling with at summer camp years before. Before he transitioned. Between writing love poems, and trying to keep his scholarship and trying to pass PE. The two get closer and closer as secrets fly and things get crazier and crazier.
This is probably one of my favorite trans YA books I’ve ever read. If you loved Felix Ever After and wanted more, you’d love this book and this author. The chemistry, the relationships (both romantic and platonic), the storyline, the drama. I couldn’t put it down, and was always guessing what would happen next. It was such a good book- I suggest everyone read it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press for an eARC of this book!

This book was heart-flutteringly, teeth-clenchingly sweet. Love letters? Roommates? This was the best twist of a classic trope. The romance wasn’t just cute; it was realistic and raw and so perfectly second-chance. I don’t typically love second-chance romances, but I am OBSESSED with childhood best friend romances, and Page DELIVERED. I’m so in love with Charlie and Jasper and Blaze and Xavier and everyone else. Jasper was so intensely Jasper. He is exactly what you think of when you hear his name: an elegant poet. But the way he and Charlie clicked— someone save me. The bookshelf that he engraved with both of their names??? Like a wedding invite??? I need to read this book again and again. And Blaze was such a perfect genius 12-year-old. He’s such a cute character. Don’t even get me started on Charlie. Charlie was perfect in all the right ways. Literally finished in one sitting, And They Were Roommates was SOOOO GOOD.
Thank you to Macmillan for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

A delightful YA romance that reminds me of my favorite 90s teen movies.

Powars manages to cram an impressive amount of tropes into one book (forced proximity! hidden identity! fish out of water! second chance romance!) but the plot never feels unrealistic or trite. Instead, the story is grounded by the emotional realism of Charlie as the protagonist.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a delight of a book. I saw a tiktok this creator posted about the premise of this book, and it made me jettison the ARC to the top of my list. I started reading it before bed, thinking I’d stop reading, but I was so swept up in it I kept reading. It was suddenly 3am and I had finished the book. There was a lot I loved about this, but in a weird way, it felt really impactful to a kid who dealt with being closeted at a religious institution. Charlie’s fears about the conservative nature of the school really paralleled my own, but that didn’t stop him from receiving unabashed support from everyone near the end of the book. It was nice to see a reality, no matter how fictitious, where the school picks the student’s wellbeing over their own antiquated rules. That, and, this romance is so unbelievably up my alley. Both of them are obsessed with each other, but one half is too busy being confused about being attracted to Charlie and what he thinks must be a sibling of the other person he’s considered the love of his life. I love this trope so much. Not to mention, there’s a scene where Jasper has a moment of absolute thirsting over top surgery scars which is also something I love in trans romances. I love when love interests only fall more in love after transitioning. Anyway. This was a lot longer than my usual reviews because I was very enamored with this book.

A swoonworthy novel worthy of taking place at a school dedicated to St. Valentine. And They Were Roommates is worth reading in one sitting while you kick your feet and twirl your hair over how absolutely wonderful the romance is.

Actual rating: 2.5/5 stars

Woah, damn. I did not vibe with this at all. Which is heartbreaking, because my excitement for this was next level. I mean, a trans boy?? A boarding school?? Roommate dynamics?? That's an incredible equation I should have eaten up??? Except a couple glaring hindrances really held me back.

The first and most glaring was by far Jasper Grimes. Dude is insufferable and ridiculous. I couldn't take him seriously as the love interest at all. No part of my brain could wrap around what Charlie saw in him, both in the past and in the present. And when you have a dislikeable (for me) love interest in a book whose main genre is romance, that's kind of a mood killer.

The other aspect was the school. There were too many weird quirks and rules for me to take the place seriously at all. Nor was I able to fully grasp the reasoning behind Charlie risking going there. Everything was just a bit too silly or too dramatic or too farfetched for me to be able to slide into the story and enjoy my time there.

Which truly is such a bummer for me, because I wanted to resonate with Charlie so badly. I wanted to enjoy watching him grow and experience love and work towards his goals and live his life. This book just needed a bit more grounding. Some serious, personable, relatable things to work through, and a love interest worth Charlie's time and affection.

DNF

I appreciated the concept thoroughly. The premise pulled me in especially the setting and circumstances.
However, the execution left much to be desired. I don't feel like I really knew these character; they felt underdeveloped yet overly exaggerated.
I'm not the target audience but the Casey comparisons feel unwarranted.

Another fun, goofy, heartwarming read from Page Powars! Just look at that premise and tell me it's not already brilliant—and the execution did not disappoint at all! Prepare to read this while shaking constantly because you'll be laughing, crying, gagging, vibrating with excitement, et cetera. Also, Jasper Grimes was by far my favorite character. One fun fact that I would like to pass along to prospective readers is that queer men also exist in real life. Loved this, 10/10!!!

This book is amazing! I had it preordered before my ARC got approved and I'm so excited to have a physical copy. Everything about this book is brilliant, from the writing to the characters. As a trans man, Charlie is such a good representation of what so many of us feel when operating under the radar, and it is so refreshing to see a trans character who feels so real. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to read what Page writes next!