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Only mostly devastated
368 pages
A queer reimagining of a classic summer-nights romance that balances laugh-out-loud banter with the tender ache of real-world grief.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like riding a rollercoaster of messy, beautiful teenage emotions. It is a briskly paced, big-hearted rom-com that effortlessly juggles the swoony highs of a second-chance romance with the grounding, bittersweet reality of a family grappling with terminal illness. The narrative voice is sharp, funny, and deeply relatable, pulling you into a world where the banter is quick but the emotional stakes are incredibly high. The atmosphere shifts seamlessly from sun-drenched summer nostalgia to the fluorescent-lit anxiety of high school hallways, capturing the painful gap between who we are in private and who we pretend to be in public. It is an absolute delight for anyone who loves queer love stories served with genuine, tear-jerking angst and a fiercely hopeful resolution.
- Mood
- bittersweet
- swoony
- hopeful
- tender
- Tone
- wry
- earnest
- humorous
- heartfelt
- angsty
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- navigating the closet · family illness and grief · second chance romance · public versus private selves · messy teenage heartbreak
- The writing
- Snappy, conversational, and emotionally immediate, balancing sharp banter with tender introspection.
- The arc
- Moves from the sharp sting of betrayal and familial grief through a messy, tentative rebuilding of trust, culminating in a joyful, hard-won reconciliation.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave queer YA rom-coms that balance witty banter and swoony tropes with genuine emotional depth and family struggles.
Content notes
- cancer
- grief
- homophobia
- closeted anxiety
About the book
Will Tavares is the dream summer fling—he’s fun, affectionate, kind—but just when Ollie thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairytale ending, and to complicate the fairytale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it’s the same school Will goes to...except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted—and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts “coincidentally” popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.
Description from Open Library.
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