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tmac61's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, Young Love
This was a wonderful book about young love and sexual awakening. I loved this book. It is well written and flows so well. I couldn’t stand to put it down for the night…I wanted to keep reading until I was finished. Can’t wait to start the next book in this series.
This was a wonderful book about young love and sexual awakening. I loved this book. It is well written and flows so well. I couldn’t stand to put it down for the night…I wanted to keep reading until I was finished. Can’t wait to start the next book in this series.
booked_moody's review against another edition
5.0
•Pictures of You
•You Are Not Me
•Only You
"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚜𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸’𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛: 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢."
• Ｍｙ Ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔｓ •
You know how sometimes you can tell the difference between reading a book and letting a book consume you? This series was a consume situation. I had a vague idea of the premise but basically went in blind and did not at all expect the emotional reaction I experienced.
This story was such an honest rendition of the universal teenage experience of self discovery - with the added nuance of trying to navigate life as a, largely unaccepted, queer person in the 90's. Everything is depicted so realistically with this nostalgic overlay that keeps your heart in a chokehold.
That first taste of war between the heart, the body, and the conscience - and learning the delicate balance of feeding them all with the least amount of collateral damage. Discovering the difference between the heartbreak that carries an undercurrent of hope - and the heartbreak that leaves you desperately scrambling for anything to keep yourself afloat.
Recognizing who you are as a person and the realization that you have the power to change into who you want to be. While also acknowledging that that choice isn’t without pain and discomfort but if you learn to trust yourself, there's light on the other side of that pain. Just wow.
All of this from a few books? YEAH DUDE. I finished a couple of days ago and my heart feels lighter after experiencing Peter's journey with him but also still full of ache for other characters. This is one that will stick with me for a long while.
•You Are Not Me
•Only You
"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚜𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸’𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛: 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢."
• Ｍｙ Ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔｓ •
You know how sometimes you can tell the difference between reading a book and letting a book consume you? This series was a consume situation. I had a vague idea of the premise but basically went in blind and did not at all expect the emotional reaction I experienced.
This story was such an honest rendition of the universal teenage experience of self discovery - with the added nuance of trying to navigate life as a, largely unaccepted, queer person in the 90's. Everything is depicted so realistically with this nostalgic overlay that keeps your heart in a chokehold.
That first taste of war between the heart, the body, and the conscience - and learning the delicate balance of feeding them all with the least amount of collateral damage. Discovering the difference between the heartbreak that carries an undercurrent of hope - and the heartbreak that leaves you desperately scrambling for anything to keep yourself afloat.
Recognizing who you are as a person and the realization that you have the power to change into who you want to be. While also acknowledging that that choice isn’t without pain and discomfort but if you learn to trust yourself, there's light on the other side of that pain. Just wow.
All of this from a few books? YEAH DUDE. I finished a couple of days ago and my heart feels lighter after experiencing Peter's journey with him but also still full of ache for other characters. This is one that will stick with me for a long while.
booksafety's review against another edition
5.0
Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.
I didn’t know how much longer I could stand being a person I couldn’t respect.
Some books are nearly impossible to boil down into a few paragraphs and a list of tropes. I imagine it will only get more difficult with each book in the trilogy. I put off reading this book for absolute ages, because I knew it would be angsty, emotional and hard to read. I got as much as possible of what happens spoiled so that I could deal with the content and topics.
Something in me had broken over our months together. It hadn’t been an instant break, more of a slow shatter. I could point back to moments and say, “This crack started there, and this one there,” but now I was a mess of barely-held-together glass, and it was only a matter of time until I fell apart completely.
It’s a brutal, honest, heartwrenching story about first loves, friendships and unhealthy relationships, and it really doesn’t pull any punches. This is more Peter’s story than it is a love story, and the inner turmoil Peter deals with throughout (and it really only builds) was intense, and I ended up feeling this continuous sense of dread on his behalf, because you can see how it will only end in heartbreak, and the main character knows it too.
Love was like honey—a little was good, a lot was amazing, and too much? Well, too much made a big, sticky mess, a sweet mire I was drowning in, alone and more exhausted by the minute.
Peter isn’t perfect, but he’s a good person struggling with his situation. Adam, however… I hate him with my entire being, lol. He is awful, and very early on I could see the tendrils of how his strong personality and manipulative behavior would play out, and I was both right and wrong. I was right, but it was just worse than I expected, even after getting *all* the spoilers.
“Why is the way I love so awful that someone has to be called out to blame for it?” My eyes burned. “Am I that horrible? Was he?”
I’m sure there are plenty of great reviews for this book, so I’m not even going to try to explain it all. I can already tell that the trilogy is going to leave a lasting impression, and I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. It hit a trigger for me, so it certainly wasn’t easy, but I think it was worth it. Leta Blake has done a beautiful job with Peter and his first book, and when I read her explanation and introduction to the book, I got really emotional. You can tell this story means a lot to her, and she has brought all of that emotion to Peter and his story. Somehow, I’m really looking forward to reading the next book.
Adam didn’t have to be my future. He could be my for now. And I’d take whatever I could for as long as I could because, despite everything, I loved him, and it wasn’t going to last. We didn’t stand a chance.
I’ll give details on some of the content warnings and book safety at the very end of this review. Spoiler warning for that as well.
⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️
⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Coming of age
The 90’s
Closeted MCs
High school
High heat
Love triangle
Historical romance
Push and pull
High school
⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Cheating
Homophobia
Bullying
Bi erasure
Neglectful parents
Drug use (marijuana)
Underage drinking
Casual homophobic language
Physical assault (hate crime)
Brief mention of parental abuse (past)
Brief mentions of family death (cancer, some details)
Mentions of/discussions of war (desert storm)
Humiliation (verbal abuse, spanking with belt)
Hate crime/murder (past, family member, detailed)
⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: Yes
OM/OW drama: Yes
Third-act breakup: Yes
POV: 1st person, single POV
Genre: Historical/coming of age/romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile
MCs age: 18 and 18
Adam is the main love interest in this first book, but he is not who Peter ends up with at the end of the trilogy. There is no HFN or HEA at the end of book 1.
The cheating:
Adam starts a relationship with a girl (Leslie) while Peter and Adam are still together. Leslie is completely in the dark, so there is cheating between the main characters, as well as Adam cheating on Leslie with Peter.
OM/OW drama:
Mostly based on the cheating mentioned above. Adam has an orgasm while being spanked (not by Peter, and not the spanking situation mentioned in the content warnings) on stage during a drag show. Peter develops a small crush on a young man called Daniel who is introduced late in the book. Nothing happens between them beyond light flirting (in this book). Peter goes on a date with two different girls, and has a fake relationship with one of them for a while. Nothing intimate happens beyond hand holding and a couple pecks. Peter is mostly very loyal to Adam.
I didn’t know how much longer I could stand being a person I couldn’t respect.
Some books are nearly impossible to boil down into a few paragraphs and a list of tropes. I imagine it will only get more difficult with each book in the trilogy. I put off reading this book for absolute ages, because I knew it would be angsty, emotional and hard to read. I got as much as possible of what happens spoiled so that I could deal with the content and topics.
Something in me had broken over our months together. It hadn’t been an instant break, more of a slow shatter. I could point back to moments and say, “This crack started there, and this one there,” but now I was a mess of barely-held-together glass, and it was only a matter of time until I fell apart completely.
It’s a brutal, honest, heartwrenching story about first loves, friendships and unhealthy relationships, and it really doesn’t pull any punches. This is more Peter’s story than it is a love story, and the inner turmoil Peter deals with throughout (and it really only builds) was intense, and I ended up feeling this continuous sense of dread on his behalf, because you can see how it will only end in heartbreak, and the main character knows it too.
Love was like honey—a little was good, a lot was amazing, and too much? Well, too much made a big, sticky mess, a sweet mire I was drowning in, alone and more exhausted by the minute.
Peter isn’t perfect, but he’s a good person struggling with his situation. Adam, however… I hate him with my entire being, lol. He is awful, and very early on I could see the tendrils of how his strong personality and manipulative behavior would play out, and I was both right and wrong. I was right, but it was just worse than I expected, even after getting *all* the spoilers.
“Why is the way I love so awful that someone has to be called out to blame for it?” My eyes burned. “Am I that horrible? Was he?”
I’m sure there are plenty of great reviews for this book, so I’m not even going to try to explain it all. I can already tell that the trilogy is going to leave a lasting impression, and I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. It hit a trigger for me, so it certainly wasn’t easy, but I think it was worth it. Leta Blake has done a beautiful job with Peter and his first book, and when I read her explanation and introduction to the book, I got really emotional. You can tell this story means a lot to her, and she has brought all of that emotion to Peter and his story. Somehow, I’m really looking forward to reading the next book.
Adam didn’t have to be my future. He could be my for now. And I’d take whatever I could for as long as I could because, despite everything, I loved him, and it wasn’t going to last. We didn’t stand a chance.
I’ll give details on some of the content warnings and book safety at the very end of this review. Spoiler warning for that as well.
⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️
⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Coming of age
The 90’s
Closeted MCs
High school
High heat
Love triangle
Historical romance
Push and pull
High school
⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Cheating
Homophobia
Bullying
Bi erasure
Neglectful parents
Drug use (marijuana)
Underage drinking
Casual homophobic language
Physical assault (hate crime)
Brief mention of parental abuse (past)
Brief mentions of family death (cancer, some details)
Mentions of/discussions of war (desert storm)
Humiliation (verbal abuse, spanking with belt)
Hate crime/murder (past, family member, detailed)
⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: Yes
OM/OW drama: Yes
Third-act breakup: Yes
POV: 1st person, single POV
Genre: Historical/coming of age/romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile
MCs age: 18 and 18
Adam is the main love interest in this first book, but he is not who Peter ends up with at the end of the trilogy. There is no HFN or HEA at the end of book 1.
The cheating:
Adam starts a relationship with a girl (Leslie) while Peter and Adam are still together. Leslie is completely in the dark, so there is cheating between the main characters, as well as Adam cheating on Leslie with Peter.
OM/OW drama:
Mostly based on the cheating mentioned above. Adam has an orgasm while being spanked (not by Peter, and not the spanking situation mentioned in the content warnings) on stage during a drag show. Peter develops a small crush on a young man called Daniel who is introduced late in the book. Nothing happens between them beyond light flirting (in this book). Peter goes on a date with two different girls, and has a fake relationship with one of them for a while. Nothing intimate happens beyond hand holding and a couple pecks. Peter is mostly very loyal to Adam.
pb06's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
anitareadings's review against another edition
challenging
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kjnrose's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a powerfully emotional book. Coming of age story about finding yourself at a time that was not easy for people to come out.
reinatellstales's review against another edition
5.0
I was very lucky to receive all 3 books in the 90s coming of age trilogy as ARCs at once so I didn't have to wait. Which is important to me because I am a HEA person, and I walked in knowing these first two books would probably not have a standard HEA or HFN.
Pictures of you in the first book in Leta Blake's new series, which follows Peter and his relationship with new-in-town Adam. They get along so well to start, which is great because although Peter has lived in town his whole life he did just have to transfer schools due to bullying. He tells his parents it's because he's Jewish, nerdy, always carrying a camera...but it's because he's gay. Which Adam, it seems, catches on to quickly.
Friends kiss sometimes, right?
Peter makes friends and builds a relationship with Adam, but things aren't quite right. Most notably, when Adam gets a girlfriend.
Again, I went into this book prepared. I read the trigger/content warning list, and I knew that 'cliffhangers' and elements of cheating are not usually my jam. But I also knew that Leta Blake writes stories and characters I love, so I took that leap of faith. And finished all three books in two days.
Peter has apparently lived in Leta's mind for many, many years, and I'm happy to lend him space in mine. He is well rounded and complicated and messy. You can feel the angst, confusion, the joy and the passion. And his story hurts sometimes. His relationship with mother, which is more developed in the next two books, is a heartbreaking start in this book. Even with his flaws and mistakes, though, you root for him.
Meanwhile, Adam... Adam is hard to root for sometimes. But it's so easy to look at this character and think "I want you to get better. If not for Peter, then for yourself."
So! If you can handle a little pain... this book series could be right for you. If you want a glimpse into the 90s, landlines and AIDs crisis and political turmoil and all, this is a great start.
Pictures of you in the first book in Leta Blake's new series, which follows Peter and his relationship with new-in-town Adam. They get along so well to start, which is great because although Peter has lived in town his whole life he did just have to transfer schools due to bullying. He tells his parents it's because he's Jewish, nerdy, always carrying a camera...but it's because he's gay. Which Adam, it seems, catches on to quickly.
Friends kiss sometimes, right?
Peter makes friends and builds a relationship with Adam, but things aren't quite right. Most notably, when Adam gets a girlfriend.
Again, I went into this book prepared. I read the trigger/content warning list, and I knew that 'cliffhangers' and elements of cheating are not usually my jam. But I also knew that Leta Blake writes stories and characters I love, so I took that leap of faith. And finished all three books in two days.
Peter has apparently lived in Leta's mind for many, many years, and I'm happy to lend him space in mine. He is well rounded and complicated and messy. You can feel the angst, confusion, the joy and the passion. And his story hurts sometimes. His relationship with mother, which is more developed in the next two books, is a heartbreaking start in this book. Even with his flaws and mistakes, though, you root for him.
Meanwhile, Adam... Adam is hard to root for sometimes. But it's so easy to look at this character and think "I want you to get better. If not for Peter, then for yourself."
So! If you can handle a little pain... this book series could be right for you. If you want a glimpse into the 90s, landlines and AIDs crisis and political turmoil and all, this is a great start.
drewdlestrudel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book absolutely destroyed me. I wanted to stop reading it so bad because it made me super depressed even when I wasn’t actively reading it. But I kept coming back to it because I’m so invested. Time to read the next 2 books and cry some more!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse and War
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
paperback_heart's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ceruleanpages's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Well this book definitely got way too personal. And it made me look at things a lot differently. Most of the time I felt miserable for Peter and the way Adam treated him, was never able to commit to Peter and just did him dirty most of the time. I think that was a first to read about an unhealthy relationship like that and it really opened up my eyes. Because I somehow understood why Peter was never able to just stop it altogether, how he constantly got sucked back into Adam’s spiel over and over again. How I cried whenever Adam broke things off with him, just to show up again and write it off like it was just an impulse. It was so healing to read? Like healing for me, to see a different perspective and understand that Peter was manipulated. While Adam has his reasons to not be out ( sure, I did not grow up queer in the 90s) I understood that what he did still wasn’t right. You can’t just expect someone to always love you and want you while you keep them an arm length away, making promises you can’t keep and constantly making them feel unworthy of your love.
Yeah this one hurt a lot. I sincerely hope Peter can discover his identity free from Adam in the next one. Tho I have the feeling Adam will still live in Peter’s head rent free despite the distance.
Yeah this one hurt a lot. I sincerely hope Peter can discover his identity free from Adam in the next one. Tho I have the feeling Adam will still live in Peter’s head rent free despite the distance.