chadjames312's review against another edition
5.0
I do hope this author plans a sequel, with the characters in college because I loved Zach and Lucas, Alex and Trish, maybe even Donovan's skanky butt can be redeemed ;-) Also Lucas's brother Mason needs to meet his match in a lady. Great story Madison Parker thank you for writing it, I LOVED it!!!
merny88's review
4.0
Honestly, I'm a bit miffed that Alex wasn't endgame, because he was perfect, but whatever, Zach was cool too.
cloudyday's review against another edition
Main character is such a senstive wimp. Ok I'm an empathetic person and ofc boys cry and all that and I love when fiction shows boys crying because ofc they do. but this guy cries 24/7 he is literally so pathetic it was hard to read. other than that i did like it. but he was just really pathetic
gabriele_queerbookdom's review against another edition
3.0
I liked it and I didn't like it.
Lucas is not a self-confident boy. His school-life is rather unhappy and he's unable to make friends. Fortunately, he has the deepest passion for playing the piano. When he plays he loses himself in the sonatas and operas, which manage to unleash intense emotions in him and the ones who are keen to hear them. It will be this appreciation for the music to lead him to new friends and love.
It was not what one could call an original novel. It was full of clichés, but anyway a comfy reading. I personally lived situations such as Lucas', unluckily, though, I didn't end up with a steamy swimmer.
Lucas is not a self-confident boy. His school-life is rather unhappy and he's unable to make friends. Fortunately, he has the deepest passion for playing the piano. When he plays he loses himself in the sonatas and operas, which manage to unleash intense emotions in him and the ones who are keen to hear them. It will be this appreciation for the music to lead him to new friends and love.
It was not what one could call an original novel. It was full of clichés, but anyway a comfy reading. I personally lived situations such as Lucas', unluckily, though, I didn't end up with a steamy swimmer.
sowaneed's review against another edition
5.0
5 adorable stars!!!
I loved how cute the whole story was... will review soon
I loved how cute the whole story was... will review soon
stevia333k's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars because it reads quickly, and it's beautifully loving/family humor (but not censoring). bonus points for if I agree with this after a reread I'll give it 5. (i'm thinking of just making it 5 stars now... uuuuuu indecision!)
this book isn't really suspenseful, but it's everyday love humor interesting. the positivity makes it re readable.
Donovan can be a trigger warning asshole, I'm guessing trigger warnings include
the {personal crap} section is stuff I find helpful for myself but others like you probably won't care for.
{personal crap}
so yeah I liked the book. I read 64-67% of it in one night back in July 2015, but it got slightly intense I think & like yeah I also put it down, I think it was because I was horny & needed comfort so I reread just a bit #3 & that's when I started annotating the fuck out of it.
anywho though, i picked it up again recently because I've been having trouble reading books straight through (& additionally paradox of choice) & I read the rest of it like 83-100% in the past hour, and 67-78 like another night, so yeah.
{/personal crap}
Spoiler
illustrating other ways of having sex besides oral & anal, it felt affirming of other people's sexualities with regards to sex acts (unlike 1990s Bill Clinton for example). tennis was also an interesting euphemism.this book isn't really suspenseful, but it's everyday love humor interesting. the positivity makes it re readable.
Donovan can be a trigger warning asshole, I'm guessing trigger warnings include
Spoiler
bullying, body image negativity, sex shaming like rape culture's everyday norm, coersion, so he's like rapey, but not exactly criminal (our culture has rapey elements so the justice system kind of reflects that.)the {personal crap} section is stuff I find helpful for myself but others like you probably won't care for.
{personal crap}
so yeah I liked the book. I read 64-67% of it in one night back in July 2015, but it got slightly intense I think & like yeah I also put it down, I think it was because I was horny & needed comfort so I reread just a bit #3 & that's when I started annotating the fuck out of it.
anywho though, i picked it up again recently because I've been having trouble reading books straight through (& additionally paradox of choice) & I read the rest of it like 83-100% in the past hour, and 67-78 like another night, so yeah.
{/personal crap}
suze_1624's review against another edition
4.0
What a range of emotions this book made me feel - anger, sadness, pity, sympathy, happiness, joy, hope, the urge to shout 'grow up' 'get a backbone' and ' look at your son!', give a hug, give a slap. This was in relation to all the main characters : Mum, Dad, Lucas, Marcus, Alex, Zach, Trish & Donovan.
A coming of age story that was just fine and what Madison Parker seems to do so well. The story sped along, clean lines, great characters make it fairly un-put-downable.
It ended on a nice HFN which I actually didn't mind whether it went HEA or not - just knew Lucas would be better for having it. Donovan worried me, in that without support I thought that character type could go a very self destructive route. Marcus annoyed me a bit but generally as a younger sibling would, so he played true to form. Alex was great, life long friend in making. Trish, also life long friend potential. Zach, great first love but didnt strike me as a long term love, not yet any way.
Any way, enjoy it, nice light read, great YA read.
30.8.16 reread : whilst agreeing with all that I said the first time, I felt much more in tune with the story this time, more emotional, and felt it was more than fine! All those emotions still there - the characters were flawed but there are not many real life perfect people! One for my reread list.
A coming of age story that was just fine and what Madison Parker seems to do so well. The story sped along, clean lines, great characters make it fairly un-put-downable.
It ended on a nice HFN which I actually didn't mind whether it went HEA or not - just knew Lucas would be better for having it. Donovan worried me, in that without support I thought that character type could go a very self destructive route. Marcus annoyed me a bit but generally as a younger sibling would, so he played true to form. Alex was great, life long friend in making. Trish, also life long friend potential. Zach, great first love but didnt strike me as a long term love, not yet any way.
Any way, enjoy it, nice light read, great YA read.
30.8.16 reread : whilst agreeing with all that I said the first time, I felt much more in tune with the story this time, more emotional, and felt it was more than fine! All those emotions still there - the characters were flawed but there are not many real life perfect people! One for my reread list.