ARC Review: The Quarterback’s Crush By John R. Petrie

Blurb:

Dylan Porter needs a Hail Mary….

Because it’ll take a miracle for him to pass English and trig so he can stay on the football team, get a scholarship, and go away to college—where the distance from his friends and family will give him the confidence to finally tell them he’s gay. But flunking his classes will put a stop to all of his dreams.

Luckily there’s Tommy Peterson to help him. In Dylan’s eyes, Tommy’s perfect. Short, smart, and sexy, he checks every one of Dylan’s boxes, so it’s no surprise when Dylan falls head over heels. Too bad Tommy doesn’t seem to feel the same, and a pining Dylan accidentally outs himself to the team. Now Dylan has to deal with the fallout of his coming out to the team, his dad, and his coach while trying to score the ultimate touchdown—the love of Tommy Peterson.

Todd's rating:

This was one of those stories that I thoroughly enjoyed, when I'm not entirely sure why.

What I mean is that, while I love YA stories, folks, let me tell you, this was very, very, VERRRRRY YA.

The MC's, Dylan and Tommy, didn't possess "maturity beyond their years", like so many YA stories tend to have. If anything, they actually read more as just starting out in high school, instead of being 18 y.o. seniors.

The book made me laugh a lot and all of the characters in the book, even the side-character friends, were just too entertaining for words, without feeling as if the author was trying too hard to make them "cutesy".

Dylan's best friend, Riley, was a personal favorite of mine.

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” Riley said, and I could tell he was smiling over the phone. “I read that online. I’ve got a whole new vocabulary now. It’s freaking awesome. I wish you’d come out years ago. Hey, girl, hey! Cool, right? Anyway, I just wanted to see how it was going with Tommy. Call me later, dude.”

I loved how when quarterback Dylan accidentally outed himself to his dad, his team, and the *entire* school, he was met by only positive support. Mostly.

Because there's always "that one asshole". In this book, that villain was one of the school's baseball players, who did cause Dylan and Tommy their fair share of problems, but he got his comeuppance in the end, so I was happy. Good riddance to bad rubbish and all that.

As with most VERRRRRY YA stories that I've read, don't read this book expecting any steam at all. This was entirely naive, innocent longing and high school romance, with zero emphasis on them going any further than mild kissing.



If I had to guess, I suspect a lot of people are going to absolutely hate how young and "immature" this story reads, but it made me smile and feel for these two sweet guys, so if you're looking for a very light, feel-good, YA story, this might be a book for you.

The story ended with an epilogue from 10 years down the road, after a few bumps and bruises, but Dylan and Tommy did eventually get their HEA.

I'd rate it at around 3.75 stars and recommend it -- with the understanding that you *really* need to understand that this YA story reads as *very* young.

My ARC copy of the book was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.

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