From the blurb:Do you believe in love at first sight?
Corey Ellis sure doesn’t. Oh, everyone around him seems to have found their happy ending, but he’s far too busy to worry about such things. He’ll have plenty of time for romance after he survives his last summer before graduation. So what if he can’t get his former professor, Jeremy Olsen, out of his head? It’s just hero worship. And that’s the way it should stay.
Except that this summer, bigender Corey—aka Kori—is interning at Phoenix House, a LGBTQI youth center that recently hired an interim director. And because life is extraordinarily unfair, the director just so happens to be a certain former professor, now current boss.
Desperate to keep things professional as he and Jeremy grow closer, Corey makes a major mistake: he turns to his friends, Paul Auster and Sanford Stewart, for help.
But Paul and Sandy have some ideas of their own.
Heather's rating:
I feel like crying, guys. Sure, I liked Why We Fight, sure, it was good, but this isn't a regular series for me, and my expectations were sky high.
I'm obsessed with the first two books in the series (read my reviews here and here), and I was 100% sure I was going to 5-star this one too. *sobs uncontrollably*
Look, I know T.J. Klune had to work with a lot with this story. We have a biracial, bigender MC in Corey/Kori, and he did them proud by being respectful and playful with their character. However, Corey/Kori had a hard past and most of the time is spent at an LGBTQ+ youth center, so the book had a very serious tone that I wasn't expecting.
Also, the story takes place in 2016, the year that he-who-should-not-be-named was starting his presidential journey, so there is the weight of that also on the story. The whole book felt much less carefree and much deeper, which doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but it just didn't work out quite like I was hoping it would.
There wasn't anything wrong with the story. We see a TON of the Auster clan (yaaaaaas), and there is a awesomely high heat level in the story (for a T.J. Klune book), but, oddly, it still took me over a week to read. OVER A WEEK. I read the first two books in under a day each.
I think my problem was that I just didn't find the book very.... funny. I was expecting crying-with-laughter, but that's not what happened. I had a few moments that made me smile, and I had a few that made me want to keep reading, but I just didn't find the story to be nearly as funny or as addictive as the previous ones. I really count on this series to make me smile and laugh, and I think I was just surprised that I didn't quite get that. I also wanted more... romance? I didn't quite feel the feelings that I wanted to feel.
There were still many awesome, memorable scenes. My favorite parts were the early morning jogs, the egg (ha!), and mostly anything with Nana. I still think devoted fans of the series are going to enjoy this one (and most are going to love it), but I'm sad the series is over, and I'm sad I can't give a big 5-star send off.
*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*
P.S.- I'm 100% going off the theory that I didn't love this book because I didn't read it on a plane (like the first two in the series). Let's just go with that.
Enjoy, everyone!
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