[Disclaimer: I received an egalley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Victor "Toro" Alvarez has suddenly found himself as the leader of a street gang. It's not that he's necessarily reluctant to take on the position, it's just that he has a few issues of his own to deal with--one major one being that he's pretty sure he's gay and that would not go over well with the rest of the gang. It also means he will probably never get out of his neighborhood unless it's in a body bag. But when he comes across Riley Brewer as he's running from a rival gang, he wonders if maybe he has more options than he first thought. Riley is new to Toro's school, since his father stopped paying his private school tuition after his parents divorced. And there's definitely an air between the two of them in those few moments that makes them both wonder if their chance meeting was part of something greater for them both.

I'll start off by saying that I did enjoy the overall message of this story very much. The idea that you're never truly stuck and that even if you make choices based on circumstances, you always have options to change your path is an important and powerful one. And that comes across as a real strength of this book.

That said, it's the way this book worked through that message that holds me back from a four- or five-star review. The opening set up an interesting tone that was not reflected in the rest of the book, which sort of threw me off. The Toro we see right away doesn't really seem to exist elsewhere in the story--and while I can see how that might have been the point to an extent, since it never really comes back around, it seems almost out of place. Add to that the fact that we rather suddenly skip over almost five months--the five months during which it appears the bulk of the character and relationship development occurred--and it made it a bit more difficult to connect to these characters as meaningfully as I would have liked.

This is definitely worth a read, especially for those who are looking for a broader message/story and maybe not specifically looking for something that focuses on individual characters and the how and why they get to their destination.

Content warnings: gun violence; attempted suicide ( )