This book was exactly the piece of bubblegum that I wanted for summer reading. Maybe implausible, but fun and light and resolves itself perfectly. ( )

I knew I would love this book because of the 2 amazing authors writing it... And I totally did. I also must say that if I didn't read as much as I do this would be a total 5 star book. But while I loved the friendship between Mark and Katie, and I loved the flow of the book, it didn't make me FEEL or change my life. It's not a book that I'll be remembering for years to come. But I genuinely enjoyed every second reading it!

It's Pride Week in San Francisco and Katie and Mark are going through some THINGS. Luckily, they meet each other the first night and are able to have each other's backs through the ups and downs that their week will take.

Mark is in love with his best friend, but it's not working out at all the way he wants it to. Katie is in love with her best friend's cousin... the thing is, she's never met her IRL yet. Fear holds Katie back, and love puts Mark's heart in peril. In one week's time, both will go through life-changing events, while experiencing new friendship at San Fran's Pride week.

My Thoughts:
I had a great time reading this book. It was full of friendship and teens working through problems, and I really enjoyed it. The thing is, I was hoping to LOVE it. Because I love Nina LaCour and David Levithan's books. And I love the concept of this book-- friends meeting and going on an adventure-of sorts- together. And while I love all of that, I really also want to FEEL things, and I just didn't have much of that going on in this book. Was it an entertaining book? Completely! Would I recommend it? Totally. But just be prepared that it's not the most emotional type of story, at least it wasn't for me.

I think my main deal was-- I just didn't like Katie/Kate that much. She was this girl who was in love with her best friend's cousin, whom she had never met and was afraid to meet. She was afraid of life in general and it got kind of annoying after a while. Like I get it, you run away when things get scary. That's a response a lot of people have, but she ran away from everything, and then didn't get why people were mad at her. Also, things came ridiculously easy for her and she had no appreciation of that whatsoever. Mark on the other hand, I LOVE. He's this sweet, patient, caring, awesome guy who, of course, gets walked all over. My heart hurt for him-- he was the one Feel Factor in this book. And I think that Feel Factor was wrapped up way too fast.

I think this book should be in every high school library. I think there are SO many teens going through the things the different characters are going through in this book. Gay/Straight/Whatever, there are issues to relate to for everyone at that age.

OVERALL: It didn't quite live up to the giant expectations I had for it, but I still enjoyed the story. I thought it was fun and a "we're going on a life adventure" feel, but it didn't bring the emotions like I had expected it to. Great for Summer Reading!!

My Blog:

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This was a supremely well done book that felt like a coming of age novel set against the backdrop of San Francisco Pride.

The alternating viewpoints does not yet feel like a gimmick as I feared. Both Mark and Katie had very distinct voices and it was easy to keep track of who was narrating, yet it wasn't jarring to have to switch between each perspective. I absolutely loved that this was an LGBTQ book with both a guy and a girl, since normally I find myself wanting more female or male characters.

The characters felt very mature for being in high school, and it was fun to see the potential they had at the beginning to grow and to read about the challenges they encountered in growing. Side characters too, such as a worker at an art gallery, provide a lot of hilarity.

Katie was a delectably real character, dealing with her own expectations of herself compared to the world's perception of her, and I felt like the way she interacted with Violet was so real and something that would happen to me.

I found it harder to relate to Mark's almost obsessive love, but from the opening scene, his actions were a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing how a typical baseball player had a lot of depth to him.

Though this wasn't mind blowing, this was a really solid and enjoyable read with fun characters.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This was a fun, quick read for me. This book knows it's melodramatic and doesn't shy away from what it sets out to do. I had fun trying to guess which cliches would be in the book, and am pleased to announce I was wrong a full ninety percent of the time. ( )

Mark is a baseball jock, who is also gay, and out. He's had a crush on his best friend, Ryan, for years, but Ryan is in the closet, and isn't sure he into Mark "that way" anyhow.
Kate has a crush on a girl she's never even met, and is finally going to have a chance to meet her, but she has a problem following through with things. She gets scared and runs away.
The book is set during one week - the week of the San Francisco Pride Festival. Mark and Kate, who didn't really know each other, but shared one class in school, meet by chance on the first night of Pride. They seemingly become instant best friends, each trying to help the other with their own lovelorn issues.
I liked both Kate and Mark, and the book was written well enough to keep my interest, but neither character's romantic difficulties were developed well enough to get me to care deeply about them. (Violet, Kate's crush, is a bit unbelievable too.) Not bad; but not good enough that I'd recommend it. ( )