But when Luke Morrissey shows up on the Bexley campus, his presence immediately shakes things up. Charlie and Luke quickly develop a superlative-worthy "Best Bromance," while Sage finds herself stealing away to spend time with Charlie's twin brother, Nick.
Charlie is afraid of what others will think of his budding bromance with Luke, and Sage worries about getting too serious with Nick too quickly. They realize they need to rely on each other and their friendship to make things right with the boys they love. (Pub Date: Jun 02, 2020)
A love quartet of two couples in a boarding school told from two points of view.
This actually deserves a 3+, because it was different enough, but this difference can be strange to some readers.
Sage is like a ray of sunshine to anyone in the Bexley boarding school, she's always with her group of friends and after some fun. But Charlie, one the twins, is probably the actual son in their school, Charming Charlie. The smartest and most popular guy, always with a new girl. The two have been friends forever and everyone knows they ought to get together one day for their happy ending. But the truth is that Sage is secretly dating Charlie's twin, and Charlie may have found his first true love in the new student. With these changes, will their friendship bond be enough to protect them?
I like that this is just an apparent love "triangle of four". There is really no actual intertwining, but the four main characters don't leave unscathed either. The mess they get themselves into was what piqued my curiosity, although it also aggravated me at times.
The most beautiful thing about this is Sage's friendship to Charlie, which isn't 100% as pure on his side, but still strong enough. I loved that complexity. I also liked Luke a lot, but not Nick as much. Sage is surely my favorite, even though I have no idea how an eighteen-year-old would have the emotional strength to hold on as she did.
Being a story about a boarding school also made this book also relatable with older teenagers starting college and the such.
There are a good number of topic for discussion as well. Most of the book I kept asking myself if I would make the same choices as Sage. If I should admonish Charlie for his indecisiveness or if maybe Luke should respect it more. If maybe Nick should put himself more in the other's shoes. There are many layers to the story and my head couldn't stop thinking.But it was also what made the reading a little sour—the reader is also put in a hard place.
Aside from that, I feel there were so many points to make, the writing got a little messy. My biggest issue is that I had trouble differentiating Sage's and Charlie's voices as they alternated narration, despite the two being completely different characters. But the way we're presented with their universe was also a little all over the place and took me some "let's not worry about understanding it now and just enjoy", which is a patience not many readers will have and they'll either be stressed out and stuck in the beginning or just drop the book for the next. And while it was a nice read, the conclusion was actually predictable, without that many moments to make the way so memorable, either.
It's not a book everyone will like, and even for LGBT readers, this will be yet another coming-out story, but there are details that made it an interesting book. And I do plan to read more from the author.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment