No, Jackson is perfectly happy living life behind the scenes—he is a stage manager, after all—and keeping his romantic exploits limited to the breakup lists he makes for Jasmine, which chronicle every flaw (real or imagined) of her various and sundry exes.
Enter Liam: the senior swim captain turned leading man that neither of the Ghasnavi siblings stop thinking about. Not that Jackson has a crush, of course. Jasmine is already setting her sights on him and he’s probably—no, definitely—straight anyway.
So why does the idea of eventually writing a breakup list for him feel so impossible? (Pub Date: Apr 02, 2024)
Since his mother left him, Jackson has been making lists to deal with his disappointments, a habit that has been extended to his sister and her numerous heartbreaks, so she'll remember why she shouldn't care for those guys. Now Liam, who has become not only Jackson's friend but also his secret crush, may become his sister's next boyfriend and maybe his next list, even though Liam was supposed to be his.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
I don't remember reading a book about a character with a hearing disability before, and it was great the way it integrated seamlessly with the story. And of course, it raised great topics for discussion along with points I'll bring to life.
But this book is much more than being about a character with disability. The story had me hooked in all of its acts. There's this cute guy who's become a part of Jackson's daily life and even though he's cute, he's never given any sign that he could also be into guys, so Jackson never makes a move and he's probably okay with that until his sister also takes interest in Liam, and different from Jackson, she does go for what she wants. It's such a bad dilemma. As much as he liked Liam first, now he happens to like the guy his sister made very clear to like—without him protesting, though I'm not sure how that talk would have gone if he had told her anything.
The parts about theater, about his ex, about the plays were also interesting to follow. It made me want to watch the musical theater version of Jesus Christ Superstar and I'm not even a fan of musicals!
The plot itself is a pretty hard one to give a good resolution unless you appeal to lucky happenings—like, magically, his sister forgets about Liam and falls for someone else entirely—, which is not the proposal of this book. I admire that the author faced the problem head on, even if I wished it could have had a cleaner solution, without the heartbreak.
I liked the style and I liked the development, and I loved the characters, so I'm definitely recommending this to fans of YAs. Also, I'm eager to get my hands on more works by this author!
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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