Back of the book
Ruben and Zach are two members of Saturday, one of the world's biggest boy bands.
Teen heartthrobs in front of the camera, they're also best friends backstage. But management's pressure on Ruben to stay in the closet is taking its toll. Zach is the only one he can confide in.
As Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more during a whirlwind tour of Europe, their close friendship evolves into romance.
If this gets out, will their fans ever truly give them the support they need? And how can they hold tight to each other if their whole world is coming apart?
My thoughts
This read like the perfect fanfiction. No grammar or spelling errors, a plot that made sense with no filler chapters or idea changes halfway through. A perfect balance of feel-good and drama. Why specifically fan-fiction? Because I couldn't help but think of all the Larry fanfictions I've read over the years, all the versions of Louis and Harry being in love and having to hide because of management, which is essentially the plot of this book. These characters were written very differently to how the One Direction fandom choose to characterise Louis and Harry, because it wasn't a Larry fanfiction, but that's initially what drew me in to this book. A boyband, two boys fall in love, but must keep it secret – just screamed LARRY to me. Also this is a new-ish book (2021) so it totally could have been inspired by that.
It was set out as two POV's, each chapter switching between Ruben and Zach. The format didn't bother me, however sometimes in the middle of chapters I would forget who was who, and which character I was reading as. In other POV switch books I've read generally the font is different to better distinguish for the reader, but also the writing style changes (example Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan). The characters were distinct from each other, but the writing styles were not and the font was the same throughout the whole book. Perhaps I'm just easily confused.
This book balances things perfectly. I know I should be trying to be critical but it was like the perfect fanfiction and can't fault it! It rides the perfect line of just enough sexy without being cringe or crude (and never says the word penis) (but does mention a blowjob). They balanced the developing love, life pressures, friend's lives, personal anxieties and external events wonderfully. Since I've got nothing more to say, I just want to shoutout to two Aussie writers because I feel they are rare.
TL:DR
Reads like an errorless fanfiction about two boys in your favourite boyband *One Direction* falling in love but management being homophobic. If you ever read a Larry Stylinson fanfiction, 100% recommend.
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Spoilery Book Reviews
Non-FictionBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
