Major Characters:
- Charlie Spring: He is the main character in the book. He has black curly hair and blue eyes. He is very sensitive and an overthinker. His hobbies include reading, playing the drums, and hanging out with his friends.
- Nick Nelson: He’s Charlie’s love interest. He has dirty brown hair and brown eyes. He’s on the rugby team. He’s understanding, nice, open minded, and helpful.
- Tao: Charlie’s best friend. Tao is funny, and very protective over Charlie.
Review:
Charlie attends school at Truham Grammar School for Boys. Charlie is seated next to a boy in his form class named Nick. One day, Nick’s pen explodes and Charlie helps him. They become friendly with each other and start talking after that incident. Charlie has a love interest Ben who is very toxic. He was secretly seeing Charlie, when he had a girlfriend. When Charlie found out he had a girlfriend he told Ben that he didn’t want to see him anymore. A month goes by, and Ben tries to confront Charlie and gets aggressive. Thankfully Nick shows up and Ben goes away. Nick asks Charlie about it, but he lies and says he needs help with homework. Nick then asks Charlie if he wants to join the rugby team. Charlie’s not sure at first, but then ends up agreeing to join. Charlie ends up feeling not very welcome on the team and feels like he’s not good at rugby. However, he does get to see Nick during practices, which strengthens their friendship. After practice, Charlie sees that Ben texted him wanting to meet up. Charlie agrees and ends up confronting Ben about how his past actions have hurt him. Ben doesn’t care and ends up forcefully kissing Charlie. Nick pushes Ben off of Charlie and comforts Charlie.Later Nick messages Charlie asking him if he’s okay. Charlie ended up replying back and telling Nick the backstory of his relationship with Ben. The next day at school, Tao asks Charlie if he has a crush on Nick and his suspicions are confirmed. Tao warns Charlie saying he’ll only get hurt by this crush, since Nick is straight. As the school year progresses Nick and Charlie become even closer. They meet each other's families, and hang out a lot. During this time Nick starts questioning his sexuality. Will Nick be able to come to terms with his sexuality and be in a relationship with Charlie?
I like how the author portrayed important topics in this book. The fear and frustration that coming in terms with your sexuality has on a person was spot on. Her representation of anxiety, depression was also well done. The plot also didn’t feel rushed, so I liked it.
Teen readers would enjoy this book because of the diverse representation, the romance, and the lovable characters. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about romance, and wants a quick short read.
