preordered

Drama banget.

Bukan....bukan novelnya yang drama, saya yang drama. ( )

This was really sweet, but for my tastes, too sweet. And I'm probably heartless but Lucas cried enough in this book he reminded me of that Alice in Wonderland scene where she cries so much she floods everything. Donovan had potential to be interesting and multi-layered, but I didn't feel he was developed enough. I didn't mind the BDSM elements introduced at the end. People that are into that stuff can be of any age, and it wasn't on page so I didn't feel it was too much for the YA crowd. I did, however, feel it was weird in this book. This book was all Candyland and that element and storyline (with Donovan) threw the pacing and thematic elements off for me.

I liked Alex and Tricia fine, but they felt a little like place-holders than fully realized characters. The parents' relationship with Lucas could have been really explored, and I felt the author scratched the surface, but I wasn't particularily invested. I'm glad Lucas had someone like Zach.

Overall, it's a cute book and a very quick read. I didn't enjoy it as much as the author's first work, but I might be interested in reading Donovan's story, if she was inclined to write it. ( )

I think the most valuable asset of this YA novel by Madison Parker is that she didn’t shy away from making her characters very true, and as such, not always perfect or likable.

Take the main character, Lucas; he is a nice boy, studious and passionate about music, and he is gay; but he is also flamboyant, exaggerated without wanting to be, feminine, as other boys and girls, and even some adults (probably even his parents) said, he is a “sissy”. Lucas is not flashing it, he was always like that; when he was just a toddler, he liked pretty things, sparkly jewelry, his mother’s make-up. And he liked music, classical music but also pop-music, Cindy Lauper, and everything that was able to express out his joy of life. But now that he is a teenager, being a sissy makes him the misfit at school, the one other people make fun of, and even his parents, while accepting, would like for him to man it up a little. But that is not Lucas’s nature, and that is torturing him.

In his growing journey, Lucas will meet three very different boys: Dominic, the only other openly gay boy at school, flamboyant as Lucas, but also bitchy, pushing and sometime even dangerous; Dominic will be Lucas’s first experience as gay boy in a relationship, and someone who will teach Lucas that he has to be very careful with his heart.

At the same time Lucas will meet Alex; Alex is an interesting character, and allow me to digress a little from the story. While I have read YA novels about gay, lesbian and even transgender kids, I think I have never read about a bisexual boy; or better, yes I read about teenagers who while always dating and loving girls, meet another boy and fall in love, but it was more black&white, like for everything else at that age. Or you like girls or you like boys, for a teenager I think it’s difficult to comfortably living with the concept that you like both; at that age you need confirmation, assurance, it can be tragic and troubling discovering you like boys, but once you accept that, at least you have a firm point, I’m gay. I think Alex, while being in love with another girl, is basically a bisexual man. Alex is comfortable with Lucas, has no problem to give him his first kiss, but it’s more to give Lucas confidence in himself than for a sexual reason; Alex is not in love with Lucas, but I suppose that, if his heart was free, he could be feel attraction for him; or maybe he does, but one thing is attraction and the other thing is love. Alex is a very positive character, someone who would be good to meet for a boy like Lucas in the fragile period that is your teenage hood.

Finally meet Zach, Lucas’s true and unrequited love, the handsome but very private boy writing wonderful love poems. Lucas’s brother’s swim teammate, someone who Lucas admitted from afar for a long period. Zach would be the perfect boyfriend, but even if he was gay, he is totally unreachable for Lucas, Zach is part of the “cool guys” team, a team Lucas will be never part of. But then, little by little, Lucas will find out that behind the cool appearance, Zach is not only an ordinary boy, but even someone who maybe has not had an easy upbringing, someone who needs to be loved and accepted, someone who will never hurt Lucas like other boys did.

Very, very nice YA novels, little warning to the very young readers, the story got its good share of sex scenes, so maybe I would recommend it to slightly older boys and girls.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1623809193/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

2.5 ( )