Amanda DeWitt

In this young adult thriller, five asexual teens of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities who know each other only virtually meet in Las Vegas to infiltrate a shady illegal gambling operation within in a legitimate casino to take down a mob boss. Despite that they are all helping Jack Shannon try to get the goods on this boss, Peter Carlevaro, to help free his mother from jail, where she is thanks to Carlevaro. Gently discusses several identities on the asexuality spectrum and platonic love. It is written as a confessional by Jack and is heavy on the family and friendship theme.… (lisätietoja)

A very, very funny YA romance with just the right amounts of angst and fluff. Absolutely every reader knows going in what the resolution of the "who is this mystery person on a chat app" plot line will be—if you've at all read the cover blurb, you probably know already—but the journey to the destination is absolutely delightful. Like all romcom fans I'm a sucker for a ridiculous situation and a load of snappy, humorous dialogue, and this book delivers like an overachieving student body president.… (lisätietoja)

This book was everything it needed to be as a romcom — fluffy and fun with enough serious emotions to not be shallow or dull. Wren could be a bit of an ass and a bit wrapped up in himself, but still managed to be very sympathetic and likable. The way both Wren’s and Leo’s personal struggles with grief and uncertainty about what they want from life after high school played well with their romantic misadventure. Both their reasons for rejecting one version of the other (the anonymous Buddy app version or the real-life version) and their reconciliation and reasons for choosing each other in the end made a lot of sense and worked with their character growth.
The casual asexual rep was great too. The story isn’t about asexuality, but it’s not an incidental, throwaway element either. Wren’s behavior and feelings are very much affected by being ace in ways that, as an ace (though, unlike Wren, also aro) reader rang true. I wish there had been a little bit more discussion of that towards the end though. Leo, as BB, states his acceptance before either of them have actually floated the idea of getting together and Wren’s worries about dating as an asexual don’t come up much after that. I thought there might have been a place for that after his relationship prospects got less theoretical and more serious.
I had a few other minor issues with the story. Most notably, I got exasperated at how oblivious Leo and Wren are about their “Buddy’s” identity. They got way more hints than they should have needed and none of them clicked. But overall, it was enjoyable.… (lisätietoja)

My name is Jack Shannon, and this is not a love story. It’s a confession.

Ending the prologue with this line was one hell of an opening. It made me think it would be a suspenseful, cleverly plotted heist story.
It wasn’t.
It’s literally 5 teenagers being chaotic. Quite different than what I expected, but it made for a fun and quick read.

With five different characters, there are five different asexual experiences. Asexuality comes in many varieties, combines with any sexuality and can be separate from aromanticism, multiple of which were present in the book. I would have liked some more about those varieties and the differences among the five friends, but the bits that we got were nice.

That is also a downside. I know about these characters’ asexuality, not their personalities. The characters were likeable enough, and their friendship is believable, but I felt like there wasn’t enough time to develop all of them as individuals.
Why does our main character have a crush on the love interest? I’m not sure. What is Georgia’s personality? Also not sure.

The heist itself was… well not a heist at all?
The entire book is just them sneaking around trying to find useful information.
The characters are nowhere near equipped to pull off any heist anyway. Jack is literally 17. He knows how to play cards, but he’s clumsy and make dumb mistakes too. On the positive side, that made the book feel much more realistic. Jack has an unrealistic amount of money, but other than that, they felt like actual 16-17 year olds trying to pull off a scheme. No weirdly overpowered 16 year old criminals here, just an online friend group. There’s even a 23 year old trying to be a Responsible Adult that Jack has to answer to.… (lisätietoja)