Off the Ice

Quite possibly the clearest case I've ever had for a book of ‘it's not you, it's me'. I was wanting a cute, fluffy little read and instead I got this - that was (mostly) cute and fluffy for about the first half of the book. Then it took a much more serious/angst-y tone with hate crimes, death, kidnapping and (reference to/threats of) conversion therapy. While there is some bad parenting, there is also a lot of good parents and good friends - and a surprisingly angst free ‘I guess I'm bi' from a secondary character. Even with all that, I might still have given it four stars because I like the relationship that Simon and Alex are building, and I think it'll be a strong one - but there was not one, but two instances of cheating. (But, it's okay because ‘true love' and ‘I never went all the way with my girlfriend, (but I'm totally going to with the boy I just met)'.) Cheating is never cool, and I'm getting tired of it in YA media. (So, for that it lost a star and almost caused me to drop the book early on.)