Only Mostly Devastated

This book got 1 star because of how it made me feel which is so damn frustrated. You soo can tell that this book is written by a white straight woman... The action of main character mostly - being weak minded and just simply blank...the only thing characteristic for him is that he likes music. Seriously I felt as if I read mediocre Wattpad novel in terms of characters development.
Apart from that there were these small things that indicated that author doesn't know the lgbtq community well, and what's it like to be a gay man. Like pushing main characters to give a closeted guy a chance. It's not easy to date someone who is not out, but a guy who pretend you don't exist and have no real prospects of coming out or changing his behavior soon and hangs out with homophobic guys is on an entirely different level. It's totally okay if someone doesn't want to date a closeted guy and yet author thinks they (closeted guys) should be given a chance because maybe they don't have it easy. Relationship it's not a thing you have to have to feel good, on the contrary you shouldn't be in a relationship just to feel good. If someone is this closeted and surrounded by homophobia by their choice they are not ready for a relationship. And NO ONE should be encouraged to be in a relationship with this kind of person. And that, besides main character persona, annoyed me the most.
I'm really disappointed by this book, I thought it would give me a good time but I wasn't even able to finish it as it just felt as a waste of time and nerves.

Only Mostly Devasted was a sweet book which was on the whole easy to read and enjoyable. I found the theme of cancer with Aunt Linda and how her death affected Ollie really tragic and interesting, as it makes a good change from the will-they-won't-they with Ollie and Will. I also like how Ollie realises that he's being mistreated by Will before they end up together, to make it clear that the way he treated him was wrong.
I do wish that Ollie's band had been more included, but overall, I enjoyed the book a lot!

The story felt very slow and a bit contrived. The allure of it is loosely based on Greese wore off quickly after the first chapter. 

When I saw this was a boy meets boy spin on Grease I new I had to read it. I wish I would have read it sooner because I absolutely loved it. I read this in a day. It was such a cute easy read. Well I guess I shouldn't say that it was an easy read because there were certain parts that were hard to read. Going into this I expected it to just be a cute contemporary romance which that is what it is but there is a side story that deals with Ollies aunt having cancer. Those parts were hard to read and had me tearing up. I highly recommend this book if you haven't read it yet.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Adorably sweet and fantastic to read. This is one I didn't want to put down because of how much I ended up liking the characters. While I'm not a fan of second-chance romances, I'm more lenient with teenagers, especially for the reasons given here. My heart was torn and so invested.

Ollie is such a cutie that you can't help but want the best for. Will took a while to grow on me, but once I understood his motivations, my heart cried out for him. I wanted nothing more than to make life easier and softer for these characters. Even the side characters grew on me and had me caring.

The writing really brought the emotions to the front. This will not be the last book I read by this author and I look forward to seeing what else they come out with.

literally gay grease with a side of sapphic/gay solidarity

CW: secondary character death due to cancerWhat starts as a goofy M/M YA tribute to Grease turns out to be much more. Okay, Ollie and Will have a summer fling and then surprisingly encounter each other at their senior year of high school when Ollie's family decides to stay in North Carolina to help care for a sick family member. And yes Ollie is befriended by three girls who bear a passing resemblance to the Pink Ladies (one's an aspiring model instead of a beauty school dropout like Frenchie, one is the bitter sarcastic Rizzo equivalent and one is just nice). But the issues that arise when Ollie and Will come face to face are more complicated than nice girl meets bad boy. Will isn't out to his friends or family, and his cool behavior towards Ollie is both understandable and heartbreaking. What ensues is an exploration of how two teens navigate a relationship when they are in very different points in their sexuality journey, and whether they can be together in some way without either one being seriously hurt. I spent most of the book furious at Will for stringing Ollie along while outwardly clinging to his jock-bro personality (even taking a girl to the big high school dance) and rooting for Ollie to stand up for himself. Towards the end Will redeems himself a bit, and Ollie has a few epiphanies about their relationship that helped me to see Will in a slightly different light. Still, I wouldn't call this a sweet adorable romance like [b:Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda 19547856 Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood, #1) Becky Albertalli https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1402915678l/19547856.SY75.jpg 27679579]; it's more bittersweet and complicated, albeit with a happy ending.Ollie is a lot like many YA first person narrators - smart, snarky and confused. But he distinguishes himself by his nurturing, caring side that is apparent when he babysits his young cousins. The secondary characters, especially the three girls who befriend Ollie, are well-developed, arguably more so than Will. There is a fair amount of sadness in the book's subplots which give it greater depth than a typical YA rom-com. Grease is only the starting point for this extremely strong novel. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.ARC provided by Net Galley in exchange for honest review.

2.5-3 stars. I had high hopes for this book, especially with it being described as a modern, m/m retelling of Grease. I wasn't wowed by it unfortunately.

Like Grease, Ollie meets Will over the summer when Ollie's family visits North Carolina. They have a whirlwind romance that ends when Ollie must go back to California at the end of the summer. Plot twist–Ollie's family decides to stay in NC in order to help his aunt who is dying of cancer. When Ollie tries to contact Will to let him know that he's staying, he's met with radio silence. It isn't until a party on the night of his first day of school when Ollie realizes that his new school is also Will's school. Also like Grease, Will isn't the same boy that Ollie met over the summer. He's a jock, kind of a jerk, and also very much in the closet. If you've seen Grease, you can imagine how the story goes from here.

It's for that reason that I felt like I couldn't get into this book. It ended up being too predictable. I felt like the author tried too hard to take every opportunity to throw a Grease reference into the story when it could have easily stood on its own and that became too distracting. There was also a lot of jumping around that made the story more confusing. Overall, it wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't anything memorable.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

this being pitched as a gay Grease did not disappoint
likes:
- the friendships!!
- queer rep (MC is gay, side character is bi, love interest is bi)
- how Will still being in the closet was dealt with. I was hesitant about this plot line b/c I feel like it usually makes for an uncomfortable read w/someone getting mad at that person not wanting to come out. but Ollie was so understanding & only got frustrated when Will was truly being a shit - not for him wanting to stay in the closet.
- Lara's character growth
- the side plot of Ollie's aunt being sick. fucking WRECKED ME

dislikes:
- I don't think Will was fleshed out enough; he didn't really have too much of a personality IMO
- Ollie's friends back in California were kind of pointless - they were brought up in the beginning then p much completely forgotten until the end
- kind of the same thing w/Ollie's bandmates - we never learn anything about them besides their names