I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Published by Cool Dudes Publishing on June 1st 2015
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 177
Format: eBook, Paperback
Source: the author
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Strutting his stuff on the catwalk in black patent leather pumps and a snug orange tuxedo as this year’s Miss (ter) Harvest Moon feels so very right to Chance César, and yet he knows it should feel so very wrong.
As far back as he can remember, Chance has been “caught between genders.” (It’s quite a touchy subject; so don’t ask him about it.) However, he does not question his sexual orientation. Chance has no doubt about his gayness—he is very much out of the closet at his rural New Hampshire high school, where the other students avoid the kid they refer to as “girl-boy.”
But at the local Harvest Moon Festival, when Chance, the Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper Donahue, the Pumpkin Carving King, sparks fly. So Chance sets out, with the help of his BFF, Emily, to make “Jazz” Donahue his man.
An article in an online women’s magazine, Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love with You (with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure), becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart. Quirky, comical, definitely flamboyant, and with an inner core of poignancy, Love Spell celebrates the diversity of a gender-fluid teen.
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Penny’s Rating: ~ B ~
Do not, I repeat, do not, get your love/ dating advice from a magazine. I spent most of this book going “No Chance, don’t listen to the article, Chance, just be yourself!” That is ultimately the awkwardly painful lesson of this book. Be true to yourself, because that is what others are drawn to. Yelling at fictional characters is very therapeutic for me. Chance Cesar, the utterly fabulous gender-fluid, MC of our story decides to take dating advice from an online article to with the heart of his crush. Chance couldn’t have possibly picked worse advice to follow.
Being yourself is not always easy. Especially when who you are doesn’t fit into a nice neat little box. Which, most of us don’t, not really, but when you are a kid, and questioning where you fit on the gender spectrum, it sure doesn’t seem that way. It seems like you are the ONLY one who is different in a sea of normal peers.
It is also matdatorbs (yes, really) that you learn a whole new vocabulary to participate in this world. I have to admit the vocab threw me for a bit, but it was true to the characters, and completely fits the story.
This is a super cute young adult read, and kudos to Kerick for writing about gender-fluid/ gender-questioning youth having completely normal teenage experiences, and spreading the message that it is OK to be yourself, with or without a label, whether you fit on either end of the spectrum or somewhere in-between.
