Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Like Real People Do

But please don’t make me choose which part of Like Real People do I loved the most, because it’s damn near impossible to choose if I can’t choose everything.

We are being treated to absolutely loveable and funny characters – doesn’t matter if we’re talking about our main pairing Alex and Eli or supporting characters like Jeff or the whole of the Ice Hockey Teams (well, apart from one person). But they are not only loveable, but they also read so fucking real and I love how healthy their relationships are. Friends and partners call each other out on their BS and grow that way, okay?

I can’t analyze how well Eli’s epilepsy and his service dog’s reaction to it are written – let me know if you’ve read an own voices review for that part so that I can link to it here – but I definitely liked how it wasn’t skipped over but portrayed in a way I found to fit in well with the overall story.

Seriously, if you need a fun and well-flowing feel good queer book featuring a diverse cast, this one has to be bought by you ASAP!

Content Warnings

whatcassiedid's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is so inside baseball for hockey and I really enjoyed it. All of the characters felt so familiar (shout out to my years of reading hockey fic), and I felt like Eli's medical stuff was handled with such care. There's so much potential for a full series here and I'm very excited that there's going to be a second book. I wish the NHL was really this wholesome and accepting IRL but maybe one day we'll get there.

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readingtotravel's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.75

I love everything about this book except how abrupt the ending was but book 2 is thankfully a continuation of Eli & Alex's story.

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lyravt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have literally never felt the need to write a review for a book before so I hope this is a preface for how much I love this book.
I'd like to start off mentioning that this book has very good disability representation as well as a POC main character!

Something I liked a lot about this book that I don't see at all in the books I read is how the side characters weren't shallow at all.
I didn't realize how much I loved that until this book, but each character, not just the MC'S, have a story to them and you even get a POV chapter from a few of them.
It honestly makes me hope they'll one day have their own stories too!

There is a lot of development in multiple different characters' ways of thinking and coping throughout the book.

It also all felt very real, something that I find a lot even in non-fantasy books is that the actions and behaviors are so far fetched and out of the blue, not at all like how I would see someone reacting in the real world. Don't get me wrong, I love escaping to fictional worlds different from our own, but when someone isn't at all realistic, and conversations seem very forced just so that the author can get their point across, I tend to find it sort of off-putting.

There's also a lot of depth I'm the plot, I didn't notice any little plot holes anywhere. I was also super blindsided by one of Alex's claims further on, it was entirely unexpected but when I thought back I noticed all the hints. I actually cannot recall a time when a book did that so well before.

I think this might be my favourite book so far, it's so so so amazing.
I will recommend this book to anyone and everyone who enjoys reading books with queer relationships and experiences, personally being lgbtq, I think that issues of homophobia, as well as internalized, or things that don't sound problematic until pointed out, was all handled so well and it even made me think back a little on how I've handled situations of my own like that before.

Also I just want to make a small note that there isn't any genuine sexual content in this book, I don't find that a deal breaker at all but I couldn't find any reviews mentioning it so I wasn't sure whether or not to expect any :)

happy reading!

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lunahale's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

i loved this when it was a fanfic, and i love it with original characters. alex is such an earnest, dumb frat boy, and he’s so in love with eli that i don’t know how to handle it. and don’t get me started on kuzy bc he really is a soft bro good giant with a body by maytag 🫶🏼

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tanouska's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely love this book, and can't wait for the next part! I love that this story goes on after they get together. Many romances end once that point is reached, but so much interesting stuff only starts happening after that point! Looking forward to reading more of it all.
The changing POV's make it really interesting to see things for multiple perspectives, sometimes even from people outside of the main characters. The emotions and problems feel realtistic and definitely make you root for Eli and Alex!

I received a free copy in an exchange for an honest review

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