Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - If This Gets Out

Negativity ahead so if this was like, your fave of the year, do not @ me.

This was one of my most anticipated if not THE most anticipated read of this year and honestly, I wanted more. It was enjoyable enough to get me through to the end, but I just had so many issues with it that made it really hard for me to want to pick this up.

Positives first: The romance was very sweet. I have no complaints about Zach and Ruben's relationship. They made me smile and laugh, and swoon a lot of the time. These two nerds were made for each other. The scenes where they're sort of awkward around each other consistently made me giggle out loud. In the first 30 or so pages, there is already pining, which is for sure something that I was immediately signed up for. Additionally, the bromance between the band members and how much the boys valued their fans was very sweet and touched my heart in all the right places.

And then here is where I'm going to be a little cranky.

There were some things about this book that just made me...cringe? The use of Twitter words felt forced and very "hello fellow kids." The writing itself wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either in my opinion. There were some adjustments to the overall plot that I would make, and I think I would make this shorter overall if it were me. I think that the book became confused about what it wanted to be after the first half was over - the tone shifted and it became something darker that I wasn't really ready for. The most glaring issue for me is the women in this book. Pretty much none of the women who appear in this book are portrayed in a positive light, and for a book with very few female characters, that is a problem for me. The female characters that were present and prevalent were either abusive, totally clueless, or just randoms that showed up for 2 pages and left. After having these thoughts myself and talking to a friend about it, this alone made the book go down half a star for me. I wanted so much more from this and I was let down. *shrug*

Content Warnings

erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Now I was thinking of another band while reading this AT FIRST but as I got into it I really love these characters and the book. The end felt very open ended but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, just not something I’m a fan of (I don’t like not knowing what happens next haha). I did see some things that were coincidentally very similar to the other band I thought of while reading it but I didn’t focus too much on that since they are different. I think the storyline was good and I liked seeing the ins and out of the music industry (even though it’s fictional the authors did say it’s accurate to what artists- especially ones who start out young- go through). Overall a good book and I really enjoyed it :)

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful 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? No

3.75

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the free advance copy of this book.

- If you're looking for a high angst story filled with love and compassion, put IF THIS GETS OUT on your list.
- Not only is this book essentially the boy band fanfic of your dreams, it's also a story about found family learning to support each other through hard times and in the face of unsupportive (and even abusive) blood family. It's a great exploration of how hard it can be to live the life you want to live without alienating anyone.
- Plus, it's also got excellent forced proximity and only one bed tropes. The cover kind of looks YA, but I'd put this in NA due to the fade to black love scenes.

Content Warnings

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