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theresevsbooks's review
4.0
I cannot believe I read this in one sitting. Although actually I can, because it was a surprising addicting read.
Blaine for the Win is a YA contemporary romance that, honestly, focuses more on internal struggles and growth than romance. And I love that. While we all need a good romance every now and then, books that acknowledge romance as being nice, but not vital to our success as humans, are incredibly important.
Couch weaves a fun, cute story using the threads of friendship, self-worth, and identity (and yes, a bit of adorable romance). While I do believe that the story moved a bit fast— or is this just because I read it in one sitting?— it is the perfect light read for people who love YA novels with sweet friendships and LGBT representation.
Oh! This book comes out tomorrow/today since it is now past midnight!!! Perfect timing- go read it!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley.
Blaine for the Win is a YA contemporary romance that, honestly, focuses more on internal struggles and growth than romance. And I love that. While we all need a good romance every now and then, books that acknowledge romance as being nice, but not vital to our success as humans, are incredibly important.
Couch weaves a fun, cute story using the threads of friendship, self-worth, and identity (and yes, a bit of adorable romance). While I do believe that the story moved a bit fast— or is this just because I read it in one sitting?— it is the perfect light read for people who love YA novels with sweet friendships and LGBT representation.
Oh! This book comes out tomorrow/today since it is now past midnight!!! Perfect timing- go read it!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley.
sammi_shabambi's review
4.5
This book is ‘what if we made legally blonde gay and set in high school’ and honestly? 100% here for it. Give me more.
“Never give someone else the authority to dictate your self-worth.“
“Never give someone else the authority to dictate your self-worth.“
ryanf1996's review
5.0
This was so cute! I highly recommend it if you are looking for a feel good YA story. Representation across the board and great messages behind the writing!
alexisisreading's review
5.0
Legally blonde…but make it senior class President.
Robbie Couch has quickly become an auto buy author for me. I really just love his writing style and his characters are so relatable.
Blaine For The Win follows Blaine, who is high on life until his boyfriend, Joey, dumps him on their one year anniversary because he doesn’t think Blaine is serious enough. In an effort to prove Joey wrong, Blaine decides to go head to head against Joey’s new boyfriend, Zach, for senior class President. Blaine enlists the help of his two friends Trish and Camilla, along with student council rep Danny (who he just keeps getting off on the wrong foot with) to prove that he is the candidate to vote for.
Things I loved: Blaine’s personality, the support he gets from his family about his love of art, Aunt Star!!, Blaine’s character development and realizing that he might be running for the wrong reasons, the dynamic between Blaine and Danny, the books whole focus on being your authentic self-even if it might not be what others want you to be.
This was a 5 star read for me, so I definitely recommend!!
Robbie Couch has quickly become an auto buy author for me. I really just love his writing style and his characters are so relatable.
Blaine For The Win follows Blaine, who is high on life until his boyfriend, Joey, dumps him on their one year anniversary because he doesn’t think Blaine is serious enough. In an effort to prove Joey wrong, Blaine decides to go head to head against Joey’s new boyfriend, Zach, for senior class President. Blaine enlists the help of his two friends Trish and Camilla, along with student council rep Danny (who he just keeps getting off on the wrong foot with) to prove that he is the candidate to vote for.
Things I loved: Blaine’s personality, the support he gets from his family about his love of art, Aunt Star!!, Blaine’s character development and realizing that he might be running for the wrong reasons, the dynamic between Blaine and Danny, the books whole focus on being your authentic self-even if it might not be what others want you to be.
This was a 5 star read for me, so I definitely recommend!!
hsinjulit's review
5.0
4.5 stars rounding up.
I couldn’t put down Blaine for the Win and finished it in two sittings. The vibe of it reminds me of TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries (my review) but without superpowers.
Blaine Bowers (~16, achillean) cannot believe he got dumped by Joey Oliver (gay). On their one-year anniversary. At the fanciest restaurant ever. Joey said he didn’t want to date the mural painter who isn’t the kind of Serious Guy he needs to become President of the United States one day. Blaine will win him back by showing that he can ditch his mural painting gigs and be serious... by signing up to run for senior class president? Enlisting the help of his best friends Trish MacIntosh (sapphic, Black) and Camilla (sapphic) as well as the not-friend-only-acquaintance Danny Nguyen (bi, Vietnamese American) for an insider perspective from the student council, Blaine is ready to prove himself to be worthy of Joey. As the race kicks off, is winning Joey back still going to be Blaine’s goal?
First of all, Blaine for the Win has a great cast that includes cute supporting sapphics, in addition to lots of achilleans. And I mean lots of achilleans, which we love to see. This book is YA and tackles a lot of Messy Teenage Feels. Blaine is not the perfect boy and he messes up sometimes. Okay, a lot, but he is learning how to not quit on things and holding onto his passion. Sure, he probably didn’t get enough retaliation of all the mistakes he made, but I did get nervous and worried for him throughout the book, which is saying something about the realness of Couch’s storytelling.
The supporting cast is wonderful. Trish is amazing, and at one point, I wondered if she would become that BIPOC character who is just there to support the white main character without having her own story, but I think Couch did a pretty good job at giving her agency and power, too (you have to finish the whole book though). Camilla is mainly there to support Trish as the dinosaur-loving girlfriend. And Danny, the plant-loving sweet boy Danny. Even though his backstory was mentioned pretty early on in the book, I felt emotional, too.
There are little to no homophobia in BFTW and many achillean characters that I am sure would mean a lot to young readers. I love that there are beautiful family relationships: Blaine and his aunt Starr, Danny and his father Bao, and even Zach Chesterton (the egotistical but popular candidate, also achillean) and his parents. And while the Olivers are not as great, their issues have nothing to do with Joey being gay, either. Another plus side is that Blaine’s dog Fudge did not gradually disappear as the story went on (I find it very common that fictional pets just sort of fades into the background when the story is not centered around animals).
As much as I liked the book, it did bother me a little that one character felt out-of-character toward the end, which was plot-convenient. But it didn’t hinder my enjoyment by much.
BFTW is a mostly light-hearted story about the disaster queer that is Blaine, but it also touches upon some heavier topics like mental health and grief and unemployment. Overall, this book is a winner, and I’m already looking forward to future books by Couch.
content warnings: talks about mental health, anxiety, loss of family member (side character), unemployment
I received an advanced digital copy from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I couldn’t put down Blaine for the Win and finished it in two sittings. The vibe of it reminds me of TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries (my review) but without superpowers.
Blaine Bowers (~16, achillean) cannot believe he got dumped by Joey Oliver (gay). On their one-year anniversary. At the fanciest restaurant ever. Joey said he didn’t want to date the mural painter who isn’t the kind of Serious Guy he needs to become President of the United States one day. Blaine will win him back by showing that he can ditch his mural painting gigs and be serious... by signing up to run for senior class president? Enlisting the help of his best friends Trish MacIntosh (sapphic, Black) and Camilla (sapphic) as well as the not-friend-only-acquaintance Danny Nguyen (bi, Vietnamese American) for an insider perspective from the student council, Blaine is ready to prove himself to be worthy of Joey. As the race kicks off, is winning Joey back still going to be Blaine’s goal?
First of all, Blaine for the Win has a great cast that includes cute supporting sapphics, in addition to lots of achilleans. And I mean lots of achilleans, which we love to see. This book is YA and tackles a lot of Messy Teenage Feels. Blaine is not the perfect boy and he messes up sometimes. Okay, a lot, but he is learning how to not quit on things and holding onto his passion. Sure, he probably didn’t get enough retaliation of all the mistakes he made, but I did get nervous and worried for him throughout the book, which is saying something about the realness of Couch’s storytelling.
The supporting cast is wonderful. Trish is amazing, and at one point, I wondered if she would become that BIPOC character who is just there to support the white main character without having her own story, but I think Couch did a pretty good job at giving her agency and power, too (you have to finish the whole book though). Camilla is mainly there to support Trish as the dinosaur-loving girlfriend. And Danny, the plant-loving sweet boy Danny. Even though his backstory was mentioned pretty early on in the book, I felt emotional, too.
There are little to no homophobia in BFTW and many achillean characters that I am sure would mean a lot to young readers. I love that there are beautiful family relationships: Blaine and his aunt Starr, Danny and his father Bao, and even Zach Chesterton (the egotistical but popular candidate, also achillean) and his parents. And while the Olivers are not as great, their issues have nothing to do with Joey being gay, either. Another plus side is that Blaine’s dog Fudge did not gradually disappear as the story went on (I find it very common that fictional pets just sort of fades into the background when the story is not centered around animals).
As much as I liked the book, it did bother me a little that one character felt out-of-character toward the end, which was plot-convenient. But it didn’t hinder my enjoyment by much.
BFTW is a mostly light-hearted story about the disaster queer that is Blaine, but it also touches upon some heavier topics like mental health and grief and unemployment. Overall, this book is a winner, and I’m already looking forward to future books by Couch.
content warnings: talks about mental health, anxiety, loss of family member (side character), unemployment
I received an advanced digital copy from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
indiekay's review
5.0
SUCH a fun read! Fantastic Legally Blonde retelling, but make it gay and set it in high school.
stiino19's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Not a bad book, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea.
morganreadsya's review
5.0
thank you netgalley for the arc!
so, i was given an arc in exchange for an honest review. so i AM going to be honest. after the first 2 chapters, i honestly thought i was going to dnf this book, which was disappointing because i was super excited when i got given the arc and when i was finally able to get around to starting it. my reasoning was because the writing style in the beginning was WAY too hard for me to follow, it felt like every sentence had 5 adjectives and by the time i had finished reading a sentence or paragraph, i had already forgotten what was being described. maybe the fault in this writing style is due to the fact that i have aphantasia, which is a fancy way of saying i can't "see pictures" in my mind so therefore all this detail trying to describe the scene was lost in translation because i am not actively PICTURING the scene.
that being said, i decided i wanted to give the book a fair chance as again, i was excited about it and have no problems with it besides a personal issue. so my goal was to at least finish 5 chapters and then see how i felt. and needless to say, that night of "attempting" to read from chapter 3-5 ended in me reading over 100 pages, and 9 chapters in one day! i was hooked! either the writing style changed over (maybe all the heavily detailed descriptions were just to "establish" the book?) or maybe i got used to it and stopped noticing. point was i started to really enjoy it and kept ready with no issues anymore, which i was grateful for!
i am also aware this is a legally blonde retelling (or it has references or something?) which i can't exactly comment on how close it is to that as i've never seen legally blonde but maybe after this i will watch it to see the comparison ahaha
overall, i started this book off thinking it was gonna be a dnf and ended it rating it 5 stars and having a new book on my "favs" list! i would for sure recommended this to anyone who is looking for a book that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, it made me feel happy, upset, hopeful, had moments where i wanted to throw my kindle out the window, it also made me laugh out loud and it melted my heart. if you pick up this book and struggle with the beginning like i did, i promise after the first few chapters it is very worth it!
ps. the fact that the only non-queer main characters in this book, are the adults?? mwah chefs kiss.
so, i was given an arc in exchange for an honest review. so i AM going to be honest. after the first 2 chapters, i honestly thought i was going to dnf this book, which was disappointing because i was super excited when i got given the arc and when i was finally able to get around to starting it. my reasoning was because the writing style in the beginning was WAY too hard for me to follow, it felt like every sentence had 5 adjectives and by the time i had finished reading a sentence or paragraph, i had already forgotten what was being described. maybe the fault in this writing style is due to the fact that i have aphantasia, which is a fancy way of saying i can't "see pictures" in my mind so therefore all this detail trying to describe the scene was lost in translation because i am not actively PICTURING the scene.
that being said, i decided i wanted to give the book a fair chance as again, i was excited about it and have no problems with it besides a personal issue. so my goal was to at least finish 5 chapters and then see how i felt. and needless to say, that night of "attempting" to read from chapter 3-5 ended in me reading over 100 pages, and 9 chapters in one day! i was hooked! either the writing style changed over (maybe all the heavily detailed descriptions were just to "establish" the book?) or maybe i got used to it and stopped noticing. point was i started to really enjoy it and kept ready with no issues anymore, which i was grateful for!
i am also aware this is a legally blonde retelling (or it has references or something?) which i can't exactly comment on how close it is to that as i've never seen legally blonde but maybe after this i will watch it to see the comparison ahaha
overall, i started this book off thinking it was gonna be a dnf and ended it rating it 5 stars and having a new book on my "favs" list! i would for sure recommended this to anyone who is looking for a book that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, it made me feel happy, upset, hopeful, had moments where i wanted to throw my kindle out the window, it also made me laugh out loud and it melted my heart. if you pick up this book and struggle with the beginning like i did, i promise after the first few chapters it is very worth it!
ps. the fact that the only non-queer main characters in this book, are the adults?? mwah chefs kiss.
bluebeereads's review
4.0
At this point I'm convinced that I will love any book Robbie Couch ever writes.