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betwixt_the_pages's review
3.0
On the surface, Romeo has it all: success on the basketball court, a group of good friends, the companionship of the beautiful Rosie. Deep down, he knows something is wrong: All he feels for Rosie is friendship, and all he feels for his friends' intolerance is guilt. Everything changes when he meets the openly gay Julian at a party and finds himself sharing a kiss with him. In spite of their obvious attraction, Romeo now feels less sure of himself than ever, and leaves without even telling Julian his name.
With Rosie's support, Romeo begins exploring his sexuality -- and ends up running into Julian again. Realizing how little he knows about other sexual orientations and gender identities, Romeo begins to see the world in a whole new light, and he and Julian begin to fall in love. But his homophobic friends and family can't accept him as gay. After a violent confrontation with one of his old friends, Romeo becomes determined to prove that his love for Julian is real and right.
Romeo for Real will give readers the courage to take pride in who they are and whom they love.
Rating: 2.5/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: cute Romeo retelling; there was a LOT happening in a very small amount of time here; relevant, but could have been handled/written better; I had a hard time suspending my disbelief for parts of this; certain things happened a little too quickly
HUGE thanks to Markus Harwood-Jones, Lorimer Publishing, and Netgalley for sending a free egalley of this title my way! This in no way altered my review of or opinions on this read.
I hate to admit it, Penguins, but I wasn't particularly impressed with this read. As much as I love my retellings, this one fell short overall--while the subject matter was relevant, I feel like it could have been handled in much different (and, at times, in much better) ways. So...let's dive into the grit and grime, shall we?
There were a lot of problems with this book, in my humbly royal opinion. The biggest one? The way the more sensitive portions of the story were handled and written. While I understand that, realistically, there are people who go through their reckoning in violent ways at times...I also feel like there was MUCH too quick a resolution to happen, particularly in the case of two of these characters. For Rome--he got into trouble, only to be immediately "not" in trouble when things about his life came to light. He was let off the hook for some really rotten choices WAY too quickly for me to fully believe and buy into his character arc.
"You make me better at being me," said Rome, holding Julian close. "I want to do it. Let's show everyone how strong love can really be."
Much like Romeo's insta-love for Juliet (and, before her, Rosaline), there was insta-love...or maybe more like insta-lust? It was dramatic, but...there were no fireworks. There was no chemistry, in ANY of the interactions. There was a lot of self-hatred, and a lot of unjustified violence, and A LOT of mistakes. I couldn't get into the characters' heads. I couldn't see them, visualize them, understand them. Several of them flip-flopped so hard, I thought I was maybe reading about Magikarp in the midst of a Pokemon battle.
It's harsh...but I didn't enjoy this. I think that, with a little more fine-tuning and a lot of fleshing out, this could have been a much different read. As it is, the characters--and their journeys--didn't make much sense in the end. "Alas, Poor Yorick"....and onto the next one!
jugglingpup's review
1.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book.
So this is the companion book to Just Julian. I am not impressed by this cover at all. Remember that Romeo is supposed be a closeted gay and no one has any idea he is gay. I see this and my first thought is he is a drag queen or wants to be. So it is safe to say that I did not imagine Romeo looking like this at all.
The book itself was bland, boring, and I had many of the same issues as I did with the companion. This book follows Romeo’s adventures. Romeo isn’t gay when the book starts, at least he is pretty sure he isn’t. He actively gay bashes people, he was in a “relationship” with a girl for a LONG TIME even. The girl turns out to be half of the couple hosting a queer apartment warming party where he meets Julien. For someone who isn’t gay and has really homophobic friends Romeo sure did kiss Julian in a pretty public place pretty quickly. Then he came out to his “ex-girlfriend” (I keep putting this in quotes since the further you get in the book it is made clear there never was any relationship at all) the next morning who gives him a list of super queer places in town. He then immediately goes into one where he finds Julian again because Romeo has no idea how bookshelves work. They again kiss in public.
The whole book has a super rushed timeline, which I get fits with the source material. The issue besides falling so passionately in love with someone in three days is Romeo was raised Catholic, his dad is abusive, and his friends are homophobic. Why would he come out and suddenly be like “yup, I’m totally gay” so quickly. There would be more angst or at least more substance.
This book is also full of 2-D characters, but if you combine the two books some of the characters feel a bit more fleshed out. My major issue (outside of transphobia which I will get to shortly) is the books have drastically different dialogue and actions. It is annoying. I read it and went “Wow, I remember him saying something totally different”, so I went back to check. Yup, totally different. Some scenes made more sense based just on how they were written and some made less sense. In this book they had sex, in the other they just cuddled. If books are going to be companions, I expect them to you know work together to tell one story. This wouldn’t have worked as one book because of how repetitive it was, but if it was edited together it could have easily been a much better book than what these two were.
So onto the transphobia which also runs rampant in this book too, despite this book supposedly giving you courage to be yourself. The transphobic incident at the party where a trans girl was outed as a “man” happened, but at least this time someone was like “that’s shitty” for a second THE NEXT DAY. The entire party was an exercise in how much transphobic language I could handle. Romeo was mildly the narrator so part of it is on him, but this is told in the third person so most of the shame is on the author. The transphobic character was back, but played a bigger role. She told Romeo and his friend stories about how she loved “tricking” boys into having sex with her. I am just so pissed that this character exists. That is one of the number one transphobic things that people see on Jerry Springer, which should have been a “wait a second” moment for the author. Instead here is one of the worst representations of trans people in YA I have ever seen. I must point out that the author bio mentions the author went on a trip to learn more about trans people. Clearly he did not learn enough if this was his enlightened state.
Please, do not buy this book for a trans person to read. It is damaging. There is so much transphobia, so much homophobia, so much violence and abuse. This book has so many movie parts that are never addressed that it can send the complete wrong message to younger readers. For example it isn’t seen as bad or wrong that Julian cuts himself. It is never discussed beyond that he does it and he hides it.
I got an ARC of this book.
So this is the companion book to Just Julian. I am not impressed by this cover at all. Remember that Romeo is supposed be a closeted gay and no one has any idea he is gay. I see this and my first thought is he is a drag queen or wants to be. So it is safe to say that I did not imagine Romeo looking like this at all.
The book itself was bland, boring, and I had many of the same issues as I did with the companion. This book follows Romeo’s adventures. Romeo isn’t gay when the book starts, at least he is pretty sure he isn’t. He actively gay bashes people, he was in a “relationship” with a girl for a LONG TIME even. The girl turns out to be half of the couple hosting a queer apartment warming party where he meets Julien. For someone who isn’t gay and has really homophobic friends Romeo sure did kiss Julian in a pretty public place pretty quickly. Then he came out to his “ex-girlfriend” (I keep putting this in quotes since the further you get in the book it is made clear there never was any relationship at all) the next morning who gives him a list of super queer places in town. He then immediately goes into one where he finds Julian again because Romeo has no idea how bookshelves work. They again kiss in public.
The whole book has a super rushed timeline, which I get fits with the source material. The issue besides falling so passionately in love with someone in three days is Romeo was raised Catholic, his dad is abusive, and his friends are homophobic. Why would he come out and suddenly be like “yup, I’m totally gay” so quickly. There would be more angst or at least more substance.
This book is also full of 2-D characters, but if you combine the two books some of the characters feel a bit more fleshed out. My major issue (outside of transphobia which I will get to shortly) is the books have drastically different dialogue and actions. It is annoying. I read it and went “Wow, I remember him saying something totally different”, so I went back to check. Yup, totally different. Some scenes made more sense based just on how they were written and some made less sense. In this book they had sex, in the other they just cuddled. If books are going to be companions, I expect them to you know work together to tell one story. This wouldn’t have worked as one book because of how repetitive it was, but if it was edited together it could have easily been a much better book than what these two were.
So onto the transphobia which also runs rampant in this book too, despite this book supposedly giving you courage to be yourself. The transphobic incident at the party where a trans girl was outed as a “man” happened, but at least this time someone was like “that’s shitty” for a second THE NEXT DAY. The entire party was an exercise in how much transphobic language I could handle. Romeo was mildly the narrator so part of it is on him, but this is told in the third person so most of the shame is on the author. The transphobic character was back, but played a bigger role. She told Romeo and his friend stories about how she loved “tricking” boys into having sex with her. I am just so pissed that this character exists. That is one of the number one transphobic things that people see on Jerry Springer, which should have been a “wait a second” moment for the author. Instead here is one of the worst representations of trans people in YA I have ever seen. I must point out that the author bio mentions the author went on a trip to learn more about trans people. Clearly he did not learn enough if this was his enlightened state.
Please, do not buy this book for a trans person to read. It is damaging. There is so much transphobia, so much homophobia, so much violence and abuse. This book has so many movie parts that are never addressed that it can send the complete wrong message to younger readers. For example it isn’t seen as bad or wrong that Julian cuts himself. It is never discussed beyond that he does it and he hides it.
raeanne's review
3.0
Content Warning: Homophobic bullying and parents, Transphobic Asshole, Hate Crimes, PTSD, Self-harm,
At first, I was confused why Just Julian and Romeo For Real were split up into two stories. It became clear by the end. They obviously compliment each other, but both characters focus on different aspects of their story and have different conclusions for their character arcs.
Just Julian is not as exciting as Romeo For Real in the beginning, while at the end the reverse is true. They remind me a bit of the Rainbow Boys series - amplified angst and love with a bunch of different issues going on.
I hate to say it, but I could tell this was a new author. It felt amateurish and not polished. BUT there's a ton of potential!! I really hope Harwood-Jones doesn't let the less than stellar reviews stop them. I'll be keeping eye out for more of his work. If you haven't, you should check out his website. https://starkisscreations.com/
I can't say if the books are worth purchasing, but I can say the author is worth supporting. I think if kids are struggling with the same issues as Julian (PTSD, overshadowed by parent) or Romeo (clueless, closeted, surrounded by homophobes) that it's worth checking out. The reading level would be easy enough for middle and jr. high kids as an intimidating introduction to QUILTBAG content.
At first, I was confused why Just Julian and Romeo For Real were split up into two stories. It became clear by the end. They obviously compliment each other, but both characters focus on different aspects of their story and have different conclusions for their character arcs.
Just Julian is not as exciting as Romeo For Real in the beginning, while at the end the reverse is true. They remind me a bit of the Rainbow Boys series - amplified angst and love with a bunch of different issues going on.
I hate to say it, but I could tell this was a new author. It felt amateurish and not polished. BUT there's a ton of potential!! I really hope Harwood-Jones doesn't let the less than stellar reviews stop them. I'll be keeping eye out for more of his work. If you haven't, you should check out his website. https://starkisscreations.com/
I can't say if the books are worth purchasing, but I can say the author is worth supporting. I think if kids are struggling with the same issues as Julian (PTSD, overshadowed by parent) or Romeo (clueless, closeted, surrounded by homophobes) that it's worth checking out. The reading level would be easy enough for middle and jr. high kids as an intimidating introduction to QUILTBAG content.
gritshelme's review
1.0
I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted to like this, but the characters all seemed pretty flat. There isn't enough time spent on character development, and there certainly isn't enough time spent on relationship development. I get that Romeo and Julian's kissing without saying more than a few words to each other is based on Romeo and Juliet, but it just reads as being too ridiculous. And they don't even have a conversation before they're kissing again!
I was also expecting the story to end in tragedy, which would have been disappointing in its own way. But the ending here is too perfect to be at all believable.
I wanted to like this, but the characters all seemed pretty flat. There isn't enough time spent on character development, and there certainly isn't enough time spent on relationship development. I get that Romeo and Julian's kissing without saying more than a few words to each other is based on Romeo and Juliet, but it just reads as being too ridiculous. And they don't even have a conversation before they're kissing again!
I was also expecting the story to end in tragedy, which would have been disappointing in its own way. But the ending here is too perfect to be at all believable.
sandylovesbooks's review
4.0
This book is a companion book to Just Julian. It runs the same time period as that book but it is from Rome's pov. In this book, Rome is trying to figure things out about himself. Is he gay or bi or whatever? He's confused about things and having to deal with homophobic friends and family he doesn't think he should come out, if he is gay. Then he meets Julian and things start to click with Rome. I bet this story is more true to life than I can imagine. Again, like in Just Julian, there is hand holding, kissing, and a lot of diversity. Also violence. But here we see both sides of the story. I loved reading both books and I think for those who are not a fan of reading these are pretty quick reads and pretty important stories.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the arc of both books.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the arc of both books.
lberestecki's review
1.0
This was...not a good book. It was light on plot, light on character development, and heavy on instant-love. It felt more like a "here's a half-formed story I'm using to teach you" than like an actual novel. It also was written in a cringe-y, overly enthusiastic way. And there were some really transphobic vibes despite being a seemingly progressive novel. I respect what the author was trying to do here, but this just really, really didn't work for me.
Received from NetGalley in exchange for review.
Received from NetGalley in exchange for review.
goolaina's review
4.0
Most of these reviewers are too hard on this book because of its genre. Your critiques are like complaining that a manual has too many instructions or a memoir focuses too much on the subject.
This book comes from a series of novels written for youths who dont like reading. It's meant to appeal to them by being short, quick and easy to read, to give them a story they can get through. It's just something to get them reading, instead of intimidating "classics" or stories with multiple levels.
It's not meant for people who love reading and digging in to deeper meaning or a detailed story.
Is it cliche and cheesy? Absolutely. Did I read it one night? Yes. Will I be digesting it for the next few days? Definitely not. But it has some important hints for LGBTQ2S+ youths that may normalize their experience in ways other easy novels may not. Though Rome is a stereotype closet gay, I could relate to Rome's confusion discovering his attraction and desire for someone of his gender, and his panic about what that would mean to his friends and family. I could relate to the dread of having someone find out before he was ready to share. These are important topics youth need to see in their media, even if they dont read "good books".
This book comes from a series of novels written for youths who dont like reading. It's meant to appeal to them by being short, quick and easy to read, to give them a story they can get through. It's just something to get them reading, instead of intimidating "classics" or stories with multiple levels.
It's not meant for people who love reading and digging in to deeper meaning or a detailed story.
Is it cliche and cheesy? Absolutely. Did I read it one night? Yes. Will I be digesting it for the next few days? Definitely not. But it has some important hints for LGBTQ2S+ youths that may normalize their experience in ways other easy novels may not. Though Rome is a stereotype closet gay, I could relate to Rome's confusion discovering his attraction and desire for someone of his gender, and his panic about what that would mean to his friends and family. I could relate to the dread of having someone find out before he was ready to share. These are important topics youth need to see in their media, even if they dont read "good books".
constantine2020's review
2.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0
The story about coming out of the closet. I thought that this was a Romeo & Juliet retelling story but other than the main characters names it is nothing like Romeo & Juliet. The story is mainly about Romeo coming out to his parents, friends and their reaction in accepting his sexual orientation.
Many of the negative reviews were given to this book because of the amount of homophobia it has. This is not the reason I am giving it low stars, because I still think in our real life there is so much more of homophobia than this short story depicted. My low rating is because I felt the characters were very shallow. They did not have much uniqueness. The situations and events were very superficial. Like the way, Romeo kissed Julian the first time just because he saw him in the room! There are cringy moments too. The second book has an Asian guy on the cover as Julian. In this book I don't even remember if it was mentioned that Julian was an Asian guy.
I have grabbed this book from NetGalley when it was available in the read now section and this is my honest non-biased review.
The story about coming out of the closet. I thought that this was a Romeo & Juliet retelling story but other than the main characters names it is nothing like Romeo & Juliet. The story is mainly about Romeo coming out to his parents, friends and their reaction in accepting his sexual orientation.
Many of the negative reviews were given to this book because of the amount of homophobia it has. This is not the reason I am giving it low stars, because I still think in our real life there is so much more of homophobia than this short story depicted. My low rating is because I felt the characters were very shallow. They did not have much uniqueness. The situations and events were very superficial. Like the way, Romeo kissed Julian the first time just because he saw him in the room! There are cringy moments too. The second book has an Asian guy on the cover as Julian. In this book I don't even remember if it was mentioned that Julian was an Asian guy.
I have grabbed this book from NetGalley when it was available in the read now section and this is my honest non-biased review.
brokebybooks's review
3.0
Content Warning: Homophobic bullying and parents, Transphobic Asshole, Hate Crimes, PTSD, Self-harm,
At first, I was confused why Just Julian and Romeo For Real were split up into two stories. It became clear by the end. They obviously compliment each other, but both characters focus on different aspects of their story and have different conclusions for their character arcs.
Just Julian is not as exciting as Romeo For Real in the beginning, while at the end the reverse is true. They remind me a bit of the Rainbow Boys series - amplified angst and love with a bunch of different issues going on.
I hate to say it, but I could tell this was a new author. It felt amateurish and not polished. BUT there's a ton of potential!! I really hope Harwood-Jones doesn't let the less than stellar reviews stop them. I'll be keeping eye out for more of his work. If you haven't, you should check out his website. https://starkisscreations.com/
I can't say if the books are worth purchasing, but I can say the author is worth supporting. I think if kids are struggling with the same issues as Julian (PTSD, overshadowed by parent) or Romeo (clueless, closeted, surrounded by homophobes) that it's worth checking out. The reading level would be easy enough for middle and jr. high kids as an intimidating introduction to QUILTBAG content.
At first, I was confused why Just Julian and Romeo For Real were split up into two stories. It became clear by the end. They obviously compliment each other, but both characters focus on different aspects of their story and have different conclusions for their character arcs.
Just Julian is not as exciting as Romeo For Real in the beginning, while at the end the reverse is true. They remind me a bit of the Rainbow Boys series - amplified angst and love with a bunch of different issues going on.
I hate to say it, but I could tell this was a new author. It felt amateurish and not polished. BUT there's a ton of potential!! I really hope Harwood-Jones doesn't let the less than stellar reviews stop them. I'll be keeping eye out for more of his work. If you haven't, you should check out his website. https://starkisscreations.com/
I can't say if the books are worth purchasing, but I can say the author is worth supporting. I think if kids are struggling with the same issues as Julian (PTSD, overshadowed by parent) or Romeo (clueless, closeted, surrounded by homophobes) that it's worth checking out. The reading level would be easy enough for middle and jr. high kids as an intimidating introduction to QUILTBAG content.
acanuckreader's review
Normally I shelve books under LGBTQIA+ if they fit that. This one, despite having gay characters did not. At least not in my books.
The homophobia within this novel had me gritting my teeth, and it was just such a cop out to have the main character go along with it because of how he was raised, with little to no substance supporting it.
I finished this, but just barely. It was too short, too gross to be frank, and downright insulting to an audience that at this point in time deserves a whole lot better. Seriously.
Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
The homophobia within this novel had me gritting my teeth, and it was just such a cop out to have the main character go along with it because of how he was raised, with little to no substance supporting it.
I finished this, but just barely. It was too short, too gross to be frank, and downright insulting to an audience that at this point in time deserves a whole lot better. Seriously.
Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review