It makes my heart happy to see this type of LGBTQIA+ representation in YA books today. If I wanted romance when I was in high school I had to resort to reading Sweet Valley High or Sweet Dreams Romances and none of them had any sort of same sex representation because back in the 80s it was all about being straight and if you weren’t, then you pretended to be – especially in the small, rural, super conservative town where I grew up.

Growing up in cowboy country meant that in my younger years – before I had my own radio and my own money to buy my own music – I listened to a lot of country music because that is all my family listened to. It wasn’t the pop-country that we have today (which I detest), but true, classic old school country like Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle and Dolly Parton (to name but a few). I gotta admit, while I hate a lot of modern country, I still love me some old school country. Anytime I hear it, it takes me back to those easy, innocent days of my childhood sipping lemonade or a root beer float on the porch of my grandma’s house as the songs from the radio drifted out through the open windows.

In the book, Emmett – one of the main characters – is an openly gay seventeen-year-old from Chicago who has dreams of being one of country music’s first, openly gay artists, and when he gets a job working at Wanda World in Tennessee, he knows a door is opening for him and it won’t be long before he’s being discovered by a talent agent and he’ll be well on his way to the fame he’s dreamed of.

Emmett heads off to Jackson Hollow, TN to live with his aunt and starts work as part of the cast of a country music review – singing and dancing along to Wanda Jean Stubbs’ greatest hits at Wanda World (think Dollywood). Emmett plans to make connections and instantly be discovered. What he doesn’t expect is that pretty much everyone else in the cast has the same dream and many of them have been at this for years. He also doesn’t expect to meet Luke – a cute guy who just started work at one of the theme park’s restaurants. Luke dreams of becoming a chef. Luke also harbors several secrets: One – he’s gay and very closeted, 2 – he’s the grandson of Verna Rose – Wanda Jean’s ex-best friend and country music rival and 3 – his mother has no idea he’s broken the family’s unspoken rule of setting foot in Wanda World after the fallout between Wanda and Verna.

What neither boy expects is to fall head over heels in love with each other, but will Luke get in the way of Emmett’s dream? And can Luke really ever commit to Emmett and remain in the closet? Are the boys better off riding off in different directions? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

What I will say is this was super sweet and cute. Mark this off as another romantic comedy that I loved. That is two so far this month! What I loved was that both of the characters were likable and relatable – I especially connected with Luke. All of his internal doubts and fears and struggles really resonated with me and took me back to my youth when staying in the far back corner of my closet seemed much safer than even thinking of opening the door.

There’s a nice little twist toward the end (I saw it coming, but it was still nice to see it play out) and I was very happy with the resolution.