Teens forge an in-person connection online.Two random Canadian teenagers start chatting in a random-people-chatting app, and both decide they want more. The two boys choose code names, Tristan and Dorian, to discuss their favorite books, roommate drama (Dorian left home and lives with a friend), and their growing attachment to each other and anxieties around meeting in person. In a story told almost entirely in chat transcripts, Alejandro Marquez and Jacob Greenspan, classmates and mild antagonists in real life, fall in love online. It's only toward the end that the story reveals that the characters present in the few interstitial third-person chapters are the same ones baring their souls over text, but it's so clearly laid out that the reluctant reader target audience will enjoy being in on the surprise and figuring things out before the characters do. In this extremely wholesome depiction of queer teen dialogue, cis Jacob responds with a perfect script when Alex discloses his trans history, and Jacob is a fan-fiction–style tough guy with a hard life hiding a secret cinnamon-roll interior. Authentic adolescent drama abounds over the course of the few weeks the characters meet, fall in love, and then meet for real. Neither characters' racial or ethnic identities, hinted at in their names, are ever discussedA light and fluffy queer romance. (Romance. 12-18)

Gr 9 Up-When two teen boys meet on an anonymous chat website, they aren't prepared to fall in love. Using the fake names Dorian and Tristan, they bond over a beloved fantasy book series and share parts of themselves they're too nervous to reveal in real life. This easy-to-read LGBTQ+ romance is told primarily through online chat logs with a few "IRL" scenes. While it is important to see more queer representation in hi-lo books, this one suffers from dated depictions of technology and an overabundance of convenient coincidences. It is easy to anticipate the twist (that the bad boy classmate is also the mysterious online boyfriend), and characters often make unrealistic and ill-advised choices. While issues of gender and sexuality are treated well, conversations about safety are conspicuously absent. Parents and educators may find the lack of safe online behavior concerning as the teenagers become seriously involved very quickly and meet in person before exchanging real first names or photos. The boys' ethnicities aren't stated; "Dorian" is described as pale skinned while "Tristan" has brown hair. VERDICT An additional purchase for large collections with a need for queer, hi-lo choices.Amy Diegelman, Chicago P.L.