If This Gets Out

Saturday is America's biggest boy band, with four talented teenage members who live under the strict control of their management company. Ruben Montez and Zach Knight have been best friends since the band formed, but their relationship begins to shift during their European tour. The pressures of fame and fame management take their toll as the boys grapple with their public image versus their true selves. When Ruben and Zach's feelings for each other deepen, they must navigate their changing dynamic while keeping it hidden from their millions of fans, their management, and even their bandmates. The novel tackles themes of authenticity, self-discovery, and the cost of fame in the modern music industry. Through its dual perspective structure, it examines how young artists balance their personal truth with the manufactured personas expected of them.

Readers describe this YA romance as an authentic portrayal of boyband life and queer relationships between bandmates. The book maintains an average 4.1/5 rating on Goodreads from over 17,000 ratings. Readers appreciated: - Complex family dynamics and parental relationships - Representation of mental health struggles in the music industry - Dual POV narration that distinguishes both voices - Treatment of social media pressure and fan expectations Common criticisms: - Pacing issues in the middle section - Some found the dialogue unrealistic for 18-year-olds - Plot points around record label conflict felt underdeveloped "The exploration of fame's impact on young performers felt real and raw," noted one Amazon reviewer. Several Goodreads reviews mentioned the book effectively captures the claustrophobia of touring life. Ratings: Goodreads: 4.1/5 (17,000+ ratings) Amazon: 4.3/5 (850+ ratings) BookBrowse: 4/5 StoryGraph: 4.2/5

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Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales A bisexual teen runs an anonymous relationship advice service at school while dealing with her own complicated romance.

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🎵 Co-authors Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich wrote the entire book without ever meeting in person, collaborating across continents between Australia and America during the COVID-19 pandemic. 🌟 The fictional boy band Saturday in the novel draws inspiration from real groups like One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer, particularly in exploring the intense pressures of fame at a young age. 🏳️‍🌈 The book tackles important themes about the music industry's treatment of LGBTQ+ artists, reflecting real-world instances of record labels attempting to control artists' public personas and sexual identities. 📱 Both main characters, Ruben and Zach, were partially inspired by the authors' own experiences as queer teenagers, though neither author was ever in a boy band. 🎭 The novel's exploration of manufactured public images versus authentic selves was influenced by numerous real-life cases of pop stars who were forced to hide their true identities, relationships, or orientations for the sake of marketability.