Standalone Sunday is a weekly feature created by Megan @ bookslayerReads that spotlights a standalone novel that you loved and would recommend or one that you’re excited to read. Be sure to check out her blog and original post by clicking on the above link! 😊
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.
-Goodreads Synopsis (x)
So, I ended up reading this book in a matter of hours this past week – it was unputdownable. Given how quickly I read it, I also ended up not taking any notes for a full review and just put a quick mini-review on Goodreads. But, of course, I couldn’t not mention it on my blog in some way or the other because I loved it so much!
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda has so many things I love seeing in the YA contemporaries I read – diversity, a cute romance, family dynamics, and last but not least incredible friendships. I absolutely adored Simon and his family and his friends. Especially his family! I need more contemporaries in my life with great parents and siblings. Also, this book has one of my favorite romance tropes which I’m now calling mysterious love interests who write letters to each other. I’ve only read two, this being the second, and officially need more of them in my life. The romance between Simon and Blue was so cute! I was a fangirling mess by the end. And contrary to what I believed going into this I ended up not finding out who Blue was until right before it was revealed and then I proceeded to facepalm because it was so obvious.
All in all, if you’re looking for a cute, quick, and quirky read with incredible characters and a romance that will make you fangirl then I highly recommend this book!
Also, who else is beyond excited for the movie!? I CAN’T WAIT!
“Why is straight the default? Everyone should have to declare one way or another, and it shouldn’t be this big awkward thing whether you’re straight, gay, bi, or whatever. I’m just saying.”
– Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
You can check out my mini-review on Goodreads here.
Have you read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda? Did you like it? If you participate in Standalone Sunday be sure to link me to your post so I can see it. 😊
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah’s story to tell. The later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?
Restless souls and empty hearts
She’s got it all figured out.
Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life – and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.
BookNerdMomo 