If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
🤍💙🎶🎵🤍💙🎶🎵🤍💙🎶🎵🤍💙🎶🎵🤍💙🎶🎵🤍
Ruben, Zach, Angel and Jon are all members of the American boy band, Saturday.
This fabulous foursome is currently riding sky-high on the wings of their world-wide popularity, but their lives are not as carefree as they first appear.
The boys are fiercely controlled by their management company, pigeon-holing them into preordained personas that they are heavily pushed not to stray from.
Particularly struggling with this is Ruben, who is gay. He has been asking management to let him come out to their fans, but he is continually told that it isn’t the right time.
Ruben feels stifled, like he is unable to be his true self in any public way. This fact is beginning to weigh heavily on him.
On a European tour, Ruben and Zach begin to grow closer as Ruben confides to Zach how he has been feeling. Zach, for his part, discovers he is having feelings for Ruben that he has never experienced before; at least not that he has admitted to himself.
As their friendship evolves into romance, they decide that they want to be able to live openly, not just with their friends and family, but with everyone; particularly with their fans.
It becomes clear this will never be acceptable to their management. What are they to do? They can’t let down their best friends, Jon and Angel, sacrifices need to be made to be in a group, but how much is too much?
I really enjoyed my time reading If This Gets Out. I became so attached to these characters. The boys were all well-fleshed out and lovable in their own unique ways.
While this story is sticky sweet, it also explores a lot of challenging topics. I thought the authors beautifully blended the light-hearted aspects with the serious. It really is a well-rounded Contemporary.
I love stories featuring music, or musicians, so I had a feeling this one would work for me, but I was truly impressed with how deeply I came to care for these guys.
I will say, it did feel a little long to me, but in the end, that is a minor complaint compared to all the goodness I received within these pages.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review.
I think this is a top-notch story and look forward to reading more from both of these authors. Also, if they could work together again, that would be so fantastic. Clearly, a great partnership!!!
