Title: Queerceañera
Author: Alex Crespo
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication date: May 7, 2024
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Summary
Joaquin is out and proud, and has the support of his dad and sister. However, he’s not quite ready for them to throw him a whole party for it and call it a queerceañera. As everyone speculates about the upcoming party, the biggest question is: who will be his chambelán?
While everyone is focused on that, Joaquin is more focused on whether or not his mom will come to the party. Or if he’s finally been replaced by Felix. However, when a small lie snowballs into something bigger, Felix is now Joaquin’s chambelán and they might be fake dating. But what happens when Joaquin starts to develop real feelings for Felix?
Review: Queerceañera
Thanks to HarperTeen and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Queerceañera by Alex Crespo to review! I loved Alex Crespo’s debut last year, so I was excited to see another book, especially a romance. One of my favorite genres!
This is a very character centric story, taking us through Joaquin’s emotional journey with his identity and his relationship with his mom. Outside of his mom, he does have a support group, and a lot of the book is about him learning to accept their help when he needs it. His journey will definitely be relatable to a large number of queer teens reading this book.
The idea of a coming out, identity acceptance party for teenagers is also so fun. There’s another book that came out last year that also features a coming out party, Friday I’m in Love by Camryn Garrett. Just the idea of teens being able to throw a party for themselves and have support for their identity just gives you the warm fuzzies inside.
If you love sweet second chance romance stories with a splash of fake dating, definitely pick this one up when it comes out in May!
4/5 stars