If you’re a fan of cute YA romance, this book will hit the spot.

In an ideal world this would be the case, but since we don’t live in a perfect world it felt a little manufactured. And this was pretty much the case with everyone in the book. The book was being told from her POV at that point, so I would have at least liked to have seen some internal reaction to his news – not even necessarily a negative one, but a moment of … something. While this was nice, it seemed a little unrealistic – especially when Kyle told his girlfriend that he was bi and she had literally no thoughts about it whatsoever. It was almost as if she were trying to create a sort of “gay-topia” where everyone was ultra-accepting. Too easy? While I was happy to have an LGBT book that didn’t focus on the characters’ angst over their sexuality, I did sometimes feel like Hall made everything a little too easy for both Kyle and Gideon.In the end, I kind of liked that Ruby was very flawed but she didn’t completely lack integrity. No “villains.” I thought for a moment that Kyle’s girlfriend was going to end up being portrayed as a vengeful mean girl, but her story was more complex than that.Kyle feels a bit ashamed at first about his academic failings, and he doesn’t want to admit his difficulties to anyone. I definitely sympathized with Kyle and appreciated his journey toward self-understanding and self-acceptance. I think that this issue is handled realistically. Learning disability. This book is obviously primarily a romance, but it also tackles the topic of learning disabilities.

I was rooting for these two from the very beginning. But it’s apparent that once he sees Kyle in this new light, he can’t change his perspective. When Gideon suddenly realizes that he has feelings for his best friend, he tries to talk himself out of it – after all, Kyle has a girlfriend and Gideon certainly doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. Kyle is a bit “cooler” than Gideon because of his athletic ability, but I love that they never let that get between them. They’ve been best friends for almost their whole lives – they bond over their love of Lord of the Rings (they even speak Elvish) and other geeky things. It was a typical, simple high school romance, but it was kind of nice to see one of those with LGBT characters – without a lot of angsty complications. This book is sweet and fun and all sorts of adorable.

Saven Defiance by Siobhan Davis