FRIDAY READS: Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

 

First, a quick DEAL ALERT. My Invitation to Eden book BLURRING THE LINES is on sale for .99 for a limited time. Grab it on the cheap! 

About the book:

A year has passed since Gretchen lost her fiancé, but she still can’t sleep. Or paint. And her new home in New Orleans is either haunted or she’s finally going crazy. 

Her bet is on the latter. 

So when her best friend, Burke, offers to sweep her away to a private luxury island for a break, she can’t say no. Maybe if she can be someone else for a few days, the ghosts of the past will quiet. At least for a little while. 

Burke knows what she’s going through. She lost her fiancé, but he lost family. He gets her in a way no else can. But lately she’s noticing things she shouldn’t about her former fiancé’s younger brother—his sexy smirk, that spicy Cajun accent, and the way he looks at her when he thinks she’s not paying attention. A week alone with him? Dangerous. If she blurs the lines between them, she could ruin the only friendship that means anything to her. She could ruin it all. 

But the island of Eden has its own agenda. The island knows what you need. That’s what the invitation says. She just never imagines it will grant her the one wish that could destroy them both. 

 Buy it for 99 cents! Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks


 

All right, on to Friday Reads. I've been giving you lots of dark reads lately, so today I have one that will have you laughing out loud and getting all the feels. OPENLY STRAIGHT by Bill Konigsberg. I adored this book! It went on my favorites shelf--which is not an easy shelf to get on--and I bought the author's other books immediately. It's a YA about Rafe who's been openly gay for years and has very supportive family, friends, and community. But he's tired of being looked at as gay first before anything else. So he decides to go to an all boys boarding school for his last two years of high school and not tell anyone he's gay. I loved the issues it explored and how he worked through him. I also enjoyed the romantic thread in it. Enjoy!

A funny, honest novel about being out, being proud . . . and being ready for something else.

Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He plays soccer. He's won skiing prizes. He likes to write.
And, oh yeah, he's gay. He's been out since 8th grade, and he isn't teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance and stuff. And while that's important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. Not that GAY guy. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. 
So when he transfers to an all-boys' boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret -- not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But then he sees a classmate breaking down. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben . . . who doesn't even know that love is possible. 
This witty, smart, coming-out-again story will appeal to gay and straight kids alike as they watch Rafe navigate being different, fitting in, and what it means to be himself.

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks

 

What have you read (or what are you currently reading) this week?