Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.
–from the blurb about If This Gets Out
On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?
Hello all! Today, I’m super excited to review If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich! If you read my review of Only Mostly Devastated, then you know that I enjoyed that book of Gonzales’ quite a bit. And although I’ve never read any of Dietrich’s other books, they’ve been high on my TBR for a while. So, obviously, I was excited to find out they had co-authored a book.
I actually won an advance copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway and did a mini-review of it on Bookstagram, so you can see my original thoughts there. But now that it’s past the release date, I want to share some more of my thoughts on it. So, keep reading to find my full review of If This Gets Out.
Review
This book had a perfect balance of sweet and sad. I wouldn’t just characterize this as a nice, light romance read because it also deals with some heavier topics. And it deals with them very well, if you ask me. Even though the ending was, overall, uplifting and satisfying, I appreciated that some of the characters’ more long-term struggles weren’t magically solved at the end. It just felt very realistic.
As for the plot in general, it had good pacing and held my interest throughout the entire story. Aside from pacing, though, the overall structure of the story was great. Also, I love how the authors wove in past interactions and background information into the main plotline. It was very well done and it never felt like an awkward break from the story.
When it came to the characters, I quite liked all of them. The two main characters, Ruben and Zach, were definitely my favorites, but I still really enjoyed the side characters. Obviously, I really enjoyed the relationship between Ruben and Zach, and I loved how we got to see both sides of the story from both of their perspectives. I think that’s one of my favorite things in books that focus on romance; I enjoy seeing the relationship from the point of view of both characters.
Also, I really liked the group as a whole. The four of them were super close, but they also had struggles within that group relationship. Once again, that made the book feel realistic because it would have been unbelievable to make their group dynamics perfect considering the environment they exist in.
Recommendation
Anyway, I think that’s everything I want to say about If This Gets Out. It’s been a while since I read it, so this isn’t my longest, most detailed review, but that’s fine. I do recommend checking this out if you enjoy the genre; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
If you do choose to read this one, or if you already have, drop a comment down below and let me know what you thought of it! I always love to chat about the books I’ve read. Also, if you enjoyed this review and want to check out some of the other books I recommend, click on the Book Reviews tab above. There, you’ll find my full library of past reviews.
