And They Were Roommates

Charlie finally achieves his dream: starting his first year at a prestigious boys’ boarding school on a scholarship. It should be the perfect fresh start, but Charlie carries a secret. He’s trans, and he’s terrified of what might happen if the school or his classmates find out. His plan is simple: keep his head down and get a single room. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned. Instead of a room to himself, Charlie is paired with the one person who broke his heart two years ago… and who could easily expose his secret. This was such a warm and heartfelt coming-of-age story about Charlie slowly learning to feel comfortable in his own skin and opening up to the people around him. The characters were wonderful, especially Jasper, the eccentric poet with more depth than he first lets on, and Xavier, who helps Charlie survive sports class and reacts to Charlie’s fears with the iconic line: “Then I’ll punch them.” A truly wholesome read about friendship, trust, and finding where you belong. Perfect for anyone looking for a soft, comforting story, especially for fans of Heartstopper.

Charlie has done everything to get a scholarship for Valentine – the school that his mother visited when she was his age, the school that also made him realize that he’s a boy. Now he has his chance to prove himself at his dream school – as long as he scores in the top five in the rankings at the end of the year, he’s allowed to keep on studying there. He should be able to achieve that, right? He does love studying... Arriving at Valentine, he faces one problem – even though he paid for a room for one, he has a roommate. This is crucial. Charlie can’t let the school find out that he’s trans, as he’s scared of being thrown out for it – Valentin is a reaaally traditional school after all... Thinking that his situation can't get worse, Charlie finds out that his roommate is his ex – the one that broke his heart two years ago - when Charlie wasn't outet yet. He could lift Charlie's biggest secret – at least if he recognized him... I was so excited to read Powars’ new book and, as expected – I absolutely devoured it and loved every second of it! This book has had me hooked since page one! I really liked the characters – yes, even Jasper, even if he annoyed me a lot at the beginning. He was supposed to be annoying, so this is fine though. I enjoyed getting to know Charlie and following his story full of desperation, hope and maayybe even love?? It was also interesting to see him realize that even a place so dear to him as Valentine has its flaws. And not that few of them either. “And they were Roommates” is a book that shows the reader the troubles of being trans in a space that might not be safe for queer people. But it’s nonetheless a book that gives you a great time! Powars really treats us with another lovely book, having a trans character as the MC – rare, but important!

Unfortunately, due to his first book and the blatant internet promotion, I approached this book with overly high expectations. The concept of the story inspired me, but I was disappointed with the execution. Unlike the characters in his first book, these seemed flat and underdeveloped. Don't get me wrong, it was still a cute queer romance, but unfortunately that was all it was.

This is a cute YA lovestory with a trans MC trying to navigate his new life at an elite all-boys-boarding school. The drama ensues when Charlie, who was supposed to have a single room, now has to share his dorm with his ex-crush and lives in constant fear of being discovered. In order to secure his much-needed personal space and a room for himself, he strikes a deal with Jasper to help him write and deliver love letters from the boys to the girls on the sister-campus. That means Charlie has to juggle his schoolwork, his tutoring responsibilities and all of that without being discovered. I really liked the premise, and the characters were adorable. This is perfect as a quick read, when you just want something to entertain you for 1-2 days. The whole love letters thing played a way bigger role in this than I expected and I think that’s one of the reasons why I rated this “only” 3 stars. The relationship between Charlie and Jasper didn’t really feel like enemies-to-lovers, in my opinion it’s more of a second-chance-romance. Nonetheless I had a good time reading this and stayed up late because I didn’t want to put the book down.

Eine süße Geschichte, doch habe ich mir etwas mehr erhofft. Charlie und Jasper waren sehr süß, doch leider hat mir mehr Tiefe gefehlt. Ich habe die Anziehung zwischen den beiden nicht so gefühlt und war am Ende doch etwas entäuscht. Nichdestotrotz denke ich, dass viele dieses Buch lieben und Spaß beim Lesen haben werden.