It’s prom night. Jack is hoping that he and his boyfriend Dylan might be crowned king and queen. Although school had been hell for Jack since he came out, once popular athlete Dylan did, Jack’s flamboyance became nearly tolerable by his classmates. (Nearly.)
Meanwhile, Nate is still coming to terms with publicly acknowledging his sexuality. He’s kept his relationship with Tariq very secret until this point, but on prom night he’s ready to finally let the world know who he is, and let everyone know he and Tariq are together.
But prom night isn’t the magical occasion Jack and Nate hope it will be, when they both get dumped, quite publicly. They’re both devastated, and while Jack is used to being the target of humiliation, for Nate, it seems like a good excuse to go back into hiding again.
With their now-ex-boyfriends showing no signs of regret or sadness, Jack comes up with a plan: he and Nate could create the illusion that they’re having the summer of their lives, too. Jack agrees to tag along on Nate’s family’s road trip across England, and document their exaggerated and/or fake moments of living their best lives for social media.
Nate and Jack were childhood friends, but Nate pulled away from Jack right around the time he came out. Nate knows he’s nothing like Jack and he isn’t sure he wants to be, but is the idea of rekindling their friendship really that awful?
If you’ve read a rom-com or two, you know where all of this is going. Heartbreak Boys was a really sweet, enjoyable book that accurately captured the emotions of young relationships and the battle between living your truth and staying out of the spotlight.
Given that you know how things will unfold, the pacing was a bit slow at times, and I wanted the characters to say what they needed to instead of constantly avoiding subjects. But Jack and Nate, as well as a few of the supporting characters, are such fun, you can’t help but root for them.
This is my first Simon James Green novel, but it won't be my last, that's for sure!
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