3.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for providing me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this fun, silly book! If you're looking for something deep and life changing, this isn't the book for you, but if you want a celebration of gay femme chaos, you will very likely enjoy Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball.

It was fun to see a world where queer teens could celebrate that part of themselves and use it both to have fun and boost their future success. Riley's dating escapades and pitfalls were fun to read about and the amount of teen Drama in the book kept it constantly moving and full of action.

@ tay

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!!

This was a really sweet book. I liked how it tackled femmephobia within the queer community as I hadn't seen that handled before. The ending feels a bit predictable though. Like, I could tell how it was going to end and though the author tried to fake us out, I still caught on to it. I also found it odd how often a character's race was mentioned. Every time a character gets introduced, we get their race as well. Which was awkward and only served to highlight how few characters of color there were in this. It didn't feel like it was needed and it didn't really add anything to the story. But in spite of those issues, I still think this is a very worthy addition to the Queer YA canon.

So silly!

Fantastic audio read by the author

Absolutely fabulous! I laughed so much! But I also felt so invested emotionally in the characters that I cried with them too. As Riley would say, I loved this book “from the jump!” Although ‘gay chaos’ is abundant for these characters, this novel felt so thoughtful, intentional, and purposeful. Jason June has done a sincerely amazing job at reaching to every facet of the rainbow alphabet and making sure they feel seen, heard and LOVED. What a beautiful message of love tied neatly with an adorable rom-com bow!