WHY CAN'T DATING BE LIKE PIZZA?

A gay high schooler dives into the dating world in Roamer’s fifth YA novel in a series.

High school junior RV is excelling academically at the prestigious Boston Latin School, but his guidance counselor tells him that he needs to find some extracurriculars to make his college applications shine. His best friend, Carole, uses this as an excuse to make RV her campaign manager in her quest to become a representative on the powerful School Site Council. However, his boss at the local movie theater decides to promote him to projectionist, which comes with a new slate of stresses. Meanwhile, RV’s Lithuanian immigrant parents, who now know he’s gay—though they haven’t said much about it—expect more help at home from RV and his brother, Ray, including assistance flipping a house they recently purchased. As RV struggles to handle these new responsibilities, he’s thrown into a tentative new relationship with Luke, a handsome new classmate whom he meets at a swanky party. Will RV manage to keep all his plates spinning while embarking on that most terrifying of teenage endeavors: dating? Roamer’s prose is slick and accessible, and he succeeds in placing the reader right in the middle of RV’s anxious adolescent mind. Here, for instance, the teen chastises himself for looking forward to a planned date with Luke: “Don’t get too excited, RV. You’ve been there before. You know how these things go. And even if Luke says you didn’t screw anything up the first time, that second chance is also another chance for screwing things up.” The book isn’t entirely realistic; RV and his peers don’t talk much like contemporary American teens, and with the exception of the opinionated Carole, the secondary characters don’t feel very distinctive. Regardless, RV makes for an endearing protagonist, and fans of earlier books in the series will not be let down by this one.

A highly readable YA novel about teen life and romance.