Review || Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Title: Almost Like Being in Love

Author: Steve Kluger

Format: Ebook

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Rating: ★★★★

Summary:

A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. 

Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Thoughts:

Before I even get into my thoughts about this book, I need to say this. I read this as an ebook, which I now realize was a bit of a mistake. The formatting gets screwed up some, and it can make it a little annoying and hard to read. Therefore, if you want to read this, I would recommend picking it up as a physical copy.

Almost like being in love is a story about first love. Is is a bit cliché? Yes, it is, but that's the beauty of the story. The author took a bunch of different clichés, mixed them all together, and this is the result. It’s all about Travis Puckett, the nerd, and Craig McKenna, the jock, who fall head over heels in love in their senior year of high school. This book is funny, sarcastic, and so very quotable. This book has a very romantic comedy feel.

“It doesn't matter what people thinks of you as long as you know that your heart and head are in the right place.” 

The beginning of the book is so beautiful. We get to see the two of them fall so desperately in love and how that changes them, and I love that. It almost made me want to go out and fall in love.

The middle of the book was a little slow at places. At times I just wanted the story to move on a bit, despite the book still being adorable and funny.  

The ending of this story bothered me a bit - it just felt completely anti-climatic, and I actually had to re-read the ending, because I couldn’t believe that was the ending. It just fell a little flat for me. However, I really enjoyed the epilogue, and I feel like the story got the right ending, that all the characters deserves, after all.

I really adore both of the characters. Travis was really all over the place, and I thought it was fantastic. He was such an interesting guy, and I loved it when we saw the story from his point of view. Not to say, that I didn’t like Craig’s POV, but I did enjoy Travis’ just a bit more. You really grow to love both main characters, and you don’t want to part with any of them. I really love the two of them together. As friends they're sweet, but as lovers they are amazing.

“Falling hard for somebody makes you do things you never thought you'd do before. Like pulling off an A in History or finally facing the truth about yourself” 

This book made me smile, laugh, and it even made me cry a bit. It’s a lovely story, and I would definitely recommend you pick this one up if you feel like reading something sweet and funny.