The Better Half of the Equation

Expected Publication: September 18th, 2012
Andy Squared
By: Jennifer Lavoie
Bold Strokes Books
ISBN-13: 9781602827431

Seventeen-year-old twins, Andrew and Andrea Morris, have always been close. They share everything—from their friends to a room—and they both enjoy star positions on their high school’s soccer teams. All’s right with the twins...or is it?

When new student Ryder Coltrane moves from Texas to their small New York town, he spins Andrew’s world upside down. All of Andrew’s past relationship troubles begin to make sense and his true feelings start to click into place after Ryder comes out to him. His friendship with Ryder turns secretively romantic, but secrets, they soon find out, are hard to keep. Once rumors start to fly, so-called friends turn on them, and the boys’ relationship turns into a bomb about to explode. But Andrew never expected it would be his own twin, Andrea, holding a lighter to ignite it.

Review

   Andrew Morris has a pretty good life in his small town.  He gets along almost perfectly with his twin sister Andrea, has some great friends, awesome parents and never lacks a girlfriend.  But he's beginning to question whether he wants the same things in life anymore.  Than Ryder Coltrane comes to town from Texas to live with his Aunt and Uncle.  Andy doesn't understand why he feels so drawn to Ryder at first, but then he finally acknowledges the attraction between them.  Once they start a relationship everything finally feels right for once in Andy's life.  But he is still hesitant to be open, especially seeing the harrasment that the only openly gay guy at their school deals with every day.  But will he have a choice when the one person he always thought had his back, twists the knife into it after finding out?  I was a bit hesitant to read this book, but I figured that I would give it a shot since I had a copy from Netgalley.  After I got a little bit into it, I was completely glued to my Kindle!  I related a lot to Andrew trying to break away from family expectations, Andrea's controlling ones in particular.  And the confusion of who he really was kept me reading and sympathizing all the way to the end.  I also want a Ryder of my very own - someone who really cares, but is also willing to wait and understands that Andy was not quite going at the same pace as him.  The only thing that really grinded on me was how easily Andrea turned on her brother.  Her so called twin sensibilities were erased in two seconds flate when she found out about Andy and Ryder.  She refused to listen to reason and totally sold them out to the assholes at school.  She was a dick and outed Andy to their parents before he was ready.  She was also totally homophobic, when it was obvious that the twins' parents HAD NOT raised them to be that way and were apalled by their behavior.  I was disgusted that when Andrea and Andrew were making up from their fight, she was still asking him if  he could try not to be gay.  WTF!!!  Other than that big, gaping rage inducer of a characterization this was a very sweet and wonderfully written book.  I would recommend this to teens struggling with their sexuality, but maybe not to their family members...

VERDICT:  3.5/5 Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is September 18th, 2012.*