A cute queer coming of age romance that had everything one wants and expects from the genre. A quick read, it is a good choice if you're looking for something fun and easy to read.

Such a cute MG read! Instead of his dream holiday Dylan ends up on a holiday park in Cornwall. All is not lost, as he falls for the gorgeous boy next day. However, the park’s hamster mascot seems determined to thwart his plans. Laugh-out-loud funny, this is an adorable gay summer romance and would highly recommend it to teen readers.

Full of diversity, I love the characters from the get go. Kayla is my favourite character - full of confidence, feistiness and an amazing friend. My second favourite is Jude, a typical 5 year old obsessed with a cartoon. Milano cleverly normalises a physical disability, birth marks, and sexuality with cleverness. The bonds between the characters are well developed, the writing flows, and I was cringing and laughing along. This whole book is fun. Well written, superb, a book for all contemporary/ romance readers.

Fab to have an everyday romance about a gay boy, realistic concerns & reactions as well as ridiculous events created with great humour. Also v pleased with inclusion of CP character with so much thought put into him being a real child

WELCOME TO STARCROSS SANDS - LET THE DREAM BEGIN.
14 year old Dylan dreams of a perfect summer holiday, and perhaps his first kiss, but what he gets thanks to his mums cheap ways, is a £9.50 caravan break where the site mascot is a hamster. Luckily he has his bestfriend Kayla along for the ride...


Of course, what caught my eye about this book was the fact that hamster is in the title. This isn't the first book I've read simply because of that and each time they've been super enjoyable and fun reads!


This book was so bubbly and full of life. The characters were so well developed to the point where I was feeling different emotions for different characters. Dylan does get rather selfish and carried away with his imagination at times but he notices this and works on it. His little brother Jude has Cerebal Palsy which was worked into this story with ease and care. The park manager made me so angry with her constant Dylan-blaming! It is such a delight reading something that included important topics but remained a light read. 


I'm going to be honest, Dylan's best friend Kayla absolutely made this story. She has her insecurities and anxieties but is such a strong, confident character regardless. I love how she stuck up for Dylan no matter what, and stood up to others when necessary too. Her dad isn't the most capable of being on his own which doesn't help with how much Kayla worries, and her parents are seperated after her mum went to "find herself". She's plus sized, has bold, pink hair, isn't afraid to speak her mind, and I just love her.


This book brings up topics such as coming out, ableism, bullying, first love, self-confidence issues, aswell as family issues. It's super easy to read and follow along, with great length chapters. I would recommend it to Middle Grade and younger-Young Adult readers, and I think it's an ideal and progressive read for pre/young-teens.


Thank you very much to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Books (Pan Macmillan) for letting me have an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been absolutely dying to read this book since I first heard Birdie Milano tell me about it a year ago. Now, I also want to start this review by saying that I do know the author but that this has not affected my views on the books. I am being completely honest when I tell you that this book is very entertaining and is a book that you should read and not miss out on. One of the reasons I say this is that it is a truly hysterical book and I am certain that you will find yourself laughing on more than one occasion, it is also one of those perfectly British books too which makes it even more fantastic. Lastly, but certainly not least, the cast of characters is brilliant and you do not want to miss having them in your lives, even if it’s only for a short few hours!

Boy Meets Hamster follows Dylan as his family and best friend, Kayla, go on holiday to a caravan park. It is about him trying to fall in love for the first time – something which is quite difficult when he has no idea who else is gay like him. In his quest to make this happen, he ends up making quite a few mistakes, makes a fool of himself a lot and often needs rescuing. On top of all of that, he is also stuck looking after his younger brother. But as much as he bemoans the task, it’s hard not to see how much love he has for him. This is especially prevalent whenever anyone is mean to his brother about his cerebral palsy. So with all of this obstacles stopping him from falling in love – will he manage it? Birdie Milano certainly doesn’t make it easy for him but she has written an absolutely top notch book while he tries hard to do it!

There are so many characters in this book to love. Admittedly I do like Dylan and all of the silly situations he gets himself into. I also really loved Kayla. She’s such a fantastic side character and I would definitely be more than willing to read a book with her as the main protagonist too. But mostly I absolutely loved Nibbles. I’m not going to say much more than that because I do not want to give too much away. But let’s just say that Birdie has created a very strong cast of characters for this book and each and every one of them makes the book come alive. If we’re not careful, all of the characters are going to just walk off the page and into our lives – or that’s the dream I guess!

In short, this is an incredibly good book that you should definitely make sure you read. A diverse read with a fascinating cast of characters, this book will ultimately give you that good-feel by the end of it. Not to mention, of course, that feel of cheap UK holidays in Caravan parks which is just a wonderful nostalgia! But even without all of that, it would be hard pressed not to love this book which makes you feel a lot of things, explores a lot of different themes and just flies off the page easily. So if you’re looking for a fun, entertaining and rewarding read, then you should definitely make sure that you pick up this book.

A light read that I read in one day. This book left me laughing out loud. I loved all of the characters. Such a great read!

I absolutely loved this fun, hilarious story about a 14-year-old boy's first summer romance at a holiday camp in Cornwall. The writing is brilliant, the characters so vivid and likeable - even Margaret, who makes an excellent villain - and it made me laugh out loud several times. It's very diverse, including POC and disabled representation as well as gay and bi characters, and it was really refreshing to see LGBTQ+ themes (such as coming out, being outed and assumptions) tackled within the context of a light, fun read. While it sits at the younger end of YA, I'm sure it'll appeal to lots of older readers too - I think it's a must for fans of Noah Can't Even or Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. A really enjoyable book, and I can't wait to read what Birdie Milano writes next.

I loved this book, a brilliant story about fourteen year old Dylan's 'dream' holiday, a giant hamster and love. It was absolutely hilarious and all of the characters are so real and complex, five stars.

A quirky story, that will have you laughing out loud and (probably) falling in love with a giant orange hamster.
Dylan is used to being dragged on rubbish holidays with his parents and younger brother. This summer he’s taken to a caravan park in Cornwall, and the only consolation is he can take his best friend Kayla. Nothing much happens at this park, but in his quest to have the holiday of a lifetime Dylan ends up causing chaos.
Upon arriving at their holiday home, Dylan develops an enormous crush on the boy in the van next-door. Unfortunately, this crush causes him untold pain...not helped by the fact that everywhere he goes he’s accosted by the park mascot, hamster Nibbles.
Of course, things don’t quite go to plan. There’s enough awful things happen to Dylan to leave him traumatised for life, but he bounces back from them all. He even ends up finding the boy of his dreams-though not where he was expecting!
Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance of publication.

This review is on Goodreads. My book blog is currently on a brief hiatus due to university pressures, but I hope to have it up and running again soon, at which point I'll cross-post this review (or a similar but expanded one).

This was a very quick read (<90 mins probably), and cute, too. While I think I might be a little older than the target audience, it was nice to read what is essentially a light-hearted gay romcom featuring fourteen year olds. Because the first book I ever read that featured a gay character had a big label on the back saying "parental advisory: adult content" or something to that effect, and I've never entirely got over that. I'm glad today's preteens and teens don't have to deal with that.

Anyway, let's talk about this book. I have to admit, I have immediately forgotten everybody's name, which makes reviewing it a little tricky. Why does that always happen?

Okay, so first up: Dylan, the protagonist. Still in the closet but not angsting about it particularly, just not sure if he wants to talk about it yet. Terrible taste in men, at least for the first half of the book -- despite his protective instincts towards his disabled younger brother, the horrendously ableist and homophobic behaviour of Jayden-Lee doesn't stop Dylan being overawed by his hotness. It takes him a while to figure out that attractive ≠ good person, but he gets there in the end. Not what you'd call "smooth".

Then there's his best friend, Kayla. She's got a birthmark and is described as plus-sized, but she's almost performatively confident -- at least about the latter, and she learns to stop hiding the former. She supports Dylan without taking his crap, and she's ready to get involved in his family's problems despite not having an easy situation at home.

Leo, Dylan's eventual love interest once he gets himself together a bit, is also pretty cool. A dancer, which is nice. I saw the reveal about his identity coming a mile off -- it wasn't exactly hard to guess -- but I still enjoyed the dramatic irony of waiting for the reveal.

As for the others... well, Jayden-Lee is a massive jerk, but you can't help but feel there's some backstory. There are hints about why he might feel the need to treat others so badly, and occasionally I bordered on feeling sorry for him. Mostly, though, I wanted to punch him in the face. As for Jude, Dylan's brother... Well, I honestly don't have a huge amount to say about him. Dylan loves him and is protective of him, which wears off on the reader too, but I'm so glad I don't have to interact with four year olds very often.

Overall, this was entertaining enough. I wasn't entirely sure how realistic it was (can you really get a caravan break for £9.50 in Cornwall in 2018?), and as I said, some of the plot reveals were extremely obvious, but that didn't make it unenjoyable. Mostly I'm just glad that cute books about socially awkward fourteen-year-olds exist for the queer readers to relate to. Especially books set in the UK.

I absolutely loved this book - considerably more than I anticipated before I began reading it. I especially loved the fact that it took a very common romance trope for heterosexual relationships and gave it to a gay teenage boy.

A warm, open and generous book with enormous heart, Boy Meets Hamster is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny while also effortlessly dealing with big, complex issues to do with love, family, friendship, and self-confidence & acceptance.

This is a sweet, summer read about Dylan's quest to like a boy who likes him back, and it's great for diversity: it's so refreshing to read about a gay protagonist, and his little brother's cerebral palsy is perfectly normalised. The author does a great job of including and, importantly, addressing diversity so that it isn't just shoehorned into the story. While at times Dylan seemed very blind to things that were painfully obvious to the reader and he made some questionable choices, I ultimately enjoyed this story that wasn't just about love, but also family and friendship.

Full review found on my blog, literarylydia.wordpress.com.