This was exactly the type of book sixteen year old me needed. It’s a frank normalised look at gay relationships, with a hint of a mystery whodunnit.

The main character begins an advice column, and those pieces of advice are properly thought out sensitive, humourous and useful.

Some of the characters want sex and aren’t afraid to talk about it as a concept divorced from emotion as a recreational activity, much more in line with how teens actually see the world, and it makes a change for YA to handle this, rather than ‘one true love, my destiny, but just a chaste kiss even though they’re over 16 and it’s legal.

This would, and should have burned its way through my sixth form, but instead our gay sex Ed was from alternative pre internet sources thanks to school restrictions, and it was hard not knowing what you were doing and feeling was normal and ok. This book goes a long way to rectify that.

It’s Love Simon, who is sex positive and has watched too much Veronica Mars.

I loved it.

In the opening chapters of this book, the gratuitous sexual references almost put me off continuing but I persisted. The plot opened into an engaging mystery and a tale of friendship, teenage angst and how young people overcome discrimination. The characters are engaging if not al little stereotypical - a homosexual boy with a quirky girl as his best friend and overweight boy who doesn’t fit in. That apart, you learn to enjoy their company as you move through the book and you certainly want to find out the identity of Jack’s stalker. Rosen skilfully weaves a trail that could inculcate many so you are kept on your toes until the end. That aspect of the storyline does not disappoint.

I have to say that I am still unsure about the audience for this book as I feel the sexual context is too hard-hitting for young teenagers but the storyline would not appeal to the older range of teenage. I couldn’t see myself recommending it to any of my students and I don’t think I’d like my own daughter to read this as there is just too much sex in it. However, I imagine young people who fear their sexuality or are confused or frightened to ask some of the questions raised in this book might appreciate its bold approach.

Witty, insightful, beautifully pitched; this book should be required reading for 15/16 year olds. This book is full of advice about love and sex, both LGBT+ and straight. Any book that encourages open mindedness and reduces prejudice is worthy of a read, but this one does all this with a light touch. Jack is a wonderful character, as are his friends. I loved it!

3.75 stars

I was so happy to read this book, it's like a breath of fresh air in the YA world. Most of the time sex in YAs is a taboo or something that is just slightly mentioned. Here it definitely was not and that's totally fine. Jack is a gay teen who's very open about his sexuality and he is totally okay with people knowing that.
The online sex advice column was a great idea to show us more of Jack's personality and life, and also his past.
Jenna and Ben were great and I appreciated their concern for Jack, they just had his best interest at heart.
The school environment in which the book takes place was interesting to read. I was happy to see that Jack had Nance on his side supporting him, considering that the principal was no help at all.
The storyline surrounding Jack's stalker gave me the creeps, it was well done in that sense. The only thing that bugged me was the fact that they didn't do anything sooner. When Jack's mother found out I was ready to see him go and check the cameras of his building but it didn't happen. Maybe it would all have been for nothing in the end but I think a try would have been nice.
The part where Jack was miserable and powerless was hard to read. He just couldn't take it anymore, he was ready to admit defeat and let the stalker win. I was so relieved when the truth was discovered and Jack finally got back to his old self.

★★★☆☆/★★★★★

Book Review: Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) by L C Rosen

Positives
✂️Likeable main character and supporting cast
💌Very funny

Negatives
💌Rude - like an x-rated version of Love, Simon
✂️I guessed 'whodunit' early on

I enjoyed this LGBT YA contemporary. Jack is a very likeable main character though he seems to have more sex than I have hot drinks in a week 😂 the stalker aspect was a good addition though I did guess fairly early on.

Jack Rothman is out and proud. He is something of a sexlebrity at his school, and his apparent sexcapades are discussed in great detail in the girls bathrooms each week.

When Jack's best friend Jenna asks him to write a sex advice column where readers can send in anonymous questions for Jack to answer, he is initially wary but then agrees when he sees a chance to show that he isn't quite the player that his peers believe him to be. As his 'Jack of Hearts' column gains more readers, Jack himself gains a stalker and we follow Jack and his two best friends as they attempt to untangle this escalating situation.

As I mentioned in my negatives above, I do think this one should be marketed at the older end of YA, so 16+, as it's pretty graphic and sexually explicit at times. I'd recommend if you liked Love, Simon and don't kind a bit of rude and graphic language.

I tried very hard t like this book but just couldn’t! I found it difficult to connect with the main character, though I liked the concept and the end reveal was nicely done.

I think other readers may enjoy this more than I did

What a thoroughly enjoyable read!
This book was raw and honest in a way that I didn't expect. There were elements of humour but this book was very real and talked about a lot of issues that young adults face in this day and age.
Jack, the main character, is a brilliant protagonist. Not only extremely likeable he is very believable too. This book really fills a gap in the market.
Thanks for netgalley for allowing me to read a e-copy pre-publication.

This is the sex positive, YA book depicting queer sex that I have always wanted. My evil, inner demon is already crying with laughter at the scandalised pearl clutchers who will be up in arms about this because they don’t want teenagers to read about sex. For that alone I feel like I want to buy the author a drink. While the overall story was a bit wobbly at times, it was entertaining and it carried an important message: that it’s ok to want sex and enjoy it whatever your gender identity or sexuality without it having to be eternal love or soul mates for ever. As long as everyone is open, honest and respectful of each other, as long as there’s consent, then everything is permitted and there is no shame attached. This is something that desperately needs to be available to teens – whether they choose to read it or not (and that choice should be theirs.) It’s like Judy Blume’s Forever had a love child with R.L.Stine’s Love you to Death. A really good book and thank the gods that queer sex is finally being published in YA and normalised as being just as perfectly natural as hetero sex. More like this please.

ETA: I've seen a few reviews accusing this book of promoting risky behaviour among teenagers. To be honest everything about this book is so over-the-top that I hadn't even considered the implications of some scenes. To me the "pre-game" parties Jack and his friends have where they get high and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink champagne were so hilariously fake that I couldn't take it seriously. Same goes for the orgy described at the beginning (which never really happened) and some other sex scenes. I'd love to think that any sensible 17yo reading this book would see through this as I did, but I understand that not everyone might do, and glorification of such risky behaviour is not something I can back up. So I'm lowering my rating to 1 star because, while I still appreciate the honesty of the sex talks included here, the mixed signals (make sure you always have safe sex, but it's ok to drink at a party until you black out and don't even remember how you got home but hey! you still have your pants on!) make this book very much not recommendable for the younger part of YA

I have very mixed feelings about this book... The first chapter left me shocked - and I mean open-mouthed, have-I-just-read-that shocked. When I was 17 I used to meet my friends on the weekends to have coffee and obsess over whatever had happened that week on Friends/Buffy/X-Files, so reading about a group of high school kids having an orgy in a hot tub in the first page already was a bit overwhelming, and not because of the sex itself, but because of how honestly it was discussed. If (like me) you read NA, you know the sex in those books is always the same: mind-blowing orgasms, never-felt-this-before experiences and too-big-to-fit members. Occasionally someone experiences a bit of discomfort before seeing the fireworks for the first time, and that's about as much a concession to reality you're going to get. Not here. Sure, Jack has a lot of mind-blowing sex (always tastefully discussed) but in his column he acknowledges how awkward, funny and even painful it can be. I have never read about teenage sex, gay or straight, with the honesty and simplicity this book manages, and that's no small accomplishment. And Jack's internal struggling about "being the right type of gay" was just awesome, and more than a little bit heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, that's practically the only things I enjoyed. I've already said how I spent my weekends at 17, so it was very hard for me to connect with a bunch of rich kinds who spend their time partying, drinking, smoking pot and having sex. The mystery about the notes was no mystery at all because I guessed who the stalker was the first time they showed up, so mostly I spent the book annoyed at Jack for not wanting to go to the cops, not wanting to tell his mom and pushing his friends away when they were obviously worried out of their minds for him. Plus we get no explanation at all about the stalker's motives for making Jack's life a living hell. AT ALL. So in the end the whole stalking plot felt completely unnecessary, and it was like I was reading two different books: a YA about a funny kid writing a sex-advice column, and a dark thriller (the stalker was NUTS) about a kid being harassed. It made no sense.

My guess is that this book is going to be very polarizing, so I recommend it to everyone so they can have their own opinion about it (not very useful, I know, but it's the truth!)

I love this book.

'Jack of Hearts and Other Parts' is, I feel, a much more grittily realistic look at teenage life than many (perhaps even most) YA books I've read with similar subjects and settings.

I think teenagers are in dire need of this no nonsense honesty in portrayal and straightforward truth of information. Treating people of this age as innocents and refusing to acknowledge the real issues they face in some kind of rose-tinted avoidance of reality is nothing less than dangerous.

Yes, this book talks about sex a lot - though most detail is actually reserved for the advice column Jack writes, where he refers to personal experience to give weight to answers he provides. The advice given is absolutely excellent and the fact that the novel as a whole stresses the concept of individual choice, wants and needs - and that any sexuality (including asexuality) is good, sex is separate from romance and communication and consent are absolutely key.....well, I was in awe of just how perfect the messages going out from this novel were! If I could hug the author I would (given consent to do so of course!) - and the young people in my life will all be receiving copies and recommendations to read this one asap.

Teenagers know about sex, whether they are having it or not and they need access to good, accurate advice and information to empower their choices both in the present and the future. This book gives them that.

The mystery/thriller aspect of the story is also excellently done. Again absolutely realistic in the way everything happens, the way this person 's actions affect Jack and the way tension builds as the sense of threat escalates certainly played with my emotions brilliantly.

The author writes all aspects so well, pitching tone and content beautifully for his target readership. I may be far from fitting into a YA age group myself, but I am the mother of a teenager (and have contact with many others) and I can't praise the characterisation and depiction of life, behaviour and attitudes enough. I hope to be seeing much more from L.C. Rosen in the future.

Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) is a tense, bold, and fun young adult novel about a seventeen year old gay guy who finds himself with a mysterious stalker putting origami notes into his locker. Jack starts writing a sex advice column on his best friend's blog, in which he combines advice to his fellow high school students with a side of telling the truth about the gossip that spreads about him. But when he starts finding mysterious notes in his locker, trying to force him to stop being himself, he needs advice himself.

The narrative is tense, as Jack and his friends try and work out who is behind the threatening notes, but it also focuses on positives, on Jack and his friends having relationships and sex in the ways that suit them. It is a classic high school YA novel in many ways, with a range of characters, teenage drama, and real stakes. What makes it refreshing and needed is the way that it combines this with frank discussion about sex between a range of people, and the way in which a lot of this is presented as Jack's answers on the blog will also help people see it's okay to ask questions. Notably, it also addresses how straight women talk about gay men, a topic which isn't covered in many YA books.

This is a novel to read in one sitting, difficult to put down due to the mystery and the need for Jack to triumph. It also shows that YA needs to keep addressing topics that adults might think it shouldn't.

“Every single person I know could be doing this to me for their own amusement. Just to watch me suffer because I was enjoying my life too much. Because I was too damn happy and fabulous.”

Jack Rothman loves boys, sex and makeup. He has no interest in being secretive about who he is, and as a result provides great fodder for the high-school gossips...
there are countless rumours about him. Some of them are even true. Jack’s not worried - he loves his life.

When Jack’s friend Jenna prevails upon him to write a regular sex/relationships column on her website, though, the consequences are unforeseen.

Someone is sending Jack notes - pink notes, folded into origami shapes. Apparently harmless at first, they quickly escalate into something far more threatening. Who could be behind it? Jeremy, who thinks Jack’s antics give gay men a bad name? The annoyingly persistent Brian, seemingly unable to comprehend that Jack isn’t interested in him? Or someone else entirely?

Jack is very much his own person, living life in his own way, and therefore to see the effect on him, as the threats escalate, packs a powerful punch. Who could be doing this to him and why? The school principal is no help, suggesting that if only Jack kept a lower profile things like this might not happen. Thank goodness for supportive friends Jenna and Ben (I loved Jenna and Ben!) who are determined to unmask the culprit.

The questions and answers published in Jack’s column are a major highlight of the book - Jack’s replies are frank, personal and wise beyond his years, both providing honest information and advice and calling out others’ attitudes in a not-too-heavyhanded way when needed. (There’s a great bit about the fetishisation of gay men by straight girls.)

Jack narrates the story and is a brilliant character who I could visualise so clearly. Not that I knew anyone remotely like him when I was in high school a million years ago... but I wish I had!

I have no doubt that the book will be controversial in some quarters due to the frank discussion of sex, particularly gay sex, although there is nothing too explicit in terms of actual sex scenes - most of the discussion is at second hand via the “Jack of Hearts” column. Jack likes sex and lots of it, but at this point in his life he’s not interested in a relationship. I think every other book I’ve ever read where the main character was “not interested in relationships” ended up with them realising the error of their ways, overcoming their terrible fear of commitment and finding their one true lurve. That doesn’t happen here, and I found that incredibly refreshing. Not that I have anything against true love! - but it doesn’t have to be the be all and end all of every story and I loved that Jack’s choices are validated here - as are the different ones of different people. I loved how inclusive and diverse the story was.

A brilliant story, highly readable with a great mystery and a great message. Loved it.

Jack Rothman is fabulously gay, has a fantastic sex life and doesn’t need a boyfriend, he just wants to have fun while he’s young. He is a bit worried that his slutty image is being fuelled by all the gossip but he has no control over that, life starts to take a strange turn when he discovers a pink origami heart in his locker from a secret admirer. His best friend, Jenna, has persuaded him to write a sex column on her blog to give advice on all those things that aren’t covered by the curriculum and to include some personal insight into his dating history. I so totally loved Jack and his friends, his blog advice and honesty about his dating history. I felt that I really got to know him and was totally drawn into the drama of trying to find his secret admirer. I really felt for him. So highly recommended!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Publication Date: 30th October 2018

Genre: Thriller/Young Adult/LGBTQIA/Romance


I was given the opportunity to read this up-and-coming novel courtesy, of the publishers and via Netgalley

First of all, I wish that books like this had been around when I was a teenager. Hell, I wish that we’d had someone like Jack at my school when I was a teenager. So many years of confusion and discomfort about my sexual identity might never have happened.

Comparisons with “Love, Simon” are inevitable, so let’s get that out of the way. Yes, this book features a gay teenager. Yes, it contains a central hidden identity mystery that forms the core of the novel. Yes, it features coercion and blackmail.

This book feels much more real, more authentic, much less of the Hollywood romanticised view of young gay folk… though it too has a few elements redolent of wish fulfilment.

I expect this book will be shocking to some audiences, because it features frank and detailed discussion of sexual acts between consenting people who are under the age of 18. It features such people smoking, drinking and smoking marijuana, too… and not being guilt-tripped or punished for it.

Jack himself, and his supporting cast of fuck buddies, friends, and compatriots, feel realistic and emotionally well-drawn. As Jack is slowly suffocated throughout the novel by the attentions of his stalker, I found myself hurting for him and just wishing that he’d open up to his mom and the other adults in his life, but whereas Simon’s silence in “Love, Simon” felt forced and unrealistic to me, Jack’s desire to ignore the problem until it went away and unwillingness to draw other people into his problem felt totally, heart-breakingly realistic.

For me a highlight of the novel were Jack’s advice columns, which tackled a range of subjects in what I felt was a heartfelt, funny, and effective way. Not only that, but his advice was absolutely spot-on, and highlighted the importance of communication and enthusiastic consent.

If I had to quibble about anything I’d say that perhaps the ending was a little too quick and convenient, but that’s really only a minor complaint… and honestly it was a relief due to the tension that had been building up over the course of the novel.

I highly recommend this book, especially for LGBTQIA folk and their parents. It would make a great gift for someone who’s recently come out, too!

Jack is a young gay lad who shares his life and thoughts via an agony column. Sometimes a bit too frank and open until he gets a stalker and he has to find out who is stalking him.

For me I didn’t really enjoy it, many will but this wasn’t for me. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

"Meet Jack Rothman. He's seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys - sometimes all at the same time. His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, 'it could be worse'. He doesn't actually expect that to come true.

But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he's been getting take a turn for the creepy. Jack's secret admirer knows everything: where he's hanging out, who he's sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They need him to curb his sexuality, or they'll force him."

Raunchier than Levithan, funnier than Ness, darker than Albertalli - Jack Of Hearts (And Other Parts) is something completely different when it comes to LGBTQ+ YA. The characters of the irrepressible Jack and his best friends, costume designing romantic Ben and investigative journalist Jenna, are brilliantly drawn and their interactions provide such a great example of healthy, supportive friendship between teens who, while very different to each other, truly care for and respect each other. Jack's advice column tackles issues not often seen in YA, from the logistics of anal sex to heterosexism and the fetishisation of gay men by straight women, in a way that is hugely impressive to see being done in fiction. It's definitely one for older teens rather than 13 year olds, as the content is fairly explicit at times. That being said, it's an important book for inclusion on book shelves for its sex positive approach and focus not just on the practical aspect of gay sex, but the political too.

My only slight negative - which is more one of personal taste than a criticism of the book - was that the mystery around the note writer was almost TOO good and well written. I found the tension and sense of danger palpable, which I found somewhat jarring against the humour and warmth of other parts of the book.