This book deserves all the five star ratings and more. What an amazing debut!

Laugh out loud funny, cute and romantic and a super unique plot point that was fantastically written. Each member was a joy to learn about and when I read deeper into the story and found out their motivations it only made me love them all more.

Noah is an amazing mc and following his journey was a pleasure I'm so thankful I got to be a part of. I love any story with found family vibes and so TBABC has found a top spot on my "LOVED" pile. I'll definitely re-read this in the future and can't wait for Powars' next release.

Thank you!

I absolutely loved The Borrow a Boyfriend Club by Page Powars!
I had so much fun reading it and it even made me laugh a few times!

It was well written and
I absolutely loved the main character Noah and i finished the book really quickly as I had to see how it would end!

I definitely highly recommend this book as I know many people will love it just as much as I did!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had a good time with this one! A great combination of thoughtful characterisation, memes (or at least the tone/vibes of memes in some of the dialogue), and originality.

I really appreciated that this was a book about a trans character where his being trans is crucial to the plot -- it drives his need to prove himsef, as well as a subplot about his efforts to secure a legal name change -- but it's not a coming-out story or a book about realising you're trans. Not that those stories aren't important too, but it's nice to see a book where the character's trans identity is neither the primary source of conflict nor a simple accepted fact that is never explored in depth, but somewhere in between. And the fact that Noah being trans isn't the main barrier or source of conflict in the gradually developing m/m romance here also meant a lot to me, because very often in trans romance, that *is* treated as a barrier to be overcome, even if it ultimately turns out to be a non-issue. Plus, as a dancer who has had a complicated relationship to both dance and my body because of gender stuff, I really enjoyed seeing a trans character embracing their love of dance and finding a way to feel like themselves while doing it.

Even though he's medically transitioned and is read as male with enough consistency to be able to keep it a secret that he's trans, Noah still grapples with dysphoria, as well as feeling unsupported by his parents. They're not unsupportive and they don't actively misgender him... but they don't call him by his preferred name, either, falling back instead on an old nickname somewhere between his deadname and his current name. I think that kind of "well intentioned but still hurtful" parental response is incredibly common, and under-represented in books, where parents are often either perfectly supportive or outright transphobic. I appreciated seeing that middle-of-the-road experience represented: Noah is luckier than many trans people, in that he's been able to medically transition at a young age and he's not facing much blatant transphobia, but he's been subjected to enough microaggressions to have moved schools to start over, and his parents are inadvertently contributing to them, so it's also not all plain sailing.

I also didn't realise how complicated it was to get a name change in Michigan. Wow, that's gotta be the sole aspect of transition where the UK is less complicated. Signing my deed poll in the pub suddenly seems incredibly easy. In other areas, this book made me realise how different being trans is across the world -- I didn't come out until I was in my twenties, but even if I had, medical transition isn't possible / legal for teenagers here. (And I've been on a waiting list for a first appointment for over four years, even in my 20s...) So reading YA books where the characters have already been able to access hormones and surgery always gives me a jolt of wistful jealousy.

Unlike many US-based stories that couldn't exist in the UK, though, I didn't feel alienated by this one. I sometimes find US contemporaries hard to follow, because they're rooted in school traditions and systems I'm unfamiliar with and, because they assume readers will know what they mean, nothing is explained much. Maybe it's because Noah is new to his school and so is experiencing things for the first time, or maybe it's just Powars' light but skilful touch on the explanations, but I found it easy to follow in that regard. I did slightly lose track of the timing at one point (I hadn't mentally acknowledged which day of the week the talent show was happening on, and couldn't figure out how it lined up with the name change), but I think that was probably on me and my tired brain.

The secondary characters also have their depth and their unique struggles. I have to say, some of the other members of the Borrow A Boyfriend Club did blur in my head, because I've never been any good at keeping track of names, but they still all brought a sense of personal conflict to the table, and depth beyond "hot guy in the background" -- even if Noah initially saw them as such. And Asher's complicated relationship with his familhy, his anxiety around parents and rebelliousness towards other authority figures, and his underlying loneliness helped to make him a compelling love interest.

Finally, I will say, that this book also made me feel incredibly old, but that's probably a good sign with a YA contemporary, not a bad one: it feels solidly aimed at its target audience in a way that reminded me I'm getting into my late twenties. The teens felt like teens, even if Noah is fairly mature in the sense of holding down a job alongside school and planning for the future. It's also one of the first times I've seen a YA book acknowledge that millennials are the parents now. I mean, as a young millennial, I am absolutely not old enough to be the parent of a teenager, but older millennials are! At last, a book that properly situates its generational references, and in doing so, strengthens the sense that Powars knows exactly who his target audience is and how they think, and is hitting the mark perfectly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Children's Group for approving my request to read this arc.

The Borrow A Boyfriend Club has been a book I’ve been highly anticipating and it didn’t let me down! I loved this book so much and I really connected to the main character, Noah, and really saw myself in his thoughts and insecurities. As a trans person, you always feel like you have more to prove than a cis person, or don’t get to enjoy certain things and still be seen as the person you are, instead of the person you’re worried people will judge you as being.

This book has some of the most honest writing and dialogue I’ve seen in a while, and I really enjoyed it. A definite five star book in my opinion.

No obvious trigger warnings stood out to me while reading, so I would recommend this book to anyone and feel confident they would enjoy it.

I can hardly put into words how much I loved this story, Noah was just a really great character
It had me laughing at times was all around heartwarming to read