Review by Booklist Review
What could be more fun than going on a road trip to see your favorite band in Las Vegas for your birthday? Inviting your two estranged best friends on the trip in an attempt to heal the friendship, of course! Eighteen-year-old Chloe Torres is going away to art college in the fall and wishes she could fix things with her long-term best friends. Their friendship fell apart because Chloe had a crush on Ramona, but Sienna, their other friend, kissed Chloe. Maldonado crafts a fun and heartfelt ode to queer teenage friendships between women, boy bands, and the unique bonding experience of road trips. Romance in this novel takes a back seat to the true central relationships, which are the friendships, including Chloe's friendship with her cousin Diego. The 2002 teen flick Crossroads meets Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle (2004) in this work about the ways that friendships change and evolve, fat positivity, Latine identity, and the bittersweet experience of growing up. Maldonado packs so much heart and queer joy into one getting-the-band-back-together-style road trip.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It's the summer before Chloe Torres begins her freshman year of art school, and the bisexual 17-year-old is struggling to move on from the memory of her fizzled friendships with former besties Ramona and Sienna. When her family gives her three tickets to see her favorite boy band, though, she views it as an opportunity to rekindle the broken relationships. She invites both girls to accompany her on a cross-country road trip from her home in Massachusetts to the concert venue in Nevada, and even develops a bucket list of places to go and things to do. Ramona and Sienna agree, and as the trio make their way to Las Vegas, they cross numerous items off the agenda, including skinny-dipping, getting drunk, and going camping. They also confront past hurts involving jealousy, rejection, and romance while navigating present-day concerns about secrets and the future. Maldonado (The Fall of Whit Rivera) persuasively captures the trio's tenuous friendship, sensitively depicting their individual challenges with family, sexual identity, and mental health in this heartwarming novel. Chloe's tender relationship with her blended family is an endearing focal point, and a queer love triangle adds sizzling rom-com energy to the girls' humorous fun-in-the-sun adventure. Main characters read as Latinx. Ages 14--up. Agent: Tamar Rydzinski, Context Literary. (May)
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Review by Horn Book Review
For her eighteenth birthday, Chloe's father gives her tickets to see her favorite boy band perform in Las Vegas. She invites Sienna and Ramona, her middle-school best friends (from whom she's been estranged for years) to come with her, and the trio embarks on a cross-country road trip. Along the way, Chloe realizes she's falling for Ramona. This queer rom-com features diverse characters (Chloe, for example, is bisexual and has ADHD) and strong central friendships. (c) Copyright 2025. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Chloe Torres isn't ready to leave old friendships behind. At 18, Chloe is primed for her next adventure: studying art at Rhode Island School of Design. But one fateful day, she runs into her two closest friends from middle school, Sienna Aguilar and Ramona Cruz. They were "La Tripleta"--until their friendship fell apart. But Chloe can't shake the feeling that their story isn't over. When Papi gifts her three tickets to see their middle school obsession, the boy band Intonation, she takes it as a sign that they're meant to be together again, and she proposes a weeklong road trip from their Massachusetts town to Las Vegas for the epic reunion concert. Minor conflicts arise along the way as the young women iron out the kinks and relearn who they are after all these years. This sweet story deftly inserts a queer romance that doesn't detract from the beauty of the girls' reemerging friendship. Their various stops provide opportunities for character growth that may seem convenient but ultimately work. The first quarter of the novel is heavy on exposition, which makes it hard to engage with, but the rest of the story is worth it. Diverse representation in sexuality, race, neurodivergence, and body size appears throughout, and Maldonado incorporates characters fromThe Fall of Whit Rivera (2023), which will please fans. Fill up the tank because this one is taking you for a sweet ride.(Romance. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
