This book is good, did not disappoint. It has restored my faith in the romance genre. ( )

Bryson Keller is one of the cutest guys at Fairvale Academy and it's a mystery to all that he just...doesn't date. This leads to a bet at a party: Bryson must date a new person each week for three months and must say yes to the first person who asks him each Monday morning at school. Kai Sheridan is just trying to make it through the school day without being late to any classes and without getting demerits for his unkempt school uniform, so when a girl barrels into him trying to get to Bryson first thing on a Monday morning and spills soda all over Kai's blazer, he gets angry at the one person he thinks is ultimately to blame: Bryson Keller. His interesting, spur-of-the-moment revenge is to ask Bryson to date him. Nothing good can come of a gay kid fake-dating a straight kid, right?

Adorable and fun. Think Heartstoppers, but with maybe just a few little flaws (example: there's a side plot that simply gets dropped about halfway through with no explanation or resolution). ( )

Bryson accepts a dare to date the first person who asks him each week. This week Kai is the first, and the dare said "person" rather than "girl" so Bryson agrees to accept Kai as his secret boyfriend.

The basic premise is absurd but the author handles it well, making for an engaging fantasy that kept me turning the pages and wishing there had been such books around when I was that age. About 2/3 of the way through the whole fantasy comes crashing to the ground as reality intrudes when Kai's parents find out what is happening and Kai is outed in the school magazine. The author's touch is less sure in this part of the book and the occasional preachy element in the first part of the book takes over to become the dominant theme of the last 1/3 much to its detriment. ( )

"Date Me, Bryson Keller" starts out a little stiffly, feeling mostly full of cliches with little depth behind them. This quickly changes, however, as the book progresses and you begin to get to know the characters better. The romance is not much of a slow burn, so if you're looking for that quiet, barely perceptible rise in romantic tension, look elsewhere. "Date Me, Bryson Keller" really shines in its second half, where it gets into the various characters' relationships more deeply, addressing larger issues and letting the main characters really shine as their own selves, faults included. Overall a good and quick read, one I'd generally recommend even if it isn't the top of the YA queer book pile. 4/5 stars. ( )

This whole situation honestly wouldn't have caught my attention if not for the way the author decided to justify why he wrote this book. I'm unable to find his original response on Goodreads, but in my opinion, the degree of similarity in actual content aside from the overall premise is irrelevant here. It’s not a mere “inspiration” if you take someone else's story, rewrite it as a supposed critique of the work and of BL manga in general, and proceed to profit off of your westernized bastardization without mentioning the source of your “inspiration” until people call you out on it—it’s called plagiarism.

If you needed an outlet to address your urge to fix an original Japanese BL story by putting it in a western setting, fanfiction was always an option. Or you could've explored those themes with a unique story of your own, without reclaiming the hard work of a Japanese woman.

Yes, Japanese BL has its fair share of inaccurate, fetishistic depictions of LGBTQ individuals and relationships that are far removed from reality, but it's important to realize that Japanese BL is written by Japanese women for Japanese women as a retreat from the expectations of a misogynistic society, and I'd laugh if it weren't so sad when people come along critiquing it as if it were written for a western audience.

I cannot read this in good conscience and will not be supporting his future work. I hope everyone who's read this story or plans to will reconsider their support as well.

[b:Seven Days: Monday–Sunday|44321492|Seven Days Monday–Sunday|Venio Tachibana|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571573115l/44321492._SX50_.jpg|68870078] ( )