Autoboyography

By: Christina Lauren

Narrated by: Deacon Lee, Kyle Mason

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Includes an extended interview with Christina Hobbs, Lauren Billings, and narrator Deacon Lee!

Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times best-selling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class - one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.

Three years ago Tanner Scott's family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend, Autumn, dares him to take Provo High's prestigious Seminar - where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester - Tanner can't resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

©2017 Christina Lauren (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

Damn this Book cover has so much meaning now!

The relationship is beautiful because it felt so real and the struggles felt so real. The narration is excellent and the writing is beautiful, charming and emotional. Personally I felt this book touched me because I too am facing a similar struggle with the characters and I can honestly that this book felt like it was made for me. The amount of hope this book gives me is something I want everyone to experience. The anxiety and longing of forbidden love is palpable in every chapter. The tension is so well built up and well paced for things to end in a satisfying way. Despite the predictable nature of a story like this, how it plays out is still very surprising and engaging. I love this book and it gives me hope.

great

Amazing! so amazing! you HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK! OMG IT IT AMAZING I LOVE IT

YA

A great look at what teenagers go through. The pressure of society, church and parents all play a part in this wonderful book

The Gay Romeo & Juliet aka Tanner & Sebastian

This Masterpiece of a Novel gives the reader Honest & Unbiased teachings of a world that many (including myself) know little about. The pains, The pleasures within the story are perfect, showing a reality of what young queer love is like in the world today, even without religious obstacles. Then adding them in, you get not only an Amazing Love Story but makes you think deeper on the subject of religion. For all that, I don't know completely what i do in fact believe but I describe my beliefs very broadly (Though I would title myself as a Practicing Pagen, more simply A Witch) dictating that I have no right to say that any one person or religion is wrong, whether it be Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, ect. Maybe They're all right to some degree or maybe not & it's more of a Universal Collective Consciousness, The Greek Gods are still around, or whatever, but I found it beautiful that in this story though there are conflicts due to a religious sect, & though not a hugh part of the plot, this still doesn't demonize either main character's faith. To sum it up: AN AWESOMELY TERRIFIC BOOK! NOT ?S ABOUT IT!!!!! Definitely considering adding this to my read yearly book list!!!!!

unexpected.

I can't say that this was anything I expected to be listening to, but there was so much that was relatable with these characters and the humor and individuality of the characters, I couldn't stop listening. I even had dreams of it. just a great happy book.

Totally Surprised Me!!

This was a beautiful coming of age story that was written in a way that anyone could relate to the plot line. Tanner is a gay young man living in Utah where the Latter Day Saints faith is very predominant in the community. His best friend convinces him to take a writing seminar as one of his courses during his senior year. For this seminar he must write a book. Sebastian is a recent graduate and former student of the same seminar who has become famous and had his book picked up by a publisher. Sebastian is asked by the teacher of the course to return and assist with his new class of aspiring writers, well a friendship starts to grow between Sebastian and Tanner. They both start to question their views on life, their community, and faith.

This specific video review will be included in the September 2018 wrap-up & #contemporaryathon wrap-up.

For other video book reviews check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Rom Book Talk.

So Good!

So good! I highly recommend this book. It had some drama, some heartbreak, and some growing feelings that made me swoon. I'm giving this 5 out of 5 stars.

The story is great. You can see the attraction growing, and unfolding, the farther we get into the book. The narrators (mostly just one) were amazing. I will definitely see what else they've narrated.

A lot of characters were amazing: Tanner, Autumn, Tanner's parents for the most part, the seminar teacher, and even Sebastian…although I feel like I need to have some words with him. The epilogue was adorable, and made the ups and downs seem worthwhile. I didn't cry, but I felt myself get misty eyed a couple times. Read this book!

What I l'd call an insanely flawless read!

I walked into this book feeling very different about it. For one, I love Christina Lauren's romances so I knew this one was VERY different from what the duo usually writes. The first thing that drew me in was the details about the LDS community. Believe it or not, I was actually interested in that. I wanted to learn a bit more about Utah and Mormon culture without it being demonized. Not because I want to be one but because I just love religious diversity and the first step to understanding people of different faiths is learning about them. This book was excellent about teaching me things I didn't know, and refreshing me on things I knew about from past learnings. Overall, the authors either seem to have grown up in the life or did amazing research!

On to the characters:
At first I didn't think I'd connect to a M/M story because normally they don't catch my interest as much as F/F stories. Give me a F/F romance and I'll devour it but a male-centered romance, I'll admit it's hard for me to relate to a story that's solely focused on guys since I don't see myself in the, if you must, story. I'll even admit that if I didn't know it had a lot of insight on LDS culture, I still may not have been in a rush to pick it up. But I'm so glad I did because that ending was PERFECT! I was not expecting that at all. Sebastian, a gay 19 year old Mormon struggling both with his faith and his sexuality, while Tanner was Bi and had really supportive people in his life who didn't want to see him get hurt by falling in love with a Mormon boy. Sebastian was so true to character, I expected him suppress himself for the rest of his life, so when he finally choose love, I was so happy for both him AND Tanner. This book was a true winner!

One of the most beautiful Books I have ever read

This book was sweet, beautiful, sad and frustrating, but it was one of the best books I have ever listened to. I have a big problem with people not being allowed to be who they are because of religious reasons, that’s why this book was so frustrating! But the romance was sweet, the coming-of-age was strong. I highly recommend this book!

Wonderful and thought-provoking!

This book is a beautiful, nuanced exploration of religion and sexuality. Though I’m not Mormon or gay I have a little bit of experience with the complexities involved in coming out in a religious environment—when my daughter came out as transgender, about 90% of our life revolved around our church and our Christian homeschool group. I’ll confess that we had some moments of fear about how those around us would handle the news, and it’s hard to completely ignore the voices around you that tell you you’re doing something that’s “against God’s plan.” Because of this, I could relate to Sebastian’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality in light of his strong faith. I was thankful for a narrative that highlighted a character’s journey to understand his sexuality without having it obliterate his faith—and without making the religious characters all villains in the story.

Beyond that, I was wrapped up in the romance between Tanner and Sebastian and completely rooting for them the whole time. Tanner was incredibly relatable, though I will say that he ends up making a very poor choice toward the end of the book that didn’t sit well with a lot of reviewers. However, I was already invested in his character enough that I was able to get past it (and I didn’t think the fault could be placed squarely on his shoulders, as many other people seemed to). It certainly didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book overall. Basically, I spent every moment I could listening to it, so I could find out if Tanner and Sebastian got their happy ending!

Loved the narration for this book, and will definitely listen to others with these narrators.