The Long Run

By: James Acker

Narrated by: Lee Osorio, Max Meyers

2024 Stonewall Book Award Honor for Young Adult Literature

"A boldly authentic new voice in queer fiction." —Abdi Nazemian, author of Stonewall Honor book Like a Love Story and The Chandler Legacies

Two track and field athletes find an unexpected but powerful love in this unapologetically blunt and unforgettably real YA debut.

Sebastian Villeda is over it. Over his rep. Over his bros. Over being "Bash the Flash," fastest sprinter in South Jersey. His dad is gone, his mom is dead, and his stepfather is clueless. Bash has no idea what he wants out of life. Until he meets Sandro.

Sandro Miceli is too nice for his own good. The middle child in an always-growing, always-screaming Italian family, Sandro walks around on a broken foot to not bother his busy parents. All he wants is to get out and never look back.

When fate—in the form of a party that gets busted—brings these two very different boys together, neither of them could’ve predicted finding a love that they’d risk everything for…

©2023 James Acker (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

I want more

takes me back to my first crush in high school. so cute and written with a great perspective.

A personal fave

I am so in love with these performances, I think Lee and Max brought this story to life. So throughly impressed. Though I may be slightly biased.

Refreshingly Good

After so many bad reads, finally a well written coming of age romance. Loved it!

A story for boys like us

A dope story that allowed me to connect so deeply with the characters. Writing and performance were excellent!

I was left with an immense feeling of gratitude for having read this book.

There passion, and patience for each other, they really got each other!

There is nothing to dislike, I wish Manny could of fit in the story more

Relatable characters you really want to root for

Not the typical coming out story or standard angsty YA drama. Characters that don’t sound or look like every other gay boys/men in fiction. Refreshing and engaging.

Finally a good LGBT story

Magical. Powerful. Listened in one sitting during work and bought the actual book.

I won’t go into details on the story/plot but it’s real life and I loved it.

Ending with a quirk

Narrators we’re great AND great for their characters!

I was recommended this book on instagram as a top 5 gay must reads. The books description pushed it
towards the top of the 5. Not having read the other 5 and not really interested in 2 of the 5, this book was a top contender.
The first part of the book is difficult. Both characters were full of angst - teenage to young adult angst. Thoroughly described teenage to young adult angst. PAINFULLY described teenage to young adult angst. WE ALL GET IT THEY HAVE TEENAGE TO YOUNG ADUKT ANGST!!!! I was almost ready to give up and almost quit but the book was so delightfully reviewed.
I stayed on board and the book became a delightful and very often funny read (ok listen). Both characters became more fully developed in personality, humor, sympathy, depth of feeling, and emotion. WAY beyond angst. Very descriptive of emotions and feelings that were both teenage and young adult. Beyond the first season, I started to actually like both characters instead of really not liking or relating to either of them.
It’s worth the painfully torturous appetizer beginnings to get to the meat and potatoes of the middle to end
The humor is amazing, the emotions are matured and developed, the exchanges are real and understood. Well worth the read or listen, hang on through the beginning. It gets you there.

A novel of love for the ages

Wow, I am left without words! This was a heartwarming and heartbreaking book of journey and discovery, rebirth and reinvention. These 2 characters and their voice actors stole my heart. I wished this book would never have ended . After listening to “Aristotle and Dante (“both books) and “this is why they hate us” I thought there was nothing else that could touch them, boy was I totally wrong. I loved that the author actually tackled the real problems that male same sex couples have to actual address. The vulgar and direct language only added to the charm and reality of these 2 characters and the overall story

I WISH this Was My Senior Year!

I loved the whole story. It uses the same plot devices as many other gay romance audio books I’ve enjoyed recently. However, the characters, setting and situations here are so much more relatable and reminiscent for me.