I Like Me Better

By: Robby Weber

Narrated by: Amin El Gamal

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A joyful summer romance that Jason June, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Blue, calls "Swoon-worthy!”

This is not how soccer-star Zack Martin thought his summer would go. When the captain's prank means trouble for the whole squad, Zack’s left with no choice but to take one for the team and cover for him.

Now he’s trading parties and beach days for community service at a seaside conservation center—fair enough. But thanks to his new reputation, the cute intern, Chip, won’t even give him a shot. Still, Zack finds himself falling for Chip between dolphin encounters and shark costume disasters, which means he suddenly has way more on the line than he ever expected.

Zack may be good at winning on the field, but can he keep up the lie without losing himself?

©2023 Robby Weber (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Yay! Just normal

It was delightful to have an LGBTQ+ story, with a same-sex relationship at its heart, that's NOT about the fear of being queer or trauma of coming out, but instead treats queer as just as usual as straight and is instead about the regular dreams and angst of dealing with crappy adults and a toxic "friend". A pleasure to enjoy.

beter then expekted

shaking up the theme, not only proms and so on. i liked the marin part, the lovy part, not t muth drama more luvun duvy stuff

He could have done better

Spoilers ahead...

Why are so many people mad to the point of breaking friendships over someone taking the blame for a prank that did not affect anyone but the main character. I'd understand if he was suspended from the team or was forced to break commitments to do punishments but there was no real repercussions except the community service, so why did people care THAT much?!? Covering for a jerk stinks but Zack seems like he would have covered for his other friends too. The love interest was also problematic. Chip was so self centered and manipulative that I kept routing for Zack to realize he could have done better. Secretly hoping that a side character would turn out to be the real love interest by half way through the book. This seems like a toxic relationship and shouldn't be celebrated. This boy made it seemed that what was important to him was the only important thing and what Zack was working for with soccer (and for his team) was trivial in comparison. Just because he's passionate about the environment doesn't mean that he should think his priorities are more important; and the use of emotional blackmail against the main character more than once was upsetting.

Normally wouldn't rant, but this book is aimed at young adults, and they need to know that this type of relationship is not healthy. I gave this 2 stars since the other relationships in the book were done well.

Bland. Meh.

I didn’t care for this as much as I hoped I would - characters were written somewhat flatly, and the story seemed to be all over the place. It could have benefitted from a less sibilant narrator.