Ridley is a character that I have not seen in a novel before. So that’s the premise! But what struck me about this story isn’t the machinations of the plot, but the details.

Their romance continues in text form, until Ridley tells his dad he’ll scope out the competition and report back to him in order to not get sent back to his mother’s house–and in order to live in the same town as Jubilee, who is oblivious that Ridley is also the mysterious Batman cosplayer and that he’s supposed to be spying on her for his frankly villainous father. Ridley is suffering from serious anxiety and depression, and is caught completely off guard when Jubillee flirts with him. Ridley is there to help out at his father’s booth–except that his dad usually wants nothing to do with him. Her music teacher and friends both demand that she takes a break and lives a little, so when she attends a comic convention, she decides to pursue a “con crush” with a guy in a Batman mask. Jubilee is a cellist prodigy whose life is consumed by her music, and is currently frantically rehearsing to get a spot (and scholarship) for the summer program at Carnegie. It ended up being a thought-provoking read for me, one I’m still turning over in my head days after finishing it.

As the title suggests, these are ~star-crossed lovers~, but it isn’t a Romeo & Juliet retelling beyond that (at least, not as far as I could tell). I was also interested in the premise: two teenagers whose parents own competing comic book shops fall for each other. I picked this up firstly because I really enjoyed Dugan’s previous queer YA title, Hot Dog Girl. Because this is the Lesbrary, I’ll start by saying that this is a f/m romance with a bi+ main character (and love interest).

Verona comics