Book Review: And They Were Roommates by Page Powars

Official Synopsis: Romance is the last thing on Charlie’s mind.

On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned.

Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.

Who knows how long until Jasper realizes the truth? Charlie has one shot at freedom and a dorm room all to himself, but only if he helps Jasper write love letters on behalf of their fellow students first. No problem. Charlie can help Jasper with some silly letters.

Long nights spent discussing deep romantic feelings with Jasper? Surely, no unintended consequences will arise…

I really enjoyed Page Powars' first novel, The Borrow A Boyfriend Club, which was their debut young adult novel last year. Though this book has a different vibe then the other, I also found myself really enjoying this book too. (Don't look at how long it took me to read it on Goodreads, that was a life issue not a book issue.)

Charlie is starting at a pretentious boarding school, where they are meant to be a star student and have a single room, since they are transgender, and worried about the school learning their secret. They spend a lot of the early parts of the book determined to not make friends, to keep a distant and stay under the radar, so that hopefully they can keep their scholarship. When their roommate ends up being the one person they kissed pre-transition, they become worried about their secret getting out. Especially since Jasper Grimes is the person who betrayed them, teaching them maybe love isn't worth it.

When the person they are trying to avoid the most seems to be everywhere they are, they start to wonder if Jasper knows who they are, or has connected that the names might be close. Charlie is pulled into a group within the school, called STRIP, who helps students get their love letters to the all girls school they can't have contact with otherwise. The thing is most of the love letters are written by Jasper, who has decided to have Charlie help him write the letters. The more time they spend together, the harder it becomes for Charlie to sort out their feelings. But Jasper surely hasn't been thinking about them they way they have been spending years thinking about him. He must have had tons of girlfriends, and definitely wouldn't be interested in who Charlie is now...right?

Their life starts to become more twists in lies as they try to juggle their grades, which have to be good to keep their scholarship, STRIP and trying to figure out what Jasper may want from them. The further they fall into their lies and distractions, the more they wonder if it's worth hiding who they are from everyone they seem to be getting close to.

There is a great journey in this book, with Charlie trying to fit in while also trying to work their hardest to get good grades. Which means getting tutored in weight lifting for PE, helping tutor others for their classes, and working with STRIP. The beginning of the book is focused on how Charlie is trying to hide, but the friends they start to make are definitely the 'loud' group. I really liked how different a lot of the other characters were, even with most of the them being male, and how you could tell the difference between the characters and how they help Charlie become more comfortable with who they are. A major moment in this story is how Charlie grows into themselves as well as how their confidence grows the more time they spend with the others around them, enough to have this group being accepting when they learn about Charlie's past.

I also think there is a lot of time spent on how grudges can effect you, with some of the negative ways Charlie treats Jasper when they finally come clean about who they are. I think Jasper is a lot softer of a character than Charlie expected, and they tend to be harsh and untrusting of them. I liked how the characters come together and learn to trust each other.

Overall, this is a great book with transgender representation that will be important for teens and even adults. I really enjoy Powars writing style and how the books are both dramatic but feel very real at times.

I rated this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

And They Were Roommates comes out May 27, 2025!

Goodreads