If you came for the romance, then you have to be patient, because this book is really focused on Ari and his mistakes, but you will fall in love with Ari like I did. It’s a gentle, sweet-natured story with beautiful artwork but the whole thing lacked a certain emotional component for me that kept me feeling somewhat distanced from the story and characters. BLOOM, A NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau, is about two high-school-age boys who meet and fall in love one summer while working at a family bakery. There were some continuity things where it almost felt like a page or a few comic frames were missing at points, but even with those it’s a beautiful story that will make you smile and appreciate new-found-love, family, and youth.

The lack of ordinary conflict is simultaneously this breathtaking book’s crowning glory and its most enigmatic aspect.Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. It’s not as awe-inducing as Ukazu’s work, but this one has a quieter more intense beauty that comes through as Ari matures through the story. He wants to move to a bigger city with his band of friends, but his father needs his help to keep the struggling business going. The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the fifth volume of the Heartstopper series.

Bloom is a charming and compelling look at the first summer after high school, with the angst of choice and decision looming and the blush of first love. Nothing big and adventurous or anything, but it's about this one greek boy that doesn't quite know what he wants and another boy that's working through grief and they come together and create this bond. This is a simple story, but it had so much heart, and I found myself rooting for Ari and Hector's relationship to flourish, even when Ari screwed things up. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. The normalcy that this story creates lets you focus on the characters themselves rather than on their sexuality.

miraculously, all the issues seem to have been solved but we don’t get an explanation as to how that happened. Instead, it left me feeling like Hector could do WAY better than Ari, deserved WAY more than Ari, was going to end up in a relationship where he had to do all the heavy lifting, had to do all of the emotional work, had to baby and 'take care of' his boyfriend, has to hold his boyfriend's hand through every little thing, has to deal with Ari's snits and whiny, crying passive-aggressive trash behavior,.

It is lighthearted and relatable to anyone who has had a cute summer crush or struggled with what they wanted to do with their life. Ari has no idea what he wants other than to escape what he considers to be the confines of his family bakery business for a creative life in a more culturally fertile metropolis. I would recommend this book to anyone in middle school and up, especially people who enjoy a cute summer love story.At times I found myself re-reading portions of the book so I could spend some time concentrating on the illustrations. While a tale that evades all the tired tropes of gay life is completely refreshing, there will undoubtedly be those who question whether Bloom is also evading the realities of what young gay men still struggle with, even in 2019. It did seem like it moved a bit quickly, and y’all already know how I feel about age differences relationships (here it’s a college student and a very recent high school grad so … I know that’s not a huge age difference but the HS grad is barely an adult). Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).

Their dream is to move to nearby Baltimore, where the music scene is hopping and they might have a chance at the big time. Registered office address: Unit 34 Vulcan House Business Centre, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EF. Savanna Ganucheau: We definitely wanted to tell a story about characters who are already comfortable in their identity. Beautiful artwork depicts characters coping with life's increasing responsibilities and is especially sumptuous when focusing on the yummy desserts. In film and television, kisses between men seldom linger; the camera seems to shift and move uncomfortably.

I love that it takes place in a bakery, and the chemistry between Ari and Hector jumped off the page, I was smiling like an IDIOT while I was reading this 🥹 and I actually almost cried at the end like excuse me?