Get Real, Chloe Torres - by Crystal Maldonado (Hardcover)

About the Book

When three estranged best friends take a road trip to see their favorite band, romantic feelings resurface.

Book Synopsis

When Chloe Torres plans the perfect summer to reunite her estranged BFFs--a cross-country road trip to see their favorite boy band!--there's only one difficulty... getting them to actually go along for the ride.

Chloe Torres' birthday has always marked the end of summer--but as she turns eighteen and prepares to leave for her freshman year of art school, it feels like the end of more than that. It's the end of her adolescence, which means it's time to leave the past behind... but can she really let go of the two estranged best friends she left there?

NOPE. Chloe decides to take one more shot at healing the friend breakup she's always regretted: planning the bucket-list trip neither girl can say no to. She's taken care of everything: the car, the hotels, and concert tickets to see their favorite boy band's reunion show in Las Vegas--stage seats, so close they can fangirl right in front of the boys' faces. But first, her ex-BFFs have to say yes.

And to say yes, they'd all have to be talking... which they haven't done since Ramona kissed Chloe, and everything imploded.

But with some clever finagling (and some undignified begging) Chloe gets them all on board. Of course, being in a car together for two weeks brings back old feelings... a lot of old feelings... and soon enough, Chloe wants Sienna, Ramona wants Chloe, and everything is on fireeeee.

This sizzling summer adventure from YA star Crystal Maldonado is a hilarious and heartfelt romcom with a little something for everyone: fat positivity, sapphic romance, a blazing love triangle, ADHD representation, a diversity of Latine identities, a once-in-a-lifetime roadtrip--and the perfect it's-finally-happening kiss.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Review Quotes

Maldonado (The Fall of Whit Rivera) persuasively captures the trio's tenuous friendship, sensitively depicting their individual challenges with family, sexual identity, and mental health in this heartwarming novel. Chloe's tender relationship with her blended family is an endearing focal point, and a queer love triangle adds sizzling rom-com energy to the girls' humorous fun-in-the-sun adventure.
--Publishers Weekly

The 2002 teen flick Crossroads meets Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle (2004) in this work about the ways that friendships change and evolve, fat positivity, Latine identity, and the bittersweet experience of growing up. Maldonado packs so much heart and queer joy into one getting-the-band-back-together-style road trip.
--Booklist

This book, packed with queer joy and deep friendship, is one for the fangirls, the romantics, the glitter and pop song lovers--and may inspire a couple of road trips.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

About the Author

Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author of inclusive romcoms for fat, brown girls. She has written the award-winning novels The Fall of Whit Rivera; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega; and No Filter and Other Lies, as well as a middle grade novel called Camp Sylvania: Moon Madness, co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy. Her forthcoming YA romcom, Get Real, Chloe Torres, releases in spring 2025. Follow her everywhere @crystalwrote.