Future Leaders of Nowhere, from Emily O’Beirne

Good day, dearies! Welcome to my review for Future Leaders of Nowhere, from Emily O’Beirne ❤ One of my reading challenges for this year was reading more lesbian themed books, as everyone on all galaxies knows how I love me some gay romance and I’m so happy to be finding good romances in the field *–*

I received my review copy from YA Bound Book Tours in exchange for an honest review and here we go!

“Finn’s solid. Not in body, but in being. She’s gravity and kindness and all those good things that anchor.”

“Willa’s confusing. Sometimes she’s this sweet, sensitive soul. Other times she’s like a flaming arrow you hope isn’t coming for you.”

Finn and Willa have been picked as team leaders in the future leader camp game. The usually-confident Finn doesn’t know what’s thrown her more, the fact she’s found herself leading a team of highly unenthusiastic over-achievers, or coming up against fierce, competitive Willa. And Willa doesn’t know which is harder, leaving her responsibilities behind to pursue her goals, or opening up to someone.

Soon they both realise that the hardest thing of all is balancing their clashing ideals with their unexpected connection. And finding a way to win, of course.

Future Leaders of Nowhere is a contemporary LGBT YA story for older readers about what happens when two natural leaders are pitted against each other in a leadership game while on camp in the Australian bush. Future Leaders is about friendship and romance, and about learning when to take charge and when to let go.

Me after finishing this book:

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader =)

To be honest, I walked somewhat blindly in Future Leaders of Nowhere’s direction. I had an overall assumption of the book, thanks to the blurb, but I didn’t expect anything, for good and bad. O’Beirne slapped me in the face with one of the most cute YA romances ever and handed me an awesome adventure along the way as a bonus. At first, seeing how the camp dynamics would work, I thought: “bunch of smart losers”. Now, all I want is to live the adventure with them! Four proud stars ❤

The narrative in this book was very interesting. The whole story goes in third person style, but the first half is all under Finn’s POV and Willa’s POV just enters on the second part. Near the end, we have switching again from one to the other until the story is done for the moment – did I mention this book is the first on a series? Yes, it is. Open ends burn me, haha! POINT IS: It was a very interesting way to write the story, especially as Finn and Willa are as different as water and wine. Positive points for O’Beirne!

The plot isn’t over complicated, as it usually goes with contemporary romances outside the mystery/thriller sphere, but O’Beirne inserted some cool mysteries to keep things interesting and even plotted a twist or two for the end. I didn’t see some key elements coming and I had the time of my life following the game, haha! #tyrantpanda

The characters were incredibly well built! I missed a little more description on Finn’s appearance at first, but her looks grow more consistent on Willa’s part of the book, so this one I’ll let slide, haha! It was fun to see that every kid on the camp carried an archetype and ever funnier to try to guess whom was which ❤

I liked both Finn and Willa well enough as main characters and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Craig, one of Finn’s team members. HOWEVER, there is this thing that happens near the end that makes Finn go insane and totally stop talking to Willa that I hated. Finn had showed an overall mature personality, so I couldn’t understand how she overreacted so much over something fictional that weren’t even books and how she didn’t try to talk to her colleagues sooner, choosing to ignore Willa and everyone until they begged to listen to her. It was a deal breaker and a star loser.

Anyway! Back to the part where I talk about the good side of the book. Yep, QUOTES TIME! Cause nothing sells ‘em better than themselves ;D

“What do you plan to scare them into submission with? We going to stab them with our degrees?” – Finn

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She liked it better when her biggest problem on this camp was being leader of an unruly pack of lazy overachievers. – Finn’s thoughts

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Maybe that’s the difference. Maybe the great leaders never slept in on Sundays. Maybe they got up while the rest of the world was snoozing and then got things done. – Finn’s thoughts

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She wonders what it’s like to have someone who likes you more than they like the rest of the world. Who’d choose you first. Who’d get impatient waiting to be near you when they couldn’t be. Someone you could call or message at any time of the day and night, and they’d always be happy that you did. It must be a good feeling. – Willa’s thoughts

~*~

And this killer dialogue:

Hana: Your dad’s looking for you.

Finn: My dad?

Hana: Says he is. I mean, he could be an imposter serial killer, but if he is, he’s done a killer match on the eye and hair colour and you should at least meet him to congratulate him.

I really love the simplicity of this cover. The feminine and strong font chosen to write the title, the leaves representing the camp on a blank space – representing the start of everything between Finn and Willa – and the whole positioning were just lovely. It caught my eye as soon as I first saw it and I just knew I had to read it ❤ Yes, covers can be major deal breakers or makers for me, haha!

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Overall, if you like lesbian romances, YA, adventure and a good camp full of geeks, you must give a chance to Future Leaders of Nowhere!

And that’s it! Thank you so much for reading this review and, of course, thanks again to YA Bound Book Tours for this review copy =D Big shout out to Sara, that always makes up time to chat with me despite her crazy agenda ❤

With love,