{"id":43371,"date":"2025-07-12T17:06:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T21:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43371"},"modified":"2025-07-12T17:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T21:08:12","slug":"review-of-always-the-almost-by-edward-underhill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43371","title":{"rendered":"Review of Always the Almost, by Edward Underhill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Always the Almost<\/em><\/p>\n

by Edward Underhill<\/p>\n

Wednesday Books, 2023. 307 pages.
\nReview written July 21, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Always the Almost<\/em> is a sweet teen romance about a gay trans boy during his senior year of high school. He came out as male last year, changing his name from Melissa to Miles, and his long-time boyfriend broke up with him soon after. If only Miles can show Shane that he\u2019s still the same person inside, maybe he can win back his heart.<\/p>\n

The title refers to Miles\u2019 habit of coming second place in the big annual Tri-State Piano Competition. For years, he\u2019s come in second place to Cameron Hart. This year, Miles\u2019 teacher says he needs a new teacher to help him do his best in this his last chance to win. The new piano teacher, instead of working on technique, asks Miles questions about who he is and what his competition piece means to him \u2013 questions that Miles is only beginning to know how to answer.<\/p>\n

But while Shane isn\u2019t paying much attention to Miles, there\u2019s a new kid at their high school who is. Eric immediately asks his pronouns and seems to see Miles for who he is. Maybe he can help get over Shane? Meanwhile, Miles\u2019 long-time best friends, Rachel and Paige, have started dating each other, which is great when everyone is happy. But makes Miles miss being part of a couple.<\/p>\n

The story is wrapped up in the piano competition, and I love the way Miles deepening his understanding of the Tchaikovsky piece also deepens his understanding of his own identity, and that\u2019s explained on the page in a way we can understand it, even without hearing the music. (I\u2019d love to hear this in an audiobook with classical music accompaniment!) Miles and his friends make some mistakes along the way, but they\u2019re very human and understandable mistakes, and the reader feels for both sides. The relationship between Miles and Eric is portrayed with plenty of authenticity, and we feel for what it might be like for someone just beginning to show the world who they truly are also try to show one person more deeply who they truly are.<\/p>\n

This sweet trans romance didn\u2019t strike any wrong notes. Reading it left me with a smile.<\/p>\n

edward-underhill.com<\/a>
\nwednesdaybooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/always_the_almost.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Always the Almost by Edward Underhill Wednesday Books, 2023. 307 pages. Review written July 21, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher. Starred Review Always the Almost is a sweet teen romance about a gay trans boy during his senior year of high school. He came out as male last year, changing his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45502,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43371\/revisions\/45502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}